Recent reviews by 2 Straight Homies Doing the Gay

This game is a scam from some Russian developers. Literally all you need to know

This game kind of sucks

Writing this review hurts me as much as the time I had to send my own son on one of the black ships to feed the God-Emperor. I wanted the choice to be easy, that I would love this game and play it until my weak flesh fingers had to be replaced with bionics, but sometimes doing your duty to yourself and the Imperium isn't always the easiest choice to make. I will preface this by saying that this is all my own personal opinion. This is tempered and collated with: Personal gameplay opinions, lore opinions, and tabletop experience and personal ideas of what a "Games workshop" game should have / be.

Let's start with the positives:

1) Amazing setting, world building, and story

-MY hat goes off to you fattest of sharks. You really knocked it out of the park with this. Newer players have a great introduction of what the world of 40K is like. It is dark, gloomy, and the good guys look and feel just as merciless as the chaos spawned monstrosities you have to murder day in and day out. Many games just gloss over what it means to be in am Imperial hive but you guys truly grabbed it by the horns and snapped it's spine over your knee. You dragged the feel, sound, and atmospheric ambiance perfectly. My introduction into the universe was at 11 years old, 21 standard Terran years ago. I have 150 ish books from GW, 2 armies for tabletop, and God Emperor knows how many hours on how many GW games and you guys stand head and shoulders above all in terms of creating that 40K feel and bringing the world to life for lifelong nerds such as myself and the new bloods just about to start their indoctrination into the Imperial Cult or what Schola they were assigned to by the Administratum.

2) No Adeptes Astartes

-Finally more focus on the men and women that make up the Imperium! Great choice I hope we see more focus on how the Indomintus Crusade is affecting servants of the God Emperor. With Guilliman and the Primaris getting the lionshare of the attention these days, this brings joy to myself and others who remember fondly reading about Ciaphas Cain and the exploits of the more "normal" individuals within the Imperium. The rank and file / dregs all have their own rich histories and stories and this is a great place to carve out your own.

Now, for my gripes / heretical thoughts

1)Lack of customization.

-This one hurts. WH40K has always been and will always be a game that is deeply rooted in the pen and paper / dice rolling dens of my youth. The best 40K games always had this in one form or another and the most failed games always took this out. Without this key aspect I feel just takes the heart and soul out of the game. On tabletop you could dress the same squad of guardsmen 20 different ways, the same with any other race. The points you spent were as much of an expression of the player who owned the army as they were tactical choices. Why not give this guy a plasma rifle? or Flamer? or hell let me slap a mortar into this squad because I was an 11C back in the day and have a soft spot for my stove pipers. This game has none of that. You get a class, fixed auras and abilities that you cannot change, and some minor choices per 5 levels as to how you want to regain toughness / affect your pre-assigned ability with smaller perks. Wanna play a guardsmen that has decades of experience clearing out Catachan jungles with a flamer? Too bad you dont get access to any flamer-centric abilities. All the art and gameplay is centered around you slinging rounds and grenades out of a WWI trench and making each shot count as much as possible. Want to play as an Ryzan guardsman who has decades of experience on the premier plasma-weapon producing world in the entire Imperium? Sorry, you can EQUIP a plasma gun but that's really it, it does not truly fit well into what the game gives you. No skill points, no skill trees, and this will segway into my next point....

2) Armor as cosmetic only
The armor in this game is cosmetic only. It does not confer any sort of bonus to you what so ever. Going back to the Veteran Sharpshooter class as an example, if your character is clad head to toe in Carapace armor like a Maccabian Jannissary, it does not make you any harder or easier to kill than being dressed in your rags in the tutorial. If you encounter an enemy that is covered in head to toe in armor that was slapped together with crude welds then you can bet your next Aquila that they will be much much harder to take down than yourself. Want to play as an elite toy soldier storm trooper in the service of the Inquisition or Kasirkin elite? Only cosmetically, maybe. Other wise it's all just for show. All that extra armor you want to have for yourself is all just for show. The only benefit it gives you is giving you some opium to make you maybe feel like you have shrug off a round or two when apparently rotten linen does the same. No stats, no perks, no nothing, further degrading the ability to customize your operative and play the story you want to craft for yourself. The only stats you can give yourself are either assigned to a weapon, or to a holy icon of which you can only have 3, and have to spend massive resources into either enhancing them for RNG bonuses that you cannot control the outcome of. Why not have flak armor from Cadia that confers a set / theme bonus? Or Agripinaa? or Ryza? They have a ton of guns that come from these worlds in game but apparantly armor isn't made any more in the Imperium? No armor, no bionics, no skill trees, just no way to make your operative "yours". If the enemy hordes have a way to armor themselves with scrap metal to make them harder to kill, then your flak vest should at least DO something

3) Replayability
Playing a mission at level 5 feels the exact same as playing a mission on max level (minus the psyker, once you get the force staff you actually start to "play" the class). Hordes, task, hordes, task, boss, extract. With the cookie cutter skills and abilities you have no way of dealing with the hordes the way you want to, but rather have to just do the same things, over and over. The bosses and enemies just get harder to kill. 0 change, just another "enemies level up with you" kind of deal as you increase in difficulty. No loot drops, no armor piece to help you boost your stats in a particular field, Nothing. Honestly, if you want to stretch your playability out, make an operative of each class because it is so boring and tedious, and everything is the same. Clear out Terminus Chasm? Same tasks, same abilities, maybe a different team composition but it is all just the same.

There are more things I find wrong with the game but It would take too long to write all of it down. These are just the most obvious that you will finally realise once you are outside of your refund window. I will probably continue to play here and there with friends but honestly, This game is just a big let down for the potential game it could have been and the game that skill tree nerds and customization bois like myself wanted.

I divorced my wife and murdered everyone close to me so I can have more time to play this game