Skaven Time: Warhammer's XCOMish Mordheim Out Soon

I always get Warhammer spin-off Mordheim confused with that Mike guy from Blizzard. C'mon, Meer, you can master this - it's with a 'd' if it's got ratmen, and with an 'a' if it's infinitely wealthy.

Mordheim isn't the biggest name in the Games Workshop back catalogue, but it's definitely one that's ripe with potential for exploring the edges of Warhammer's dark fantasy world. Rather than standalone battles, it allows for a campaign of sorts, with persistent characters, upgrades and all that good stuff. It's being loosely adapted into a somewhat XCOMy PC game, City of the Damned, which is laying its foundations on Steam Early Access later this month. We've finally got a look at the thing in action, too.

Adam came away impressed when he saw it at GamesCom earlier this year, but as some folk found with Space Hulk what works well as a short slice doesn't necessarily hold up over many hours, so let's keep our minds closed to the hype-demon for now.

A spot of roleplaying, mutilation and perma-death in the Warhammer universe is deeply appealing to a grizzled nerd such as I, so I suspect I'll have trouble resisting even if it's a stinker. Particularly given Skaven are a playable faction.

We've got a first trailer to go on, although sadly it's stylised clips rather than a clutch of footage.

Good-lookin' and pleasingly big on Skaven, and superficially at least it doesn't look like one of the, er, cheaper GW adaptations. A 'teaser' trailer in the same month as the Early Access release rather seems to be leaving things a little late, but then again this is the city of the damned, not the city of timely marketing strategy. Or maybe Early Access is slowly taking the place of a long campaign of trailers these days. 21st Century, why you gotta go and be so confusing?