Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr – Review

The Warhammer universe, be it the standard fantasy Warhammer or the Sci-Fi Warhammer 40,000 universe, has been extremely popular in the gaming world. We’ve seen numerous game adaptations of both series, be it strategy games, first person shooters, VR titles and even now we have a Diablo clone with Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr. The initial trailers immediately wowed us thanks to the game’s graphical quality and the blood, gore and guts that flew around after killing hordes of enemies. We were eager to find out what the life of an inquisitor would entail, even though we were greeted by a massive douchebag after only a few minutes into the game. Hail to the emperor!

Story

You’ll start off the game playing as an inquisitor for the emperor, who seemingly represents the entire universe. Everyone outside this faction are considered to be heretics and only need to be slain in name of the emperor. You are tasked with an assignment that involves a strange monastery ship, called the Martyr. When you first encounter the ship it doesn’t reveal any of its secrets, and when it disappears again, you are tasked to find it once again in order to find a rogue inquisitor.

The story is a bit on the vague side in terms of information about the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the global objective. You know you are to research the legendary monastery ship, the Martyr, to question an inquisitor that seemingly has gone rogue. Other than that the game doesn’t really fill you in on what’s going on, or what has shaped the world to become as it currently is.

Graphics

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr is a beautiful game, in all its grittiness. You’ll be treated to a tech-filled world with a fair amount of differentiating enemies, which make the game rather interesting. Your character is well designed, with your different armors being beautifully presented every time you slip into a new one. Weapons are varied, special effects and skills are animated in an impressive fashion, making this a very (dark and) beautiful game, with many destructible items. While this title may be a bit of a Diablo clone, the developers made sure to bring the Warhammer 40,000 universe alive, with the inquisitors being the main focus of the game.

Sound

The game’s soundtrack is a bit brooding but cinematic at the same time, which combines nicely with the dark and moody graphical style of the game. Your character is voiced during dialogues, and so are the other NPCs, making the game a delight to listen to, if you like somewhat uptight characters. Your character can be a bit of a moody cunt, but it seems that’s just the way it goes in this futuristic Warhammer universe. The inquisitors are seemingly the envoys of the emperor and they will not tolerate any disrespect, and they make sure everyone knows it. Overall the vibe this game has is just terrific if you love dark space adventures.

Gameplay

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Marty is an action RPG the likes of the Diablo games, albeit in a futuristic setting and somewhat slower in terms of gameplay. You’ll waddle from one mission to another, killing monsters, finding clues all while hoping to find better gear and make your character better. You can also opt to play the game in multiplayer, but the current matching system isn’t all too perfect, and the online servers seem to lack many online players. Nonetheless, if you have friends playing the game, you can easily grind for gear together.

When starting the game, you are prompted to create a new character out of three different classes, namely the Stryker, the equivalent of a mage, the Crusader, who is the sturdy tank and the Assassin, which is somewhat the rogue in this ARPG. Each of these classes is then again divided in three subclasses which allow you to choose your build, if  you wish to play ranged, wear heavy armor, want heavy weapons, or simply like to play as a sniper and so on. While initially it seems you have only three classes, the subclasses are diverse enough, making it feel as if the game has nine different character classes, which is certainly a plus. The gear you find is also adapted to your class, or at least that’s what we encountered when playing with our character(s).

Leveling in this game is rather bizarre compared to many other action RPGs, as you’ll gain ranks, that are based on the completion of your missions, and not on trying to kill as many enemies as possible. Each mission will promise you a fixed amount of rank points, which can be more or less depending on the difficulty setting you choose. Even if you skip a lot of enemies and don’t clear them all, you’ll get as much rank points as you would have killed every last heretic. That being said, killing more enemies will allow you to rake in new items, which will be useful to sell, for crafting or simply to become a stronger heretic killing machine. There’s only one odd design choice in terms of gear, as you’re not allowed to switch gear or open your inventory during actual missions.

Skill points also work different, as the many points you can invest are often used for passive abilities, that don’t do that much. Actual active skills depend on your active weapon, which will provide you with two to four skills, your implants and your armor. Different armors have different abilities, and the same can be said about implants. While this is an interesting approach, it also means you’re very limited in terms of skills if you want to stick with a specific weapon type. It can also mean that if you find a better weapon, you’ll get totally different skills, which do not adhere to your playing style. The same can be said about the other items that grant you your skills.

The missions in Inquisitor – Martyr are fairly linear, as they are always in small enclosed areas, where you’ll have to kill certain enemies, find clues, activate items and so on. Nonetheless, it suits the game, as you’ll constantly wade through facilities, ships and the surface of different planets. Luckily you can also farm in other missions than the campaign missions, as every planet comes with a set of challenges that change every few hours. This means you’ll have an endless supply of quests, and even though they may all be very similar, you’ll have the chance to play them in different difficulty levels. Truth be told, the only thing that is holding this game back is the monotone nature of the quests, as it’s often just mindless killing. If you’re a fan of heavy grinding and doing the same task over and over again, this will certainly be an enjoyable and bloody feast for you, but it simply feels like the gear and crafting systems are a bit underrepresented.

Conclusion

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr is a very decent Diablo clone, and perhaps calling it a clone is a bit disrespectful for the work the developers have put into the game. While at times this title may feel like a mindless grindfest, the different classes, the cool weapons and enemies and the many different challenges will offer you many hours of gameplay. If you can overlook you’re stranded in a universe filled with massive cunts, or you simply like stuck up characters that are overly violent, you’ll have a blast with this one.

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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