I mean the 90s EA version, not the boardgame-faithful but divisive recent adaptation. Sure, it doesn’t play so well today, but I think it’s too overlooked in discussions of that great early-90s surge of PC shooters. This was one of all too few which eschewed the Doom model in favour of something altogether more ambitious.
Toll the Bell of Lost Souls. Full Control, the folks most recently behind Space Hulk Ascension and Jagged Alliance Flashback, has stopped making games. The Danish studio ran into financial trouble and will soon only exist as a far smaller company selling and supporting their games. Current plans for DLC, updates, and ports are still in effect, but it’s unclear how much we’ll see from them or how they’ll exist after that.
I am hopeful that Warhammer 40K FPS-RPG Space Hulk: Deathwing [official site] will be, at the very least, a weird game. Developers Streum On Studio were behind E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy, another FPS-RPG about an order of warrior monks stomping around a dystopian future in ornate power armour. It was hugely ambitious, baffling and wonky yet fascinating and endearing, which I’ll take over mediocre any day. So a new trailer choosing a soundtrack with mariachi-tinged rap from a Swiss pop band, well, that’s certainly unconventional for a 40K game. I’m quietly hopeful.
RPS Feature Sometimes you SHulk, sometimes you burn
Space Hulk is back. Again. From developers Full Control, who were responsible for last year’s digital release, Ascension is a sequel of sorts, with a new approach to campaigns, with persistent stat progression, and over a hundred missions. It’s an improvement over the company’s first attempt in many ways but there are still plenty of reasons to have a bit of a space sulk.
RPS Feature Full Control seeks Ascension
Space Hulk Space Hulk Space… Hulk? Full Control’s adaptation of the cult classic Games Workshop boardgame turned out to be a divisive experience after early excitement. A buggy launch (though rectified later) didn’t help, but players seemed polarized between enjoying its careful faithfulness and being put off by what some felt was too slow and rudimentary. Rab was very much in the latter camp when he covered it for us.
Last month, the Danish devs unexpectedly announced Space Hulk: Ascension edition, which has a looser, faster, flashier interpretation of the hallowed source material, including adding roleplaying mechanics, revised combat, different types of enemy, many more weapons and a slew of brand new missions. I talked to their lead Thomas Lund about the intent behind this deliberately more ‘videogamey’ standalone expansion, what’s changed both on the surface and deeper down, the critical differences between a boardgame and a videogame, why the two Space Hulks are companions rather than replacements, his response to criticism of the first game, why it had a messy launch and what they’ve learned from it all.
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Full Control’s grand dream for Space Hulk was to recreate the beloved Games Workshop boardgame. It got off to a rocky start. Patching did a lot for bugs (though can’t change that it doesn’t have that cardboard feel), and today They say it’s a fairly solid adaptation. So having made Space Hulk, Full Control want to make a different Space Hulk.
Today they announced Space Hulk: Ascension Edition, a standalone new version boshing in a load of RPG bits, new stuff, and Ultramarines, who do at least bring Cyclone missile launchers to compensate for being so dull.
Shhh! Read this in silence. If Alec catches wind of it, he’ll start babbling “Space Hulk Space Hulk Hulk Space Spulk Hace Spalk Ace Ace Ace Ace” all over again, his face flitting between ecstasy and agony, and we’ve only just got him settled since the last Space Hulk news. Shhh. Quietly round up a few battle brothers and let them know that Space Hulk’s long-promised co-op has arrived in a new patch today. Actually it’s a cooperative-competitive mode, pitting several Space Marines against one Genestealer.
