Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters Review

After over 3 decades of looking from the outside in, I got my first taste of the Warhammer universe last year when I was able to play and review the excellent Warhammer Age of Sigman: Realms of Ruin. I’ve now had the opportunity to review a second title in the franchise:  Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate Daemonhunters.

If you’re already familiar with the name then that might be because it was launched on Steam back in May 2022 and now, almost 2 years later it makes it way to consoles, and with my trusted Frontier at the development table it’s time to jump in.

First off, Daemonhunters is a different genre, with the XCOM turn based tactics being deployed here.  Warhammer certainly has a diverse showcase when it comes to genre type, First Person, RTS, Roguelike and now turned based tactics, they’re certainly not afraid to show their universe can take on any genre.

So, what does Daemonhunters have to offer us? To be blunt we ‘only’ have the campaign, but depending on your playstyle can take anywhere from 25-60 hours to complete. There are a few handy bits of info hidden in the settings tab on the main menu under Codex. Here you can check out Stats & resources, Boons & Afflictions and Key Concepts, there is a lot of key information here that can be easily missed when playing the campaign. This could’ve easily been its own tab on the main menu screen so a bit of a miss there if I’m being honest.

You can have up to 6 separate campaigns going on if you wish. This could come in handy if you want a separate save file for all difficulties. Speaking of difficulties you have 4 to choose from which as you can imagine from a turn-based tactic game, the difficulty spikes are huge. If you’re a beginner to the genre then I’d advise to start with ‘Merciful’, you get 2 extra knights to start with, extra HP, better recovery, enemies have less HP and wound penalties are less severe. However, if you jump straight Legendary difficulty then you’ll find enemies have 50% more HP, wounds take 50% longer to heal and you’ll also find research and construction costs and time are 50% longer. There are also extra options such as Grand Master Mode, which disables manual saving and the save a lot is limited to only making auto saves and also Special launch equipment. This is a set of master crafted equipment that was made available for players that participated in activities leading up to the games launch on PC but is there at launch for us console players. The equipment isn’t a massive upgrade to the basic weapons so it’s up to the player is they want that small boost.

So what’s the story about then? What’s the latest ‘big bad’ in the Warhammer universe? You oversee humanity’s greatest weapon, The Grey Knights. It’s your mission to root out and put a stop to an insidious plot to infect the galaxy with the ‘Bloom’, an intergalactic cosmic plague capable of rotting worlds to oblivion. Your ship has been battered and bruised and it’s your job to prioritize what you want to fix or upgrade first; do you concentrate on fixing the ships defensive or offensive capabilities, or maybe you focus your attention on your squad, granting them extra XP for the battles ahead or perhaps a place them to heal faster. This is controlled by servitors which is earned by completing the main missions and only one area can be upgraded at a time, so choose wisely!

Before heading into battle, you have the chance to customize your characters, there are so many options here that I doubt no squad or character will likely be the same. There are eight classes in total all with their own talent trees so the choice of how balanced you want your squad to be is up to you. The only disappointing thing here is that even though you can change the characters given name, you can’t change their surname which can be chosen from a preset list of 57 names. I haven’t come across any dialogue that says these names so I’m not sure why you can’t have your own name there.

Into the battlegrounds then, it certainly has that XCOM feel about it, with the open map with each character taking turns to move around the battlefield. More modern takes on the genre have seen the likes of Miasma Chronicles let you move freely around the map before the turn-based action starts once the battles commence. There’s nothing wrong with either approach of course just thought it was worth mentioning. The only big downside to combat is that you can’t sneak or get a potshot in on your enemies, once they’ve been revealed combat starts, so it’s super important to make sure your squad hasn’t drifted off in different directions or you could potentially see one of you soldiers outnumbered and out gunned. I understand why as you are moving around in noisy and heavy amour, but it’s nice to gain the upper hand in battles where you can.

The other downside to combat is the camera. It’s not free flowing so you have to hope you can get a good angle of where you’re going or to focus on an enemy, there’s no zoom either which is a shame as every level I’ve come across so far has been beautifully crafted.

Each level feels unique as well as there are Warp Surge events, once the bar hits 100% a warp surge event occurs, this can mean anything from enemies getting mutations, raising from the dead or even taking an action point away from your squad, each unit can use their psychic abilities to enhance their attack, however this will make the surge meter fill quicker. At the start the bar will only fill the bar around 15% each turn, however depending on the choices you make throughout the campaign, this can rise significantly.

You don’t just have to rely on your ranged or melee attacks either as there is plenty of environment to interact with and overwhelm your foes; for example, you can collapse pillars to squash enemies and detonate plasma batteries to cause a massive AOE explosion. With the armor you have, CQC is almost encouraged as you can gain the upper hand on powerful foes. You can cleave their arms off which prevents them from using their abilities which then sets them up for execution.

As with every Frontier game I’ve played, the audio and visuals are fantastic, they even recruited once of my favourite actresses (Robyn Addison), who voiced Sera in Dragon Age Inquisition.

Conclusion

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters is another great entry into the  Warhammer  Universe. With tons of different ways to customize your squad cosmetically and with talents, Daemonhunters has the ability to keep you coming back for more.