Space Hulk: Deathwing Reveals Fearsome First Screens

[Andy Chalk]

Space Hulk: Deathwing Reveals Fearsome First Screens

The upcoming Warhammer 40,000 FPS Space Hulk: Deathwing features some mean-lookin' dudes squaring off against some mean-lookin' dudes.

Space Hulk: Deathwing was announced last September [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127412-Deathwing-Brings-FPS-Action-To-Games-Workshops-Space-Hulk] with a teaser trailer that didn't do much beyond set the mood, and to be honest the screens released today don't reveal a whole lot more than that. But it's the first we've heard about the game since the reveal, so let's take a look!

There's not much in the way of action going on here, or even a very good look at the setting, which based on these images can best be described as "dark." The Space Marines themselves are awfully pretty, if you like that sort of "how does this guy actually fit inside that thing?" motif, and while the Genestealers are rather more generically "Alien," I suppose there's not much that can be done about that - they are what they are, after all - and they're clearly still not the sort of thing you'd want to run into in a long, poorly-lit corridor. Which is exactly where you will be running into them, so it's a good thing you dressed for the occasion.

[gallery=2553]

As we discussed previously, you'll play Space Hulk: Deathwing as a Librarian, giving you mastery of the powers of a Psyker, with multiple skill trees (either four or five, depending on which part of the press kit you believe) allowing you unlock and improve new abilities and powers. There's no release date - it was originally slated for sometime this year but the PR that accompanied these screens lists it as TBA - nor have any platforms been confirmed. But it's coming! Someday, and for something. We'll keep you posted.



Permalink

 

[Agayek]

Huh, I'm tentatively interested. I love the Space Hulk board game, and I've always been fascinated by the concept of a shooter like this, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Hopefully it turns out better than most of GW's video games.

 

[laggyteabag]

Please be good, please by god be good.

I'm tired of all of these damn shovelware games using the 40K license, so please, by god, be good.

 

[Zipa]

Please be good, please by god be good.

I'm tired of all of these damn shovelware games using the 40K license, so please, by god, be good.

This, so much this.

GW need to stop handing out the 40K license like sweets and go back to giving it to a single good developer like they did with Relic pre THQ death.

 

[Tsaba]

Please be good, please by god be good.

I'm tired of all of these damn shovelware games using the 40K license, so please, by god, be good.

This, so much this.

GW need to stop handing out the 40K license like sweets and go back to giving it to a single good developer like they did with Relic pre THQ death.

To be fair, warhammer 40k dawn of war is a good rts. However, the stuff they released afterwards...... not so much.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Genestealers!?!?
W-W-Why izzit always the bleeding g-g-g-genestealers?!?

I hope a Space hulk based FPS will have a slightly wider array of meanies that Genestealers, even if they are the only hostile in classic Space Hulk. Let's at least have cultists and a full array of Nid species, imagine coming face to face with a Hive Tyrant in one of those corridors, or finding that the control panel is in fact a Lictor (glomp!)?

Failing that, Orks! Orkzes Everywhere Boss!

 

[Tiamat666]

O.O

Somehow this stuff always walks by me until I read it on the Escapist and am bedazzled!
A new WH40K FPS???
Those shots look gorgeous!
And the official site [http://spacehulk-deathwing.com/] gives me goosebumps. I think I'm liking where this is going.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Genestealers!?!?
W-W-Why izzit always the bleeding g-g-g-genestealers?!?

"Have you encountered any Genestealers, Brother Zael?"

"OF COURSE THERE'S FUCKING GENESTEALERS, YOU F-F-FUCK!"

Librarian Blue contrasted with Deathwing bone-white. Nice color scheme.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Awww yeah! Dark Angels are my chapter, so I'm stoked to see the Deathwing back in action.

 

[Zipa]

Please be good, please by god be good.

I'm tired of all of these damn shovelware games using the 40K license, so please, by god, be good.

This, so much this.

GW need to stop handing out the 40K license like sweets and go back to giving it to a single good developer like they did with Relic pre THQ death.

To be fair, warhammer 40k dawn of war is a good rts. However, the stuff they released afterwards...... not so much.

The only really bad DAW game was soulstorm and that wasn't relic. DAW II and expansions were excellent just different to the first which people didnt like.

 

[josemlopes]

Also keep in mind that this is being made by the guys that did EYE: Divine Cybermancy so expect it to at least be an interesting game.

(In a way EYE already let you go full berzerk inside a powered up suit so they already have some experience in that, the art style was also similar, this dev seems well placed even if EYE was a very messy gem)

 

[teh_Canape]

Genestealers!?!?
W-W-Why izzit always the bleeding g-g-g-genestealers?!?

I hope a Space hulk based FPS will have a slightly wider array of meanies that Genestealers, even if they are the only hostile in classic Space Hulk. Let's at least have cultists and a full array of Nid species, imagine coming face to face with a Hive Tyrant in one of those corridors, or finding that the control panel is in fact a Lictor (glomp!)?

Failing that, Orks! Orkzes Everywhere Boss!

personally I think it would be much better if they went with the space hulk concept rather than the space hulk game
like, they go about the game and it's always genestealers vs terminators, instead of doing things like, idk, games set in space hulks involving tau and orks or daemons

 

[Tanis]

I...I want this, to be good.

I enjoyed the original video game, and even liked Fire Warrior and Space Marines.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Genestealers!?!?
W-W-Why izzit always the bleeding g-g-g-genestealers?!?

"Have you encountered any Genestealers, Brother Zael?"

"OF COURSE THERE'S FUCKING GENESTEALERS, YOU F-F-FUCK!"

Librarian Blue contrasted with Deathwing bone-white. Nice color scheme.

Boarding pod 7, prepare to die... I mean launch.


Wrong chapter but I hope there is a reference to the Space Hulk animations as well as the game not sucking like the last few with the 40k IP.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Genestealers!?!?
W-W-Why izzit always the bleeding g-g-g-genestealers?!?

I hope a Space hulk based FPS will have a slightly wider array of meanies that Genestealers, even if they are the only hostile in classic Space Hulk. Let's at least have cultists and a full array of Nid species, imagine coming face to face with a Hive Tyrant in one of those corridors, or finding that the control panel is in fact a Lictor (glomp!)?

Failing that, Orks! Orkzes Everywhere Boss!

Well, you can't have a Space Hulk game without it being terminators against genestealers.

OTOH, the game doesn't have to be Space Hulk, it could be about terminators against genestealers in an underground bunker, for example.

 

[Therumancer]

Speaking for myself, I'd like to see them do something more RPG-like with the 40k license, especially now that they have a full line of RPG books and supplements out there. It's not that "Space Hulk" is bad, but it occurs to me that there is a lot more that can be done with Space Hulks as a concept than just have space marines shoot at Genestealers in hallways. I think half the problem is that everything they do is a wargame or a shooter it seems, and viewed through that limited lens it doesn't convey much of the flavor of the setting, and it comes across as being rather generic even when it's pretty.

I mean for example, a Space Hulk is a chaos-warped mass of ships that have fused together in the warp, generally full of valuable ancient and xeno technologies, which happen to be forbidden by The Imperium and it's minions. In theory there could be all kinds of things in there, alien defense systems, robots, surviving crewmembers living as cannibals and fighting the survivors of other ship crews like gangs, demons... etc... Given that it's made up of a number of different ships fused together the areas should feel different and in many cases be recognizable to what they were once for on the ship they came from (assuming the ship wasn't too alien). This is to say nothing of the fact that some ships have even been removed from Space Hulks (such is the possible history of a Rogue Trader Vessel) in functioning condition and such can make a huge prize.

While the graphics look good, and it fits the original board game, none of that awesome potential for storytelling really comes out when it's a simple matter of "We are brain dead space marines, we do not think for ourselves, we simply pursue the glory of the emperor, we shall shoot Genestealers in these fairly generic dark hallways...". I guess I shouldn't make fun, since I do like Space Marines... but really, I think so much more can be done with 40k. I mean an independent developer is making this game "Starcrawlers" all about looting abandoned, drifiting, space ships in a sort of science fiction dungeon crawl environment (I contributed to the kickstarter) and that seems like it's conceptially more like "Exploring a Space Hulk" than the bloody "Space Hulk" game itself.

 

[Shadefyre]

Speaking for myself, I'd like to see them do something more RPG-like with the 40k license, especially now that they have a full line of RPG books and supplements out there. It's not that "Space Hulk" is bad, but it occurs to me that there is a lot more that can be done with Space Hulks as a concept than just have space marines shoot at Genestealers in hallways. I think half the problem is that everything they do is a wargame or a shooter it seems, and viewed through that limited lens it doesn't convey much of the flavor of the setting, and it comes across as being rather generic even when it's pretty.

There really is a lot of potential around making a more RPG style WH40K game about an Inquisitor. They're given pretty much free reign to do whatever in service to the Emperor in the otherwise heavily controlled Imperium. Plus they've got a highly customizable retinue of weirdo's with them that could serve pretty well as your party.

 

[Therumancer]

Speaking for myself, I'd like to see them do something more RPG-like with the 40k license, especially now that they have a full line of RPG books and supplements out there. It's not that "Space Hulk" is bad, but it occurs to me that there is a lot more that can be done with Space Hulks as a concept than just have space marines shoot at Genestealers in hallways. I think half the problem is that everything they do is a wargame or a shooter it seems, and viewed through that limited lens it doesn't convey much of the flavor of the setting, and it comes across as being rather generic even when it's pretty.

There really is a lot of potential around making a more RPG style WH40K game about an Inquisitor. They're given pretty much free reign to do whatever in service to the Emperor in the otherwise heavily controlled Imperium. Plus they've got a highly customizable retinue of weirdo's with them that could serve pretty well as your party.

I've had similar thoughts myself, I've long felt that something akin to Bioware's old "Knights Of The Old Republic" game could work with an Inquisitor investigating on different planets, solving mysteries on all of them while working on some metaplot, and recruiting people for his entourage, would work quite well.

I've also considered that someone like "Rogue Trader" would be similarly ideal if someone wanted to do a more ambitious game, combining that kind of adventuring with more involved space travel and ship to ship combat. While it's very old and primitive (and didn't work out great) something like "Whale's Voyage" might be an interesting place to start, not to mention various "Pirate/Trader" games that have been made combining trading, crew management, and RPG mechanics.

The flip side of Inquisitor is of course "Black Crusade", one of the cool things about that is that it's easy to justify people freebooting and just adventuring as a lot of Chaos space marines go running around solo or in small groups doing the mercenary thing, not to mention sorcerers in search of knowledge, and all kinds of other things. You don't need to necessarily be part of some huge horde setting out to despoil imperial worlds, you could actually be relatively nice guys exploring the eye of terror and trying to avoid entanglements that go too deeply into any of the various war bands and such.

While they have yet to do an RPG version of it, settings like the old "Necromunda" are also ideal for dark future adventuring, braving industial ruins looking for lost technologies which would be akin to magical items in other settings.

The point is a lot can be done with the universe, and it seems like they keep trying to re-do the same basic things.

I'll also say that when it comes to strategy games I've also kind of wondered why they have such a fixation on RTS games, when really being based on board games, I'd think some kind of turn-based or TRPG (like Disgaea but serious) would suit them better, given that the source material itself was a turn based game.

 

[Karadalis]

Please be good, please by god be good.

I'm tired of all of these damn shovelware games using the 40K license, so please, by god, be good.

This, so much this.

GW need to stop handing out the 40K license like sweets and go back to giving it to a single good developer like they did with Relic pre THQ death.

But that would mean they care for their IP in a way that shows integitry... and not how much money they can squeeze out of the husk it has become.

Aslong as money is involved games workshop will hand wave anything..., they later can allways claim its not canon.

 

[RA92]

snip

I think it would be great if you include the fact that this is being developed by Streum On Studio, the people responsible for E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. There's a good chance this will not be shit.