Console Corner: Review of Warhammer Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters

Space Hulk: Tactics is a simple but solid turn-based experience in the Warhammer universe. Quintessential some would say, it features a 4-person squad of space marines exploring the derelict hulls of abandoned space ships, destroying the Tyranid enemies which emerge from the corridors and rooms. Classic Warhammer. It's an old game, however. In 2022 Complex Games decided to upgrade the experience for the fourth generation of consoles. Enter Warhammer Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters.

Like Space Hulk: Tactics, Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters is a turn-based experience featuring a small squad of space marines fighting evil. But it expands everything. Space travel between worlds becomes a game unto itself, not to mention directly links ship progression to marine upgrades. Combat missions are more varied, better fleshed out. There are significantly more options for interacting with the environment: statues to topple, nests to gain psyche points, explodables, etc., for example. The options for units, weapons, and armor are significantly, significantly expanded. And the nuances of combat offer more variety through the simple abandonment of tight corridors for open planetary terrain.

Regardless whether the potential player has tried Space Hulk: Tactics, Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters delivers the quintessential Warhammer space marine experience. Big, chonky marines stomp across the battlefield, smashing shit with hammers, blasting stuff with an ever increasing magazine of weapons, and deploying a wide array of AoE psycher abilities onto Chaos enemies.

Supporting this is a decent length, if not long, campaign. Players have 30+ hours of gameplay. There is a wide variety of maps, and the major story beats (aka boss battles) are epic and difficult. There is a Goldilocks zone of decision points, forcing players to 'make their build' in a limited number of ways. This means there is some replay value.

One of the issues with the game is the difficulty curve. In short, Easy is several steps apart from Normal, while the distances between Normal and Hard and Difficult are noticeably smaller. I hate this. I usually play on Normal in games. I want the story more than anything, but I also don't want combat or puzzles or whatever to be a pushover. I want to lose a few times in the course of a game, but not often. On Normal, I was losing often in the early going. I went to Easy, figured the game out more, got my groove, and went back to Normal. This helped, but I still lost relatively often, typically due to the Warp surges. The game pushes players to get through maps quickly in order not to face warp surges. (Warp surges make things more difficult by increment.) At the same time, more time is needed to get through maps once those surges begin taking effect. More time to stop and heal. More time to inch forward rather than leap forward to preserve the last few precious hit points, etc. Warp surges are 100% a good thing. They add randomness and challenge, but the frequency and cumulative effect don't seem to align with difficulty level on lower levels.

In the end, Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters is Warhammer Kill Team in a video game (provided you want to play as Space Marines). It takes Space Hulk: Tactics and upgrades it to a modern, turn-based rpg with a fully fleshed campaign, in space and on the ground. Effort was put into dialogue and detail, something which fans of the IP will undoubtedly appreciate. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the game feels Warhammer—a fact underlined by the number of times I see screenshots or background material used as B-roll for content creators.