Developer: Streum on Studio
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PlayStation 4
Space Hulk: Deathwing – Enhanced Edition – Review
Games Workshop Group PLC is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. It’s not like they sell guns and tell people that killing others without getting killed nets them points, but they are quite known for a certain franchise, being the ‘Warhammer’ one. Space Hulk: Deathwing Enhanced Edition is a game set in said franchise. The developer behind this game is not Games Workshop Group PLC, but Streum on Studio. They aren’t a big developer – yet – but their other work is E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy, which is also an FPS/RPG. Maybe they’ll become like From Software and really known for their games in the franchise. Spacehulk: Deathwing came out in 2016 and now the Enhanced Edition has arrived two years later, adding things to give fans more to enjoy, and newcomers a whole new trove of things to shoot.
Story
First things first, you don’t need to be a hardcore Warhammer: 40K fan to be able to enjoy this game, but it does help a bit. What will help you put things into perspective is knowing who you are playing as. To what reason the protagonist is doing what he’s doing. You are a ‘Terminator of the Deathwing’. Apart from sounding rather badass, it means you are a part of the 1st Company, an elite group of members to the Space Marine Chapter, the Dark Angels.
Deathwings are giant spaceships that are adrift and are filled to the brim with Genestealers. Think ‘Alien’ but far more fragile and very, very plentiful. It’s up to you to investigate what’s going on on the Olethros and take down the enemies within. The story is told through text messages and communications. If you really are a Warhammer lorehound, these will surely scratch your itch, but if you aren’t into this universe, they might sound a little too ‘bombastic’ or over the top.
Graphics
The Unreal 4 engine makes developers capable of quite some amazing things, and can really make games pop visually, in the right hands that is. In the hands of these developers, however… they have quite a lot to learn about it and it shows. The game looks like it’s from late last generation, with a myriad of graphical glitches, frame drops and overall buggy textures. There’s no texture pop in, so there’s that, but the overall textures look extremely polygonated and even enemies are pixelated when inspected up close. Graphics don’t necessarily break a game if they aren’t the best, but when a game locks up several times, it just throws the player, fun and immersion all out the window. Space Hulk: Deathwing – Enhanced edition is really badly optimised for the PlayStation 4.
The developers might iron out the issues later on, but that’s a practice that should be abolished all together as a trend. Games should be finished when they are finished and not have a several gigabyte day one patch that makes the game playable to an extent while the developers run after the now loosed behemoth trying to give it a new paintjob. First impressions are often what stick and this really is one ugly thing to look at.
Sound
Voice acting in a game is always fun. When done right, it captures the emotion behind the text and really adds immersion. Space Hulk: Deathwing – Enhanced Edition is one of those games that found the right voice actors for the lines. The narrative can be over the top sometimes but the voice actors make it work. They sound so serious and grave, like real zealots that are about to purify their destination and smite down the wicked.
When trotting along, the sound you make really adds to the graphics because you totally feel like a walking tank, and the sound your armor makes is the final piece of the puzzle that makes it all click. The sounds the guns make are rather generic, but that can be forgiven. What really steals the cake are the ominous sounds of wailing and screeching the enemies make when they are running at you or climbing your surroundings. Their hisses alert you to them, but they are more mobile than you and they can traverse surfaces you can’t, so sometimes you won’t see them until they are right on top of you. It makes the hallways feel a lot more claustrophobic and it chills the player, even though you are quite bulky and shouldn’t be frightened by the onslaught of enemies all around. So it’s really well done.
Gameplay
Space Hulk: Deathwing – Enhanced Edition is an action/adventure first person shooter with RPG elements. You’ll go around the ‘Olethros’, which is the name of the space Hulk, which is a giant space ship, and you’ll go from objective to objective killing everything that gets in the way. Objectives are quite samey, and usually involve opening doors, locking doors, or shooting stuff. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock new weapons and new powers. To be honest, apart from some minor upgrades, the RPG elements can be dismissed altogether, seeing as you become just marginally stronger upgraded than you are when you start up the game, which isn’t per say a bad thing. It’s quite a power trip walking around as a giant tank on legs mowing down enemies by the dozens and slashing down anything coming too close.
There are different classes to choose from as you play, but a new one was added to the ‘Enhanced Edition’ of Space Hulk: Deathwing, which is the Chaplain class. What’s cool about him is that he can revive the fallen. So he’s quite the asset in the fight against the Genestealers. Should you choose another class and you need healing or want to change your load out you can press the trackpad and you’ll be teleported to the psygate where you’ll be healed to full health and you can catch your breath. These teleports are limited however so don’t waste them. Your allies can heal you too, so being damaged isn’t too big of a problem if you guard your allies in battle and don’t leave them to die.
Conclusion
Space Hulk: Deathwing – Enhanced Edition isn’t quite a handsome game to look at, but apart from that the game can be quite enjoyable when taken for what it is, a capable shooter with quite a large amount of customisation. If you’ve slain your way through the campaign, you can always dive into singular missions which only add to the amount of gameplay you can expect. More bang for your buck.
Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition - Review,
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