No, the preview I wrote is not going to be posted here. I wrote a full length preview for 1up.com that you should check out if you are interested in this game. Despite the trailers that were abysmally received a while back, the game is shaping up really, really well. The writing is superb, the graphics are very stylized, and the blend of RPG battles with point-and-click adventure is sure to get most any gamer’s nerd-sense tingling.
Chufmoney
I love Warhammer. I have been playing fantasy since the 5th Edition rules were created, but never got terribly into 40K’s table-top game. However, I have always been enamored with the 40K universe, and PC games. Seriously, if you haven’t played Dawn of War, and you claim to like RTS games, then what the fuck are you doing still reading this? GO BUY IT.
I had heard about Squad Command a while back, from a press release, but did not expect it to be showing anytime soon. So, as you can imagine, when I learned that it was in a playable form at PAX, I had to get in on it.
It was stowed away in the very back corner of the hall, left to be overshadowed by the likes of Company of Heroes and Frontlines: Fuel of War. I easily walked up amongst the crowd and proceeded to jump right into the game — there was no line for it. Turn based 40K, and portable? How could it be anything but great!?
Alas, it just wasn’t meant to be. The game was downright ugly on the DS — especially when games like Dementium: The Ward, where showing — and the game felt decidedly hollow. The game just felt like it had little substance at this point: you just move, shoot, and repeat. I just didn’t feel like there was any strategy going on.
Granted, the game still has more time. I certainly hope that THQ is going to put A LOT more time into it’s development. They need to flesh out the environments and make it so that players can mount real strategic assaults. All the ideas are there, the level design just feels like it needs more testing. Also, the game needs to turn off friendly fire; that was some bullshit hitting my own guys so much.
For now I would advise that we all watch the progress of this game carefully. The turn based action, deeply embedded in the world of Warhammer 40K is there, but it is very much a skeleton of what it needs to become to full flesh out the frame of the game.
Chufmoney