‘Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters’ Preview: Tactical Brilliance
As the enemy base falls away at the hands of my squad, I send a marine to tackle the final foe. This enormous, poison-spreading plant has been sheltered by its horde for too long, and now Justicar Aldred Malchus - one of my four Grey Knights - lines up to drive his spear through this wretched orchid. The killing blow is administered, and I’m congratulated for a job well done. Another successful mission in Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters.
During my preview session, where I was granted a few hours with a PC demo build of the game, I was enchanted by its gameplay mechanics. As a turn-based strategy game, Daemonhunters is easy to understand thanks to its friendly-yet-comprehensive tutorial.
Here’s a mission from Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
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The core gameplay is simple. You select one of your troops, pick an action and then see it play out. You’ll usually select a few moves per turn for each character. For instance, you may choose to move your soldier into a more defensive area and set up a killzone where enemies will be shot on sight. Or, you may choose to retreat and heal. It really depends on the situation and your preferred approach to it.
You have a team of Grey Knights - this particular title’s Space Marine Chapter - who all offer different advantages. Some can heal, others offer stronger attacks, and so on. It’s also handy that they can all take a fair bit of damage, making early missions less daunting as the odd mistake is forgivable. (This is less so later in the game.)
Over the three missions I was able to play in this demo, I found the best thing to do when things got away from me was to simply reset. This approach is nothing new to most JRPG enthusiasts, and I’m sure strategy game fans can back me up here, too. The thing is, this restarting didn’t hinder my enjoyment at all.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters offers some sumptuous designed scenarios. Starting at the tip of an enemy stronghold and taking in the dangerous set pieces that lie ahead of you is an exciting way to begin a level.
Scoping out enemies, considering all available routes, and making sure your previously-selected loadouts feel appropriate combines to produce a sort of management therapy session. The freedom to mix up tactical styles before and during missions is so satisfying, it’s hard to see how I could’ve quit this game if not for the preview’s time limit.
The final mission I attempted was essentially a boss fight. The encounter featured an enormous enemy that could easily overwhelm a single Grey Knight, so carefully balanced teamwork was the play here. Despite my harmonious assault, I soon learned this behemoth could heal itself from plants based around the arena. In short, these resources would have to be destroyed in order to win.
Sadly, I failed to pull this off, but figuring out the best course of action had me baying for more. This kind of puzzling gameplay is where turn-based strategy games really come into their own, and Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters captures this perfectly. Now, I wait until I can play it again, and the release date can’t come soon enough.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters was tested on PC via remote access provided by the publisher. The game releases for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on May 5, 2022.