Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Storm Ground
Brutal tactics again and again and… again
As they’re often laden with more titles than an English duchess, it’s not easy to know where you stand with Warhammer games. Put your Space Marines away; this isn’t based on 40K but on the high-fantasy Warhammer Age Of Sigmar (Games Workshop hates colons, apparently). Storm Ground is the first Sigmar game on console, and looks to the XCOM series for inspiration.
You’re not erecting massive monolithic buildings here, rather you command your small group of units to wreak havoc on hex-based battlefields. Each unit is highly customisable and has passives to consider, along with active abilities that you can tweak by giving the unit shiny new equipment.
Each match starts with you having few to no units readied up. It costs energy to summon your units to the battlefield, and while you gain energy each turn all spare energy is converted into Aethyr. The magical substance is a shared mana pool, which can be used for special attacks that can control the battlefield, move enemies around, deal massive damage, or offer some kind of buff. Because you’ve got to balance abilities and summoning, it creates great moments of tension when you need to choose between putting extra bodies on the field or unleashing a potentially game-changing strike. Every element feeds back into the others, and you have to make the choice whether to storm (onwards) or (put units onto the) ground. Clever stuff.
SPINNING PLATEMAIL
Each of the three factions has three campaigns, but it’s not as straightforward as it sounds (this is Warhammer after all), as they have roguelike qualities. Every campaign is made up of multiple battles, and at some point during those your entire squad is going to get wiped out so fast they’ll drop before your jaw can. That’s because Storm Ground is harder than the oversized armour of the very cult-like good guys.
Dying means starting the campaign again, but you keep the equipment and skills you’ve unlocked. It ensures you grow stronger despite your failures. This, coupled with the randomised campaigns, adds a lot of potential play time as no two runs are quite the same.
Unfortunately technical glitches and the lacklustre AI rumble away, and we experience annoying crashes and oddly slow menus during our games. The
AI, on the other hand, consistently makes incredibly odd decisions and doesn’t always present a challenge other than being overpowered. Other than that, the schlocky voice acting, nerdy lore dumps, multiplayer mode, and enjoyable but tough core gameplay offer lots to love, whether you’re already an Age Of Sigmar fan or just a strategyhead.