SPACE HULK
Workshop through your gaming issues
A dense and unfathomable mass is looming large over the entire universe, destroying anything in its path. It’s not Brexit: The Video Game, but the titular space hulk – a twisted hodgepodge of interstellar debris, wrecked ships, and the remains of planets caught in its path. Your mission is to Bruce Willis the *blorp* out of this careering junkberg – to destroy it from the inside out.
If you’ve played the previous games in the series, or the Warhammer 40K board game, then you’ll feel at home in this turn-based tactical space romp. The difference this time around is we can play as either the Space Marines or the Space Hulk’s residents, the Genestealers, who must protect their junk-home.
As our game begins it becomes clear the inclusion of a playable Genestealers campaign is more than a box-ticking exercise. As our rival begins placing his Space Marine units – a mixture of four different types – we can do the same. The twist is we have access to ‘blips’, which show up on the other player’s tactical map but don’t reveal what units are in the blip, or indeed if it’s empty. It means our armoured rival needs to counter our blip units with his own, possibly being duped into wasting his units on a needless cause. We see him using up Action Points to seal doors and lie in wait for a non-existent enemy.
DECKED OUT
He’s not helpless, however, as the board game-inspired Card system ensures there’s always a tactical play on offer. You choose your deck from 80 cards before a game. These are then shuffled into a random order. These cards can be picked and played ingame to enhance your units’ abilities, inflict damage, or affect your enemy.
Later in the game our hunter chooses to destroy his card. Its AP cost is added to his unit and offers an extra turn. He circles us, forcing our Alien-like creature to run headlong into his guarded position. A gloriously gun-heavy cutscene reveals our Genestealers’ grisly deaths at the business end of a Bolt gun. As we discover, the Card system can turn the tables, and the game, into a satisfying tactical shooter.
“A GUN-HEAVY CUTSCENE REVEALS OUR GENESTEALERS’ GRISLY DEATHS.”