A Grown-Up Post About Space Hulk
I was under the impression that my announcement post about the new PC adaptation of Games Workshop boardgame Space Hulk yesterday was as comprehensive as can be, but it transpires that I may have overlooked a minor detail or two. For instance, what type of game it is, who's making it and how it will work. Allow me to fill in these tiny gaps now.
OK. So we're looking at an ostensibly faithful digital recreation of the boardgame rather than the conceptual adaptation of the early 90s team-based shooters. It's turn-based strategy and it's going to have two-person multiplayer - so, true to the source material, one player will be in charge of Space Marine Terminators and the the other controlling the rapidly-spreading horde of Genestealers.
For the uninitiated HERETIC SCUM, the basic setup of the game is genetically modified supermen exploring derelict spacecraft and attempting to cleanse them of not-at-all Aliens-inspired extraterrestrial monsters. It's incredibly tense, the death toll is reliably high and the Terminators' heavy armour and powerful weapons are terrifyingly inefficient at helping them survive the Genestealer onslaught.
The very good thing is that it is deffo happening on PC. The mildly worrying thing is that it also happening on iOS and will offer cross-platform multiplayer, so there's a risk of compromise, perhaps. That said, the number of times I've read someone promising cross-platform play then eventually saying 'actually we couldn't make it work' is enormous, so we'll see.
The game will be based on the third edition of Space Hulk (that being the now rare as hen's teeth 2009 version), and specifically its "Sin of Damnation" campaign. This will be interpreted as 12 singleplayer or co-operative missions. Co-op too then, eh?
On dev duties are one Full Control Studios, a Danish outfit whose earlier work I'm not familiar with and thus can offer you no opinions on. Other than that they're from Copenhagen and I thought Copenhagen was a good place when I visited it last year. "Tactical Soldier - Undead Rising” and “Frontline Tactics" are the main entries in the back catalogue, and one thing we can take from them is that Full Control incline towards turn-based strategy/tactics.
And that's pretty much all there is to know for now. There's a website, but all it has is the trailer and a different coloured version of the image above. The game's out next year and hopefully there'll be more to prove it isn't heresy that must be burned before too long.
Oh, one thing that gives me more confidence in the tonal faithfulness of this project than perhaps it should - check out their social media buttons:
