While my life has been
seriously devoted to all sorts of video games over the past 21 years of my
existence, one very good friend of mine from high school managed to wrench me
away from the TV and PC for about 4 years with the universe of Warhammer 40K. I
became pretty serious about it, dropping $100.00 a weekend on new characters,
spending hours and days painting miniatures, then spending hours on the weekends
locked in futuristic army battles with friends. I also got into the side titles
pretty heavy as well, like lots of 40K Epic, Blood Bowl, and Space Hulk, and
finally set down my brush and sold my stuff back in 1995 due to having no one to
play with anymore. Well, time has moved on, and I still keep my fingers crossed
that someone, somewhere will release a video game version of the 40K universe as
it was meant to be played. For now, us PS2 owners have the most recent console
release of Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior for PS2, and while it’s not the tabletop
game version, it’s a heck of a lot of fun to play.
Fire Warrior shucks the huge
armies and group combat for an FPS gaming style. The game centers around Kais, a
young Tau warrior (the Tau are one of the more recent race add-ons to the 40K
universe) and opens as he is ready to prove himself against a fearless and
relentless army of Space Marines (the Imperium of Man) who have infiltrated his
home planet and kidnapped one of the elders. Kais will mostly have to go it
alone against this massive army through a kill or be killed story of action,
betrayal, and a couple of plot twists along the way.
The best way to sum up the
gameplay in Fire Warrior is kind of Halo light meets Doom in a head on
collision. Many times Kais will be escorted and helped by friendly soldiers, and
he only has a selection of two weapons that he can carry at any given time
(Halo). The overall element of the game is constant run and gun through rooms,
small areas, and hallways, and puzzles consist of “find the blue key for the
blue door” or “hit the switch to open the gate” all while mowing down anything
that moves and isn’t wearing yellow body armor to represent a friendly teammate
(Doom).
While I was a little
disappointed (personal thing here … not a reflection on the game) that I wasn’t
able to play as one of the blue suited Ultramarines, I was impressed at the
action level from the get go. As soon as the gate drops from the drop ship in
the opening of the game, you are immediately assaulted on all sides by the
sounds of explosions, tons of red and blue plasma and pulse rifle fire exchanges
going on, and are shoved headfirst into a brutal fire fight. To make it even
more fun, only having the selection of two weapons to carry forces you have to
make decisions on the go, since it might be a good idea to grab the machine gun
for more ammo and killing power, but leaving the sniper rifle behind may hurt
you later if distant enemies are ripping into you.
Another impressive feature
was in the overall AI. While it’s not perfect, and there are times where a
soldier may get stuck behind an object or refuses to step across a door
threshold (Chainfist wielding generals were notorious for that second one),
overall it showed signs of intelligence. Enemies will drop down behind boxes or
will fire for explosive barrels or whatnot in your vicinity to try and add extra
damage, and on a flipside teammates were pretty accurate and helpful with cover
fire and worked out to prove a slight advantage in a rough situation.
For everything that Fire
Warrior has going for it, two things really pull it down … the first of which
being replayability. There are three different difficulty settings (hard has to
be unlocked), but even so since there is only one story to play through and many
gamers may not feel it deserves a second run. The multiplayer mode also doesn’t
help much, since there are about 4 arenas to choose from, all of which feel way
too small and cramped for large group warfare, and the only three modes of play
are the standard found in 90% of other FPS titles … CTF, Deathmatch, and Team
deathmatch.
Secondly, the game is way
too linear and there really is no need for exploration (and in the majority of
places there is no ability to do it anyways). Each door that needs to be
unlocked has a key that is found somewhere close by, and every stage felt like
hallway after hallway of kill, kill, kill, open the door, kill, kill, kill, hit
the switch, rinse, repeat. I would have loved to see more open fighting ability
to maybe have more of a Warhammer 40K feel to it even in an FPS title.
Overall, Warhammer 40K may
not be perfect, nor is it a major revolution in it’s genre, but it’s packed full
of decent graphics, intense firefights, and some serious non-stop trigger happy
blasting for you run and gun FPS fans looking for something a little new that
doesn’t make you solve a bunch of puzzles just to get to level 2. Warhammer fans
should be happy with it, even if you can’t select your chosen faction to play
with, and while it’s not the original Warhammer style … good Games Workshop
games haven’t popped up too frequently over the years. Take advantage of it.
Gameplay: 7.2
It definitely has
some good points, like the Halo style team fighting and the two weapon carry
limit, and for run and gun action fans that enjoy lots of shooting with limited
brain use the swarming enemies, “find the key” puzzles and constant action will
be a good thing. There may not be a lot of reason to go back and play it a
second time though, and gamers looking for a little extra exploration may not be
too keen on the linear nature of the game overall.
Graphics: 8.0
I had to take a
moment of silence in joy the first time I ran across a very well designed and
good looking Space Marine, even if he was trying to blow me into 50 pieces with
a grenade launcher. Overall, the environments are dark and have a creepy
industrial feel to them, and THQ did a good job in making you feel like you were
in the middle of a war. The characters, both good and bad, were well animated
and there were some really impressive lighting effects done to show off shining
gun metal or shadows in the corners.
Sound: 8.1
If you have good
graphics AND good sound, this really helps the game out. There are a lot of
repetitive statements, like enemies saying “it’s quiet” over and over again
until it drives you nuts. Still, the weapon sounds were great, the background
explosions were nifty, and the radio chatter of your team of your enemies added
to the overall feel of the game.
Difficulty: Medium
You may get into
some tough situations against large numbers of enemies, but the linear nature of
the game will ensure that you won’t hit many stuck points and there is enough
weapons to pick up and ammo to grab by the handful to ensure that your trigger
finger doesn’t get a break.
Concept: 7.5
I would have
loved to see Warhammer 40K brought to the console in TBS format (if any
developers are reading this, please answer my prayers!), but I was really
impressed with the way that it was made into an FPS game. If a sequel is on the
horizon, the addition of choosing a faction to play with, more open
environments, and a better multiplayer may take it way up to the top.
Multiplayer: 7.0
It is fun to play
multiplayer … but in brief spurts. Since the environments aren’t that large and
the game types are what we’ve all played before, it may not be enough to keep
you immersed for long periods of time.
Overall: 7.4
I’m still a huge
Warhammer 40K fan, and seeing weapons and characters from one of my all time
favorite pastimes brought to the console was a real treat. I’d love to see a
sequel to Fire Warrior in the future … and hopefully I’ll be writing a review
after marching my Ultramarine squad into a heavy firefight with a group of
Nurgle Chaos Marines or Space Orks … who knows? 40K fans will probably not
regret picking this up, and run and gun action fans will definitely get more out
of it than gamers looking for something to present them with a major challenge.
