PREVIEW – The team behind the Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing has decided to take a crack at the lovely franchise of Orks, metal, and Chaos in the 41st Millenium. This is Warhammer 40k Inquisitor: Martyr a game developed by Neocore Games. An action RPG that aims to be brutal not just in terms of lore, but also when it comes to the visuals.

Once again we are thrust into the epic battles of the future, this time however not just as a mere Space Marine, but as an Inquisitor. These hands of the Emperor of Mankind can determine planets to be exterminated, or even lead hunts against heretics and demons. Not much has been revealed of the story, but the developers are going for something unique this time around. The story and quests will be a mix of community driven events, and randomly generated content.

While this does not sound too good (Hello No Man’s Sky), it does have two modes, a single-player campaign, and an online galaxy map campaign (similar to Helldivers) where up to four people can enter the fray to save the galaxy from the Xenos hordes. It sounds interesting, but with all the metagame, and randomly generated content games these days lets hope the developers will be able to create something unique for the players.

Blood, gore, and entrails

Story was never the strong point of the Warhammer 40K universe except for a few odd ones such as the Horus Heresy, Gaunt’s storyline, and one or two other big shots that took a crack at it. The basic story for the lore is that in the future Mankind is in a constant battle to survive. Humanity’s forces are made up of mostly the Imperial Guard (normal men with guns  – with a bit of Russian WW2 mentality), Space Marines (godlike soldiers that can hold the line against a hundred orks), and their sub-factions such as the tech priests, and the Inquisitors.

Said Inquisitors are special agents of the Imperium of Man, and the reason Neocore Games choose them is simple. They are not lore breaking when it comes to loot in this game. If a normal Imperial Guard or Space Marine would dare dabble and use weapons of Chaos, or Necron, they would be tortured to hell and then sent to space to die. Meanwhile, the Inquisitor can wield any flaming skull sword from Chaos Warp.

This is a great way from the developers staying true to the lore, and also being brutal as possible. In fact not just in terms of lore, but brutality is also carried over. Enemies can be disabled temporarily, weapons can be shot off to limit the enemy’s attack patterns, and best of all there are finishing moves that excellent. There are no health potions, but rather syringes that regenerate health, and based on the footage the Bolter will disintegrate the scum of chaos in mere seconds.

The action seems to be a mix of real time, and turn-based, as the player has the option to select parts of an enemy ala Fallout series. As of today, the animation looks okay, sadly these are still placeholders, as the game is in a pre-alpha state.

Problematic Warps

The game does seem nice, but I am worried as Neocore Games had a rather fluctuating road with The Van Helsing series. The combat also feels a bit lifeless, and the graphics while good, are nothing stellar. It is pre-alpha, but in a way, it seems to be mediocre.  Currently only one class was revealed which is your standard issue Tank type.

We also hope that there will be more than just Heretic Humans, Orks, and Chaos against the player, more exotic races should be included too. There is no indication as to how many enemy types or level types will be available, but since randomly generated levels are in the mix, I’m a bit too worried on the concept being used to create samey levels, with a few variation.

However the idea of a four-player co-op against Orks, and even building your own fortress in the grim future seems neat. Hopefully, the game will be good. There’s really not much to go on other than the game being poised for a 2017 release date.

A promising game, with interesting ideas and mechanics. However I’m not too fond of the randomly generated content, hope it is not just a copout.

-Dante-

Publisher: Neocore Games

Developer: Neocore Games

Genre: Action RPG

Relase date: TBA 2017