Space Hulk: Tactics

After playing this for a few hours I was getting some seriously weird nostalgic feelings of Déjà vu and then I suddenly got all these repressed memories coming back from what must have been the beginning of the 90's.
I now vividly remember gazing up entranced at the space hulk board game artwork on the top shelves out of my reach in Toys R Us and being so excited to get my hands on the box not even knowing what it actually was.
Much to my parents disdain and considerable resistance I insisted on spending all my birthday money on purchasing it even though at that tender innocent age I knew nothing of Warhammer 40K and its eternal war, but I was enthralled.
When finally getting my hands on it and looking at the magical contents listed on the back my eyes glazed over with all the potential wondrous glories of men in in suits of armour with big guns killing aliens.
This cost a considerable amount of money at that time and meant I would not be able to buy any other toy for over 6 months until Christmas time.
A serious commitment for a child of perhaps 9 or 10 years of age and a precarious situation to be in if the game turned out to be a big age inappropriate waste of money as my parents kept telling me.
I now understand this was the Emperors divine guidance leading me down his chosen path for my enlightenment.
After getting the game home I recall the first week of the summer holidays spent forlornly at home repeatedly asking my mother every day to play the board game with me diligently setting it up each morning only for her to promise that she would play later or tomorrow.
At the end of the week I confronted my mother as eloquently as a desperate young boy could beseeching her to finally honour her constant promises to play this game with me, and she eventually agreed.
After trying to explain the rules as quickly as possible unable to contain my excitement and enthusiasm I began my first turn and after only barely moving a few pieces my mother stood up and exclaimed :
Sorry David this is so boring I can't play this and then just left the room.
Devastatingly anticlimactic my realisation that my mother preferred to do the ironing or dishes then purge Xenos with me.
I now know the proper way to deal with heretics but at that tender age I was just filled with a profoundly disappointing sadness.
After this I then remember taking the board game on our annual 2 week family summer holiday to Devon in some godforsaken campsite in a mouldy tatty caravan I again hopefully set the game up each day on the little plastic dinning table at the back.
My brother aware of how desperate I was to play the game would feign interest and convince me he genuinely wanted to play and after not even finishing his first turn would get bored and frustrated and declare the game was rubbish and stupid relishing in upsetting me only to repeat this cruel trick on me again after a few days.
I remember on one day during the holiday my father (who was super competitive even with his children) agreeing to play but only after studying the instructions for what seemed like hours the evening before totally destroyed me in a couple of turns and then to my frustration never agreed to a rematch ever again.
I also remember after a while desperately going out into the campsite attempting to befriend and convince other children about how much more fun it would be to come back to my caravan to play a board game with me then run around having fun in the sun.
I recall now I even began trying to tempt them in with promises of showing them the rest of my Booglins collection if they would come inside with me just to play the game with me a little bit first.
What I'm trying to say is there is no way this game deserves mixed reviews as its a faithful adaptation with excellent graphics, music and atmosphere and I wish I had it to play by my myself instead of that cursed board game when I was younger to save me all that emotional trauma which I now have to repress again.

When I first bought the game, I was very frustrated by the U.I. I didn't understand the gameplay mechanics, every match I played I got my ass handed to me. I watched a few videos about the game, along with a few about the board game. I came back the next day, and I've been crushing it. I feel like if you don't understand the actual board game mechanics then you'll be lost understanding how to approach the game. The gameplay is repetitive yes but it's based on a board game between 2 people, and it's only supposed to played a few times then put down for a while, this does not bother me. I like to plum the depths of derelict craft drifting in and out of the warp and that is tedious dangerous work. As the terminators you are pressured to move fast, if you don't the genestealers are going to overwhelm you. I like it now since I've taken the time to understand everything.

Brothers, don't write it does not work on linux, it's heresy. Used blessed Proton db page and simply install proper version, brothers. You can mislead other brothers writing such unholy verses, brothers. It runs smoothly (blessed be machine spirit) and xenos can still bite your red (or blue, white or even yellow) buttocks off, brothers. Still not for weak brothers this game shall be, but for brothers who really wants to crack their implants on this, brothers. Emperor protects brothers. But not on this damned ship brothers. Peace(War), brothers.

The die is cast
If Warhammer 40,000 rings any bells at all, then the name of probably the longest-enduring game born of the IP – Space Hulk rings one too. Fleshed out before the setting of WH40k itself, the venerable 2-player board game has seen multiple PC adaptations over 35 years since its release back in 1989, with Space Hulk: Tactics being the most recent. Curiously enough, this latest iteration of Space Marines fighting against an alien menace adds a few own ideas to the original board game rather than merely bolster the classic with updated visuals. While the novelties do surprisingly good job at livening up the main campaign, there is one glaring red flag which needs to be addressed before one even considers venturing into claustrophobic depths of the titular Space Hulk. Multiplayer servers of the game have been shut down mere months after its initial release, making it exclusively single-player title, a fact which store page doesn’t bother mentioning.
Tactical Dreadnought Armour
On an off-chance you would waltz into Space Hulk: Tactics without any prior knowledge of what to expect, here’s the setup. From the depths of space, a millennia-old amalgamation of fused-together spaceships emerges in a close proximity to an industrial world of Gorgonum – set on the direct collision course. To prevent the valuable planet from being shattered by a cataclysmic collision, a small band of Space Marines boards the Space Hulk seeking to destroy the derelict. Clad in finest terminator armour, a squad of Blood Angels sets out to explore narrow corridors of countless vessels composing the hulk. To their peril, a dormant nest of Genestealers infests the ship, waking from hibernation as this new threat enters their domain.
At least a dramatization of Space Hulk session could go along these lines. In more game oriented-terms, the player has a campaign of turn-based tactical skirmishes to play through, with varied objectives, mazes of narrow corridors and numberless alien menace to keep company. Already in the campaign selection menu, Space Hulk: Tactics sets itself apart from the other board game adaptations, remembering it is a dinner for two. The player gets a choice of playing as either Blood Angels or Genestealers. It will come as no surprise that Space Marine campaign is the “primary” one, nonetheless having an option to play the “villain” as well is an enjoyable touch.
Ace of 2d6
Regardless of whether you favour power-armoured breeches or alien things in life, I strongly recommend playing the Space Marine campaign first. It consists of the main narrative arc, involving certain impassive inquisitor and playing as the Emperor’s angels of death provides a significantly more forgiving experience with dice-based combat. Like a squad of lumbering Goliaths against a horde of nimble Davids – Space Marines rely on careful placement and establishing defensive perimeter. All the while Xenos attempt to encircle your squad – all that fancy armour will be of little use in close combat, Genestealer claws cut through like it is paper.
Before we get to things up-close and personal, let’s take a peek at gameplay mechanics. Every mission includes a pre-determined set of corridors and an objective. The latter of the two is quite varied: extermination, reaching the extraction point, planting a bomb or hacking a terminal. Depending on the mission type Marines deploy in close formation or are scattered across the map. Upon entering the field of battle, the player needs to carefully manoeuvre each unit, dividing precious few action points between movement, environment interaction, attacks and most importantly – overwatch. Every mission being a primarily defensive battle for Emperor’s finest, ability to end a turn with continuous “kill on sight” command quickly becomes the default state. If only it didn’t cost half the AP available...
Depending on your approach to tactical games, the RNG element can either spice things up with unpredictability or break the deal altogether. Fully embracing the game of chance, Space Hulk: Tacticus couples the dice with a deck of cards. This is also where Tacticus’ twist comes into play – while original board game did include the cards, the adaptation makes them a key resource. Every Space Marine comes with a set of unlockable cards, allowing the player to tailor their squad bit by bit as they progress throughout the campaign. Furthermore, the cards may be traded for additional AP, adjusting to the flow of battle.
Purge the alien
Taking into account that the campaign at its core is a chain of 13 rounds of Space Hulk against AI, this title makes a valiant effort of turning its premise into an immersive experience. Story of the struggle for Gorgonum is a fully voiced and effective, if somewhat basic, tale of battle and peril. On top of that, cutscenes present throughout the game do well to highlight the pleasantly detailed visuals, something that could be overlooked during the regular gameplay. In order to provide further scale to exploration of the Hulk (grand words for moving a dot from point to point), the game throws in a number of random encounters which yield extra resources upon completion. The campaign does attempt to create a sense of urgency by increasing the frequency of random encounters the longer player takes to reach the next story mission. However, I was there to fight Xenos in the first place – a little extra combat and spoils on the side is hardly a deterrent.
Deserving a separate mention is the Genestealers campaign. Space Hulk being the home turf of Xenos, the aliens don’t explore the vessel, instead getting a choice of story mission objectives. Rather than offer an alternative conclusion to the tale of Blood Angels, Genestealers get to recall past memories, answering where all these Space Marine corpses already present in the Hulk came from. To be frank, while campaign itself is streamlined, Genestealer gameplay is much more complex – which is exactly why getting to know the basics as Space Marine is so highly recommended. Xenos experience is far more unrelenting as well – seeing how they rely on circling manoeuvres and deception, especially the latter doesn’t make much impression on AI. To make matters worse, the dice roll odds seem to be stacked against the player. While it isn’t that much of a problem during Space Marine gameplay of few against many, as the aliens, most of the game is spent setting up a single “do or die” pincer attack. Having to save scum and delay my perfect encirclement for a turn because the enemy team scores the best possible throws all across the board wasn’t very fun.
Blessed be the mind too small for doubt
All things considered, Space Hulk: Tactics is an extremely niche title with a few kinks behind its belt to narrow the target audiences even further. Despite being a mixed bag, I was able to enjoy the game as a smaller title, providing me with several evenings of tactical combat set in my favourite universe. However, this a perspective of a die-hard fan of the setting who, on top of that, loves turn-based games. If you are anything less than that you may want to think twice before picking up this title, especially with its online content entirely gone, save for a pool of community-created missions. This is quite a shame, as this game would’ve been the best Space Hulk adaptation around for providing a genuine PvP experience with playable Genestealers. Alas, this defining quality has been swiftly cut down along with the servers, making this position recommendable only to unequivocal fans of Warhammer 40k content.

Good Game. Cards are fun, so is squad customization. Other than that, UI is a bit more confusing. It's similar to the board game, in that the space marines are kind of screwed from the beginning. This game's RNG will drive you crazy. Save game is your friend. That said, if you like slow, tactical games instead of mindless shoot-em-ups, you might like this. The game itself is pretty good in terms of the campaign so far (I am playing the blood angels). It is worth its price and the mechanics and game-play are that of the actual board game, Is a decent game, but full potential was never reached by the developer which is common for this quick grab developer.

Picked this game up on sale and played through the campaign, I would say it's worth it. You can customise your squad as you progress through the story so you're not stuck using the same team every game. The graphics are nice, the UI was a bit confusing at first and took sometime to get used to. I had to turn the animation speed up otherwise the game would be very slow pace. All in all, not a bad Space Hulk game!

I've been playing this off and on for a good while, I always come back to it at some point. Great game, nice spin on the classic game, and lots of little exciting moments, especially when the dice roll your way when you need it the most. I play on the Steam Deck now, and it works great but you need to use an older proton version for it to run.