Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

I just don't get it. There are so many different directions you could go with a story set in W40k franchise but every single videogame insists on telling the same boring plot about a psyker or an inquisitor who betrays the Space Marines in the middle of an alien invasion and summons the forces of Chaos by the time third act kicks in. Except this time it's even a bigger cop-out because you're not playing as a Space Marine. You're a Fire Warrior of the T'au empire and I guess you could call it an interesting twist, since you're experiencing the invasion from a perspective of a xeno but it ultimately ends up being the same exact plot as any other W40k game. The lack of creativity in the writing is astounding. But anyway, the gameplay itself isn't particularly stellar, and the game is not very polished so its janky nature will become very obvious within the first few minutes of playing. But it never gets really tedious or infuriating and some of the weapons are actually pretty fun to use. I guess it strikes the balance between janky and fun, to the point where it could be called a guilty pleasure especially if you're a fan of the Warhammer 40k universe. It certainly retains some of the elements which are faithful to the source material. Like, for example, when you first pick up a bolter, it's not just some automatic machine gun - in the small hands of a T'au warrior this thing actually looks and feels like a big-ass gun that fires bullets the size of a rocket. When it comes to W40k licensed shooters, nowadays your best choice is the excellent Space Marine from 2011 but if you find yourself really starved for an action game set in this universe, Fire Warrior is also a fairly solid recommendation.

I'd compare this game loosely to the original Half-Life and Halo CE. The physics and the level design are reminiscent of Half-Life while the combat and gunplay is a lot more similar to Halo CE. The levels are large, winding, and looping. They're about as linear as Half-Life areas, in that there are multiple angles to approach from but the general direction remains linear. On the Halo side, you can only carry two guns at a time and you have a recharging shield. It's not quite as good as either but it's still an enjoyable game and a fun look at the 40k universe from outside of the Imperium. It suffers a bit from its age but I try not to let that affect my score. For its age this is a strong and well-made shooter.

I honestly would say the idea behind this game is splendid. An FPS game that's not only set in the compelling though uber-grim W40K universe, but actually lets you play as non-humans. I always thought the Tau were a likeable and cool faction, and it's nice for a game to focus more on them for once. The question is, is the game itself any good? Sadly, no. For instance, the story is meh; starting off well with showing arrogant xenophobic space marines committing atrocities + some interactive holograms during the tutorial that go into the lore and culture of the Tau, but it doesn't really seem to go any further after that. At least not for the length of my playtime so far, which is at least a few hours. The action itself leaves much to be desired. It gets dull quickly, and aiming/hitting at enemies is annoyingly difficult. Levels have some nice designs here and there, but are drenched with terrible overspawning AI that never seem to miss you. Let me also say that I don't mind that most of the game is just sound effects, but come on, it's almost like music doesn't exist at all! If I was to rate this game on its technical quality alone, I'd lift it to 2.5 or even 3 stars. Unfortunately, too much poor execution drops it to a 2. While I don't regret buying it on special, I'm still not motivated to complete, or even reinstall it. Pity, cos I'm sure it could have been something great.

This game is super simple, the levels are incredibly simple and there are only like 2 types of enemies that you fight for most of the game, but it isn't bad at all. I love the mechanic of having a regenerating shield with limited health/med kits. I wish more games other than some halo games and bioshock infinite did this. It does get very repetitive after a while and isn't very bingeable, but it's still a fun time if you want to turn your brain off and play a more linear halo CE (with much less weapon and enemy variety oof). Make sure you play this game at 60 Hz tho, 120 Hz kept causing the game to crash for me and a lot of others have the same issue from what I've seen on forums.

I loved this game on ps2 and it’s awesome that it’s available on GOG controls are decent for an old game and it runs great on windows 11 Gameplay and graphics still hold up Fire warrior is way better than many 1st person shooters that come out today Highly recommended