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Warhammer 40K: Sanctus Reach by Mischief Maker 01/22/2017, 1:52pm PST
Sanctus Reach

This came out the day before Trump's inauguration. Because what better way to distract from the looming nightmare of the next four years than a game about a fascist military dystopia engaged in a genocidal war against encroaching hordes of migrant aliens?

It's a turn-based tactical strategy game by Sliterine. Whereas their previous WH40K game Armageddon emphasized the grimdark of the setting, Sanctus Reach is all about the silliness, pitting the Space Wolves (the silliest chapter of the Space Marines) vs everyone's favorite army of rampaging soccer hooligans, the Orkz. It's probably the best-looking game Slitherine ever put out, with 3d units modeled exactly off their tabletop figurines down to the painted-plastic textures, giving an aesthetic of the tabletop game come to life. That said, this is still a Slitherine game so do not come expecting animations, special effects, voice acting, or music at the caliber of even 2004's Dawn of War. But in my opinion the biggest thing this game has over Armageddon is random map generation.

If you've ever played a game using Sliterine's Battle Academy engine before, like Hell or Sengoku Jidai, you have a pretty good idea how this plays. Battles start out by giving you a randomly generated selection of potential recruits which you purchase by spending points. Some rounds you'll have access to Imperial Knights and Gorkanauts, others you'll just have an assload of infantry. Turns play out IGO-UGO, movement is square-based, units get two attacks per round. Ranged units get a single overwatch shot if an enemy enters their cone of vision while melee units exert a zone of control. Vehicle armor is strongest in the front, weaker in the sides, and weakest in the back. Maps generate with destructible cover everywhere as well as 3d terrain. You win by taking and holding victory point squares, or just annihilating the enemy.

Orkz are skirmish only at the moment, the two campaigns are just for Space Wolves. They play out as a combination of scripted battles and random skirmish maps. The thing I really like about campaign mode is each of your squads is named and picks up XP for kills. Unlike the generic stat boosts of Armageddon, when a unit goes up in level in Sanctus Reach they get a piece of wargear that adds new passive abilities or active skills like grenades or personal teleporters. Note that it's random so your melee-based blood claws squad could end up with a boost to their pathetic pistols. Between the random perks and random maps, I see a lot of replay value in the game.

Sadly if you want fluff, look elsewhere. Armageddon had great professionally voice-acted cutscenes between every level but in Sanctus Reach there is barely any story in this game, it's all about getting you into tactical scenarios with a minimum of fuss. I had to go to an online wiki to figure out what the fuss was about the Scorched Knight. Like Armageddon, the manual for this game is grossly incomplete and you have to pick up lots of important information (like the fact that you can fire through a directly adjacent squad without any risk of friendly fire) through supplemental tutorial videos linked from the game's autolauncher. There's also a lack of polish to the menus that makes the player acutely aware they're playing a game aimed at a wargaming grognard audience, if the $30 price tag didn't make that clear already.

Overall I like it. It doesn't drown you in stats the way Armageddon does, the unit models look great, the rules reward good use of cover and flanking tactics, and it generates random maps. I'm happy, but not blown away by the end product.
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Warhammer 40K: Sanctus Reach by Mischief Maker 01/22/2017, 1:52pm PST NEW
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