NECROMUNDA: UNDERHIVE WARS
Not quite the bee’s knees
Moving at a glacial pace, and we’re not talking about a climate change Icelandic melt but a good oldfashioned slug-on-sandpaper drag, this turnbased tactics adventure is painful to play.
Based on the Games Workshop series, the world is a place you really want to experience, but it’s tough going. The Underhive is a grime-ridden, crimestrewn metropolis dominated by warring gangs trying to eke a living in the mess. Somewhere below are rumoured ancient treasures, loot, and more to uncover. 1 The setup is wasted on Necromunda: Underhive Wars, which consistently puts its flaws in your way to scupper any enjoyment. At the start of a round you select and move a character in real time before initiating an attack or defensive move, and viewing things in third-person places you in the world. Actions are governed by Move Points and Action Points so there’s solid tactical management beneath the veneer of an action game, but it’s incredibly slow.
Maps are mazey and vertical in design, but like the game in general there’s a steep learning curve to every encounter. Each mission offers primary and secondary objectives, plus challenges to complete, yet everything feels unwelcoming. Mission goals are too loosely described, and abilities are vague in how they’ll work in-game. 2 It ensures a trial and error grind that, with the slow pacing, is rarely enjoyable.
On paper the game has it all; in reality Necromunda is clunky, plagued by bugs, including hard crashes and desynced audio, and an old-fashioned approach to the genre.