15.9.2018

'Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr' is an action role playing game set in the universe established by Games Workshops various table top war games. The game places you as the protagonist in the boots of an Imperial Inquisitor.The Inquisition for the uninitiated is an order of zealous warriors that have fought a 10,000 year war against the enemies of the Imperium of Man - the heretic, the traitor, the mutant, the alien. They act autonomously, are extremely powerful, have access to the best equipment the Imperium has to offer, wield absolute authority, and dispense summary justice where ever they deem fit.At the beginning of the game you will create your Inquisitor character.This starts by choosing one of three broad character types - the Psyker, the Crusader, or the Assassin.The Psyker character is a former sanctioned psyker promoted to the ordos of the Inquisition. He is able to access the warp in order to manifest powerful offensive and defensive psychic abilities, and is armed with a variety of warp-based weaponry and armour, such as force staffs, swords, and rods which allow them to amplify their psychic powers and concentrate it into a single blow. If he uses the unpredictable power of the warp too frequently however, this can result in warp storms that damage friend and foe alike or even random daemons being summoned.The Crusader is a fierce holy warrior. A weapons specialist, the Crusader carries all manner of death-dealing firearms, close combat weapons, and is the only character that can equip the most heavy weaponry in the game. He also wears thick power armour that allows him to soak up damage that would annihilate any other target.The Assassin is a former member of the Imperial Death Cults. She wields rare and exotic equipment, as well as agility, stealth and subterfuge, and is equally adept at dispatching her targets from extreme range through a snipers scope, or up close and personal with a variety of bladed weapons or hand guns.Once you have chosen your character type, you must then choose your character class. For each character type these are essentially split into three options that can be best summarised as 'heavy', 'assault', or 'tactical', with the choice determining your starting weapons, armour, abilities, and the playing style that you will be likely to adopt when you start the game.In the case of the Crusader for example, this equates to a choice between a heavy but slow 'tank' type character with access to the heaviest weapons and armour, a swifter close combat specialist who wields weapons such as the power sword and suppression shield, or a duel-pistol wielding character who strikes the balance between the first two specialisations.Once finalised you can then name your character, however there are no further options with regards to character creation or visual appearance.Once your character is finalised you go into mission prep where you can choose your weapon loadout, armour type, and gear - which includes grenade types, bionic implants, and other options such as purity seals and refraction fields - from whatever equipment you have been able to scavenge or purchase.Weapons once equipped provide four different attack types which are mapped out to the right trigger and three of the four controller buttons.With the basic autogun for example these break down into a standard shot, a long ranged head shot (causing much higher damage), continuous fire (allowing you to fire on full automatic until your magazine runs dry), and retreating fire (where you will fire your weapon whilst slowly backing away from the target).You can also choose two weapon configurations which can be swapped between with a click of the R3 button. This allows you to quickly change mid-combat between, for example from a rapid firing rifle, to duel pistols, or to melee weapons depending on which options you prefer to preset. Alternatively it allows you to equip two different types of one weapon type (such as lasgun and shotgun) to alternate between.Whilst all ranged weapons come with some small variation of these fire options, they all pretty much break down into the same basic types of attack - slow powerful ones, fast light ones, long range ones, close range ones, or area effect attacks. Close combat weapons also provide attacks that break down into basic categories such as fast weak attack, slow powerful attack, area attack, and leaping/lunging attack.Weapons all have a suitably 'meaty' sound to them, and each sounds and acts distinctly enough to provide plenty of incentive to play around a little with your load-outs. The list of weapons is impressive and includes, las-weapons, auto-weapons, bolt-weapons, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, plasma weapons, chain swords, power swords/axes, great swords, eviscerators, force staffs/rods/swords, melta weapons, and a variety of greandes.Armour provides basic protection against injury, boosts resistances to special attacks such as flame or poison, and also determines which special ability your character can access - such as the ability to deploy a Tarantula sentry gun, unleash a devastating rocket attack, freeze time, produce duplicates of yourself, or provide you with an jet pack that allows you to propel yourself into close combat range. Each armour type has a distinctive enough appearance, and (in the case of the Crusaders power armour at least) your character will make a satisfying 'thumping' noise whilst running around in it.Finally gear - which includes implants and purity seals - provides a variety of other boosts to your characters stats. These can vary from increasing your amount of hit points, to increasing your critical attack chance, increasing resistancies, extending the range of weapons, improving character speed, and a number of other potential advantages.Once fully geared up it's mission time!The plot is an overarching story that puts you at the centre of a widening mystery that starts with an increase in warp anomalies and the appearance of a long lost Imperial battle fortress called the 'Martyr' that is broadcasting a strange distress signal. As an agent of the Inquisition it falls upon you to investigate. Along the way you will gather documents, listen to accounts, access computer systems, and gather other evidence to help unfold your case.Having read books from Games Workshops Black Library such as the 'Eisenhorn' and 'Ravenor' trilogies, I found it pleasing that whilst the game obviously favors rapid-fire action, it's story is essentially one about a detective-like character investigating and uncovering a spiderweb of conspiracy and corruption much like those novels were.Each mission is then broken up into several sub-sections that require you to complete a specified task, which usually falls into the category of 'go here', 'kill that', 'rescue them', 'collect this', or 'activate that'. It's simple and pretty much a trope of the genre, but remains interesting enough. One cool factor however is that you receive radio transmissions and mission updates through the controller rather than through your TV screen, which are authentically tinny and a nice touch.Enemies are plenty and varied and broken down into 'hordes' (individually weak but attack you in vast numbers, such as Nurglings), 'regulars' (the most common enemy and armed with standard weaponry, for example Chaos cultists), 'champions' (who are much stronger and better armed, such as a Chaos Space Marine), 'Elites' (incredibly powerful units, such as a Chaos Dreadnought or Leman Russ tank) and 'commanders' (such as a Warband leader, who can bestow bonuses to other units). Each unit will also have it's own specific weaponry and armour and will specialise in a certain type of attack meaning you often have to change your own tactics and weaponry mid-battle to counter them.The game also has a very simple cover system in place whereby a simple tap of the left shoulder button will order your character to place them self behind the nearest spot of cover, giving greater protection to fire from. All cover is destructible - some of it explosively so - if enough firepower is applied to it, and different types of cover provide different levels of protection. All of your enemies are likewise able to use cover, and there are also a variety of fixed weapon emplacements that can be occupied.Early in the game it is possible to charge right into groups of enemies, but later on and when facing bosses - and especially if you are playing the more vulnerable assassin and psyker characters - cover becomes essential to your success.Whilst most of the time you work alone, there are occasions in which you will fight alongside NPC's who can help you in battle and in some sections you even get some limited control over them, such as being able to order them to protect particular objectives. In the first mission for example you find yourself assisted by a squad of Imperial Guards that you rescue, and it's a feature that helps cement the fact that even though as an Inquisitor you usually operate alone under your own authority, you are also an agent of the Imperium and as such are part of a larger whole. It's an authentic addition.Post mission you can view any loot that you may have collected, view your character, change your equipment load-out, look at your game statistics which are named 'heroic acts' - the completing of which will provide you will skill points to increase your abilities - and use any points acquired in order to open up new powers and skills on the best part of a dozen specialist skill trees, each of which will improve a specific aspect of your characters performance, such as range ability, close combat ability, movement, and toughness.Once a mission is complete you will also be able to access the command bridge of your ship, which provides you access to a number of further options and allows you to manage you resources, craft items from components you have discovered, customise your psychic powers, and buy and sell equipment and weapons.It is also from the ship that you will move to other sub-sectors of the galaxy where new story missions can be located, take on grand investigations (the essential story of the game), special priority assignments (shorter side campaigns), and tarot missions (which allow you to use a special deck of divination cards to create stand alone custom missions with set objectives and awards).Successfully completing missions of any type increases your 'weekly glory', which expands your regional influence and presence and can be used to unlock special rewards.The game also has a 'morality' system, which dependent upon some of the key decisions you will be required to make throughout will direct you down a puritan or radical path.This is an especially apt addition to the game because the internal conflict within the Inquisition between those who favor traditional and pious solutions to dealing with the powers of Chaos, and those who prefer to use the enemies own weapons and tactics against him - no matter how abhorrent - is an important part of the literature and themes that inspired the game.In terms of complaints there are but a few:Firstly is the fact that the game cannot be played at all without downloading all of the network features, and with approximately 50GB of data in order to do this you are looking at a total download time of close to two hours which will be extremely frustrating for those who just want to pick up and play, and even once that is done you will still not be able to play the game until you have created an account and password with publisher Neocore.Graphically the game is effective if not spectacular, and voice acting is a little wooden to say the least. Neither tax the capabilities of the next gen platforms to any great extent, although cut scenes are excellent.The three types of Assassin character models look like a Callidus and Vindicare assassin, and a Sister of Battle respectively, where as one of the Crusader character models looks exactly like the Crusader henchman from the table top game. This wont bother you if you don't play the table top game, and all of the characters look good, it's just that half of them don't actually look like Inquisitors.The game play will be considered to be repetitive by many and essentially involves smashing, shooting, and blasting your way through hordes of often very similar enemies, although it is of a style that will likely be familiar to fans of the genre, so it is unlikely to bother them too much. Most people buying the game will be doing so for *exactly* this type of game play.The aforementioned lack of character customisation options beyond character type and specialisation also reduces the enjoyment a little. Honestly, I do not think for the price it would have been too much to ask that you be able to choose the gender of your character or a few other basics like hair colour/style, although later when you have added a Tech Priest to your crew you will be able to alter things like armour colour. Such things are after all the foundation of so many games of the genre.It also would have been nice - taking into consideration the topic of the game being the Inquisition - if you could have had a retinue of Inquisitional helpers, agents, and warriors to help you in your missions as this is a major part of the lore behind both the table-top games and the literature of the Inquisition. The ability to occasionally fight alongside other forces of the Imperium is however some small consolation and some missions do allow you to pay for bonuses to help you, which can include an armed retinue of Imperial Guards.Controls can be a little confusing at first because the game doesn't come with an instruction manual, and whilst the first level of the game does effectively act as a tutorial, hints do not appear on screen and you are forced to pause the game and enter a separate tutorial menu that offers advice on how to do everything from basic movement to special attacks. Even once you know this however some controls - in particular the use of special abilities - can still be tricky to pull off, and it is not unusual for you to try and deploy a Tarantula sentry gun but end up dropping a grenade on your own head!Aiming can also be a little frustrating. Your active target is indicated by a red haze around it, but whilst it stands to reason that this should always be whichever target is closest to you, this is often not the case and you will frequently find yourself blasting away at one enemy whilst another much closer one tries to hack you to death in close quarters - especially when you're faced with a larger groups of enemies. It is also quite common that you will hit the action button hoping to complete a particular action right next to you, and for some reason your character will start running o the other side of the room to do something completely unrelated and unwanted.Additionally the camera will often prevent you from visually seeing enemies that are within range even when you have it zoomed out to the maximum, requiring you to make frequent use of the mini-map when it comes to firing the first shot of any opening salvo. The mini-map itself can be moved so that it appears in the middle of the screen so that it is easier to see, but it lacks transparency and often ends up blocking the action meaning that the best way to use it is between confrontations to orientate yourself rather than when you are in the thick of the action.I have heard rumour of things like screen lag, but have not experienced them yet myself in the hours I have played, however after about ten hours of playing I did encounter a series of in-game bugs, including items not disappearing or appearing when they are purchased/sold, missions not ending once they have been completed, and cut scenes and the game having no sound and speech.All of these bugs occurred in the same game during a short period of time, and remained there despite reloading, turning the console off and on again, and trying new characters. In the end I had to start all over again with a new character and have so far - fingers crossed - not encountered them again since.Then finally there is the price. At a little under £50 for the basic game, whilst I really quite enjoyed it, it is difficult to see what about it justifies a higher price than the vast majority of games on the market that retail for £35-£40. Theres a hell of a lot of hours worth of game time here, but nothing so special or extravagant to justify such a high price.Overall though what you have here is a game that is built on a very strong foundation of Warhammer 40K lore, with a good story line, characters that are fun to play as, pretty strong role playing elements, and wall-to-wall action of the type that it's almost certain you picked the game up for. It will please both fans of the genre and of the 40k franchise.8/10

24.8.2018

'Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr' is an action role playing game set in the universe established by Games Workshops various table top war games. The game places you as the protagonist in the boots of an Imperial Inquisitor.The Inquisition for the uninitiated is an order of zealous warriors that have fought a 10,000 year war against the enemies of the Imperium of Man - the heretic, the traitor, the mutant, the alien. They act autonomously, are extremely powerful, have access to the best equipment the Imperium has to offer, wield absolute authority, and dispense summary justice where ever they deem fit.At the beginning of the game you will create your Inquisitor character.This starts by choosing one of three broad character types - the Psyker, the Crusader, or the Assassin.The Psyker character is a former sanctioned psyker promoted to the ordos of the Inquisition. He is able to access the warp in order to manifest powerful offensive and defensive psychic abilities, and is armed with a variety of warp-based weaponry and armour, such as force staffs, swords, and rods which allow them to amplify their psychic powers and concentrate it into a single blow. If he uses the unpredictable power of the warp too frequently however, this can result in warp storms that damage friend and foe alike or even random daemons being summoned.The Crusader is a fierce holy warrior. A weapons specialist, the Crusader carries all manner of death-dealing firearms, close combat weapons, and is the only character that can equip the most heavy weaponry in the game. He also wears thick power armour that allows him to soak up damage that would annihilate any other target.The Assassin is a former member of the Imperial Death Cults. She wields rare and exotic equipment, as well as agility, stealth and subterfuge, and is equally adept at dispatching her targets from extreme range through a snipers scope, or up close and personal with a variety of bladed weapons or hand guns.Once you have chosen your character type, you must then choose your character class. For each character type these are essentially split into three options that can be best summarised as 'heavy', 'assault', or 'tactical', with the choice determining your starting weapons, armour, abilities, and the playing style that you will be likely to adopt when you start the game.In the case of the Crusader for example, this equates to a choice between a heavy but slow 'tank' type character with access to the heaviest weapons and armour, a swifter close combat specialist who wields weapons such as the power sword and suppression shield, or a duel-pistol wielding character who strikes the balance between the first two specialisations.Once finalised you can then name your character, however there are no further options with regards to character creation or visual appearance.Once your character is finalised you go into mission prep where you can choose your weapon loadout, armour type, and gear - which includes grenade types, bionic implants, and other options such as purity seals and refraction fields - from whatever equipment you have been able to scavenge or purchase.Weapons once equipped provide four different attack types which are mapped out to the right trigger and three of the four controller buttons.With the basic autogun for example these break down into a standard shot, a long ranged head shot (causing much higher damage), continuous fire (allowing you to fire on full automatic until your magazine runs dry), and retreating fire (where you will fire your weapon whilst slowly backing away from the target).You can also choose two weapon configurations which can be swapped between with a click of the R3 button. This allows you to quickly change mid-combat between, for example from a rapid firing rifle, to duel pistols, or to melee weapons depending on which options you prefer to preset. Alternatively it allows you to equip two different types of one weapon type (such as lasgun and shotgun) to alternate between.Whilst all ranged weapons come with some small variation of these fire options, they all pretty much break down into the same basic types of attack - slow powerful ones, fast light ones, long range ones, close range ones, or area effect attacks. Close combat weapons also provide attacks that break down into basic categories such as fast weak attack, slow powerful attack, area attack, and leaping/lunging attack.Weapons all have a suitably 'meaty' sound to them, and each sounds and acts distinctly enough to provide plenty of incentive to play around a little with your load-outs. The list of weapons is impressive and includes, las-weapons, auto-weapons, bolt-weapons, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, plasma weapons, chain swords, power swords/axes, great swords, eviscerators, force staffs/rods/swords, melta weapons, and a variety of greandes.Armour provides basic protection against injury, boosts resistances to special attacks such as flame or poison, and also determines which special ability your character can access - such as the ability to deploy a Tarantula sentry gun, unleash a devastating rocket attack, freeze time, produce duplicates of yourself, or provide you with an jet pack that allows you to propel yourself into close combat range. Each armour type has a distinctive enough appearance, and (in the case of the Crusaders power armour at least) your character will make a satisfying 'thumping' noise whilst running around in it.Finally gear - which includes implants and purity seals - provides a variety of other boosts to your characters stats. These can vary from increasing your amount of hit points, to increasing your critical attack chance, increasing resistancies, extending the range of weapons, improving character speed, and a number of other potential advantages.Once fully geared up it's mission time!The plot is an overarching story that puts you at the centre of a widening mystery that starts with an increase in warp anomalies and the appearance of a long lost Imperial battle fortress called the 'Martyr' that is broadcasting a strange distress signal. As an agent of the Inquisition it falls upon you to investigate. Along the way you will gather documents, listen to accounts, access computer systems, and gather other evidence to help unfold your case.Having read books from Games Workshops Black Library such as the 'Eisenhorn' and 'Ravenor' trilogies, I found it pleasing that whilst the game obviously favors rapid-fire action, it's story is essentially one about a detective-like character investigating and uncovering a spiderweb of conspiracy and corruption much like those novels were.Each mission is then broken up into several sub-sections that require you to complete a specified task, which usually falls into the category of 'go here', 'kill that', 'rescue them', 'collect this', or 'activate that'. It's simple and pretty much a trope of the genre, but remains interesting enough. One cool factor however is that you receive radio transmissions and mission updates through the controller rather than through your TV screen, which are authentically tinny and a nice touch.Enemies are plenty and varied and broken down into 'hordes' (individually weak but attack you in vast numbers, such as Nurglings), 'regulars' (the most common enemy and armed with standard weaponry, for example Chaos cultists), 'champions' (who are much stronger and better armed, such as a Chaos Space Marine), 'Elites' (incredibly powerful units, such as a Chaos Dreadnought or Leman Russ tank) and 'commanders' (such as a Warband leader, who can bestow bonuses to other units). Each unit will also have it's own specific weaponry and armour and will specialise in a certain type of attack meaning you often have to change your own tactics and weaponry mid-battle to counter them.The game also has a very simple cover system in place whereby a simple tap of the left shoulder button will order your character to place them self behind the nearest spot of cover, giving greater protection to fire from. All cover is destructible - some of it explosively so - if enough firepower is applied to it, and different types of cover provide different levels of protection. All of your enemies are likewise able to use cover, and there are also a variety of fixed weapon emplacements that can be occupied.Early in the game it is possible to charge right into groups of enemies, but later on and when facing bosses - and especially if you are playing the more vulnerable assassin and psyker characters - cover becomes essential to your success.Whilst most of the time you work alone, there are occasions in which you will fight alongside NPC's who can help you in battle and in some sections you even get some limited control over them, such as being able to order them to protect particular objectives. In the first mission for example you find yourself assisted by a squad of Imperial Guards that you rescue, and it's a feature that helps cement the fact that even though as an Inquisitor you usually operate alone under your own authority, you are also an agent of the Imperium and as such are part of a larger whole. It's an authentic addition.Post mission you can view any loot that you may have collected, view your character, change your equipment load-out, look at your game statistics which are named 'heroic acts' - the completing of which will provide you will skill points to increase your abilities - and use any points acquired in order to open up new powers and skills on the best part of a dozen specialist skill trees, each of which will improve a specific aspect of your characters performance, such as range ability, close combat ability, movement, and toughness.Once a mission is complete you will also be able to access the command bridge of your ship, which provides you access to a number of further options and allows you to manage you resources, craft items from components you have discovered, customise your psychic powers, and buy and sell equipment and weapons.It is also from the ship that you will move to other sub-sectors of the galaxy where new story missions can be located, take on grand investigations (the essential story of the game), special priority assignments (shorter side campaigns), and tarot missions (which allow you to use a special deck of divination cards to create stand alone custom missions with set objectives and awards).Successfully completing missions of any type increases your 'weekly glory', which expands your regional influence and presence and can be used to unlock special rewards.The game also has a 'morality' system, which dependent upon some of the key decisions you will be required to make throughout will direct you down a puritan or radical path.This is an especially apt addition to the game because the internal conflict within the Inquisition between those who favor traditional and pious solutions to dealing with the powers of Chaos, and those who prefer to use the enemies own weapons and tactics against him - no matter how abhorrent - is an important part of the literature and themes that inspired the game.In terms of complaints there are but a few:Firstly is the fact that the game cannot be played at all without downloading all of the network features, and with approximately 50GB of data in order to do this you are looking at a total download time of close to two hours which will be extremely frustrating for those who just want to pick up and play, and even once that is done you will still not be able to play the game until you have created an account and password with publisher Neocore.Graphically the game is effective if not spectacular, and voice acting is a little wooden to say the least. Neither tax the capabilities of the next gen platforms to any great extent, although cut scenes are excellent.The three types of Assassin character models look like a Callidus and Vindicare assassin, and a Sister of Battle respectively, where as one of the Crusader character models looks exactly like the Crusader henchman from the table top game. This wont bother you if you don't play the table top game, and all of the characters look good, it's just that half of them don't actually look like Inquisitors.The game play will be considered to be repetitive by many and essentially involves smashing, shooting, and blasting your way through hordes of often very similar enemies, although it is of a style that will likely be familiar to fans of the genre, so it is unlikely to bother them too much. Most people buying the game will be doing so for *exactly* this type of game play.The aforementioned lack of character customisation options beyond character type and specialisation also reduces the enjoyment a little. Honestly, I do not think for the price it would have been too much to ask that you be able to choose the gender of your character or a few other basics like hair colour/style, although later when you have added a Tech Priest to your crew you will be able to alter things like armour colour. Such things are after all the foundation of so many games of the genre.It also would have been nice - taking into consideration the topic of the game being the Inquisition - if you could have had a retinue of Inquisitional helpers, agents, and warriors to help you in your missions as this is a major part of the lore behind both the table-top games and the literature of the Inquisition. The ability to occasionally fight alongside other forces of the Imperium is however some small consolation and some missions do allow you to pay for bonuses to help you, which can include an armed retinue of Imperial Guards.Controls can be a little confusing at first because the game doesn't come with an instruction manual, and whilst the first level of the game does effectively act as a tutorial, hints do not appear on screen and you are forced to pause the game and enter a separate tutorial menu that offers advice on how to do everything from basic movement to special attacks. Even once you know this however some controls - in particular the use of special abilities - can still be tricky to pull off, and it is not unusual for you to try and deploy a Tarantula sentry gun but end up dropping a grenade on your own head!Aiming can also be a little frustrating. Your active target is indicated by a red haze around it, but whilst it stands to reason that this should always be whichever target is closest to you, this is often not the case and you will frequently find yourself blasting away at one enemy whilst another much closer one tries to hack you to death in close quarters - especially when you're faced with a larger groups of enemies. It is also quite common that you will hit the action button hoping to complete a particular action right next to you, and for some reason your character will start running o the other side of the room to do something completely unrelated and unwanted.Additionally the camera will often prevent you from visually seeing enemies that are within range even when you have it zoomed out to the maximum, requiring you to make frequent use of the mini-map when it comes to firing the first shot of any opening salvo. The mini-map itself can be moved so that it appears in the middle of the screen so that it is easier to see, but it lacks transparency and often ends up blocking the action meaning that the best way to use it is between confrontations to orientate yourself rather than when you are in the thick of the action.I have heard rumour of things like screen lag, but have not experienced them yet myself in the hours I have played, however after about ten hours of playing I did encounter a series of in-game bugs, including items not disappearing or appearing when they are purchased/sold, missions not ending once they have been completed, and cut scenes and the game having no sound and speech.All of these bugs occurred in the same game during a short period of time, and remained there despite reloading, turning the console off and on again, and trying new characters. In the end I had to start all over again with a new character and have so far - fingers crossed - not encountered them again since.Then finally there is the price. At a little under £50 for the basic game, whilst I really quite enjoyed it, it is difficult to see what about it justifies a higher price than the vast majority of games on the market that retail for £35-£40. Theres a hell of a lot of hours worth of game time here, but nothing so special or extravagant to justify such a high price.Overall though what you have here is a game that is built on a very strong foundation of Warhammer 40K lore, with a good story line, characters that are fun to play as, pretty strong role playing elements, and wall-to-wall action of the type that it's almost certain you picked the game up for. It will please both fans of the genre and of the 40k franchise.8/10

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr - Reviews

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