REVIEW | Warhammer 40.000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters

I’m sorry, I thought this was the Warhammer universe, and not a beauty contest. Heck, I mean, some of these enemies look like if you’d meet them on Tinder? They’d get some hits!

It’s the 41^st millennium. The emperor sits on his golden throne as his mighty swords of justice cleave through the swathes of horrors, alien hordes and chaos invasions. The universe is on its brink of breaking and the hour couldn’t have been more dire. But hope is not gone, it is never gone. Because the Emperor provides. And his cohorts, the mighty Astartes do his bidding. Enter the Grey Knights, this game ‘s version of valiant crusaders. In Warhammer 40K Chaos Gate Daemonhunter, you take command of one of their chapters that is on it’s way back to Titan, the Grey Knight ‘s Fortress Monastery. On it’s way back, you are stopped by an inquisitor that commandeers your ship. Though battered and bruised, they set forward to investigate a strange chaos incursion. What they find is nothing more than a full on Nurgle (the god of Pestilence and Disease) invasion. Will you be able to survive the slew of non-stop disease-ridden curs? Or will your chapter succumb and become yet another vessel of papa Nurgle?

Let’s find out in this review of.. Warhammer 40.000: Chaos Gate Daemonhunters!

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Things I liked!

• Nothing | Honestly I was fairly disappointed when I got my mitts on this one. As a huge Warhammer buff, I had hoped on a decently done turn-based WH40K game, but unfortunately I was left wanting… It has nothing to do with WH40K other than having the name tacked onto it.

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Neither good nor bad

• Sound | In regard to the soundstage I was left a bit wondering if the voice actors were there for the job or for the passion of the brand “Warhammer”. Some, like the Chapter Master, did a good job conveying his role as a Chapter Master. While the inquisitor just phoned her lines in where most likely “Be sure to say this more sternly” was written next to it. The ambience and effects on the other hand were decently done. For instance, when you shoot your bolters? You really feel that deep grunting bass as the shells fly towards your enemy to deliver some imperialistic justice.

• Controls | Though clunky, the controls are something that you’ll get used to eventually. Though when you are setting up an overwatch from a high vantage point and it has to pinpoint towards a lower level? You will come to find yourself throwing cursewords at your screen as the pointer then just decides to do a little dance. “Wauw, you can really dance” isn’t one of the things that you’ll be saying, trust me. Going through your squad of 4, you’ll find to be fairly easy as the buttons to them are simplified, while on the other hand trying to perform complex manoeuvres then becomes something that you would need a college degree for.

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Things I disliked!

• Visuals | I nearly threw up when I saw how they ‘butchered my boy’. If you look at the lore stance, papa Nurgle bestows his followers the pleasure of a thousand plagues and poxes. Rot is something that oozes out of their pores and disease just becomes a beautiful miasma that swirls around them. What you get in this game? Is the entire opposite! The plague marines for instance have shining armour, the infested squalls look like they just won a beauty contest and your own marines? Heck, they look like they just came out of the shop with spiffing new armour on! I’m sorry, I thought this was the Warhammer universe, and not a beauty contest. Heck, I mean, some of these enemies look like if you’d meet them on Tinder? They’d get some hits! In regards of effects and how the universe looks that they did nail. But how an explosion looks or how a warp ability is displayed does not warrant this point to be placed higher.

• Camera | Aaah, the bane of many-a gamer out there! The worst enemy of all… The camera(man). Turning the thing around feels cumbersome and anything but intuitive. It is all linked to your right thumbstick, so you’d think that that wouldn’t be any cause for frustration. But you couldn’t be any further from the truth. Turning the camera works as fluent as trying to get jelly out of a bottle. If you’re out in the open? It works. If your camera is close next to a wall? Then get ready to have a bad time, since it’ll make the visual standpoint go all over the place. Also, it doesn’t go in a 360 motion, it goes in quarts. I only want to move my camera a few inches, not half a playing field! Thanks!

• Story | Maybe it’s because I’ve read more books than I can count on 2 hands by a few legendary writers, but djeez… Could the story have been more lackluster? Inquisitor warps in, I commandeer your vessel! We go on an investigation! Also the tacked on starting level against Khorne daemons, to then going full Nurgle? Yeah,.. Okay I can get that you are going from one system to another in regards of the universe that you’re in. But … Come on. At least put some effort into it.

• Rinse and Repeat | The battles feel the same over and over. You start your mission. You know that there are a few lesser squads of fodder out there. After a few turns, an effect happens on the battlefield (Chaos bloom. This is a random effect that then gets bestowed on your enemies that is designed to make the battle last longer and have it become a bit harder). After that, most likely you’ve already completed your objectives and thus your squad needs to be teleported out. But you’ve also “angered” the RNG gods so they decide to teleport in some more squads to just screw you over. Because even though your squad is halfway past dead already? You could easily still handle a few extra squads, right? Oh, and it also is more than logical that your ship needs to lock on to your coordinates, even though you are in constant contact with them… For 3 turns. And this over, and over, and over… Yeah. Making the battles become more of a chore rather then a fun experience!

How long did I play the review before publishing? 10 hours
How long to beat the story? 26 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 10
How long to achieve 1000G | 65 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Xcom