A Space Hulk is a massive conglomeration of lost ships and wrecks fused together. They drift in and out of the warp through space and during the millennia, the lost ships join together into one enormous body. Many times they are so huge that they have their own atmosphere and gravity. Since the hulks often exit and re-enter the warp seemingly at random, searching or travelling in them is dangerous in the extreme.
Space Hulk the board game was released in 1989 as part of the Warhammer 40K universe. This might not mean much to some, but to people with a little too much imagination like me, it was a large part of my ‘social’ calendar. For those of you who aren’t familiar, let me give you a little tour.
We are in the 41st millennium, the Emperium of Mankind has settled over a million planets throughout the universe all under the banner of a theocratic regime. Amongst the stars we have discovered other deadly races such as the Eldar, Orks and Tyranids. Mankind has hope though, in the form of the Space Marines.
Not to be confused with a bunch of Americans shouting hoo-rah in a vacuum, the Space Marines are the elite soldiers of the Imperium. Usually standing about 7 feet tall (sometimes more), clad in huge power armour and carrying weaponry that would make Chuck Norris blush; these guys are about the literal description of badass.
Space Hulk lets you sport the Space Marines’ finest attire, that of the Terminator armour. This is given only to the most highest honoured warriors, it’s far beyond their normal power suits, being able to absorb even missile blasts and allowing the wearer to carry weapons any normal marine would not be able to hold, even with their cybernetically enhanced strength.
From the description of the space hulks above, you can get an inkling about why the Imperium sends their finest veterans in wearing such an inordinate amount of destructive bling. It’s not just the colossal wrecks themselves that are dangerous, they are usually inhabited by hordes of beasties such as Genestealers, Orks, or maybe even Chaos Space Marines.
The story of the game picks up with the Blood Ravens about to board a mighty space hulk known as the ‘Sin of Damnation’. This follows from a defeat over six centuries past, where the Blood Ravens were nearly totally wiped out during an assault on another space hulk in the Secoris system. After the Sin of Damnation is spotted, the decimated chapter sends its First Company, lead by Captain Raphael. Made up of over eighty veteran space marines in Terminator armour, they set out to put right their shaming from their previous assault. This is where you take the reins.
The cramped corridors of a space hulk
After the games introduction (which covers what I’ve just told you) the campaign is set out before you with a very basic 3-stage tutorial, followed by 12 main missions to battle through. And battle you shall, I can tell you now, Space Hulk is not easy. Played on normal, it follows the same rules of the board game, if you want an easier ride, notching it down to easy removes the gun jamming mechanics.
The general rules of the game are fairly simple. As with other turn-based games, you use action points (AP) to move, fire, open doors or do a special Terminator dance (one of those might be made up). There is also command points (CP), the amount of these you get is rolled for and can be shared between your group to allow a few extra actions per turn, so you need to delegate them wisely.
Once all of your units have moved, the Genestealers will take their turn. Initially you will see blips; this means it can represent 1-3 Genestealers. The AI can choose to reveal how many at any time, but cannot move into your line of sight until having done so.
The layout of the board is made up of thin corridors, cramped rooms, nearly all passages can only fit one Terminator across, and this claustrophobic atmosphere is constant. It is further compounded as soon as the Genestealers march on your position.
Your play style will generally revolve around covering your flanks, setting troops to either overwatch or guard. The former will have them fire their primary weapon for every square an enemy tries to enter, the latter will make them hold their ground and wait to use their melee attack. However, this will also give that Terminator a chance to re-roll, so make sure never to leave someone out of either stance at the end of the turn if it appears that they may well be in combat on the enemy turn.
No means no.
As with other strategy-based Warhammer games, everything is done with dice rolls, so there is always the element of luck, but mostly you need to rely on good tactical play. Even a small mistake in Space Hulk can mean mission failed. Since you will need to be covering your flanks at all times, if one folds, it means other units can be blindsided and have no chance to defend themselves.
Given the huge amount of Genestealers that will be swarming your units, just one hole in the defence will allow 10-20 nasties hurtling towards you. Think about those scenes in Aliens, as Hicks, Hudson and Vasquez fight off hordes of the Xenos. Now imagine that in even tighter quarters floating through space in a ship the size of a planet; that’s Space Hulk.
The mission structures are kept uncomplicated, as the board layout doesn’t allow for much more than that. It can be as simple as moving between two points, escorting an item, reviving and defending fallen comrades. In all honesty, it’s basic, and therein lays the problem.
There really isn’t much to Space Hulk at all, the campaign may take you a couple of sittings to finish, depending on your familiarity with turn-based games, and the only other option is multiplayer. There is no fleshed out story, despite there being a good one from the source material. So don’t expect cut-scenes of any kind.
Also missing is any kind of upgrade system, now I realise that doesn’t come in to the board game, nevertheless, I feel like this could have been implemented to give some sort of attachment to your troops, or even just a feeling of progression. In fairness though, as I said, this is staying faithful to the board game, so I won’t bash them for it.
As previously mentioned, there is some multiplayer. This consists of ‘Hotseat’ and regular multiplayer. Hotseat allows you to play the game against a friend using the same terminal, an odd choice, but I suppose you have to rely on your friend (ex friend) looking away whilst it’s your turn.
The other side of the multiplayer allows you to go online to play against a human through any one of the unlocked campaign or tutorial missions. I have to say I was disappointed that there is no level editor, only being able to replay the campaign against your opponent I felt was restrictive.
Cleansing the Xenos by way of flames.
When a game falls short with content, you need it to be strong in quality, unfortunately Space Hulk is quite buggy and seems a little thrown together in places. The ranged attack animations are serviceable, but in close combat, it comes unstuck. There are only a couple of different sets for each weapon and they become tiresome quickly, that’s not to mention that you cannot skip any of this.
Each turn takes an absolute age, our timeline could conceivably catch up to the 41st millennium by the time you finish each round. If you do get to the end of the game, you will be able to hear nothing but the “clunk clunk clunk” of the Terminators steps. Even trying to do something as arbitrary as turn your units takes way too long.
At the present time, the game has more bugs than Starship Troopers; units walking through walls, sound bites failing are to name just a few. It weirdly doesn’t feel like a surprise though, once again this year; a game has been released far too quickly and has suffered for it.
I really do dislike giving bad reviews, but there isn’t much choice here. Given that the source material is great, it becomes even more painful to be let down by what is a second rate game.
Full Control don’t everything wrong, as I said, it does stay faithful to the board game, but possibly Space Hulk’s strongest point is the voice work. It comes off as a very faithful rendition of the cybernetically enhanced sounding humans that we expect to hear in 40K games. There is also the nice touch of having a first person cam on each Terminator selected, allowing you to see what they see in the top right of the screen. The only other compliment I can think to give the game is that the character models are fairly decent.
There isn’t a great deal else to say about Space Hulk, other than the 12 short missions you get and the poorly executed multiplayer, there literally isn’t anything else. It takes less time than a CoD game to complete and I seriously doubt it will make you want to return.
Congo lines are all the rage aboard space hulks.
We’ve had some extremely good Warhammer 40K games in the past, but this is most certainly not one of them. The general lack of polish in just about every aspect halts any enjoyment quicker than a Genestealer onslaught. Other than the most ardent of Space Hulk fans, I can’t honestly recommend this to anyone; even diehard fans may very well find this lacking in a huge way.
A few more months in development could have done this production the world of good; the 40K universe is rife with engaging story and great characters, this game delivers none of that. There is no connection to your troops, you certainly won’t care when they die and the only plot points are the mission descriptions.
If turn-based strategy is your thing, I would stick to XCOM: Enemy Unknown or maybe wait for the upcoming Wasteland 2. For the £22.99 price tag this game asks, I would be expecting an enormous amount more than what we are given.
So when you hear the words:”Sergeant of the guard, accept your orders”, don’t bother.
1 comment