Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Warhammer 40000: Space Wolf
Developer: HeroCraft
Publisher: HeroCraft
Genre: tactical strategy RPG
Number of Players: Up to 2
Release Date: 23 January 2020
Price: $17.99
Also Available On: Android, iOS, PS4, Steam
I have heard about the Warhammer 4000 game series over the years but I have not played any of the games until now. I had no idea how the gameplay goes or what it is about. I had to go to Wikipedia to learn that the games are based off miniature board games from way back in the 80s. I will not dwell too much into the entire franchise in general, but will just focus on this game that got recently ported to the Nintendo Switch, Warhammer 40000: Space Wolf.
This game was originally released way back in 2014 on iOS. Yep, this is a 6-year old game trying to find a new home on Nintendo's hybrid console. I don't know how it looked way back on an iPhone but it doesn't look remarkably good on the console. Despite that, the gameplay is pretty solid: it's a tactical strategy RPG similar to X-COM mixed with deck-building mechanics. You control an elite space military team called the Space Wolves and battle against hostile enemies. You attack or move using the cards in your deck. Attacks can be guns-based or melee-based. You can choose which enemy to hit if they are located within the area of attack. If you intend to not attack you can either use movement-based cards to move around the map within a grid allowed or use the attack cards for movement if the former is not available. If you don't end up attacking at the end of a turn, you can choose which way to face in preparation for your next turn.
The order of turns for you team members and the enemies is visible at the side of the screen. You can check the grid on which they can move to or attack next, thus you can plan ahead, but not too much, since the enemies usually far outnumber your team members. On most maps, enemies would respawn until you meet the condition that would end the level, either by reaching an end goal on the map, kill a certain enemy, reach an NPC, etc.
The game's campaign mode is divided into 4 chapters, with multiple missions each. Completing a mission unlocks the next one and ranked in gold stars depending on the goals that you have accomplished such as mentioned above. Missions can be replayed if you're a completionist and you have to win all the gold skulls. The higher your rank is, the more prizes you win, such as new cards, coins, etc. Your squad members also level up, and there are skill trees for them where you can unlock new abilities and buffs to make them harder to kill. This game is surprisingly hard, even on early stages. You will be very much forced to revisit previous missions and grind a lot to level up your squad.
Since this was originally a free-to-play mobile game, it was originally designed for players to engage in microtransactions, such as buying new cards. All of those have been removed on this version, and players can forge new cards. Players can craft common ones which can be used rarer ones. There are even legendary cards, but that takes a lot of tries and you more likely to end up with multiple copies of cards. The game can get pretty hard even at easy difficulty, so you may tend to grind more to get better cards to be added to your decks, and the whole shebang is just a frustrating mess that I myself only tried it a couple of times since it is not very satisfying, to say the least.
Overall, this game is a decent one, though its age tends to show often. The controls are also not as smooth as one would expect, plus it doesn't have touchscreen controls, which is quite bizarre since it was originally released on mobile devices. Nonetheless, the gameplay is really good and can be quite challenging. It's worth investing your time in it, though there are much better games on the eShop to sink your teeth into, like the wonderful Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, which has a similar gameplay. If you are a fan of the series, maybe this is a game for you.
REPLAY VALUE: Medium
PROS
- Decent gameplay mechanics
- Excellent soundtrack
- The visuals look a bit aged but still quite detailed, especially on the Switch screen
- High customization options
- Has all of the DLCs with no microtransactions needed
- Quite challenging even at the easy difficulty, but as your squad level up and more cards get added to your decks, the more manageable and enjoyable it becomes
CONS
- Bland story
- No touchscreen controls
- Numerous and noticeable lags are encountered
- The rules are not fully explained; the game starts right away with the tutorial stage, which does show the basics such as movement or how to use cards, but the tinier details are not, which could be a challenge especially to those who are not very familiar with the genre
- The user interface is quite bad, like seemingly missing buttons to input choices, and it look really tiny on the Switch screen
- Missions could be excruciatingly slow, with some obnoxiously hard goals to achieve, like killing all enemies, with only your 3 squad members battling against 20+ enemies and there would be 10+ enemies present at one time and the others come in as you eliminated some
RATING: 3.5/5 cards and guns… IN SPACE
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