Pros, Cons, Issues, Complete Analysis and Final Verdict further down.
🟩 Pros / 🟥 Cons
+ Original gameplay which masterfully blends tactical board game mechanics with RPG / FPS.
+ Turbulent gunplay where the difference between living and dying relies on the perfect combination between quick instincts and carefully planned strategy.
+ Dark, grueling theme and atmosphere that will keep you on your toes at all times.
+ Sound design consists of dark ambient and sci-fi noises. Undoubtedly, the lack of music adds to the experience.
+ State-of-the-art graphics. The setting and the related textures are simply jaw-dropping.- The plot is serviceable, but it definitely isn’t the highlight of this title.
– The inability to perform manual saves is a double-edged sword. On one side you can’t cheese the levels, while on the other you must endure some excruciating sections simply to call it a day.
– Difficulty scaling would benefit from a few tweaks. As it is, it may come off as unbalanced.
– Some nasty bugs can potentially softlock your progress, meaning you’ll have to restart the game from another save file that isn’t corrupted.
– The absence of dedicated servers means that, in multiplayer, you’ll be depending on the internet speed of the host as well as their geographical proximity. Peer-to-peer isn’t exactly the best system in a game so frantic.
Bugs & Issues 🔧 Mods & Patches
– Unfortunately, Deathwing is punctuated with game-breaking bugs. If you’re particularly unlucky, you might encounter all of them in a single playthrough, and if that’s not the case, expect at least one ruining your session. What happened to me personally is the following: in the 2nd chapter, the final goal was to neutralize the enemy’s nests. Upon arriving at the very last one, the objective marker didn’t update, meaning I couldn’t trigger four vital levers that should’ve appeared near their spawn points. In essence, I meticulously planned my journey and resupply stops only to get blocked from making progress at the very end. This issue didn’t vanish even after reloading the game, so I had to restart from scratch. Also, in chapter 5, one of the collectibles vanished into thin air and again, I had to replay the mission. Finally, in chapter 8, the NPC I had to escort got bugged and the only way I could act in order to fix its pathway was… Repeating the level.
– There’s a 25% chance your game will freeze upon reloading a save file.
– There’s a minor chance the dialog boxes from your companions don’t disappear. You want them to do so? Guess what you need to do…
– There’s an unknown chance that a certain collectible won’t spawn on chapter 9 even if you redo the chapter from the beginning. Sorry completionists!
– Even though the AI isn’t as bad as other users stated – and you can mitigate its sporadic stupidity in more ways than you might think – the behaviour is still less than stellar. In the next paragraphs you’ll learn how to make the best use of your allies.- At this point it is almost safe to say the game has been abandoned and it won’t receive constant updates anymore. You can forget about official patches fixing some persistent issues, and alas, even the community has no power over this. In fact, the fan mods focus exclusively on secondary aspects – like shaders et similia. Workshop support is something that this game desperately needed.
👾 Origins & Premise
Space Hulk (and by extension Deathwing) was initially conceived back in 1989 as a tactical board game where two players challenge each other in a fierce battle. Who plays as the Space Marines will delve into an amalgam of cosmic debris and artificial structures – or Space Hulk, in short. Said locations are so immense that they boast their own gravitational pull and atmospheres; so sinister in nature that, undoubtedly, someone or something is already using them as an abode. If the Marines have specific reasons to roam inside a place so perilous – which may be retrieving an artifact, or simply destroying what could very well collide into an inhabited planet – the vicious Genestealers are the total opposite. These fanged, sharp-toothed aliens can hide and proliferate inside these stellar dungeons and, while doing so, they’ll be moved solely by their natural instincts of killing everybody on sight, or preferably, infect them with their seeds. This way, they can mutate the host and become stronger – which is undoubtedly the more nightmarish prospect for a poor human being. In this case however, the Space Marine isn’t a simple human. Those who are in charge of purifying the hulks are mostly Terminators: a very experienced faction of Space Marines, serving The Imperium of Man. Genetically enhanced, armed to the hilt and well protected, a Terminator isn’t exactly the easiest meal for a Genestealer; in fact, each iteration from this Warhammer 40k spin-off further solidifies this idea that ANYONE in the Marine/Genestealer dichotomy can be a glass cannon; Space Hulk: Deathwing is no exception to the rule. You’ll be just as weak as the enemy is, just as powerful as they are. Be ready for a carnage: the first who strikes, is likely the winner.
The idea of blending a tabletop game with an FPS is a curious one, but one that succeeds in its intent nonetheless. As an example, one feature which stands out from the very beginning is how the developers incorporated “door mechanics” similar to the physical counterpart. You have pretty much five options when looking at a door: opening, closing, blocking, unblocking or destroying. These actions appear simplistic at first, but they actually hide one of the most pivotal facets of Space Hulk. Opening and closing are pretty straightforward concepts, ergo, let’s start with blocking and unblocking instead. The act of doing any of those is undoubtedly time-consuming, but the former especially, could very well save your life. To put it briefly, monsters can open doors if these are closed and they cannot do it if they’re blocked. Therefore, it is a wise decision to block any door behind you – but what if you must fall back at some point in the future? Unlocking takes just as much time, and you’ll be vulnerable during that period… So you might as well destroy the darned door. With a rightly placed punch, anything and anyone will fall before your eyes – obstacles included. By doing so, you’ve saved some precious time (hence health points) – but is it really worth it now that the area you’re in is even more open? Again, we’re talking about some basic gameplay ideas, but it’s that kind of stuff that puts all the more emotional pressure in an already dire situation – and boy, if it is fun.
📖 In-depth Analysis
Olethros, an enigmatic Space Hulk, has randomly warped in this dimension and our job is to get rid of it. Before that however, we are made aware of the twisted visions of a renowned Dark Angel Librarian (the protagonist). According to the vivid imagery, something far more mysterious is concealed beneath the bowels of Olethros. A dark secret about our ancient past, heavily guarded by hordes of Genestealers. I won’t go much deeper into plot territory in order to avoid any spoiler, but one thing I can safely mention is that the campaign heavily revolves around this cardinal truth and our journey to uncover it. That will happen over the course of nine chapters spanning from 30 to 50 minutes each – although the biggest chunk of time is greedily gobbled by a simple action: movement. This isn’t the average FPS where you can blaze through scenarios, rather, you’re a slow and bulky cyborg who has to wisely decide when to run or even when to reload a weapon. The waves of hostile creatures are simply that relentless, hence coordination is key. Luckily – or unluckily – two allies will follow you throughout the disadventure while making things easier – or harder. On one side they can cover you, or take care of your wounds (albeit with a limit); on the other side they can move when you want them to stop, open doors even if you don’t ask them to, or worse: stand stiffly like a damn stockfish in a storm of projectiles. On that note, I have three suggestions in case you want to purchase the game and not rage too much…
1. Never, ever forget you have keyboard shortcuts at your disposal. Use the hotkeys to swiftly boss your partners around, or to change your approach whenever plans are starting to fall apart.
2. Momentarily leave your buddies behind when there is too much heat in the following room. That being said, do it only after assessing both the risks and the benefits related to this decision.
3. The guy with the heavy guns sucks with ranged weapons and you should give him a melee one instead (in parallel, do not change the Apothecary’s arsenal otherwise he can’t heal you).
As you can probably guess by now, the game lets you customize lots of different aspects: not only cosmetics, it also gives you the opportunity to withdraw from combat to a safehaven where you can resupply on medkits and switch inventories. This action is known as “opening a Psygate”, but you’ll be limited to only three Psygates per chapter or four in case you collected a set amount of relics per level. Relics on the other hand are hidden objects whose function is – apart from the one just mentioned – to increase the skill points you earn at the end of each mission. Obviously, managing your skills will vastly benefit the group in a moltitude of ways (more armor points, bonus to your allies and even new powers for you). Similarly, there are progressive unlocks towards stronger weapons – and let me reassure you right away: the 40k staples are there. Plasma cannon, assault cannon, flamer; the good stuff. As I stated earlier though, the foes are just as strong and you’ll soon encounter never before seen strains of Genestealers. Expect ravenous alien quadrupeds spitting acid at you, going invisible before your very eyes, or generally being more and more dangerous as you go. New monsters are introduced with a generous dropper, in the sense that it’s a regular event of a steady supply. After the cards on the table are all laid out, Deathwing pretty much throws everything you’ve already known and feared at you, filling each claustrophobic hallway or ample engine room with diverse, perennial crowds.
And this brings us to a whole other topic: level design. It simply cannot be understated how meticulous the developers were whilst crafting this gorgeous scenery. Each chamber or corridor is brimful with details, and the visual effects – such as lighting or even the HUD itself – truly makes them justice. Overall, you can really feel like these places have seen lots of activity; different armies wandered here and their corpses are a testament to it. Furthermore, from a technical perspective, the design boasts some truly complex shapes and verticality is a well implemented concept throughout. This is somewhat emphasized by the mission briefings happening before starting a chapter, when the entire map is shown to us while Grand Master Belial comments over it. Speaking of which, Belial is one of those few characters whose voice acting is superbly executed. A certain ally sounds as if he were dubbed via text-to-speech, but other than him, pretty much everyone get their points across with the correct intonation of voice, rightly placed pauses and an overflowing sense of zeal (which is the most important thing, really).
Last but not least in this fistful of lists, the game modes. I’ve covered the main campaign, however the replay value doesn’t come from there. Instead, you’ll spend most of your time with the special missions: a set amount of random tasks taking place in the exact same levels (again, choosen at random). These are playable both in single player and multi-player; in either case, you can level up your Librarian and unlock goodies, such as skins for the character and the weapons. This growth is sort of grindy – however, since you’ll be earning merely a bunch of fancy trinkets and/or bragging rights about your level – I wouldn’t say it is unfair.
💭 Final Considerations
If you wish to start playing, consider getting over the tutorial first, because that way the guide will suggest the right difficulty setting for you. Don’t be ashamed of playing on Easy, since Deathwing can and will kick your butt even on said mode. Personally, I’ve finished it on Hard and it was an exhausting but fulfilling experience. One thing I noted is how everything gets progressively easier the more you play; not the other way around. New weapons, skills and psypowers will play a huge role on the topic of difficulty balancing. Moreover, the amount of medkits is set accordingly to the aforementioned choice (which you can change while playing, so don’t worry about sticking with Easy, Normal, etc.). My final and most crucial advice would be to ease your way through these dungeons via experimentation – both with the weaponry and with your comrades; I’m sure you’ll find a perfect equilibrium between fun and efficiency.
📝Verdict
Despite some glaring issues, Space Hulk: Deathwing – Enhanced Edition achieves its task of mingling the horde-based FPS genre (akin to Left 4 Dead) with the more nuanced themes stemming from tabletop games and RPGs (first and foremost, the Space Hulk series). The amount of content is understandable considering the price point (especially on discount, which is roughly seven bucks). Without a doubt, you’ll get your money’s worth by playing this game, but only if you like the premise and you’re willing to close an eye or two regarding those despicable bugs.
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