HomeFeaturesWarhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters looks like aggressive space XCOM and I’m here for itA Bloomin’ good time
A Bloomin’ good time
I’m no Warhammermun. Those proper nouns are all cosmic Greek to me, but I’m relieved to report they didn’t obscure the promise within the 30 minutes ofWarhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - DaemonhuntersI was shown last week. This is fast-paced XCOM in space, with extensively destructible terrain, an intriguing dual focus on ranged and melee combat, and not a miss chance in sight. That should sound enticing to just about anyone.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters | Pre-order TrailerWatch on YouTube
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters | Pre-order Trailer
You play as an initially small and battered band of Grey Knights, a secretive sect of space marines who constitute (at least to my ignorant space fantasy eyes) humanity’s ghostbusters. When a Chaos God comes romping out of the Warp, these are the chaps you call - and would you look at that, here’s one now! His name is Nurgle, and he’s brought some horrible plague-spreading plants called “the Bloom” that he’s just dying to show you.
In the mission I’m shown, the Knights are happy to oblige him. Skipping back to the start: our appropriately chunky boots hit the ground of an ancient cathedral, in search of a Bloom seed we can pinch for research. For now the scenery resembles your classic big ‘n’ spooky space temple, though we’re told that Bloom corruption can change the layout of cover and add new hazards, which we might have to contend with if the Bloom comes back to this planet later on.
The Knights haven’t just brought guns, of course. Another Plague Marine coats the surrounding area in toxic gunk, but our Justicar charges around it and stabs him. The charging is smooth and malleable, thanks to a waypoint placing system. The stabbing is brutal - yet not deadly, despite the use of a special ability that guarantees a crit. The next strike very muchisdeadly, thanks to the calculated deployment of a few willpower points. They’re a separate resource you’re encouraged to make liberal use of, seen as there are ways to regenerate them mid-mission. Wholescale slaughter, for the most part.
It all looks pleasingly energetic. I’ve plugged hundreds of hours into XCOM and its ilk, but I still shrivel up inside when turns become ponderous, with too many units taking too long to do too many things - so I asked creative director Noah Decter-Jackson exactly what they’re doing to avoid that.
The Knights have other tricks I haven’t mentioned, too, alongside surprises that can be sprung on them. You enter each mission clutching a growing handful of single-use “stratagems”, which provide handy one-off benefits like a couple of extra action points or a few pips of armour. Tipping the scales the other way, any use of your psychic abilities risks triggering sudden twist penalties, like a wave of reinforcements up the rear or a nasty debuff.
“We’ve focused on giving players the tools to aggressively and efficiently deal with large numbers of enemies in a relatively small amount of turns”, he says, adding that the Knights can do massive damage over wide areas, with ample and generous use of certain abilities and combos. The goal is to “keep combat tight and quick so you’re not spending too much time pondering the exact and perfect decision”, with beefy health and armour pools on hand to mitigate a few mistakes. If the Knights get knocked down, they can get back up again with half their health, too. Big armoured space hunks, remember.
On top of those, though, are upgrades to the ship itself, with tantalising subsections for shields, guns, engines and more. Staying on top of all this could make for a compelling balancing act, especially seen as your engine speed affects how quickly you can reach missions on the star map. “You’re not going to be able to deal with them all”, says Jackson. Instead, it’ll be a case of pitting desirable mission rewards against convenience, while wrestling with a doomsday clock that, again, sounds a whole lot like the Avatar Project metre fromXCOM 2.
In summary, yes, I like the look of Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters. It’s a promising blend of the familiar and the new. True, it sometimes talks in gobboldy gook, but there are enough people who enjoy the gobboldygook that I’m prepared to do a spot of de-gobbolding. (The allure of arcane specificity is no stranger to this Dotamun.) You’ll no doubt find other previews that cover the tabletop angle better, but I should briefly mention Complex Games were keen to stress the involvement of Games Workshop, which extends to their aim of replicating custom paint jobs. You can manually choose individual right and left pauldrons, to be fair. What more do you want?
It’s been too long since I sunk my teeth into a good XCOM-like. Between Chaos Gate,Marvel’s Midnight Sunsand Tom Francis’sTactical Breach Wizards, the future looks bright. And also full of space plague. Fab.
