Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters (XCOM meets 40k)

Soldato
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A Warhammer 40k game set in an XCOM style.
The game comes out tomorrow and is receiving some positive reviews.

Lead humanity’s greatest weapon, the Grey Knights, against the corrupting forces of Chaos in this brutal and fast-paced turn-based tactical RPG. Root out and put a stop to an insidious plot to infect the galaxy with the Bloom, an intergalactic cosmic plague capable of rotting worlds into oblivion.

Armoured in faith, shielded by devotion, the Grey Knights’ very existence is rooted in mystery, enforced with mind-wipes and executions. Experience life in the 41st millennium and follow the journey of these elite warriors in a narrative penned by acclaimed Black Library author, Aaron Dembski-Bowden.


 
Soldato
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40k games usually suck, so Im not gonna hold out much hope for this.
That said if it really is 40k meets XCom it could be a winner if done right.
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
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40k games usually suck, so Im not gonna hold out much hope for this.
That said if it really is 40k meets XCom it could be a winner if done right.

Afraid so. Its funny because the Lore is so good and nothing has captured the pure brutality apart from that amazing fan made video.

(But dawn of war was quite good)
 
Soldato
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Right, I bought it and have stuck 4hrs into it this evening.

It is, so far, excellent.

Tutorial is solid, not too long, and covers the essential mechanics.

Voice acting is really good, as are cut scenes. Story is good, but too early for me to pass judgement

Gameplay is great. This is the first turn based 40k game where I thought "this would be worth it even if it wasn't 40k". It's got everything good about xcom, none of the annoying RNG (reserved for crit chances etc), and adds a lot of dynamic gameplay. Cover is nearly all destructible, as are walls, which really keeps you moving. Smashing over pillars, shooting over bowls of burning oil, grenading a huddle of cultists sending them sprawling out of cover ... Delightful. Overwatch is only really useful for stopping low level melee mobs zerg rushing you, so no more tedious hopping from cover to cover overwatching the whole way. The bloom and warp surge mechanics add time pressure but without it being annoying. Like things get harder, but you can deal with it. Using warp abilities accelerates the warp surge meter so it also makes you choose when to put that extra oomph into an attack carefully.

Graphics are good. It's grim darkbin that cultists explode into chunks of torso, the setting and story etc, but the colour and vibrant style make it more engaging to play and also just practically easier to make things out when things get busy.

Progression and unlocks are meaningful, with new abilities, gear and weapons all changing visually, functionally and also adding new effects like dot bleed etc. I unlocked an ability that allows my knight to literally warp through any number of enemies within range and deal 4 damage (upgradeable) to all of them. I was surrounded by low level mobs and a couple big hitters and just zorbed through all of them, mowin down all he mobs and leaving just the biggies for my squad to finish off. Soooo satisfying to turn the tide like that. Baddies also have interesting mechanics that will screw you over in fun ways too.

Injured knights take forever to heal, but if they only lose a bit of health you can still use them in future missions while they heal up, just with a few hp less. Critically injured (eg they die in the mission) take longer to heal and only get a limited number of critical injuries before they properly die. You can get more critical injuries lined up though


All in all, very good game and I'm hooked.
 
Soldato
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According to previews the game seemed to be really good and up my alley as a fan of UFO/XCOM style games. I also have very fond memories of the original Chaosgate from the 90s and this seems to be a commendable approach to re-imagine it with enough new ideas inserted. Here are some of my brief impressions:
- Graphics are outdated, but not ugly (only the faces are hideous). Considering this the performance is disappointing, a RTX3080 won’t get you a locked 4k60.
- Readability of the maps and characters is not good, the art design itself is OK
- The UI looks very soft. It seems like it is designed for FHD and does not scale to 4k. It is also clearly designed for controllers and has quite a few unnecessary clicks required.
- Tactical combat and character skills seems closest to Gears Tactics. Does not bring anything significant new to the table.

However, because of some BS the publisher is pulling it gets a thumbs down & refund from me.
1. The Castellan Champion Edition upcharge comes at 33% of the price of the full game and gets you just one additional character (not class!) and 2, most likely, OP items. This is a very steep price for very little content. (I don’t care about the soundtrack)

2. On top of that additional (only cosmetic) content is gated behind streamer drops. Paying the extra money for the Champion Edition is not enough, you need to create accounts at the publisher and the streaming platform and waste apparently 11x 30-45mins with watching streams; aka you need to pay with your personal data and time for earing the privilege to access all available content. Just deplorable.

3. Denuvo. I personally think this is only a minor issue, but the money would have been better spend investing it in the game itself rather than in making it worse for your paying customers (multiple pirated games have proven that Denuvo can have a significant negative impact on game performance).

I am genuinely sorry for the developers, but I will not support these business tactics with a full-price deluxe edition purchase and will refund my pre-order after posting this. I can wait until it comes in a bundle or at a steep discount, happy holidays 2023 :).
@Devs: good luck finding a better publisher for your next game, there seems to be plenty of good talent in your team!

This reads pretty worrying in terms of content, paying, streaming though.
 
Soldato
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Put just under 7 hours in and having a blast on the whole. Does scratch that Xcom itch for me. largely agree with Devrij in pretty much every way.

Not too bothered by the overly expensive expansion and twitch drops. While overly priced not like you need that additional character, will just give small boost at start. Similarly on twitch drops think(?) its all cosmetics so once again not bothered.

Not too many issues with the UI, not perfect but not bad. Playing on large 4k TV from few meters with KB+M away and its fine. You will eventually just use number keys buttons and makes combat quick really. Graphics wise cranked up, sure can be overly taxing, but tone things down and its largely fine.
 
Soldato
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Fortunately looks like with feedback will be making the twitch items available in update sometime this month now too: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1611910/view/3197003477513118407
Great news, because no way was I gonna watch a bunch of twitch streams.

I'm currently making good progress in the game and have finally got the apothecary upgrade that gives 50% faster healing and man does that make a difference.

Also, having spent my early game relying on melee, the purgator class and the ranged weapons they carry are really bloody good when it gets harder. There is an ability that allows them to trigger a shot any time an enemy gets shot in their range which is just crazy good for big enemies which the psi cannon.

So now I clear out the mobs with a psychic assault and then send my terminators charging in to kick the **** out of everything.

Protip, you get your WP back by killing stuff so make sure you get your apothecaries geared up because you'll need that WP to heal.
 
Soldato
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Yeah gunning for the apothecary upgrade that gives 50% faster healing. Right now without that the heal times are absolutely mental, even with barracks filled (well one level) not enough soldiers at times without a penalty on next mission.

I am liking the initial class's thus far (gather more unlock later) Justicar with heavy Armor points in ageis and that staff which can grant more Armor points at times at end of turn makes them into amazing tanks. That along with the taunt ability then the Purgator class with there longer range from behind works well I find.
 
Soldato
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Yeah gunning for the apothecary upgrade that gives 50% faster healing. Right now without that the heal times are absolutely mental, even with barracks filled (well one level) not enough soldiers at times without a penalty on next mission.

I am liking the initial class's thus far (gather more unlock later) Justicar with heavy Armor points in ageis and that staff which can grant more Armor points at times at end of turn makes them into amazing tanks. That along with the taunt ability then the Purgator class with there longer range from behind works well I find.
Yeah I just got it and next stop is more barracks bays. Upgraded armour makes a big difference too
 
Associate
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Been playing this game a lot, some things I found useful:

The Librarian class is supurb with its squad teleport skill, just drop right in on top of the enemy with your squad all having 3 AP. You can take out 3 groups of mobs in one turn by chaining due to AP replenishment at the end of combat and when combat triggers.

Does not matter where you squad is as it pulls them all together too, massively OP and helped a lot with a certain boss fight where you had to take out numerous spawn points.

Incinerator is also really powerful, takes out bloom spreaders in one turn on normal and wipe enemy mobs if you can group them. Works well with teleport.

The servo skull that decoys the enemy and grabs their attention is also great, saved my ass on the morbus gate missions with the constant respawns. The fact it replenishes health and you can use it again the next turn allows
you to focus on one group at a time while keeping another group permently occupied.

Stratagems can also help in that really hard moment, the immobilise all enemies for one turn is very useful as is the group heal. Need to use more of them to see what rest are like.

I feel it’s the best Xcom style game since Xcom 2, the only downside is mission variety which can hopefully be improved by Dlc.
 
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