A very good turn based strategy game set in the WH40K universe, probably the best pure TBS on PSP!
The game is set in the rather bleek and incredibly violent warhammer 40k universe and in this case, the action takes place on the planet Rhur III and sees the player fighting against the chaos space marine forces of the Word Bearers Legion.
Graphically the game is pretty impressive, certainly one of the best looking PSP games ive seen and some pretty nice graphical touches and effects from weapons fire and explosions.
Levels themselves are quite detailed with destructible envrionments and theres vary throughout the campaign and I thought the tactical map in game looked very stylish.
Furthermore when the storyline is furthered along theres some very good looking cut scenes , I really think the developers nailed the look and feel of Warhammer 40k.
Sound wise the game is ok, not much in line of music any there is tends to be trite over dramatic orchestra music (except the almost ambient track that plays during the time one is looking at the tactical map)sound effects aswell are not anything particulary special guns sound like one expects etc the voices on units (which you hear when orders are given , unit succeeds in killing someone or the unit dies) are good, i would say the space marines sound about as good as they do in Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (strategy gmae on PC- and the chaos units when they die sound a hell of alot better than the chaos cultists in Dow!) I especially like the space marine shouting 'mankind shall rule the stars!' seems quite fitting for a space marine to say in triumph.
The essence of the gameplay is on a slower paced , careful planning and implementation of ones strategy and tactics.
Even before a mission theres a element of strategy in the form of outfitting ones squad, you can chose form afew weapons depending on the mission constraints (secondary weapon) and also the amount of ammo each troop is equipped with, which effects movement points.
You control a squad of imperial space marines and at times these will be, lightly armed/armoured scouts , the heavy armoured imperial space marines , the even more heavily armoured Terminators and even Grey Knights (which are like Terminators in their look). And let me not forget to mention there are indeed quite a few vehicles in the game - dreadnoughts, land raiders, land speeder and whirlwinds (and even a few Chaos vehicles to especially liking the last level ones)
You can move your troops around, but each is restricted to the amount of action points they have, also you need to save some action points for other actions, like kneeling, overwatch or actually firing, AND you can invest more action points into each time you chose to fire a weapon , this can be beneficial as it increases accuracy, but at the same time limits how many actions you can do.
Theres a little bit of melee in the game, space marines can choose to use a chainblade weapon, - not to be scoffed at as its a one hit kill against alot of enemies and uses only a few action points, dreadnoughts have a melee weapon (giant powerfist) aswell as terminators, and grey knights have melee weapons too.
As i mentioned theres overwatch, if you save some action points you have the troop looking out at an area where an enemy might run through, if the enemy comes in range the troop will use up all their remaining action points from a turn to fire their weapon on the enemy.
Nearly forgot to mention, theres fog of war in the game to, so some units will remain hidden until your closer to them or they emerge during their turn into the view of your units.
After ones turn is complete, the enemy then takes their turn as is standard affair of turn based strategy games.
Each level has fully destructible environments as mentioned earlier, but unlike some games they actually do influence strategy, a few missions i only managed to get through by actually hiding my remaining squad members behind as much cover as I could, also you can choose to destroy cover with heavy weapons to get at the cowering enemies behind.
The levels themselves can be quite big packed full of enemies, some levels you might find taking maybe 20 minutes to complete and I beleive theres a few missions a player will want to play again so I feel theres some replay value to be had after the fairly lengthy singleplayer campaign is completed but there isnt say, a random mission generator or any scenarios (outside the campaigns 15 missions) to try out so longevity of the game is effected.
I should note theres some multiplayer support but alas I havent tried it.
For the most part this can be very fun, especially if ones a fan of turn based games, however some missions are ridiculously difficult - most are challenging and fun to overcome but some will just piss you off.
Now i mentioned longevity of the game, only 15 missions (though some are quite big) no scenarios to choose from other than replaying the campaign missions, but another fault or rather limitation that hurts the game is...only two factions present in the game, the space marines and chaos and only the space marines can be controlled in the singleplayer!
And i think there is a slight bug in the game, a few times during the campaign I noticed that when i ended and turn and was watching the action unfold on the tactical map, i would occasionally hear a chain blade sound from a chaos marine and one of my marines would drop dead, the problem you ask? well i would notice the chaos marine wasnt actually near my own (now dead) solder...
Another nuisance I thought was that the bolters in the game were incredibly weak, i did say earlier the developers got the feel and look of WH40K down, but like most developers they treat the bolters like bog standard machine guns.
The actual viewpoint is pretty decent, i like isometric , the problem? the camera can be switched around like it can in say, disgaea or final fantasy tactics (strategy roleplaying games 'SRPG'), instead it kinda pans it ever so slightly and not very far making it very limiting and irritating, but one can overcome this nuisance.
As for the control scheme, i felt it was easy to get to grips with quite intuitive even, but the reviewers are right there is no customisation of the controls so your screwed if you cant get use to the controls.
Anyway, I feel this is a very good game for the PSP, it looks good, its warhammer 40k, the storyline is minimal really but is a good excuse to further the action, sounds are adequate not fantastic except i did like the voices, gameplay is very fun and its quite a difficult game but like men of valor (FPS on pc/xbox) its a fun challenge, quite a lengthy game but not enough replay value.
Pros:
WH40K setting quite faithful.
.A very good looking PSP game.
.Varied levels
.Destructible environments which effect gameplay
.Unit sounds are spot on.
.Some variety to missions
.The turn based strategy is extremely good
.Features alot of different troop types/vehicles
.while the game awards careful planning I still found it to go at a enjoyable pace compared to the likes of say 'Field Commander'
.Quite a lengthy singleplayer campaign
.probably the best turn based strategy game out at the moment on PSP (not including Strategy Roleplaying games like FFT and Disgaea though)
.can save during missions
Cons:
While it features alot troop types/vehicles it only has 2 different factions only one of which is controlled in singleplayer.
.Longevity suffers from only replay of 15 missions, no scenarios or random mission generation.
.Difficulty can go from just right, to challenging to insane (i found the last level to be easier than some mid campaign ones!)
.I swear theres a bug or two in there still.
.minimal story
.rather uninspiring soundtrack