Space Hulk: Tactics (Classic)

[h1]Review[/h1] As someone who liked to original that you cannot buy anymore on the store I was really surprised that not only ascension but also tactics came out. The games had not so good reviews and it’s understandable why. [u]Gameplay[/u] Space Hulk: Tactics is a turn-based strategy game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe where you command squads of Space Marines against Genestealers inside dark, claustrophobic space hulks. The gameplay focuses on tactical positioning, careful movement, and managing action points. A great feature of this version is the inclusion of a speed slider, enabling you to speed up animations. One unique feature is the card system, which allows you to play special abilities that modify combat, movement, or defense. You can also convert cards into extra action points. This works for both genestealers and space marines. You can play either as space marines or genestealers. In the singleplayer campaign you can slowly upgrade and modify your squad, although this system is very basic, even more so in the genestealer campaign. There are no alternative endings and the like. The biggest drawback and punchline of the game is the chance-based gameplay. All actions are dice rolls. You can do the same strategy 10 times and will not always win. You can reload but it will not affect dice rolls as they are set in a specific frequence. This works as a surprise mechanic but might be disliked by some players. Multiplayer is possible too and it also offers a lot of community made levels, including a map editor where you can create your own missions. It even shows statistics on which team more likely wins in a level which enables you to see which faction has a higher difficulty on a map. Multiplayer itself is dead and you cannot make a hotseat game on a single computer. [u]Story[/u] The game offers two campaigns: one where you play as the Space Marines and another where you control the Genestealers. The Space Marine campaign follows the Blood Angels chapter investigating and solving missions inside the space hulk, while the Genestealer campaign lets you experience the conflict from the alien side in form of a prequel to the main story. The latter is very basic and not as interesting. The space marine campaigns story is also very basic, don’t expect any twists or revelations. The story itself is fairly straightforward and mostly serves as a backdrop for the missions. [u]Sound[/u] The sound design does a good job capturing the tension of exploring dark corridors filled with unseen threats. Mechanical footsteps of Terminator armor and the eerie ambient sounds of the hulk. Voice acting is solid but somewhat limited, in levels characters never talk aside set story dialogues. [u]Graphics[/u] Visually, Space Hulk: Tactics captures the dark and gothic aesthetic of Warhammer 40K. The environments are filled with industrial corridors, dim lighting, and heavy machinery, creating a convincing sense of being trapped inside a drifting space wreck. Additionally, there are three types of environments: ork, imperium and eldar ships which have all their own gameplay quirks. Character models for the Terminators and Genestealers are alright, though the environments can feel repetitive after several missions. Animations are just functional. Sometimes a video is seen that shows the current situation like an enemy evading an attack which shows the very basic graphics. Additionally space marines can play the game solely in first person. [u]Conclusion/TL;DR[/u] Space Hulk: Tactics is a faithful adaptation of the classic board game. Its slow, methodical gameplay and high difficulty will appeal to strategy fans and Warhammer enthusiasts, but the pacing and repetitive environments may turn off players looking for faster or more varied gameplay. Its a solid tactical strategy game for Warhammer fans, with a decent atmosphere, but slow pacing, luck based gameplay and repetitive missions can make it feel niche.

Ridiculously difficult. utterly unplayable and this has zero replay value. I detest this game as it takes the most difficult parts of space hulk and amplifies them into the worst example of games workshop products. Avoid like the plague.

it just crashed so much i legit could not play it

I really enjoyed ascension which put this on my radar. The character models are an improvement but that's about it. The RNG of combat immeditly ruins the game. Missions are also annoying and time turn limited. The vibe is off as well. ascension is very dark and gritty while this is just way too bright. I paid about $1 so whatever i guess. Oh also the devs could be bothered to make this run properly on startup so you will get an immediate CTD unless you search the forums for a solution.

Dont get the bad reviews, Its a 1:1 recreation of a classic warhammer board game as a video game!

I cannot recommend that anyone buy this game. I don't really see any redeeming factors in it. Whether you like turn based strategy games, or the original game, this holds nothing for either fan. The first major problem is the speed at which the enemy AI takes their turn. Playing as the Space Marines, thankfully it doesn't take too long for the Genestealers to take their turn. Unless they end up spawning dozens of creatures onto the board, in which case they will move them all around and waste a ton of time. Playing as the Genestealers was pure torture, as enemies would take 10-15 seconds to decide on opening a door, or whether to go on overwatch, after taking 10-15 seconds to move forward a space. Absolutely rediculous and, I think, probably very badly broken. As for the game, there is really no fun to be had in it. I will be commenting mainly on the Space Marine campaign, as I couldn't even get through the first mission of the Genestealers. The random nature of the game combined with with extremely low base probabilities for shooting, and even lower in melee, means that unless you utilize overwatch every turn, your units will die. I missed four shots in a row on a Genestealer once with my Sergeant, combining moving and shooting. Once up to it in melee combat I converted a card for extra action points and used a card to give him better odds in melee combat. Two swings. The first swing was a miss. The second swing? Also a miss, but on the second swing I failed my parry, and was killed. Absolutely detestable gameplay. The only way I made progress was to move my Terminators and have them all overwatch each turn, sometimes into the backs of other units. As, of course, overwatch will miss sometimes (though less than regular shooting), and then when your front man goes down, you at least get another overwatch shot (which you will miss) before the Genestealer rips into the next guy in melee. This slowed the game down to an utter crawl, which did not make for a fun game that is combined with TIMERS. Yes, I love my tactical, turn based strategy games to have level timers. 10 turns to get to the extraction, 12 to plant a bomb, 15 turns to kill all enemies, etc. Really, I have to say, this seems to be the opposite of fun. The sad thing is that I can see this being a lot of fun on the tabletop, rolling the dice, and seeing the outcome. There are no dice to roll here, and the only outcome seems to be a very lackluster product. The amount of customization you can do on your units is paltry. You can switch some guys from having power fists to chain fists, some guys from having an autocannon to a heavy flamer or plasma gun. You can get an Apothacary who can revive the guy in front of him once. How neat. In the end it is really just boring. There isn't really any spicing up of the gameplay with unique unit abilities or something, through customizing their weapons and armour. There are modules, but they are mainly things like always allowing a unit to open a door when they shoot it, rather than the regular percentile chance. It is terribly underwhelming. As you progress in the campaign you can find resources on the hulk that allow you to unlock new unit cards, either to convert for extra action points, or to buff your terminators. The only cards that actually matter are the ones that give you a 100% chance to hit in melee or at range. Everything else is just, give them an extra chance to hit, extend overwatch range by three tiles, if you survive a melee attack get an extra chance to kill the enemy in the parry, etc. It is all very boring. Just avoid this. It is a shame because the music and voice acting are pretty good, and the game still looks great and holds up in the visuals. But yeah, don't buy this. Super boring to play as the Terminators, and the Genestealers are literally unplayable.

Yes it is hard but it is a very good game. Space hulk is not for the average player, it does not forgive mistakes and you have to plan ahead your moves and positioning your terminators and it does reflect the vibe of warhammer.

Fighting with the terrible UI makes this game more frustrating than fun.

Very intriguing game. I like the idea and setting a lot. I never played the original board game before so I can see how the rule is not explained clearly in this game and the user interface is very confusing (but they can be sorted out by doing Google searches). Once you are familiar with the rules, the game becomes very enjoyable. RNG can sometimes be frustrating, but that's just part of the mechanism of this game; it's not like the numbers are rigged or something, you just need to take into account the possibility of failure. Some of the negative reviews based solely on that is not fair.