Warhammer 40000: Inquisitor – Martyr

+++ Priority Astropathic Transmission: Inquisitorial Review of Hololithic Simulacrum +++
+++ From: , Segmentum Obscurus +++
+++ Encoded: Inquisitorial Rosette +++
+++ Pros: +++
- Faithful to the grim darkness of our reality.
- Arsenal of sacred weaponry is extensive.
- Combat requires tactical acumen.
+++ Cons: +++
- Cogitator interface could be more intuitive.
- Servitor AI lacks in execution.
+++ Verdict: +++
A commendable tool for acolyte indoctrination. Instills zeal. Imperfect, yet honors our vigil.
+++ Emperor Protects +++
+++ End of Transmission +++

TL;DR: An action-intensive narrative dungeon crawler in a well-expressed dilapidated world. Not the type of game that is associated with a favorite game, but fun and well built narrative. Voice-Acting can sometimes be inconsistent in tone.

you should
. prefer action
. like some customization
. be able to deal with inventory management
. like a good narrative that focuses on plot and lore
. can stomach corpses and other gore being frequently used as environmental props

+ Gameplay around intensity raising tasks, which raise the difficulty somewhat, so it becomes more intense, but never to the point of becoming very difficult.
+ Decent build customization options, with a number of useful random enchantments and some curated special socket-based skills and lots of trash loot.
+ Some visual customization options.
? Medium Immersion with options for roleplay (or so I've heard, I don't care much for escapism)
+ Missions paint the picture of a narrative feeling like the events are important to its world, but all hidden away from the general populace
? Mission structure: the game is separated into missions with maps that may even be hand-built



+: denotes an IMO positive point
-: denotes an IMO negative point
?: denotes an informational point



Feel
I'll best express this with what types of builds I know are possible (if you do not want to play one of these roles search for a different game) and how gameplay valid they are in my opinion:
+ High-Shield Steamroller: takes time to build shield and various stacks of buffs, but becomes fast and decently powerful. Looses stacks and shield quickly, so this type of character has to move fairly quickly from combat encounter to combat encounter. Also inconsistent, sometimes a mission is just not going well and does not give the required stacks for this build type to become good. Perfectly game play valid.
+ Hazard Berserker: utilizes various damage boosting mechanics and stacks of risk like low-life or high "Warp Heat" (which is a special resource, that spawns random hazards and can drain life if 100%, only available for the Psyker class), dies fast, kills fast. Somewhat risky fun and also game play valid.
+ Twin Stick Shooter Tank (also possible with Melee Weapons): Takes heavy armament, wears armor, shoots stuff, fairly straightforward. Game play valid.
? Infiltrator Bounty Hunter: utilizes lighter pistols paired with movement skills. Haven't played this one much, because I like the weightier weapon options and psychic spells, no idea about validity
+ DoT-Heal Assassin: squishy but sustained by constant heal per hit / crit / kill, have only managed to build it around DoT and somewhat inconsistent due to inherent squishiness, is fun due to speed of movement, a bit weaker than the other options, but still valid
- Glory-Kill Hunter: the Executions System is unfinished and does not work very well, never tried this build.

Narrative
+ you're a member of a secret religiously militant government organization, solving various cases of heresy by killing a bunch of enemies
+ uses intriguing-anomaly tropes akin to timetravel (timetravel is a placeholder here, not a spoiler)

Builds
+ not locked into a specific build due to RNG
? useful drops and lucky enchantment rolls can give a boost, but are not required for people going after a specific playstyle
- fairly low build variety

Missions
+ different types of mission chains
? all missions draw from the same fairly large pool of mission objectives
- different mission objectives can sometimes feel samey
+ some mission chain types are fully hand-built
+ some missions involve NPC allies

Worldbuilding
+ interesting world
+ every mission is in disfunctional environments with props like corpses, biohazards, skulls, shelves with scrolls. Some are in wastelands of ice and snow or toxic goo. Some are in planet-cities. Some in spaceships.
+ generally beautiful environments, oftentimes gory or cyberpunk-esque (without being Cyberpunk, it's more Steampunk)
? set in a supposedly functioning civilization, but every mission is encounters with hostile forces
+ somewhat varied types of hostiles from demons, aliens to insects and even robots, which I encountered in one specific mission (although I have not seen everything)
? lore accuracy: I'm not that deep into Warhammer 40k, it's interesting that it has that lore and I have the Warhammer 40k wiki open in my Steam-Overlay browser for the game, but no idea how accurate it is

Base game classes
+ I find all of the base game classes enjoyable
? fully equipped characters have 4 weapon skills or spells, a belt ability (grenades / mines / shields / wildcards (see: Psyker below)), an armor ability (movement / breaker / damage output / wildcard (see: Psyker below)) and a healing ability with limited uses per mission
+ Crusader: a warrior type character (can use ranged and/or melee)
+ Assassin: a rogue type character
+ Psyker: a mage type character, where use of this "magic" is tied to hazard spawns, lots of repositioning, sometimes even when not in combat, has a special system that allows placement of spells into the wildcard skill slots of weapons, belts and armors

DLC
? don't have any

"Uh, so it's Diablo game, but in Warhammer universe? Hmm. The action in videos looks cool. Why haven't I heard about this before, like I did about Grim Dawn/Torchlight, etc?" - that's what you're thinking? At least I did. And man, this is a really something of an ARPG/Diablo-like game.
Most obviously - if you expect it to be something like your regular hack'n'slash Diablo clone - you'll get disappointed instantly: the game itself is a bunch of missions, where 1 mission = 1 location. You have own hub with various NPCs (trader, upgrader, etc) from where you operate and teleport to new missions.
MIssions vary from "disable the artillery" to "find information" to "kill everything" on map. But to tell you the truth - all of them are a variation of "kill everything". You run around, you see bad guys, you purge the unclean. That simple.
There are multiple classes to choose from when creating the character and melee/range specializations/skills/weapons.
There are tons of loot with various rarity gradation, dismantling, crafting and socketing. Each weapon feels different and for example - firing shotgun is one of the most satisfying shotgun experiences ever. It goes BOOM!
I've complete 3 chapters so far and I can't say there are bosses or anything. Yeah, you'll meet elite enemies and commanders that have more health/armor/damage. But nothing in terms of epic battles (Yes I met the corrupted ****** in one of the Void missions, still doesn't count as 1 of a kind enemy fight).
Where the game really blooms is in complexity of systems and difficulty settings. Yep, you read it right. When selecting a mission you can select how hard you want it. The reward scales appropriately. And I find it strangely satisfyin for some reason. Accompanied by the vast and diverse upgrade/reward/loot/god know what else (there's literally a ton of things to discover in the game) - despite the combat part is repetitive and not really creative - I give this game a thumbs up.
No, this shouldn't cost 50 Euros by the end of 2023, going up to 90.00 with all DLCs. I bought the full pack for 17.99 and that's a fair price for this game.
So if you want something with lots of buttons, cranks and whistles for 20+ hours - give it a try when this is discounted. If you don't know what Warhammer is all about - this is a nice starting point.
If you do know what Warhammer is all about - what are you doing in this section of the page? Are you a heretice? Buy the game fo thah Emperah!!1

Playable completely offline, the amount of content of an MMO and the style and substance of an AARPG. This game is amazing. You fight various factions, there's plenty of story, there are lots of locations including on planet and in stations/ships. There's armor and weapon customization once you unlock the adeptus mechanicus (hopefully saying that right idk) guy in your command bridge on your ship. Just an awesome game so far and it feels like it's designed for the long run with an end game and stuff. Its fun.

A great game that's basically a Diablo style ARPG but in the Warhammer 40k Universe. There's tons of stuff to do and it's really fun. IF you don't know anything about Warhammer, it might be a bit confusing so check a primer if you need some info (like Luetin09 on youtube).

MY only real complaint is that it's a hub based game instead of open to exploring like Diablo or Grim Dawn

Nice game for arpg fans, Thanks for offline mode and being able to play any season you want too.

I've had quite a bit of fun with this game so far. The setting is cool and the difficulty scaling is well balanced.
I typically don't bother looking up character builds for Action RPG's, as I want to discover my play-style organically, and figure out the character abilities as I go. Inquisitor Martyr does a good job with allowing you to do this - at no point have I felt that I've specced my character in a way that made them unplayable.
The only downsides I would mention is that the gameplay loop can get a bit repeditive, and some of the game functionality can be a bit confusing at first (I had to consult reddit a couple of times to figure out a couple of things early-on).
Aside from that however, this is a solid game that I am continuing to enjoy