(Ed – This post is not by Gareth Newnham but a good friend of Laser Lemming – Tom Lamb. Enjoy!)
There is a fundamental truth within the world of fiction; films, novels, comics and games. A belief and a mantra, passed on from fan-parent to fan-child over and over again.
The story universe is sacred.
The more story and detail that a franchise plotline accrues over the years, the more defensive its fans become of said details, and this can always be seen when the decision is made to extend the universe into a different medium, and it’s probably safe to say that we’ve all been that irate fan on the verge of sharpening our pitchfork; The day we heard Tom Cruise would take the part of towering muscle-bound Jack Reacher, when Thomas Harris fans flocked to the cinema to watch Hannibal, or indeed whenever we hear Uwe Boll has got his mitts on the rights to yet another game title…
And for oh so many, when we hear on the tides of the net that there will soon be yet another adaptation of the two and a half decade old veteran that is Warhammer 40k, it’s fans collectively issue the sound of the Awkward Vampire (you know the one; the sound a plumber makes before he tells you how big a job replacing that U-bend will be) and pray it won’t be another Firewarrior (For those of you who just remembered it existed, my sincerest apologies). That’s not to say that Games Workshop isn’t suited to the world of gaming, console or otherwise; Space Marine made a good presentation of itself across the board, and the Dawn of War series is still a firm favourite among fans and critics alike. So with all this in mind, what should we make of their newest outing into the gaming world?
Warhammer 40,000 Storm of Vengeance is the franchise’s first outing onto the Mobile game scene, brought to you from the studios of Eutechnyx – a company pretty new to this particular stage itself, though coincidentally as old as the 40k universe itself, originally known to the gameverse as Zeppelin Games, and later Merit Studios Europe. If any of these names sound familiar, then you probably know them more for games seated in the sports and racing arenas (007 Racing, anyone?). Recently they have had one previous release on mobile, that of Ninja Cats vs Samurai Dogs... Yes, the number of new directions from the company that brought you Big Mutha Truckers is starting to look like a laser pen in a mirror maze.
And for those of you familiar with Shinobi Felines and Shogun Canines, there will be something startlingly familiar about Storm of Vengeance. It would seem that Eutechnyx’s second go at the mobile market is simply a reskin of their first.
Not a great start.
Okay, so reskins in themselves are hardly a sin. Yes, it smacks of laziness, but I’d take command of a force of Space Marines or a Waaaagh of Orks over a clan of Tabby assassins or over-misrepresented Corgi warrior- bureaucrats any day. And for a mobile tower-defence game, it really isn’t all that bad – even the Steam port doesn’t suffer too much in translation. The game even allows you the option of playing the game as a window rather than a fullscreen, which in a game with surprisingly few options is a nice addition.
So the game’s campaign storyline (as little as it represents the gameplay) is based on The Purging of Kadillus – a novel by Gav Thorpe. Now most previous Games Workshop games have had their own story written especially for it, a practice that pays pretty well in such an especially wide universe, yet in a game that pays so little consideration toward its own plotline this at least allows SOV to bring die-hard Dark Angels fans a parade of cameos that may generate at least a little excitement. Interestingly though, upon beginning the campaign, the game allows the player the option of playing as the novel’s antagonists in the same story – as Ghazghkull leading the Ork side of the war.
So, a tower defence set in the 41st millennium. Sounds good right? Well yes actually. The game doesn’t exactly furnish you with the number of units you may get in, for example, a certain game involving the living dead and sentient garden vegetables, yet the units and their catalogue of upgrades both passive and active allow a fairly wide range of options, the player being given the option to chop and change the loadout of his troops during production to fluidly evolve to the threat posed by the enemies pouring in from the other end of the lane. Marvellous! If only the campaign missions lasted long enough to implement such tactics. The missions are woefully short, and it’s with sad regularity that you utterly stomp the enemy’s production flat in a matter of minutes. Of course, every once in a while you will be surprised when that new unit or ability the enemy can now produce without warning suddenly comes swamping across the screen to tear your poor boys several new orifices. I mean, seriously, the first time you see one of your Assault Marines warped into a suicide-bombing Squig and sent back at his own lines… shudder.
And yes, I know a mobile game doesn’t necessarily need to have long drawn out slug-fests for its levels, but those of you playing the Steam port may find yourselves frustrated that your little dudes have actually won you the game just as you’re getting into the swing of the fight.
But what’s this? Well, looks like Eutechnyx is actually taking a leaf out of Sledgehammer Game’s book. Yes, it seems that the lack of single-player campaign time has been answered with a comparatively expansive Multiplayer mode! Thank goodness for that… I’m sure I’d feel a little less bitter about that if, for example, there was the option of a single player custom game option, but it seems the only other option is to replay the campaign missions, which don’t seem to get any harder after the first time you’ve fed Ork its own shoota in 1 minute flat.
Of course, the odd Skirmish mission should at least get a mention – these optional puzzle levels actually give the brain a little stimulation amid campaign stomps, giving you a set number and formation of enemies and a limited number of pre-made units in which to combat them. These levels were actually the moments I found myself looking forward to, about midway through the campaign allowing you to try out power-ups and unit combinations you may not have considered beforehand.
So thank you Games Workshop, it isn’t another Firewarrior (Sorry again!) and it has a pretty good setup; two pretty evenly matched armies to choose from, a host of tactical options and a pretty faithful grip on the 40k universe, even if the game itself doesn’t give much space to demonstrate it. But please guys, find a way to keep the challenge going? Even giving the player the option to take more than 3 lanes as a victory condition on EVERY MISSION would at least keep us going for, I dunno, another 40 seconds or so. Just a thought…
