Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

At the time of release this game was billed as a sort of "Halo-killer." Well, the fact that Halo is on its sixth main-series game at the moment while there hasn't been another Warhammer 40k FPS after this one should tell something about how successful this game was. It's a pretty by-the-book FPS with really nothing but the setting to set it apart. Unlike Halo it lacks any real sort of variety or scale, both in terms of gameplay and level design. There are no vehicle sections apart from an occasional turret. The storyline is very straightforward with the protagonist utterly devoid of any character or initiative of his own. Some of the gameplay quirks seem to have been implemented in Halo's wake - for example the regenerating shield system and the 2-weapon carry limit (though the latter is actually a lot more frustrating than in Halo because for some reason you MUST carry at least one Tau weapon at all times, which leads to some frustration as you are less likely to find ammo for it). Because of the setting the levels are rather bland and are all finished in a very similar brownish/orange-ish colour palette. Unlike Halo this is largely a corridor shooter, so you won't be seeing much in the way of wide-open spaces. First levels feel like a lot more like Medal of Honor, with fighting in the trenches, but soon dissolve into similar-looking spaceship and base interior corridors with various colour-coded keys and corresponding doors. One of the game's biggest failings are its weapons. You get a very standard selection of machine-gun/shotgun/sniper/rocket-launcher/rail-gun with minor variations, but none really feel good to use in the way Halo's guns did. Coupled with a weird console-oriented aiming system where your rounds never quite go where you want them to it all makes the shooting mechanics somewhat unsatisfying. It's not a bad game but it was deservedly drowned out by clearly superior competition back in the day and only really holds sentimental value.

Lol. Lmao, even. Honestly the most mid a game can be. It's not actively bad, there's no part of it that's hostile to being played, but it's just not very pretty, and it's not more fun than other shooters, and the environments aren't inspired

Fun fact: Many years ago - when I was still a minor- I bought a used copy on amazon and only then found out it was 18+. Those were different times. This was an unfortunate game. Back in the day Warhammer 40k licenses were seldom granted and a shooter was completely unheard of so there was much excitement. However it turned out to be in vain. Firewarrior falls into many of the same traps that other contemporary shooters fell: extremely limited arsenal, very linear levels and a very unlucky gfx engine. There must have been other factors as well such as maybe a very tight schedule, not enough funds or whatever because.. yeah, as I said, the game is lacking. It bravely tries to capture the setting but falls apart on technical grounds. The models are not very good, the animations are jerky, the weapons don't feel very impactful (with the exception of the bolter), the levels are small and linear, the story is muddy and the game is also very short (this being still unusual in then). I played it several times back in the day but mostly because as a youth I couldn't afford much more. These days it serves as an interesting curiosity and as proof that even so many years ago 40k games were very hit and miss.

Gameplay is sloppy and the keybinds are not good

See title. This game was likely underfunded. It feels very slapped together and unsatifying. I wouldn't be surprised if it had under 100 hours of playtesting, or none at all aside from script testing. Not worth the time it takes to get it running these days.