MENU
Space Hulk is finally here for the PC and Mac. This is long awaited title by fans of the original strategy boardgame, where players move Space Marines through a maze of dark corridors on various missions, with the presence of some bad ass aliens hunting you down.
The developers certainly have kept this true to the original boardgame thats for sure. All the rules are there which will keep the hard core fans happy. On minor detail lacking is of any actual dice shown rolling on screen but it does show the results in a mini panel in numeric form. Its all a bit quick on the dice results front though, would have been good to show the roll more visually.
However having said that, it doesnt deflect how well the developers have re-created the tense thrill of the game. With dark, narrow corridors, multiple ways you should be looking and planning for that ambush from the Genestealers, as well as the mission at hand to complete.
Another nice little touch is the mini cam, mounted on the marines helmet allowing you to see what the selected marine sees.
Graphics are ok, but not the best out there, however its not really a game about graphics, its about strategy.
The story line and missions give you a great sense of the tense thriller that the original board game used to provide too, though this is where it starts to go a bit down hill.
The missions often seem a bit repetitive, even if the actual mission differs vastly from the last, since its the same sort of format:
Move your marines down some corridor, plan which areas to block off to avoid death by Genestealer, move other units to mission location. Repeat... repeat again, start getting bored.
To help with this, the developers do seem to have tried to throw in new unit types as you move along the missions, thought its just not enough to give this much more life span than a hand full of missions provides.
There is then the multiplayer option which is where the real fun is to be had since this is how it used to be played with you and your friend taking turns to play the Genestealers.
The other problem is the controls are a little awkward, you can often click incorrectly resulting in placing you marine where you didn't mean too, wasting valuable moves.
The game play is also a bit a slow, marines move too slow, though it is representing the big bulky Terminator Marines but still for the player this is a little sluggish waiting for marines to move and turn.
The verdict:
True to original but with clunky controls and repetitive gameplay.
Comments: