Spacehulk Deathwing Enhanced Edition Review

Spacehulk Deathwing Enhanced Edition has finally hit consoles. It did release a couple of years ago on PC, but debuts on PlayStation 4 with a few extra enhancements.

Spacehulk is a first person shooter set in the infamous Warhammer 40,000 universe. It sees you play as a Space Marine which for me reminds me of my childhood and attempting to paint my first ever figure. You are part of a squad and as such, the game kind of expects you to be playing in an online team of sorts.

I personally prefer to play solo so that is what my review will be mainly based around. On booting up the game I was taken through an epic introductory scene and thrown into the tutorial and in all honesty, it was drawn out way too long. After the tutorial I was thrust into action in what felt like the most bad ass machine ever. I thought for a moment, I would be smashing my way through massive hordes of enemies like a tank. That moment was short lived. You see Spacehulk Deathwing, even with its added content still felt a tad too repetitive.

I didn’t feel like a god at any point throughout, despite the incredibly slow movement speed. The armour I was supposedly wearing didn’t hold up well and my teammates were the biggest pain in the ass yet. I felt like because I was playing solo, I had to do all the work with them barely getting a foot in edge ways.

I also felt that the systems in place to change a load out were unnecessary and took you out of the immersion. Based on an ancient ship, you and your team are tasked with exploring it and investigating what has happened. Most of the game will see you clearing out areas and completing objectives like turning on generators etc. I don’t want to spoil the story too much as while it is quite loosely there, it is pretty cool.

You and your seriously less competent squad have some moves. You in particular have your trusty rifle, which is definitely what I tried to use most as well as some energy attacks which are especially useful when you know you are the only one surrounded by enemies. Your squad is commanded by you, but don’t expect them to really listen to what you have to say as they really are useless most of the time. This leads to many premature deaths throughout when playing solo as the game can at times be brutally difficult. In a way that is to be expected, I just wish that I felt more like a Space Marine instead of a mere mortal human. Exploration is rewarded, but be prepared to backtrack through areas.

The controls work well in my opinion and you really feel that heavy armour that is so proudly placed upon your body. Unlocking cosmetics usually wouldn’t appeal to me, but in this game I felt awesome brandishing new flavours. It became almost an obsession to unlock more once I gave in to peer pressure and played with a couple of friends. Playing with friends is also where the game shines, it adds that depth that isn’t felt playing solo and your teammates then do what you ask them to do instead of just doing what they please. I personally think it would have benefited the game to be an online only co-op experience as that is where I had the most fun despite trudging through it initially on my own.

Visually the game looks really good and certainly captures the tone nicely, all the sounds have a prominent punch and overall the game gets a pass in the visual and audio department, nothing groundbreaking here at all. Sadly the darkness of the game probably does more to hinder the visuals than accentuate them.

Verdict

Overall, I am glad I got to play Spacehulk Deathwing Enhanced Edition. While the enhancements are not really worth mentioning, they did add more to the gameplay than was there in the base game which aided replayability. I enjoyed the overall tone too, but wished that more colour was present. I also hoped to feel like an epic warrior, alas, that was never fulfilled. What I did get was an enjoyable experience in a world I had dreamed of entering as a child and with those foundations laid, I hope the developer can release the next game with some much needed improvements.