Space Hulk Ascension releases on Steam today

[JasonPratt]

Did I buy it on release? Am I a sad 40K whoreslutman at this time? Yes. Yes I am.  :-* 

(I'm not getting paid, so I figured that was technically more accurate.)

Now for the download at peak time, bleh. 3.6 Gigs on a day several major (and important minor games) release, 6:30 Central Standard.

I probably won't be able to play until tomorrow... ;)


Btw, I thought I had been luckily clever not to use my November Gamersgate coupon yet, so as to apply it to this game along with any release-day discount -- but GG doesn't have it up yet (as of 6:26 pm CST).

And I bought it anyway. Because see the first line.

[JasonPratt]

Got back to the room tonight, it had finished downloading of course. Fired it up before bedtime for some pre-play impressions.

The Blood Angels vs Sin of Damnation story animation from the first game has been replaced with no intro movie, which is okay. The menu screen shows a Space Hulk looming largely behind a planet (?? I didn't think they got that big???) while a Battle Barge warps into the area (with classic warpy colors by the way), maneuvers into position, and shoots off three landing craft to impact the Hulk. I was impressed by the effort at detail and atmosphere in this understated 'opening cinematic' replacement.

I can't remember if I ever heard that they were changing the game system for the new sequel-reboot. It isn't just adding RPG features (rather like X-Com or more appropriately that Templar game which was originally intended as a remake of the 90s computer SH) and more enemy and combat options. The game is no longer a straight port of the boardgame rules. So the previous SH game from a year or two ago hasn't been simply replaced: if you want the board game without the ability to set up your own missions (but with more graphical bling) you can still play that. Just not in this game. Much as the 90s version translated the gameplay rules surprisingly faithfully to a Doom-esque squad-based FPS, this will be attempting to translate the gameplay rules to an XCOMish experience. I don't think anyone will pooh that design variation choice in theory -- on the contrary, the devs redesigned it based on fan input.

Whether they've succeeded in practice remains to be seen.

[JasonPratt]

That was the first sight of the tutorial, pre-deployment. No, you can't zoom in yet. I expect that's on purpose, to emphasize the black unknown.

(It looks even better in gameplay, because of the whirling fan. The opening imagery so far has taken more cues from Alien than we've seen before in this property.)

[JasonPratt]

Clicking the "deployment" button zooms to the actual play mode, which can be further zoomed in or out. This is a few mousewheel clicks out from max zoom. I've opened the stats screen for the selected Terminator (there can be only one... I feel like I just started the design for one of those geek-rage baiting posters ;) ) to show what that looks like including a tooltip for one of the stats. Skittering genestealer random background noises are rather more 'realistically' muffled.

[JasonPratt]

Ultramarine Rufus deployed. Don't know why he doesn't have a standard helmet; he isn't otherwise equipped like a captain or chaplain or whatever.  I've rotated the main camera view to show Rufus from the front.

The shoulder camera is back, and can be increased in size relative to the rest of the screen, as I've done here. (Or turned off with a little camera icon remaining for turning it on again.) It can also go to pseudo-infrared which looks more pseudo- because the heat signature doesn't seem to mesh up with the genestealer well (though his little skull will show a heat bloom as it weaves and bobs around. Otherwise it looks like he's hiding behind a heated stool. Maybe it's a fancy bidan? I'm not showing the IR view here.)




Holy balls of Terror this game is dark now! -- which I don't mind, but the Astartes seems a notch over-glowy, maybe to compensate.

Zooming all the way out will show a faint green ring to indicate his bolter range; and also reduces ambient noises by 'distance' proportion which is a nice touch. (Can't recall if the previous game had that.)

[JasonPratt]

[JasonPratt]

When he's set on overwatch, the SM's shoulder camera shows him looking around (a bit nervously!) with raised gun.

Here I've zoomed out after issuing the overwatch order.




Those red things to each side are the "blips" in game now (corresponding to "blips" in the board game, which of course correspond to the "motion tracking" blips from Aliens.) They appear and pulse and disappear, so it's possible to miss them if you're not looking. (My first screenshot attempt was poorly timed and they had completely disappeared for a moment.) The pulses are in synch so they're all there or not all there.

[JasonPratt]

Rufus did survive that by the way. I just wanted to show the nice smoke effect from the storm bolter now.

The weapons build up heat semi-randomly now, and that's what causes jamming. Unjamming, as in the board game, costs 1 action point and removes half the weapon heat; unsure yet if reloading accomplishes the same thing, or if it can't be done while jammed. (My guess is the latter, otherwise it would be stupid to waste an ap on an unjam instead of a reload.)

The autocannon (and some other weapons) can't be jammed, but can explode from overheating. So it isn't just a bad random roll of three dice all coming up the same number, or not until the gun overheats.

[JasonPratt]

Didn't finish the tutorial "training ground" campaign, as I wanted to pick up a few more impressions before I slept.

"Hard" amusingly seems to be the expected default "normal" mode, as "normal" grants a few special advantages like having dead termies replaced with equivalent levels instead of rookies.  :o "Impossible" is ironman, no saves.




There are three different Hulks with campaigns, ostensibly one for each chapter present (Blood Angels, Ultramarines, Space Wolves), but despite story text assuming each chapter any chapter can play any hulk. The Blood Angels do get "Sin of Damnation". Ultramarines get the the "Fortress of Desolation" at Macragge. Space Wolves get "the Fall of Jotenheim" campaign.

[JasonPratt]

Here are two squads of Space Wolves preparing to defend the capitol planet of Ultramar, which is kind of hilarious.

Notice all of them look like Vikings! (Or dwarves. Needs more facial variety eventually, but that can be added by the devs as they go I guess.)

Also notice that anyone can have sergeant or chaplain faces despite not being officers or chaplains; or they can have some typical helmets, even officers. This annoys the fluff out of me: if it's to give common soldier marines more role-playing character, that could be done with suit variations. It doesn't really make sense for officers and librarians and other "player character" types to go around unhelmeted anyway, but at least thematically it makes sense in some ways. Having a squad randomly assigned helmets or not doesn't make any kind of internal sense.

[Nefaro]

Sooooo....


Is the campaign customization really gonna be like X-Com?  Or just the exact same missions lined up for you every campaign, with a little carryover added to your space marines?

If it truly had the depth of X-Com's campaign layer and randomized missions, then I'd be all over it.  But I get the feeling that it's not quite there.  Hell.. I'd even seriously consider a purchase now if it had procedurally generated missions to a satisfactory extent, to go with the RPG-ish advancement.


Overall, it sounds like an ideal improvement.  I'm just not sure if it's been taken to the extent requested.  I suppose the moderate price indicates a compromise so perhaps it's worth it for the $27.  Dunno.. need to watch vids.

[Jarhead0331]

I've been tying to successfully complete the first mission In the ultra marines campaign for a week now. I'm playing on normal and it is extremely hard. If I could beat the damn mission, I could gain experience for my terminators and explore the leveling up mechanics.

[JasonPratt]

No procedural campaign like either XCOM or X-Com; the campaigns are taken from the boardgame.

However, there are "flash missions" which may be sort of random (like the side missions in the old Fantasy General game, randomly generating a map with the assets). Can't tell yet.

Also, the game says over 100 missions, which seems to indicate around 30 missions per campaign plus presumably the "training" campaign. Not sure whether the flash missions count yet. I need to look up what the "Sin of Damnation" mission count is/was: I noticed the previous game included some not included in the 90s FPS, but also left some out. (The SoD missions were included in that old game under the "Original Missions" list and maybe some of the one and two-squad sets or parts of the basic and advanced tutorials. The main campaign in the old FPS game was the "Deathwing Company", which could be what's being adapted for the upcoming "Deathwing" Space Hulk shooter made by someone else.)

[Great Ajax]

I've finished three missions so far in Space Hulk Ascension.  This is definitely a more RPG type campaign for Space Hulk that foregoes some of the basic rules which actually adds to the immersion.  The biggest change is that you no longer see the entire map at the start of the mission and you don't get to see where the Tyranids spawn.  These two aspects actually make the game more intense as it feels like your squads are stumbling around in the dark in a twisted maze of a space hulk.  Each of your space marines can also deploy a single servo skull that scans a certain radius for enemies and hallways/rooms in pulses.  When you have multiple servo skulls scanning the map, it looks pretty cool. 

The bolter mechanics have been revised so that your bolters have to worry about reloading and overheating but these rules seem to have toned down the effects of jamming in the original.  They have also taken out the random AP pool mechanic.  I believe that marines can increase their APs available through leveling up.

There is also a pretty good RPG layer in which you can customize your space marines faces, armor, weapons, etc.  You marines level up and you put points into special abilities and skills.  So it does retain that XCOM feeling of wanting to keep your space marines alive and I believe their is an 'Iron Man' difficulty that does not allow saves mid game.  All in all, a good game as it looks to have addressed some players' concerns that the game was simply a port.  I am enjoying the game immensely. 

Trey   

[PanzersEast]

#(*#$7 being a Warhammer fan I am going to have to pick this up.... I was waiting to hear how terrible it is, but I will add this to my gaming list.... NOW DIE HERETICS!!!!


PE