Saturday Morning Gaming: For the Emperor

The Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor – Martyr Complete Collection sells on Steam for $80. This is one of those prices that makes me snort and say “pull the other one”. Eighty bucks? That’s nuts. That’s a trip to the grocery store. That’s half a trip to Costco. No way.

Well… Steam put it on a flash 75% off sale. $20? Okay. I could see spending $20 on it. So I did. (And I assume that it will go on deep discount again come the next big Steam sale. So, like, don’t pay $80! But it might be worth $20.)

This game is a looter-style ARPG where you run around killing stuff and then being delighted when you find a piece of equipment that is 1% better than your current equipment. If you’ve played Diablo, you’ve already got the basics for this game down. So you may wonder “if I’ve already got Diablo, why should I play this one?”

Well, this game is set in the Warhammer 40K universe. You are an inquisitor on your first job. You’re being sent out to investigate the return of the Martyr, a ship that disappeared 5000 years ago. It’s back. Please investigate. You board and find that, well, everything has gone pear-shaped. Extra-dimensional entities have taken over the ship and, as you explore it, you find that you aren’t the first to investigate. There’s a Space Marine and his attachment there and they have been blocked off and are hanging on by their fingernails. So you have to kill off the various baddies on your way there and the game has a pretty decent storyline from there.

Oops, the Space Marine gets injured badly, find a Magos Biologis. Crap. The Martyr warped away. You don’t know exactly where a Magos Biologis is so you have to visit the three sites where she *MIGHT* be. And, wouldn’t you know it, each one is overrun by various baddies. (Spoiler: She’s in the third one.) Now you have to find a Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priest. Only then will you be able to chase down the Martyr and find out what happened with the first team that was sent to investigate it and… well, that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

I’ve only played with the Crusader (the warror guy) but he’s pretty fun. There are a multitude of weapons both ranged and melee and a multitude of different armors give different special attacks or defenses (there’s a fun missile attack one, there’s a Death From Above jump attack one). Different kinds of grenades, different kinds of shielding, different kinds of buffs and debuffs. About a dozen passive skill trees and dozens and dozens of different ones to drop skill points into.

As for enemies, those familiar with the Warhammer 40K universe will be pleased to hear that the greatest hits show up. Chaos Marines, Eldar, Tyranids. You run around yelling stuff like “For the Emperor!” and the various cutscenes are full of fun passive-aggressive Imperium of Man conversations where everybody is constantly on everybody else’s last nerve.

If you don’t like Diablo games, yeah. Avoid this one. If you don’t like Warhammer 40K, definitely avoid this one. If you are looking for a fun little ARPG exploring the Warhammer universe? Well, if it’s 75% off, I can wholeheartedly recommend this one. It’s an interesting mystery unfolding before me, I’m having a lot of fun finding this or that new piece of equipment that is 1% better than my previous one, and it looks like it’s got replayability galore. As for the DLC? Well, the ones that aren’t cosmetic seem to be one-off special missions for after you beat the base game. Which means I haven’t even come *CLOSE* to seeing them. But, for $20? I don’t mind.

And if they put it on sale for 75% once, they’ll do it again.

So… what are you playing?