Brutal, turn-based, Warhammer: 40,000 Horus Heresy combat at your fingertips!
Before I discuss The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth, I want to preface this with the fact that I am not a hard core computer gamer. I dabble in them, as if I have time to spare. Usually, I am entrenched behind my painting desk, hammering out some miniatures. I have mostly played Real Time Strategy games like Command and Conquer, The Warcraft and Starcraft series’, and the Dawn of War series, all of which I have loved and keep around in case I really want to slay some pixelated enemies.
I am a Games Workshop Fanboy. I’ve played every iteration of Warhammer 40k, and have read all 49 Horus Heresy Black Library novels, and LOVE the setting. I have played every 40k based video game that has been released, including just finding my CD install disk for “Chaos Gate”, a turn based game released way back in 1998. The now 30 year old story of how humanity’s greatest warriors turned against each other and brought a full galaxy to the brink of utter annihilation is being shared with such detail that the lowliest Astra Militarum grunt would enjoy the stories of the Imperiums victory over those dastardly traitors.
Story
Okay, Horus Heresy, Betrayal at Calth is a turn based strategy game faithfully portraying the boxed game that Games Workshop released in 2015. In the game, the player takes the role of the Ultramarines, fighting among the ruins of Calth, a world invaded by their once battle brothers, the Word Bearers. The game captures the feel of the boardgame pretty closely. As the player moves through the map, they may find more reinforcements or enemies around the corner. The graphics, even for a game in beta, is clean, displaying Calth and the Space Marines fighting on it, in painstaking detail. The surrounding terrain is rendered in that “grimdark” feel that all 40k fans will recognize and love. Model movement is crisp, and representative of what one would think the models (representing 8 foot tall, genetically altered super-humans, wearing 600 pound ceramic adamantine or ceramite armor) should move like, however the dying model animation seems to still need work. I left a trail of floating Word Bearer corpses in my wake on a couple of my playthroughs. Character vocalizations are what 40k players have come to love about the video games set in the Warhammer universe, and this game does not disappoint. However, unlike the Dawn of War games, the vocalizations are not over done, and with limited models, the player is not pelted with a ton of “For the Emperor’s” or “Blood for the Blood Gods!”.
Gameplay
The game sports simple tutorials to get the player used to the keyboard and mouse commands, and they are pretty clear and concise. The controls, on the other hand, can take a bit of time getting used to. The mouse is used to select models in the game, and select the hexes that they can take action in, while the scroll wheel controls height of the camera. For me, the action on the scroll wheel seemed reversed from what is in other RTS games, like Dawn of War, where the camera can zoom out. Scroll back to zoom in, and scroll forward to zoom out. The standard “AWSD” key configuration controls the forward, backward, and side to side movement of the camera. Number keys control actions, and the action bar is “smart”, identifying what action a model can take.
Game play is straight forward, even having the player start off controlling some Word Bearors. Moving through the objectives, “Ah! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”, the Word Bearors foil their own ruse and attack the Ultramarine forces. The player must use the cover allocated on the board to prevent their forces from being depleted before accomplishing the missions objectives. Unlike Real Time Strategy games, the player must be ready to look around and prepare for engagement instead of reacting to it, as there are not any reactions to being shot, other than watching the scant few Ultramarines that start the game fall down and die for the Emperor.
The game does annouce, rather blaringly, who’s turn it is, and identifies what models can take actions in a turn. However, it is one group takes actions, and then the enemy goes, so the player must choose wisely. In one of my first jaunts into the game, I mistakenly put the TechPriest, Sarc, out front, and he was shot dead by a Word Bearor with a missile launcher….“Game Over, man, game over!”, would you like to try again? I will say that in the first few missions, that the enemy models are well spread out, and instead of ganging up on the player, only contain a single model, where the Ultramarine player may control groups of 2 and 3 models at a time. The missions and models available grow in count and variety (including models with different weapons) are unlocked as the player progresses.
Tech
The Horus Heresy system minimum requirements are as follows:
OS: Windows 8
Processor: Intel i5-4590 or greater / AMD FX 8350 or greater
Memory: 9 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / AMD R9 390
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 30 GB available space
RECOMMENDED
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 / AMD R9 390X
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 40 GB available space
I played on my standard gaming laptop that was a bit below minimum spec for RAM (I have 8, minimum is 9), and my processor was a bit low for the game, but the gameplay was still smooth. Lower end machines will struggle with this, but a quick change in the graphics settings will improve gameplay, without losing a lot of detail on the battlefield and models.
Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed the Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth. I think, with a little polishing, that we will see a real nice turn based game that represents what it is like to play the board game, and other squad level skirmish table top games. This game really does present a battlefield in small scale, making the player think about actions, placement, and management of a finite resource (the troops). Overall, well designed, and fun to play.
And with that, “I return to the eye!”
Horus Heresy gameplay and images courtesy of Steel Wool Studios
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