There are only a few more weeks to wait before you can experience Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters for yourself, and it is natural to wonder if the title will live up to its promises, given the number of failed or mediocre games based on the Gamesworkshop licenses released in recent years. This sequel to the turn-based tactical game Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate released in 1998 tries to preserve the spirit of the original title, while offering gameplay and achievement worthy of the big titles of the genre, released in recent years.
As part of the hands-on offered by Complex Games and Frontier Foundry, we were able to play nearly 2h30 at Chaos Gate. The session was made up of the tutorial, two missions and a confrontation with a big boss, a Big Unclean.
- Genre: Turn-Based Tactics
- Release date: May 5, 2022
- Platforms: PC via Steam and Epic
- Developer: Complex Games
- Publisher: Frontier Foundry
- Price: €44.99
A tour of the ship before diving into the action
The session was clearly about combat gameplay, but we nevertheless took the time to take a quick tour of the ship that serves as a mobile base for our contingent of Gray Knights during the Chaos Gate campaign. The options on board are numerous, this obviously includes the management of the workforce which precedes the departure to combat, with their equipment and their talents, but it is far from being limited to that. It is possible to discuss with the important members of the crew, and to ask them questions about their situation and their convictions, for example. The armory, inquisitor’s office and ship components are also important facets to manage during the campaign. We couldn’t have fun moving the ship through the system map, but several dozen planets are present, with various missions, objectives and dangers.
Ship upgrades also seem designed to address this facet of gameplay, with available energy, speed, hull condition, and weaponry. From one mission to another, we could notice that the appearance and the state of the ship changed drastically. Large glowing holes in the hull suggested a recent battle during the final mission, but we’ll have to wait until the test to explore all of that in detail. In any case, it is nice to see that the strategic aspect of the game will indeed be present, which should help to offer replayability, as well as to make things worse, since a mechanism similar to the Avatar project of XCOM 2 also looks on point. The cinematic that concluded the session also allowed us to confirm that it is possible to order an Exterminatus on a planet too heavily compromised by the plague of Nurgle.
Fist of Adamantium vs. putrefied flesh
If Chaos Gate’s gameplay sounds familiar to you, it’s not just an impression, the grip should be instantaneous for veterans of big turn-based tactical games on PC, even if it does not fail to introduce many specificities and original ideas. Each gray knight has 3 action points per turn to use to move, shoot or perform special actions. In addition, there is a will system somewhat resembling that of Phoenix Point, which allows you to trigger special actions or strengthen attacks. But you have to kill enemies of the emperor to recover willpower points, which requires finding a good balance, since your medic is not normally going to be your biggest killing machine, while he has 3 other space marines to keep alive. That said, compared to medics in other games, this one is a real brute. It must be said that the Gray Knights mean business, and normal enemies are like cannon fodder under their boots. In addition to an impressive amount of health and a large arsenal viable both at range and in melee, your Space Marines also have powerful psychic abilities, grenades, teleporters and other deadly fun that you have chosen to deck them out before leaving on a mission. . If one of your precious Space Marines falls in battle, they can still be revived by the medic, but are then limited to 50% of their maximum hit points for the rest of the deployment. A major difference from Chaos Gate is that there is no chance to hit, damage is clearly displayed by the interface after taking into account distance, obstacles and armor. Critical hits are the only unknown in the equation.
The in-game missions we got access to were probably on easy mode, or an overpowered party was at our disposal to take on their challenges, but one thing is certain, Chaos Gate wants you to play aggressively, with gray knights being truly durable. They even have an energy shield to activate at the cost of an action point, if they are in a bad position. During each mission, a warp event bar progresses, and each time it is full, a negative event occurs. A few of the events we were treated to included a group of extra reinforcements for enemies, +5 armor for a turn for demons, and even blocking your squad’s ranged weapons. Going into the pile also potentially makes it possible to dodge certain patrols, and to exploit the bonus action points conferred by the executions. They are not as easy to obtain as in Gears Tactics, since you have to stun the enemy first, but the principle is the same and the whole squad gains a precious additional action point to continue the good works of the Emperor. It’s all based on a precise melee targeting system that really shines against the toughest opponents. For example, you can choose to permanently disable your target’s main weapon, or one of its abilities if it is clear that it cannot be killed this turn. In other cases, the hit will ignore armor, deal more damage, or stun it.
In terms of lore it’s quite logical, but the chaos troops are generally no match for the gray knights, even if there are only 4 of them. This is the element that we regret the more with this new opus. It has become the norm to offer only a very small squad so as not to ask too much of the player, the machine, and especially the overall balance of the game. This is certainly the biggest difference compared to the first Chaos Gate which allowed to embark nearly 25 soldiers in the last missions, even if it had the defect of giving longer turns. With 4 basic classes and 4 advanced classes, Chaos Gate does not seem to have the intention of offering us a lot of freedom in the composition of our squad. However, we are curious to see what the balance of the missions will be like in the full version of the game. suppressive fire, overwatch, spontaneous mutations and more. The infestation of planets by the Bloom which will then strengthen the enemy while applying penalties to the players is perhaps the answer. We should also mention the presence of challenges and self-imposed limitations in order to make matters worse, and thus prove his devotion to the other members of the Chapters, which will unlock favors, and therefore equipment in the long term.
Disgusting uncle and the snotty nephews
As for the difficulty, the developers were certainly counting on the boss fight against Aeger the Benevolent, a major demon of Nurgle, to give us a taste of it. With a massive health bar and many special abilities, this boss is indeed more than capable of giving even the overpowered gray knights a hard time. To begin with, the terrain wasn’t helping, with toxic rivers all over the place, and the boss also had assists. In addition to conventional demons, nests of Nurglings scattered around the area began to produce small enemies that were impossible to target, but which changed the rules of the fight. They jumped by the dozens in front of the trajectory of your bolter shots in order to protect their dear uncle, who then did not hesitate to devour the survivors to recover life. These hordes of nurglings also took advantage of their turn to harass and attack each Space Marine en masse. Our medic quickly found himself overwhelmed, fortunately we quickly began to exterminate the nests.
It was also an opportunity to test out some new pieces of gear, like a flamethrower that engulfed much of the arena in a purifying fire that was ideal against scabby midgets in this fight. It is always nice to see that different pieces of equipment find their use depending on the type of mission and the conditions on the ground. Even though Aeger’s giant bell blasts and vomit were dreadful, it didn’t deter us from sending our gray knights into melee to give him a try with their nemesis force weapons, and there, surprise: the special moves even allow you to disable boss skills for the rest of the fight. Eventually, the Beast eventually fell to the Squad’s repeated and concentrated blows, once all the nests of Nurglings were eliminated. Without being terrifyingly difficult, the encounter involved many different mechanics, whether related to equipment, skills or terrain.
Expert painting
Before concluding, let’s quickly approach the realization. The preview did not take place in ideal conditions to judge, since it went through Parsec, a remote game software, and it was a build of the game specially set up for this session. It was therefore full of bugs and limitations that should not be present in the final version. Graphically, the game is satisfactory, but it is especially the artistic direction that caught our eye. In general, Warhammer video games prefer to give characters a fairly realistic look, whereas in this case Chaos Gate almost looks like you have the animated miniatures in front of you in many cases, which pays homage to the license on which everything is based. The result is unusual and yet familiar from the game, at least if you are used to having said miniatures in your hands. For their part, the voices in English were of quality, and the interface was classic but functional, even if it still seems to need some finishing touches. The music was also excellent, and only the sound effects seemed to us to be missing, or far from being finalized. Let’s mention the sounds of bolter shots and sword thrusts which were far from conferring their supposed violence for example. It’s pretty minor, but it’s something to watch out for by release.
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