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Warhammer Deathwatch: Tyranid Invasion, yet another W40k game from the developers of Warhammer Quest

GreyViper

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Well my opinion is that its worth the play. It manages to be better at turnbased then new Space Hulk was. The downside, it buggy with constant crashing and not worth the 20 eur price tag.
Recommend YARR first to see if you like, it then wait for discount sale.
 

vonAchdorf

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I'm kinda wary regarding the longevity of the game, other than card pack hunting for the best drops,which isn't what I want from a PC game. I wonder if they plan expansions, like they had for WHQ, though at the moment, there are none.
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I can't tell about longevity yet obviously, but the core gameplay is very solid (missions are varied, game system is good).
The purchase system is weird, and despite loot being much more generous than on iOS (because no IAP), it is a bit annoying :
you get requisition points for completing mission, that you can trade for packs of 3 random things. You have zero control on these 3 random things : you'll get one marine, and two items.
There are minor issues too :
- Animations are too slow for my tastes, and you cannot speed them all up
- It encourages grinding the same way Space Hulk Ascension did (kill XP + unlimited enemy reinforcements usuall does that).
But heh, it's a game that does not suck with Space Marines, so I cannot really complain.
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
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It kinda reminds me of Battle Isle: Incubation, of which i have fond memories. If they fixed some of the system weirdness (the better the weapon, the lower its accuraccy, wtf) and removed the card collecting crap, it would be even better.

I wonder how difficult it is to produce a small scale tactical game like this...
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It kinda reminds me of Battle Isle: Incubation, of which i have fond memories. If they fixed some of the system weirdness (the better the weapon, the lower its accuraccy, wtf) and removed the card collecting crap, it would be even better.

I wonder how difficult it is to produce a small scale tactical game like this...

Incubation is a good comparion. It has some strong incubations vibes in the second part indeed.
Lower accuracy for higher tier weapon makes low tier weapons not utterly useless, as they work better with a newbie in training.
The card collecting can get nerve whacking indeed, but at least, it makes you have to adapt to whatever the RNG gives you.
My biggest problems are the animation speed (Marines are massive AND FAST. They should not crawl and inflict the player such pain when he is forced to spend 70% of his playing time watching them move ponderously from one tile to the next), and the AI freeze bug (sometimes, the AI freezes during its turn, and you have to abandon the mission to continue, resulting in a lot of lost XP).
The campaign structure is a bit like Diablo : You need to finish the game in normal (=easy) mode to access veteran difficulty with better rewards (you get 20 RP + 1 random item in normal, 30 RP + 1 random tiers 2+ item in veteran, and I suppose 40 RP + 1 random tiers 3+ item in hero), and then finish veteran to access heroic difficulty.
The problem is that normal is a bit too easy, but Veteran might be too hard if you were to start it without lots of unlocked stuff and good XP.
Overall, I am still having a good time with it, but it is not Chaos Gate (battlefields are much smaller, you have much less Marines, and death is not as sudden : your Marines can usually take a lot of punishment there, unless facing a Hive Tyrant or Carnifex).
I would definitely recommend it once the two issues I mentioned are fixed (animation speed and AI freeze bug).
It is more expensive than the iOS version, but is not plagued by its microtransaction galore (iOS version grants 4 times less req per mission)
 
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Galdred

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I completed the game on the last difficulty level. The game definitely starts to come together in the second half (and in higher difficulty levels).
The loot is not that bad, as you get Tier 3 or 4 items as mission reward in heroic difficulty. However, to get new marines (they also are tiered, and the T4 ones have more abilities to unlock and higher stats), you need to get lucky with the "card packs" (you get 1 per pack).
So you end up leveling marines that you won't use in the end game.
Using cheat engine can make this a lot less frustrating (I Cheated about 25 packs, and only kept the T4 marines).
Overall, I had a good time with the game, but what saddens me is how easy it would be to improve by removing these issues (animation speed and the random acquisition of new space marines + the horrible inventory UI that makes selling stuff so cumbersome).
 
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vonAchdorf

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Sep 20, 2014
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Looks like Rodeo Games kinda went under, so don't expect fixes for the PC version anytime soon.

All of their games launched with great reviews and an excited fanbase, but none of that really seems to matter anymore in the App Store of 2016. As players in the Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch thread were wondering why the game wasn't getting updated to fix bugs, add content, and all the other things the previous titles saw, an ex-Rodeo Games developer shed some light on the situation. Apparently the majority of the team left months ago, and as far as he knows, there's no one left to offer any kind of support or work on any kind of additional content. Additionally, "like most indie developers, you're only as good as your last game, and even though Deathwatch was Rodeo's highest metric game, it didn't make enough so we had to move on."

http://toucharcade.com/2016/02/12/w...quits-after-warhammer-40000-deathwatch-bombs/

I liked their Warhammer Quest game especially.
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Looks like Rodeo Games kinda went under, so don't expect fixes for the PC version anytime soon.

All of their games launched with great reviews and an excited fanbase, but none of that really seems to matter anymore in the App Store of 2016. As players in the Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch thread were wondering why the game wasn't getting updated to fix bugs, add content, and all the other things the previous titles saw, an ex-Rodeo Games developer shed some light on the situation. Apparently the majority of the team left months ago, and as far as he knows, there's no one left to offer any kind of support or work on any kind of additional content. Additionally, "like most indie developers, you're only as good as your last game, and even though Deathwatch was Rodeo's highest metric game, it didn't make enough so we had to move on."

http://toucharcade.com/2016/02/12/w...quits-after-warhammer-40000-deathwatch-bombs/

I liked their Warhammer Quest game especially.
It is really sad, because the game had potential, but it was just that : potential...
It was marred by a few bad design decisions :
The mediocre UI inherited from mobile (especially for selling stuff).
The low drop rates (higher than on mobile), and obvious IAP issues (the IAP were absent on PC, but it remained obvious they were central to the game, as the loot and marines were very random, and you got a lot of crappy items).
Some game breaking bugs for a few players.
On mobile, I suppose the heavy handed IAP model didn't work too well (but the IAP were horribly overpriced, with packs of cards costing way too much given the random crap you get on average in a pack).
Overall, I had great fun with it, but I really wish it were given more time to realize its potential.
 

Ebonsword

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Mar 7, 2008
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I picked this up on a Steam sale a while ago, but I finally started to actually play it last week.

It took me a while to warm up to it, but now I'm really liking it. I agree with Galdred that it seems to get better as you progress. As you unlock more abilities you start to have a lot more interesting choices to make during missions and the missions themselves get noticeably tougher as the game progresses (one mission about half-way through is very likely to end up in a TPK the first time you play it unless you know it's coming).

It some ways, I think it's better than the recent Xcom games. One huge advantage that Deathwatch has is that it uses an action point system, so you can mix-and-match movement and attacking as much as you want. Also, I feel that the atmosphere is better in Deathwatch. When I'm slowly moving my kill team forward, I get that same tense apprehension of not knowing what might be hiding in the shadows that I used to get when playing the original Xcom. I never got that feeling while playing the Xcom reboot. I also like how the game isn't shy about throwing hordes of enemies at you. There are some boards will the game will spawn a ten or so enemies each round, which can get out of control if you're not culling the herd effectively. That feeling of fighting an inexhaustible alien tide is also something I never felt while playing nuXcom.

I also find Deathwatch's character & team building very addictive. It seem like I'm always unlocking a new marine who has some ability that I have never seen or has a combination of familiar abilities that instantly get me thinking about the synergies that can be gotten out of them. The large variety of loot also keeps my wanting to keep playing in hopes of finding that new piece of gear that will make a previously bland marine into a killing machine or will make an already awesome marine even better.

I do wish that you could tweak the difficulty a bit better, though. As Galdred said, the default difficulty is mostly pretty easy. My understanding is that higher difficulties start to give the xenos abilities similar to what your marines get, which sounds awesome. Unfortunately, upping the difficulty also bloats enemy hit points, which doesn't sound so awesome. I'd love to see someone release a mod that allows you to get xenos with abilties with their standard hit points.

Anyway, as I said, I think this is a great game, if you give it a chance.
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Actually, the hitpoint bloating is not a big issue : you just remove the marines that are not able to one or two hit kill them from your active squad (T4 devastator ultramarines, or T4 assault Space Wolves or Blood Angel, T3 Devastator Blood Angel... with the matching equipment make short work of aliens in the highest difficulty setting).
 

Ebonsword

Arcane
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Mar 7, 2008
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Actually, the hitpoint bloating is not a big issue : you just remove the marines that are not able to one or two hit kill them from your active squad (T4 devastator ultramarines, or T4 assault Space Wolves or Blood Angel, T3 Devastator Blood Angel... with the matching equipment make short work of aliens in the highest difficulty setting).

I like my Tactical dudes, though. :(


Anyway, I finished the campaign on Normal and moved up to Veteran. Holy crap, there really is hitpoint bloat. The weakest enemies go from 35 HP to 120 HP?!

Which would be okay, I guess, if you received commensurately more XP for killing them, but you only seem to get about 50% more XP.
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Indeed, but unlike in a game like dragon age, it does not only make battles longer, it also makes it almost certain some will reach close combat before you can kill them.
but even in hero (or whatever it is called), I could camp the bridge mission forever (with the tac marines who had almost infinite overwatch).
 

Ebonsword

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Indeed, but unlike in a game like dragon age, it does not only make battles longer, it also makes it almost certain some will reach close combat before you can kill them.
but even in hero (or whatever it is called), I could camp the bridge mission forever (with the tac marines who had almost infinite overwatch).

Did you ever make use of the Apothecaries? I have a couple, and I've played around with them, but they just seem like weaker assault units who can heal.

But the healing isn't that big of a deal since I have two of the T3 Ultramarine Tactical guys who can heal anybody standing next to them, as well as having multiple other guys with the Regenerative Implant skill. And there's always medpacks, too (which I've never used).

What's particularly annoying about the Apothecaries is that they can only use that special type of melee weapon. And good luck finding an upgraded version of that!
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Indeed, but unlike in a game like dragon age, it does not only make battles longer, it also makes it almost certain some will reach close combat before you can kill them.
but even in hero (or whatever it is called), I could camp the bridge mission forever (with the tac marines who had almost infinite overwatch).

Did you ever make use of the Apothecaries? I have a couple, and I've played around with them, but they just seem like weaker assault units who can heal.

But the healing isn't that big of a deal since I have two of the T3 Ultramarine Tactical guys who can heal anybody standing next to them, as well as having multiple other guys with the Regenerative Implant skill. And there's always medpacks, too (which I've never used).

What's particularly annoying about the Apothecaries is that they can only use that special type of melee weapon. And good luck finding an upgraded version of that!
Indeed, I have found the T3 Tac UM more useful than the Apothecary.
Even the T4 one was pretty underwhelming, with meh healing, and mediocre firepower.
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
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Sep 20, 2014
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I thought Rodeo almost went under and more or less stopped development, but this game and Warhammer Quest are out now on PS4. They are asking $55 for Deathwatch in the Playstation Store though, and $40 for Warhammer Quest. Lol.
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I thought Rodeo almost went under and more or less stopped development, but this game and Warhammer Quest are out now on PS4. They are asking $55 for Deathwatch in the Playstation Store though, and $40 for Warhammer Quest. Lol.
Wasn't the port made by another developer?
 

vonAchdorf

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I thought Rodeo almost went under and more or less stopped development, but this game and Warhammer Quest are out now on PS4. They are asking $55 for Deathwatch in the Playstation Store though, and $40 for Warhammer Quest. Lol.
Wasn't the port made by another developer?

I think so. The Credits list Funbox and Hoplite Research (they seem to specialize in troubled Warhammer licensees - they also published / ported the Space Hulk game by Fullcontrol).
 

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