Video Game Review: Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf

Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf

HeroCraft

Strategy

Nintendo Switch

Warhammer 40,000 is a spinoff of the popular tabletop wargame Warhammer. The franchise is massive, with tons of content for the tabletop game, novels, and of course, video games. Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf is a tactical strategy game that revolves around cards.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf opens up with a short but welcome tutorial that gives players a decent grasp of the game’s mechanics. Players control a squad of burly men with guns and battle in a turn-based environment. Movement and actions are determined by what cards the players draw. Most cards allow the player to either use an action or move, some only allow one of those. Actions are typically attacks, but extra depth is added by the availability of abilities like buffing and healing.

The gameplay is fairly simple, and the strength of cards is balanced by effort points (Basically the number of actions available during a turn). The simple gameplay is juxtaposed by an intense need to strategize, or players will lose fairly quickly. Space Wolf is a genuinely challenging game that will test even the most experienced strategy game veterans.

Still, it sometimes feels a bit cheap due to the card mechanic. Waiting for certain cards to be drawn adds an unnecessary amount of luck to the game. It removes the feeling that the game is all strategy. On the other hand, deckbuilding is a key part of Space Wolf, which adds an additional layer to the game’s depth. In addition to the deckbuilding mechanics, individual squad members can also be built.

The gameplay is fine enough, but there are certainly some major shortcomings in Space Wolf. For one, the controls are incredibly clunky. It’s not intuitive, with a lot of strange decisions. Even worse, just getting used to the controls doesn’t remedy every control problem. The game is really slow in that hitting a button doesn’t instantly lead to the input. Battles are already fairly slow, and this just makes the game a chore at times.

Adding to how slow everything is, there are also unnecessarily long loading times throughout. The game is just overall slow, and the payoff doesn’t always feel like its worth it. Missions take quite a while sometimes, and I found myself struggling to stay motivated to finish the game. Still, diehard fans might have no problem tolerating all of these shortcomings.

The presentation isn’t great, but it could certainly be worse. The graphics are about on par with those of a high budget mobile game. The 3D models are pretty generic, with generic designs to go along with it. This isn’t a game that relies on great graphics, so this is far from a dealbreaker. Playing with sound is an absolutely bother though. The voice acting is horrible, and the poor writing doesn’t help. Still, some players will be able to look past this with ease.

It’s far from perfect, but Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf can still be an enjoyable strategy game with the right audience. The core gameplay is fine, but there are a lot of small kinks that ruin the quality of life for players. The card mechanics fit right in though add just a bit more luck than desired. If you are a fan of the series, this might be worth checking, just don’t expect this game to be a top tier strategy experience.