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Warhammer 40 K: Chaos Gate – DaemonhuntersPREVIEW
Here’s thesetup: you’re in command of
the Grey Knights, a Space Marine chapter
full of Chaos-crushingzealotswith a
penchant for psychic assaults. They’re
called into action because a plague is
spreading across thegalaxy, the
Bloom, courtesy of theChaos god
Nurgle and hisgrotesque minions.
Thus begins a planet-hopping
campaign whereyou’ll determine the
fate of entire worlds.
For this demo, though, the focus is the
missions themselves: three of them, each
with different objectivesand some
premade squads. There’s my Justicar with
his intimidating doom lance, and my
relentless Interceptor whocan teleport
around the battlefield, getting right in the
enemy’sface with his big ol’ sword. When
my lads take toomuch of a beating, I’ve
got an Apothecarywho can summon his
servitor to flit offand mend hisbroken
pals. Andin the final battle I get my hands
on a bloke with a flamethrower,purging
the toxic battlefields with waves of fire.
The lack of RNG means that I can be
more sureof my tactics thanI would be inXCOM. My choice of weapon, range, and
position all inform how much damage I’m
going to do, and there’s plenty to consider,
but I always knowhow effective my attack
will be before I commit.POWER UP
If your attack isn’t quite strong enoughto
end a foe, you can always call on the
powers of the warp, buffing the attack
with yourforce of will. Sometimes this just
means more damage, but itcan also
introduce new status effects. It’shandy,
but there’s a big cost, increasing the
likelihood of a Chaos event, potentially
forcing you to deal with buffed enemies or
more reinforcements.
Despite making somemistakes in the
rush to see everything before the end of
the demo,I manage to get through the
first couple of missions without too much
trouble. Though, Ileave the worldsin a
worse state than I found them.I’m a big
fan of how much both players and the AI
can manipulate andmorph the battlefield,
bringing down pillarson top of unfortunate
troops, leaving craters everywhere,
bathing thegroundin poison and fire.
Cover is important, but it’s fleeting –
you always need to keepmoving as
the map transforms around you.
Things gosouth when I jump into
the final demo mission: aboss fight
against amassive Great Unclean One. The
real enemy here,though, is inconsistency.
The main sources of frustration are toxic
streams that my Space Marinescan’t
jump overdespiteprevious missions
establishingtheir ability to jump veryfar,
and irritating enemies that inexplicably
can’tbe targeted directly and can only be
burned with the flamethrower.
I didn’t have timeto finish the fight and,
frankly, Iwas happy to havean out. The
other missions made me want to play
more, but the boss fight’s high pointswere
buried under the annoyances. Hopefully
it’snot indicative of the rest of them.
The realmeasureof Daemonhunters
won’t beapparent until we see how it all
comes together – the cosmiccampaign,
the progression of your growing squad,
the big decisions about whatcrises to
prioritise. It’sbuilt on solid ground,though,
and has oodles of character, so thereare
plenty of reasons to be hopeful.
By Fraser BrownT
here’s something very cathartic about
playing Warhammer 40 , 000 : Chaos Gate- Daemonhunters, a turn-based tactics
romp with Space Marines tackling their
own equivalent of a pandemic by beating the shit
out of it. Bolters, flamethrowers, and heavy boots
are very effective remedies, it turns out.
Curing a plague with fire
and bulletsWARHAMMER 40 K:
CHAOS GATE –
DAEMONHUNTERS
YOU ALWAYSNEED TO KEEP
MOVING AS THEMAP
TRANSFORMS AROUND YOU
RELEASE
May 5DEVELOPER
Complex GamesPUBLISHER
Frontier FoundryLINK
chaosgate.comNEED TO KNOW
PLAYED
IT
Smart Space Marines
always carry a
back-up sword.