Pretty retro these days, but a glorious strategy game and a great look into 90's Warhammer 40k. Though it's named Epic 40,000 to time in with the 3rd edition release back in the late 90's, it has a lot more in common with the older editions, with alot of lost classic Orc and Imperial units represented from the late 80's and early 90's. The campaign is a good challenge, and I really enjoy the map based system, with some hard decisions on where you attack and where you supply. Simple decisions, but hard, because the game does not hold your hand - the Orcs are unrelenting and some of the later battles are very difficult. I like the way it feels like a table top game when you're playing it, you can almost hear the dice rolling. The units are pretty well balanced for the most part. Where the game tends to break is in skirmish at higher point levels, where the Orc AI will spam about a 100 tanks, and there isn't much you can do as all that firepower comes in. Keep it around the 3-4k mark though, and the armies are well balanced and you can find some challenge. Special mention to the cutscenes. So retro. So old school Warhammer. And so heavy metal. I love it. This was the setting I grew up with ha! Before the setting took itself very seriously. There hasn't really been a 40k strategy game since that allows you to field hundreds of tanks and infantry like this. If you can get past the retro presentation, or if that is exactly what you're after like me, then you'll find a gem of a 40K game here.
I was someone who was really looking forward to playing this back in the day on Xbox, which it was strangely dropped from on release. Picked this up for a fiver on one of the sales and I have to say, it's everything I wanted it to be. I've only been playing single player, not enough mates want to play, but as someone who has loved 40k for 30 years, it really captures the feel of the Space Hulk game and the 40k IP in terms of atmosphere and the power you have. It's unforgiving, it's difficult single player even on easy, the squad AI is easily overrun as they don't seem to watch the radar in regards the hordes coming from behind, but I can forgive that for the near perfect joy of the combat. They've nailed it. It's desperate at times, almost survival horror. You'll feel like a space marine terminator, gunning down dozens of enemies without damage. But they just keep coming. I had kill counts over 500 some games. It's just unrelenting action at times, with atmospheric pauses as you see the blips surrounding your squad. Downside? It's the same for the entire campaign. Every mission is the same design in the same enviorment. Go here - activate this or hold here - oh you think your finished? - now run a gauntlet and escape. The difficulty spikes are also very frustrating at times. It's not an easy game solo, mainly due to the AI, but also that each mission usually has a catch which you won't realise on a first playthrough, though if you're with friends, you probably would negate the issue as you've got reliable firepower to get through and coordinate. I would though recommend at the sale price to anyone who loves 40k, the Space Hulk board game, FPS horde shooters or just loves survival horror sci-fi and wants a bit of a challenge. It doesn't outstay it's welcome and even on solo you're getting a meaty single player campaign, even if it's pretty much one big alien infested spaceship scenario.
