Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior Updated Hands-On Impressions

At Sony's press event in San Francisco today, we took a brief look at the final version of Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior, a first-person shooter based on the popular sci-fi universe. The game is more or less complete now, so we got a good sense of how the final version will play when it ends up on store shelves. Overall, the game seemed to play quite solidly--as previously reported, the graphics are pretty detailed and the framerate was surprisingly good in this version. We played through a demo level that showcased some pretty intense trench warfare and also a bit of close-quarters indoor combat inside a technological stronghold.

Though Fire Warrior features eight-player online support, it unfortunately wasn't set up for network play when we got ahold of it, but we did try some one-on-one split-screen multiplayer. The deathmatch seemed like pretty standard deathmatch; it played well but didn't offer a lot in the way of changes or additions to standard multiplayer shooter mechanics. A developer on hand to talk about the game assured us that the real multiplayer action will be online and commented that the detail level in the split-screen mode has been reduced in the interest of maintaining a high frame rate but will be higher in the online mode.

Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior is currently scheduled for release for both the PlayStation 2 and the PC this October.