Space Hulk: Deathwing
SPACE MARINES AND ALIEN HORDES DON’T SEE EYE TO EYE.
AT ITS BEST, Space Hulk: Deathwing is a heart-pounding shooter that pits you against endless hordes of enemies, pushing you past any reasonable limit and forcing you to rely on teammates. But these high moments are linked by repetitive missions, a lack of progression and, frustratingly, bugs.
Deathwing is split into two modes: a campaign that sees you stomp around as a Librarian — a Space Marine with psychic powers; and an online multiplayer. Both use the same nine intertwining maps, which look great — half Alcatraz, half St Peter’s Basilica in space. Both modes follow the same formula, sending you to various waypoints for generic objectives — escort robots, fetch an item, find a fallen comrade — while purging periodic waves of enemies. These frantic gun fights are the stars of the show. There’s a good variety of weapons to master, including a pure melee option, and while enemies aren’t smart, their sheer numbers necessitate teamwork and make success feel brilliantly satisfying.
The tight corridors are punctuated by vast openings of bare stone and metal, gothic architecture and 41st-millennium technology blending to create something otherworldly. Battered monitors flicker beneath stone pillars as 30ft statues of ancient Space Marines loom, illuminated through stained-glass windows. You can’t help but stop and stare in awe.
The sense of atmosphere is helped by strong sound design. The Space Hulk creaks and moans, warning you to stay away. Longdormant machinery churns into life with an industrial boom, and your giant guns pack a satisfying punch.
Away from the setpieces, though, the game just doesn’t offer enough. You have to do a lot of backtracking through the same rooms and corridors. The game touts the campaign as its main feature, but playing alone is so much less fun. The joy of Space Hulk: Deathwing comes in the gritted teeth of fighting back-to-back with comrades. So it’s odd that the multiplayer actually has less content; some of the best guns are single-player only.
There’s no reason to stick around once you’ve seen all the levels. The single-player has permanent unlocks, with better guns and powers at your disposal, but you’ll be bored by the fourth or fifth level. Yes, the setting looks great, but it all plays largely the same, and only the most ardent Warhammer 40K fanatic will feel motivated by the generic story.
The multiplayer also suffers from repetition. You can either have all the weapons and powers from the start of each mission or you can level up as you go, but the unlocks reset after every map, so there’s no progression system to pull you back for one more game. There are also no checkpoints, so if you die near the end of a mission, you go back to the start. You can skip to the next level if you like, and pick levels out of order, but this is a game to dip in and out of with friends.
The sour cherry is the game’s performance. It takes little provocation to make it crash. Objectives fail to trigger, leaving you wandering the ship’s corridors aimlessly, and on multiple occasions, one of our party’s attacks stops working altogether, turning them into a rather large, metallic, sitting duck.
We’d be on the fence about Deathwing if it weren’t for these problems, but until they’re resolved, it’s impossible to recommend without all those huge caveats. We love playing it in patches, and we’ll likely jump in for the occasional hour of battle. But beyond that, it’s not worth the frustration. The Emperor of Mankind will not be pleased. [ SAMUEL HORTI ]