Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition

Space Hulk: Deathwing Enhanced Edition is the modern rendition of the legendary Space Hulk games from the 1990s. You and up to three Terminators cleanse and burn your way through the dark, dank and claustrophobic corridors, caves, abandoned temples and factories of Olethros. All that stands between you and certain death are your weapons of choice, your teammates, and the mercy of the multiplayer system that, for the most part, does fairly well. But when it decides to go belly up due to disconnection or the host leaving, you lose all progress, XP and all, and are booted back to the lobby. It would be hard to paint a picture of the gameplay in words that would do it justice, so I leave here a link to a video I made of a multiplayer session so you can see it as it really is: https://youtu.be/esqVId8sAhQ

+Friendly and helpful players +Fun when everything goes right -Incredibly buggy (9,999 server ping, game frequently disconnects you from matches, game frequently crashes, etc.) -Incredibly difficult at times, even at lower difficulties. Enemies do quite a bit of damage and your weapons often feel like toy guns -Devs seemed to have moved on to other projects

Played through the campaign, really enjoyed the game. Great atmosphere & graphics, shooting is nothing special, nor is it bad by any means. Some tactical elements combined with decently sized maps. You'll need to make smart decisions to survive, especially at higher difficulties, tension builds… Hordes being the operative word, don't think I’ve played an FPS with quite so many enemy's on the screen at the same time. The sheer numbers make the game challenging, especially while managing your NPC team mates as their AI is best described as serviceable. For the most part the NPC’s do as instructed, however you need to be mindful & plan where you send them, as they may not react as you would expect in a given situation. Story is thin, equally serviceable you know what, where and how. I’d like to see more of the 40K lore, that said it’s all about the action of which there’s absolutely no shortage. Game has a lot of playability as one can play with ranged weapons or melee, search & seek out “relics” special missions, online co-op, It’s all good. All set to have another go on the next difficultly level and seek out more “relics” Most of all Space Hulk Deathwing is fun and that's all that counts at the end of the day… FWIW I’m not into the 40K universe, although I am aware more so Space Hulk

The Good: The atmosphere, scenery, music, and voice acting is top notch. The Bad: Everything else. Slow-paced trudging through corridors, a stamina bar that depletes way too quickly, and janky difficulty. Essentially, you just stand in one place, shooting the hordes that run at you, with no ability to duck, cover, post behind anything, etc. No true tactical quad commands, either. They made really cool looking game, but sadly, they forgot to make it fun. It is the same problem every other GW / Warhammer game has: there are just little annoyances and shortcomings that make every Warhammer game fall short of being good.

This game tries to show you a slower and more deliberate tactical shooter, it tries to dazzle you with fine textures and attention to detail. But do not be fooled; when you hear Microsoft Sam talk to you this is a portent for the ills to come. You've seen everything this game has to offer after the first map, out of nine. The eight and ninth map are just previous maps reused - unchanged. There's a lot of great stuff in here that is just never given time to shine. It's like they faced issues in design and didn't care to bypass them. The design decisions that stand like barriers between you and fun are plentiful. On top of this the unlock system is grindy and offers no significant cosmetic or gameplay advantages beyond a few exceptions. 80% of the game takes place in corridors, and most of them are not wide enough to fit two players. Most of my enjoyment with this game was making fun of it. I got it at 75% off and I am still disappointed; stay far away at the asking price of 30 euros. There is nothing here for you even if you are 40k fanatic. Watch a let's play.