Space Hulk: Deathwing Beta is a dark, fast paced shooter, I spent some time with the beta and these were my thoughts.
Back in the “noughties” where every FPS game had so many enemies on screen it was difficult to have enough ammo to kill ’em all, you know the games I mean; classics such as the Serious Sam series, or the Battlefield 1942 game, and even Unreal Tournament 2003 & 2004. (especially the Invasion mode)
Sadly I missed those years of hectic shooting, but as soon as I saw Deathwing on Steam I had to do it, I had to grab it. Whilst I eagerly awaited to see if it was anything like those intense, adrenaline pumping days and if those days were being brought back…I realised…yes, they are.
The one map that is playable in the beta (not counting the tutorial however) is very… how can I put it; set in an enclosed spaced sci-fi factory setting. In fact, the one game Deathwing reminds me of is, Aliens: Colonial Marines and that’s mainly due to the setting of the game, being cold, dark, and with plenty of corridors.
When two other players and myself disturbed a nest of Genestealer’s (the name of the baddies in the game and the reason why your Space Hulk should be equipped with a windscreen wiper to get rid of all the blood) that’s when I knew Deathwing was going to be a winner. I wouldn’t say there were loads of the blighters though, but there were certainly moments where I’d scream out, “HOT DAMN THERE’S LOADS OF EM!.” (yeah I’m watching my language even though Deathwing is an adult game with tons of gore, and is classed with a 16+ age rating on ESRB which in fairness, quite surprised me as I thought it’d be at least an 18+ with the amount of gore).
Due to Deathwing only being a beta (lasting only five days) it left certain gamer’s with bad frame rates (though strangely not me, even with my 750ti GPU at the helm) and the rather absurd loading times which could easily take the game up to 7+ minutes just to load the co-op map. One thing I can easily say though, is apart from the loading difficulties, I had ZERO problems whilst in-game! Even when there was well over twenty enemies on screen at a go, my computer was still chugging away just as my minigun was also doing.
Speaking of which I could’t find the screenshots I took for the 3 tech tree’s, which was a shame as I don’t have the exact number of ranged weapons in the game, but the ones I definitely know are the;
- Assault cannon
- Storm bolter
- Heavy Flamer
- Plasma Cannon
- Redemption (Shotgun to you and I)
Melee weapons I’m sure are the;
- Shield
- Mace
- Axe
- Hammer
- Sword
All of these have different stats, such as the spread of bullets (ranged) to how fast you swing a melee weapon. All of the ranged weapons have unlimited ammo, but you still have to reload. The melee weapon is located on the Q button, which feels like where all secondary attacks belong, it’s natural. All of the key bindings were easily manageable but I believe it could be all changed in the options to suit your preference.
Deathwing does very little for the FPS genre, as the most that you have to do is get from A to B, and then when you get to your location you’re usually hounded like anything by the monsters, or Genestealers as they are better known to players in the 40k universe. Saying that, the main saving grace of the game is the need for teamwork, not because the mobs are bullet sponges, but because of the sheer amount of the blighters, they don’t just come from a single direction. If you’re not careful you get surrounded fast.
While the game lets you play with friendly fire on, it ain’t a great idea unless you’re using a voice communication program like a TeamSpeak channel or the very rapidly growing Discord with friends that you can trust.
Graphically Deathwing looks very impressive using the latest Unreal engine (UE4) and it certainly shows with how dark, moody and industrialised, the whole co-op map looked. It was very jaw dropping, even on the lowest graphical setting.
I have a few worries about Deathwing such as being about 20 hours of campaign time stated, then what? will we have to fork out more money for DLC map/packs after we just bought the game or will we be able to make our own and share via Steamworks?
I’m really hoping that this could be the surprise hit of the year
While this First Impressions looked at the beta, we have got a review and some videos on the way. Stay tuned!
Comments are closed.