Warhammer 40,000 does two things very well: extremely massive pseudo-men in equally silly armour, and death. Both are highlighted in the new Space Hulk: Deathwing trailer, massive HUD elements dedicated to the former, weapons and genestealer flesh the latter. While they map to some predictable standard equivalents like the shotgun, rocket launcher and minigun, there’s a weight to everything in Deathwing that continues to make it look great.
Could it surprise as one of the best FPS games of the year?
The flamer you see there creates pools of fire, rather than just hitting areas while it’s firing, making it viable for area control – rather useful when facing down these massive waves. The Stormshield and Thunder Hammer are capable of great personal defense, and emit shockwaves when impacting a surface (be that metal walls or alien skull) doing area damage.
It’s meaty you know? A totally different style to the flimsy feel of player characters and weapons in obvious inspiration Left 4 Dead. You were scared of zombies in that because each was a threat and the biggest were full-on raid bosses. Here, it’s all down to numbers, and whether your faulty equipment can hold up in the face of thousands of targets.
It’s out in November, though no specific release date yet. I’d skew late if that was my release window, lest the massive games coming in the first couple of weeks stop it receiving attention.