Space Hulk: Deathwing

Challenging and atmospheric, Space Hulk: Deathwing is extremely faithful to the franchise.

It’s surprising how thoroughly I ended up enjoying Space Hulk: Deathwing. Its bulky, typical Warhammer 40,000 design is noticeable throughout, even though it implements a welcome sense of atmosphere that is rather rare within the franchise. Incoherent mission structures, some muddy textures, and unsteady performance issues may drag the experience down a bit, but its glorious action more than makes up for that, packing the expected punch with a wide arsenal of phenomenal weapons at your disposal.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is one of the best action monuments ever developed around Warhammer 40K, and yet the unstable framerate, the uncertainties of the AI ​​and the poor structuring of the co-op drag the game a little bit lower than it deserved.

A great game for dedicated fans of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, but a poor narrative and structure may get in the way for casual players. [Issue#259, p.55]

Space Hulk: Deathwing’s atmosphere is riveting. The Space Hulk lore is being animated before the gamer’s eyes and while the shooting and tactical aspects of this team-based first person shooter are solid, the single player campaign can easily bore the player. The co-op in Codex Astartes mode is the best experience, gameplay-wise, that the game can offer.

With all the negative ratings on Steam, I had severe doubts that there would be any fun to have with Space Hulk: Deathwing. But I was actually pleasantly surprised when I played the game. I came across none of the performance issues, bugs or crashes that so many people had lamented over. Therefore, I was able to actually enjoy myself quite a bit. The gloomy atmosphere and immense fun, that just mowing down Tyranids is, was enough to keep me entertained. Of course, this isn’t supposed to mean, Space Hulk: Deathwing has no flaws. The companion-AI only does a proper job some of the time, the multiplayer lacks motivating content and the gunplay as well as the system for building your character is in need of some refinement. Furthermore, the developers have to improve the difficulty-balancing, because even on the lowest setting I sometimes found myself stuck in very uneven situations. Still, every fan of the 40K-unviverse and linear wave-shooters will definitely have a fun time with Space Hulk: Deathwing. If you experience huge technical issues though, return the game or wait for future patches.

Space Hulk: Deathwing shouldn't have been released just yet. There was a chance for an excellent game with heavy atmosphere and a great gameplay model. Unfortunately, right now this product looks unfinished and instead of a recommendation you get a warning: there are some serious technical issues and doubtful solutions there. You should check Deathwing out but not yet - wait for the patches.

If visuals were the only parameter to judge this game, the score at the top of this review would be a ten out of ten.

There’s a bevy of customization options, brutal combat, and stomping around as a terminator marine feels straight-up badass. That intoxicating feeling is marred by the steep system requirements and frequent crashes though. Despite the faithful adaptation of the general feel of the 40K universe, a feat that’s not easy to accomplish.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a pure merch product. The fans of Game Workshop's IP will like it for the universe, but the more mainstream gamer will just find a poorly made FPS.

If you love Warhammer and/or you want to have fun killing with friends, you're going to forgive many of the issues of Space Hulk. If not, it will end up being repetitive and a little bit dull.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is that paradoxical game that’s hard to dislike, but also hard to love. The glorious moments of fervent xeno-purging are too fleeting, and often left me standing in dark corridors, surrounded by my slain foes, looking for any kind of context or sense of lasting accomplishment.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a game clearly developed without care and passion: the only two positive features are the storyline and the beautiful mood of the series.

Cinematic gun fights and gorgeous space scenery are ruined by bugs, glitches, and a lack of staying power. [Feb 2017, p.78]

Space Hulk: Deathwing can't seem to win on either front. As a solo experience, the gameplay is mediocre, the AI is rather inconsistent, and the objectives lack imagination. As a multiplayer game, it is pretty much dead. There's stuff in here for a dedicated Warhammer 40,000 fan to be excited about, especially how the game looks, but it certainly isn't the best outing for the license.

There is an ideal way to approach Space Hulk: Deathwing, which is with a trio of Warhammer 40K fans and pretty modest expectations. In that situation, blasting through the game and taking turns with the four distinct classes can be a lot of fun. As a solitary experience, the lack of engaging story and characters, class limitations, frustrating AI and various technical issues tip the scale to the negative.

It’s a simple enough formula consisting of shooting and completing objectives—usually by shooting.

A game with good ideas but that will hardly amuse the great fans of Warhammer 40,000.

The potential this title had is washed away by it being plagued with performance issues and a lack of variety in its level and mission design. When everything is working, I was having fun, even if it was a little shallow, but these issues cannot save the amusingly raw and brutal combat from being part of a game where the overall experience is repetitive and its cooperative play is cumbersome.

Ten hours of platitudes about the brave Marines, vile aliens and treasures of the past - that's Space Hulk: Deathwing in a nutshell. Areas and atmosphere are impressive, which unfortunately can't be said about gameplay, optimization, and slapped-on cooperation.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a great fanservice but aside from that, it's not a fine product. It needs a little more polish.

Space Hulk Deathwing is a remarkable adaptation of the table game from Game Workshop. However, it turns out to be repetitive after a long play, slow and repetitive, with some bugs; but the game shines in specific moments turning into a not only frenetic but also visceral, overwhelming and showing its beautifully designed scenarios.

Space Hulk: Deathwing boasts the best, most stylistically accurate Warhammer 40,000 visuals yet created, bar none. It’s precisely how the grim darkness of the far future should look and feel. However, the incredible eye-candy of this new FPS is not enough to disguise its lackluster story, indistinct gameplay, and stability issues.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a squad-based shooter, like Left 4 Dead or Vermentide, but its gameplay lacks innovations and the AI is not cooperative. The situation is saved thanks to the atmosphere and the graphical component.

While it still could be saved the technical state of the game is so bad that it cannot be seen for what it does right. Even the good parts of the game are plagued by the negatives and the frequent FPS drops make gameplay vomit inducing.

An accomplished piece of fan service, but the excitement fades fast and performance problems spoil it for some.

The promising implementation of Warhammer 40k's universe collapses under countless technical issues. In its current state, Space Hulk: Deathwing can be suggested only to die-hard fans of the franchise, who are willing to tolerate an unfinished product.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a game full of potential, wasted on terrible creative decisions that pitch the game's strengths directly against one another.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a sadly boring and uninspiring shooter. A repetitive single player that could have been saved by a strong multiplayer is just lost due to technical issues and the sad fact is that the game simply isn't good enough.

First-person shooter with great atmosphere that suffers from monotonous gameplay, performance problems and a poor co-op mode.

Another embarrassment in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I'm now inclined to think that "the Fire Warrior curse" is a real thing.

With underwhelming presentation, disappointing gameplay and lots of technical issues, Space Hulk: Deathwing fails to live up to its potential. The game attempts to stay true to the source material, but even so requires players to be familiar with the Warhammer universe.

Great first impression – the visuals! the audio! the atmosphere! – turned out to be horribly wrong. Deathwing is infested with bugs, the AI is blasphemously poor and close combat system needs major improvements. [02/2017, p.38]

Space Hulk: Deathwing is an action with a great atmosphere and design that authentically returns the world of Warhammer 40,000 to the spotlights. Unfortunately this is the only "plus" of the game. Everything else is mired in problems. Technically the game is still a beta version and its poor action mechanics kill all the fun.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is the classic game which will be remembered as the “what if”. The gorgeous and beautifully implemented Warhammer atmosphere is literally an empty box, given the huge problems the game has to face: horrible performance, crashes and huge loading times, tedious gameplay, stupid AI and a bad implemented progression system. There is a huge missed opportunity here.

Space Hulk Deathwing is the empty shell of a great game, desperately looking for some substance. It’s the perfect game to play for an hour but every moment after this it just gets a little bit more tiresome.

Space Hulk: Deathwing does a great job of capturing the look and feel of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but it doesn’t manage to wrap that around a compelling co-op shooter. The missions are ponderous, the story already forgotten, and the core gunplay leaves something to be desired. Those with a fondness for Games Workshop or fraught co-op action will have wanted this to be great, but it’s merely OK.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a below par title with some excellent art design and satisfying enough combat. Enemy variety is higher than expected, and the unlockable weapons all feel appropriate, but overall it can only really be recommended to 40K diehards.

I hope that in the next few months, Space Hulk: Deathwing goes through some drastic changes and becomes a more engaging romp through grimdarkness. For now, I'd say get your bloody jollies elsewhere.

The most authentic-looking Warhammer 40K game so far – when it’s working properly – but the action is disappointingly shallow and repetitive.

While the first fleeting hours of Deathwing was enjoyable, the proceeding remainder of the game is dull, anti-climatic and uninspiring.

A really disappointing waste of the 40K license. [Issue#184, p.84]

Unfinished business from the technical point of view, but more importantly a boring adaptation of the board game. Pretty visuals can’t save its tiresome fights. [Issue #271]

Space Hulk: Deathwing could have been a thriller of a first person shooter, but instead sticks to mediocrity in terms of somewhat archaic mechanics and its boring focus on horde-killing.