I don’t think I’ve played a game that feels so similar to X-Com, yet plays so differently. Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters looks like X-Com and dialup up to 11 with the breach sequences, but absolutely punishes you if you take a wrong approach to combat, and the errors compound quickly. Its base difficulty is fairly high, and with its unintuitive gameplay mechanisms and clunky UI can lead to frequent campaign restarts (or at least going back a few saves). Recommended for Warhammer 40K fans, or those who like tactical turn based combats who don’t mind frequent difficultly spikes.

Story
You play the role of a newly elevated Grey Knight commander, leading his decimated ship and forces back to Titan when an Inquisitor intercepts you and “requests” the Grey Knights assistance with stopping a demonic plague (the bloom), from spreading beyond the current subsector that it has been detected in. This is the start of a much larger story, and involves many well-known characters from both the Grey Knights and Death Guard, and what you think could be a major battle turns out to only be the start of a much larger conflict between the two opposing factions.

I found the story good, choices you make affect gameplay and squad readiness significantly, it doesn’t go against any of the settings established lore and having to manage relationships between the main characters on the ship (who are often at ends with each other) while constantly fighting running battles, random events and reinforcing you current squads gives the feeling of always being 2 steps behind the enemy and severely under resourced. The 8 troop types you can pick all have abilities that align to the tabletop game, and give you fairly free reign in how to develop your squads. Losing experienced squad members can be devastating (at the time), but at least you don’t lose their equipment and the game does have mechanisms to get you up on your feet quickly if you invest in the right technologies. If you are fortunate enough to have the right resources on hand, you can exterminate planets, which is very much in line with what the grey knights and inquisition would do.

Gameplay
Gameplay is similar in most regards to X-COM titles, though differs enough that you can easily set your campaign behind if you play it like X-COM. There are a few instant game over conditions, which requires careful management and progression of resources and research. You can’t always avoid the events that cause additional damage to your ship, and need to keep a handy stock of servitors (resources used to upgrade rooms), and possibly planet destroying missiles if you don’t want to do the Morbus mission that seem to constantly appear. Failing a mission isn’t a game over, though the squad will be in recovery for an abnormally long time, and it can lead to the death of a marine, and is more likely to happen on a Morbus mission (where enemies are constantly reinforced) or during a bossfights where there are instant death pits and you have to choose between mobility and firepower.

The actual missions are where the largest departure from X-Com is felt. You have free reign to pick any 4 squad members before deploying, including their equipment and weapons. Gameplay has you generally performing 1 of a few mission types (these do get repetitive quickly, even if the terrain and layout constantly changes), which either involve killing 1 large well protected target, killing 3 wandering targets then surviving for a few rounds, or defending priority targets from multiple waves of enemies. Increasing levels of corruption increases the resistance found in stages, the available buffs enemies will have, and you are punished every few rounds by a debuff that hits your team or a spawn of additional enemies for you to fight, which is a kick in the pants as the games already difficult enough without handicapping you more.

The game doesn’t seem to know if you it wants you to play cautiously or hard and fast with your Grey Knights, punishing you every few turns, but also really wanting you to hug cover and avoid taking any damage all at (or at least only taking damage against armour that regenerates every turn). Enemy patrol usually consist of between 1 to 6 enemies, and they all activate together. You generally want to be stunning enemies to unlock a execute move (which then gives the entire squad another turn), or if killing the patrol isn’t an option using precision attacks to perform critical hits (which then allows you to remove an attack or inflict a debuff on the enemy). It’s another kick in the pants that enemies regenerate from these easily enough, undoing your planning. Overwatch takes you out of cover, making it practically useless (unless you are only left with enemies who will melee you), and the units you really want to overwatch with, can’t (Purifiers).

On the system map, you can control the routes to each planet to take on bloom missions. Each mission advises you of what your rewards will be (either in weapons, armour, new recruits, resources or requisition), as well as the mission type and it’s a fine balancing act between going for the mission that has the correct rewards vs what you can reach before the missions expire (the planets corruption increases). You can also purchase ship upgrades, research abilities (that either help in missions or help further the story), and upgrade and reequip your recruits and equipment. This is also where you will death with Death Guard fleet missions, random events, and receive your regular dressing down from your grand-master. Most of these events generally have a negative impact, which can start taking its toll on your campaign, but on a positive note it does fell like there are hundreds of these and they don’t seem to repeat (even if they are random).

Graphics
The game does a great job in animating the corruption of Nurgle across the stages, with increasing corruption warping each stage more. Enemies look great (though each enemy type is exactly the same), and battle damage is shown against the enemies. The execute (instant kill) moves are very cool, and the different bosses are varied, have vastly different attack patterns and offer a good challenge. Each Grey Knight is customisable, giving you a decent range of options to edit. Stage design is good (even if the missions are repeated frequently, and offer plenty of tactical choices). The animation of enemies and units busting through the environment is great, and the environment is mostly destructible (cover can become very rare in prolonged firefights).

Achievements
This is a nightmare to play on normal, you would have to be masochist to want to play this in the hardest settings. You require all the DLC, and need to play multiple playthroughs.

For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/

I don’t think I’ve played a game that feels so similar to X-Com, yet plays so differently. Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters looks like X-Com and dialup up to 11 with the breach sequences, but absolutely punishes you if you take a wrong approach to combat, and the errors compound quickly. Its base difficulty is fairly high, and with its unintuitive gameplay mechanisms and clunky UI can lead to frequent campaign restarts (or at least going back a few saves). Recommended for Warhammer 40K fans, or those who like tactical turn based combats who don’t mind frequent difficultly spikes. [B]Story[/B] You play the role of a newly elevated Grey Knight commander, leading his decimated ship and forces back to Titan when an Inquisitor intercepts you and “requests” the Grey Knights assistance with stopping a demonic plague (the bloom), from spreading beyond the current subsector that it has been detected in. This is the start of a much larger story, and involves many well-known characters from both the Grey Knights and Death Guard, and what you think could be a major battle turns out to only be the start of a much larger conflict between the two opposing factions. I found the story good, choices you make affect gameplay and squad readiness significantly, it doesn’t go against any of the settings established lore and having to manage relationships between the main characters on the ship (who are often at ends with each other) while constantly fighting running battles, random events and reinforcing you current squads gives the feeling of always being 2 steps behind the enemy and severely under resourced. The 8 troop types you can pick all have abilities that align to the tabletop game, and give you fairly free reign in how to develop your squads. Losing experienced squad members can be devastating (at the time), but at least you don’t lose their equipment and the game does have mechanisms to get you up on your feet quickly if you invest in the right technologies. If you are fortunate enough to have the right resources on hand, you can exterminate planets, which is very much in line with what the grey knights and inquisition would do. [B]Gameplay[/B] Gameplay is similar in most regards to X-COM titles, though differs enough that you can easily set your campaign behind if you play it like X-COM. There are a few instant game over conditions, which requires careful management and progression of resources and research. You can’t always avoid the events that cause additional damage to your ship, and need to keep a handy stock of servitors (resources used to upgrade rooms), and possibly planet destroying missiles if you don’t want to do the Morbus mission that seem to constantly appear. Failing a mission isn’t a game over, though the squad will be in recovery for an abnormally long time, and it can lead to the death of a marine, and is more likely to happen on a Morbus mission (where enemies are constantly reinforced) or during a bossfights where there are instant death pits and you have to choose between mobility and firepower. The actual missions are where the largest departure from X-Com is felt. You have free reign to pick any 4 squad members before deploying, including their equipment and weapons. Gameplay has you generally performing 1 of a few mission types (these do get repetitive quickly, even if the terrain and layout constantly changes), which either involve killing 1 large well protected target, killing 3 wandering targets then surviving for a few rounds, or defending priority targets from multiple waves of enemies. Increasing levels of corruption increases the resistance found in stages, the available buffs enemies will have, and you are punished every few rounds by a debuff that hits your team or a spawn of additional enemies for you to fight, which is a kick in the pants as the games already difficult enough without handicapping you more. The game doesn’t seem to know if you it wants you to play cautiously or hard and fast with your Grey Knights, punishing you every few turns, but also really wanting you to hug cover and avoid taking any damage all at (or at least only taking damage against armour that regenerates every turn). Enemy patrol usually consist of between 1 to 6 enemies, and they all activate together. You generally want to be stunning enemies to unlock a execute move (which then gives the entire squad another turn), or if killing the patrol isn’t an option using precision attacks to perform critical hits (which then allows you to remove an attack or inflict a debuff on the enemy). It’s another kick in the pants that enemies regenerate from these easily enough, undoing your planning. Overwatch takes you out of cover, making it practically useless (unless you are only left with enemies who will melee you), and the units you really want to overwatch with, can’t (Purifiers). On the system map, you can control the routes to each planet to take on bloom missions. Each mission advises you of what your rewards will be (either in weapons, armour, new recruits, resources or requisition), as well as the mission type and it’s a fine balancing act between going for the mission that has the correct rewards vs what you can reach before the missions expire (the planets corruption increases). You can also purchase ship upgrades, research abilities (that either help in missions or help further the story), and upgrade and reequip your recruits and equipment. This is also where you will death with Death Guard fleet missions, random events, and receive your regular dressing down from your grand-master. Most of these events generally have a negative impact, which can start taking its toll on your campaign, but on a positive note it does fell like there are hundreds of these and they don’t seem to repeat (even if they are random). [B]Graphics[/B] The game does a great job in animating the corruption of Nurgle across the stages, with increasing corruption warping each stage more. Enemies look great (though each enemy type is exactly the same), and battle damage is shown against the enemies. The execute (instant kill) moves are very cool, and the different bosses are varied, have vastly different attack patterns and offer a good challenge. Each Grey Knight is customisable, giving you a decent range of options to edit. Stage design is good (even if the missions are repeated frequently, and offer plenty of tactical choices). The animation of enemies and units busting through the environment is great, and the environment is mostly destructible (cover can become very rare in prolonged firefights). [B]Achievements[/B] This is a nightmare to play on normal, you would have to be masochist to want to play this in the hardest settings. You require all the DLC, and need to play multiple playthroughs. For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/