Necromunda: Underhive Wars
Taking turns in a battle for old factories and boiler rooms
The vibrant box art for the Games Workshop tabletop game, Necromunda, will always stay with me; a lumpmuscled punk screaming and unloading his boltgun blindly into the air, the sheer metal pillars of the Underhive filling the background. It perfectly captures the Necromunda spirit in all its rustiness and verticality. Rogue Factor’s turn-based shooter is hoping to capture that spirit. It’s a simple enough premise: On a toxic planet ruined by human avarice, vast towers called Hives house massive populations. The elite reside at the top, and the lower you go, the more depraved things get until you reach the Underhive, where gangs of punks, ex-soldier types, and creepy pale men battle it out for decaying generator rooms and derelict factories. Underhive Wars takes place in one such Underhive.
I watch two of the devs square off, pitting a squad of hulking punks from House Goliath against the anarchists of House Escher (if this sounds like too many mohawks, more factions are inbound, and you’ll be able to create your own gangs). They set up their squads, customizing appearances and choosing loadouts using the four classes; the fairly self-explanatory Heavy and Brawler, the Deadeye (sniper), and the Saboteur, who lays traps and can turn the environment to your advantage.
Speaking of which, the environment is one of the things that sets Necromunda apart from its peers. The devs enter the fray on a map called Abandoned Railway, and the first thing you notice is how tall it is—four storeys, in this case. Underhive Wars is a strikingly vertical game, encouraging you to zipline between lofty walkways and outflank your opponent.
Another intriguing element is the decision to make the entire movement phase real-time, with both players running around simultaneously. This depletes Action Points, so you still need to be meticulous in your movement, but it allows you to force confrontations if you catch sight of a enemy player, zooming the action into a turn-based showdown.
Giving chase
It adds a new tactical dimension, as you can force a face-off while an enemy’s running to a medical point, for example, or stalk someone as they’re moving, then strike when you’re in attacking range. It’s a bold move, and will also make games more brisk than the prolonged affairs in Rogue Factor’s last game, Mordheim.
Players with unhappy memories of Mordheim’s shonky AI will be pleased to hear that it’s been redesigned here, which bodes well for an improved campaign. I’m yet to hear anything more about singleplayer, but I’m keen to know what kind of stories Rogue Factor comes up with for this grimiest of grimdark settings.
Underhivewars is a strikingly vertical game, encouraging you to zipline