• Tag Archives Warhammer

  • WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    I had been waffling on this game for some time now when I saw it was once again on sale for $20. Which seemed like an acceptable price for the base game plus all the DLC.

    Ended up… decent, I guess? Rather than Diablo, it reminds me more of Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms in structure, gameplay, and visual style. It does a few interesting things, such as having all skills unlock as you level (you can only equip a limited number), not having a level cap (legendary levels go into increasing a unique set of triggerable passive abilities), and not having any merchants (you donate equipment in exchange for progress toward unlocking extra skills).

    And while repetitious enemies and backtracking are still a problem, fortunately many of the early complaints about the game appear to have been addressed over time. The only issues I’ve had with it so far (just completed the base game with the archer; Health Regen/Poison build) beyond the repetition issue were not being able to re-enter areas if I accidentally left them, and one time it looked like my character had been deleted. Turned out the game just created a new profile and copying over the data from the old profile (in the “Warhammer Chaosbane/Data/Save” directory) to the new one restored them.

    Some things to be aware of:
    – There’s little reason to wear +Loot Quality gear. Save a set for opening chests though.
    – The 3rd level of a skill is not always better than the 2nd level.
    – On the inventory and skill screens, take note that some functions (appearance changes, DLC skills, Legendary skills) appear via small tabs on the very bottom.
    – Raise the difficulty as soon as possible (the difficulty system here is like Diablo III‘s). I started on Normal and raised it one level each chapter.

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    This entry was posted in DLC PC Video Game Related and tagged

  • Mordheim: City of the Damned

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    Whereas Warhammer proper has you building armies to face off against one another, Mordheim narrows the focus down to skirmishes between two groups of 10 individuals or less.

    Visually, it’s pretty dire. Mechanically… it’s not much better.

    The concept of building/managing a warband is solid and the roguelike elements (Veteran achievements give bonuses across all warbands) are decent enough. The integration between the combat and exploration aspects however is sorely lacking; you basically have to focus on killing the enemy (since numerical superiority is essential) which means you won’t have time to loot anything notable from the battlefield. It’s almost like you’re being punished for success. The winning warband getting to loot everything in their direct line of sight or receiving an extra turn or two after a win to loot would’ve worked far better.

    The other, more significant, issue is that the combat isn’t any fun. Since all offensive actions draw from the same resource pool most of the time you end up standing in place trading basic attacks until someone misses once too often (which is often just once due to the similarity between enemy and ally health/damage totals). It’s incredibly dull and the spellcasting system being actively antagonistic certainly doesn’t help.

    In a sense the game is reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon in that you probably have to be a masochist to get any significant amount of enjoyment out of it.

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  • WARHAMMER 40,000: GLADIUS – RELICS OF WAR

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    After thinking about why I disliked 4X games so much nowadays despite having formerly loved them, I came to the conclusion that it was the way most grouped all production into a single queue. Why should I have to choose between building a factory or an infantry unit (or a worker and an infantry unit for that matter)? It makes no sense.

    I mentioned Gladius while talking about Mechanicus earlier, and it got me thinking that maybe I should give it chance instead of dismissing it out of hand. That maybe it wouldn’t be just another Civilization reskin and instead do something innovative. Shockingly enough… it does.

    Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the game just so happened to have multiple build queues; each building type has its own queue, similar to a turn-based StarCraft. Not only that, but the various factions (although there’s only 4 of them by default) play notably differently from one another. Some can only build a single city (Space Marines), some can only build cities in very specific locations (Necrons), and they all seem to have different resource requirements. It’s immensely refreshing.

    My only complaint at this point is that you have to pay an exorbitant amount of money if you want a decent number of army choices: Additional factions will cost you $15 each. Meaning to get the full game you’ll have to fork over $100. So… best wait until it’s on sale for like 70%+ off.

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  • WARHAMMER 40,000: MECHANICUS

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    I’ve never had much luck with digital versions of Warhammer games so had put off picking this up until it was exceptionally cheap (which it recently was). All I ever wanted was an adaptation where you could build an army and fight turn-based battles just like the tabletop version, ideally with some form of leveling or upgrade system.

    Yet every PC version features either real-time combat (most of them), 4X elements (Total War, Gladius), or has extremely limited army selection (Sanctus Reach). And unfortunately, this game falls into that last category.

    You don’t really have many options here and all of the challenge lies in avoiding bad event choices until you have your first 3 Priests at about Rank 12 or so with access to an AOE weapon (like the Flamer or Grav/Torsion Cannon). Save scumming works, as does referencing someone else’s run. If you want to do things naturally, then make sure to listen to the other characters’ advice (if they suggest acquiring something, acquire it) and choose options that fit the mission objective (assuming everything’s a trap is a good rule of thumb).

    After that point you can pretty much roll every encounter and clear missions with 0-1% awakening rates. Then once those Priests hit Rank 19-20 there’s little reason to bother looking for Blackstone any longer and battles just become an annoyance. I ended up upgrading two additional Priests into pure troop-summoners just for the hell of it; instantly summoning a flame-spewing battle robot anywhere on the field is mildly amusing.

    So yeah, the game’s fine for one playthrough… but at this point I can’t imagine ever replaying it.

    Some Stuff:

    [Builds]

    Tech 9, Lex 5, Explor 3, Dom 2
    Tech 1, Lex 9, Explor 3, Dom 5
    Tech 9, Lex 9, Dom 1 || Tech 1, Lex 5, & (Explor+Dom) 12
    Tech 1, Sec 9, Dom 1

    [Armor Stats]

    Head
    Explor = 2 HP, 1 P.Arm
    Sec = 2 HP, 1 E.Arm
    Tech = 2 E.Arm
    Lex = 1 Arm
    Engine = 1 P.Arm
    Dom = 2 HP, 1 E.Arm

    Arms
    Explor = 1 P.Dam
    Sec = 2 HP, 20% Crit
    Tech = 1 HP, 20% Crit
    Lex = 2 HP, 20% Dodge
    Engine = 2 HP
    Dom = 1 E.Dam

    Torso
    Explor = 3 HP, 1 P.Arm
    Sec = 4 HP
    Tech = 4 HP, 1 P.Arm
    Lex = 4 HP
    Engine = 3 HP, 1 E.Arm
    Dom = 3 HP, 1 E.Arm

    Legs
    Explor = 2 HP, 3 Mov
    Sec = 3 HP, 1 Mov
    Tech = 2 HP/Mov
    Lex = 2 HP/Mov
    Engine = 2 HP, 1 E.Arm
    Dom = 3 HP/Mov

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