passing in-game day, every trip across
the galaxy, and every decision to side
with one crewmate or another, a
tough one that’ll have consequences.
Both tension and Bloom trickle
down onto the battlefield like a
loathsome fungal rot soaks through
soil to attack the roots of a tree. Once
you deploy your squad of Grey
Knights on a Blooming planet, you get
down to the turn-based
battle part of the game.
The more blips of
Bloom, the harder the
mission objectives will
be, the more mutations
enemies start with, and
the more gifts that
Nurgle can bestow to
his followers.
Bloom-infested planets will look
different too, and I spent a good bit of
time sweeping over battlefields to
admire the eye-filled flora, tentacles,
and other pustulant masses that crop
up. To top it all off, a Warp Surge
meter ticks up every turn, giving
enemies visible mutations like horns
and classic Nurgle gut-mouths,
granting them various status boosts.
The Bloom’s effects on both enemies
and environments are deliciously vile.
It all sounds a bit overwhelming,
and indeed when enemies break out
in boon-granting diseases, defeated
cultists and Plague Marines rise from
the dead, or zombie Poxwalkers burst
from the ground, it can feel that way
for a bit. The early going is tough,
especially as your squad picks up
injuries that usually won’t have
healed by the next time you head to
the next battle. But once you get to
grips with the depth of tactical
possibilities at your disposal, things
really starts to click.
The environments, for a start, are a
delight of destructible potential.
Beyond the obligatory explosive
ammo caches and fire pits, there are
pillars to topple onto enemies and
bridges to destroy. Particularly
impressive is the fact that most walls
can be blown up, which adds a layer
of volatility to even the best-planned
moves. At one point, I pushed a
column onto a line of four enemies,
one of whom was sent flying into an
ammo crate. As the smoke cloud
dissipated, I saw that I’d also blasted
away a portion of wall, causing an
enemy patrol to come streaming in.
KNIGHT SCHOOL
Combat has some classic XCOM
foundations, from darting between
partial/full cover to action points and
core abilities like Overwatch, but
beyond that it very much carves its
own path. There’s almost no RNG,
for a start, and what’s the point of
relying on cover when that cover may
well be blown away in the next turn?
Similarly, the rich interplay of the
Grey Knights’ classes and abilities
meant that before long I’d all but
forgotten that
Overwatch existed.
Take my
Interceptor, Voldred
Storm, who I trained
into a dual-wielding
ninja with self-
replenishing action
points. Using Teleport
Strike, I could damage
several enemies in a single AP, give
that AP an 80% chance of
automatically replenishing, then
continue to tear up enemies deep
behind their lines. Lacking
Terminator armour, Voldred is a glass
cannon, but I addressed that with my
Justicar, who could bolster his own
armour, then psychically send all of it
to Voldred for one turn, making him
ready to receive his inevitable
battering in the next turn.
You can set enemies burning and
bleeding, and use grenades or psychic
abilities to send them into frenzies
where they attack their own team.
Stack that with an abundance of
upgradeable wargear and there’s lots
of room for build experimentation.But there’s always a trade-off in
Daemonhunters. Fancier psychic
abilities use Willpower, which upon
use tick up the Warp Surge meter,
inching it towards mutations and
other gifts for the enemy. To counter
these, you can research Stratagem
cards, which let you do one-off things
like teleporting your whole squad to
one location or getting an enemy to
fight on your side for three turns.
There are so many nice touches
that flesh out Daemonhunters:
Fallout-style targeting of specific
body parts,, text-based spaceship
battles, and ‘Prognosticars’ that you
place on the star map to inhibit
Bloom growth and get bonuses in
various star systems. All these little
threads are woven into the story and
play experience, feeling neither
excessive nor superfluous.GREY AREA
Daemonhunters is not without a few
frustrations. Enemy AI isn’t too
bright, often resorting to Overwatch
in seemingly random directions
instead of, say, shooting explosive
nodes when you take cover behind
them. There could be a bit more
clarity in certain mission objectives
too. Crucially, it was pretty poorly
optimised on my setup, with sluggish
framerates that don’t respond even to
drastic decreases in graphics settings,
as well as some slowdowns between
missions that can only be fixed by
restarting the game.
With all that said, I imagine
fledgling developer Complex Games
will patch these issues up sooner
rather than later. It would be
foolishness bordering on heresy if it
didn’t, because it’s created a bit of a
gem here – one that smashes through
its safe pre-release image as
‘Warhammer 40K meets XCOM’ to
plant the seeds for its own series.
Likewise, it breaks away from the
austere stylings of 40K with a vivid,
meaty art style that makes corrupted
levels and enemy units ooze with
character (as well as plenty of pus
and bile). Where Daemonhunters
could so easily have been ‘yet another
40K game’ or ‘yet another XCOM-
like,’ it emerges as one of the best
offerings on both fronts.87
Chaos Gate –
Daemonhunters is an
engaging space opera
that triumphs both on
and off the battlefield.VERDICTUsing Teleport
Strike, I could
damage several
enemies in a
single APALL ABOARD!
Things to do on your shipSTIR UP GOSSIP
Chatting to your
crew is a great way
to learn about the
lore – and they also
love bitching about
each other.HIT THE BOOKS
Use Seeds gained in
battle to fund your
research, gaining
Strategems,
Prognositicars, and
other 40K words.MAKEOVERS
Give your soldiers
some individuality
by customising their
appearances. You
can’t go wrong with
another bionic eye.TUNE UPS
Repair your
damaged ship to
make it faster,
deadlier, and home
to even more Grey
Knights.CARTOGRAPHY
Use the map to track
the Bloom’s spread
across the system,
and spread your
psychic network to
more planets.GET TOLD OFF
You may be the
Commander, but you
answer to Vardan
Kai, who likes to call
up and give you a
bollocking.Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters
REVIEW