Long is not synonymous with validity
In the name of Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach already contains some important information about which part of the vast world created by Games Workshop will go exploration. Sanctus Reach is in fact one of the segments sector of Ultima Segmentum, one of the most well-known space systems ruled by the Empire, always centered on infinite struggles between Space Wolves and the Orcs, and that in its history has seen some of the most famous heroes of the saga.
The potential for epic battles and campaigns focused heavily on narrative was all but after a few moments in Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reachwe realize that many expectations are destined to vanish into nothingness. But let us go with order and start from what is the principle of almost all the strategics, the tutorial, used in this case as a start to
the countryside and where we expected to be explored all the mechanics of a deep and complex title. After the first mission where basic commands, such as unit movement along the map boxes and the handling of the attacks, were illustrated, it was conceiva
ble to imagine some other quick section in which a couple of trade tricks or points strengths and weaknesses of the troops. So a cold shower was the laconic phrase that ended the first and only one tutorial mission, in which, quite brutally, it is said that to learn all the other details and strategies you need to refer to the heavy gaming manual, of course all in English. So, w
ithout having been practiced and trained, we were catapulted into the mainstream ofWarhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach , the two singleplayer campaigns named Stormclaw, where the adventures of Space Wolves are directed by Krom Dragongaze, and Hour of the Wolf, where the protagonists are well known Ragnar Blackmane and Logan Grimnar. Unfortunat
ely, despite the caliber of the heroes involved in the events, both adventures never take off from the narrative point of view, and the numerous and long missions, which certainly contribute to increasing the hours of play and ensuring longevity, seem to be kept together with the scotch and missing a real wire . The way the campaigns are structured does not help then in that sense, as the system adopted by Straylight Entertain
ment is the same as inCompany of Heroes II: Ardennes Assaultwhere, along a map divided into several areas, you have to decide which area to carry your attack and advance, without a stroke or a change of pace in the narration. Last but not least, for low productive costs, there is no kind of intermezzo movie in which the player can breathe the typical heavy, dar
k and dark atmosphere of Warhammero 40,000. Accordingly, the two campaigns should be smooth without leaving much to the player and not because one thing actually remains: the frustration caused by a maladjusted level of difficulty, complicated even more by the absence of different levels of difficulty . To complete the bracket on the game modes, beside the camp
aigns there is the classic skirmish, in which the soil morphology, the width of the map and, again, the number of troops is at the discretion of the player. Also, if you are grown to bread andAge of Empires , you will find many similarities between Micros
oft Strategic Editor and Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach , with which to create unpublished missions and the mind’s minds of the player, which are given the tools to modify each single appearance of the game, from units to buildings, from soil confo
rmation to climatic conditions. Last but not least, the online component is missing, but now we have been saying it for quite some time: PBEM + (Play by Email) used for the vast majority of games produced by Slitherine Ltd. is not a current and convenient system.
We give the numbers
In an interview released shortly before the release of Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach , developers have indicated Chaos Gate and X-Comas the two greatest sources of inspiration for his work, which with his turn-by-turn strategy refers to the famous title made in Firaxis, without being able to approach the quality of the latter. There are a couple of wrong choices in terms of game design, some unclear interface or poorly implemented mechanics, and a game that seems to have good ideas on pap
er, is all frustrating, hermetic, and confusing. We are not ashamed to say it: the first two or three missions we have undertaken have ended up with a defeat, because it simply did not appear anywhere that would be the unit suitable for use in a clash or the
best weapon with which to fire, and once again the solution was written in the final pages of the manual. In fact some interface tries to put black on white the effectiveness of an attack and also the damage inflicted, but the classic percentages appearing on screen are in most cases completely random. SelfX-Com is famous to infuriate players who end up i
n the empty 90% chance of targeting the target, in Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reachthe situation is even worse, not always in a negative way, but in the direction of total casualty, which eliminates any semblance of strategy: to score 20%, 40% or 60% of the chances of action, little counts. The situation then touches the tragicomic when ordering its own unit to fire against an enemy located in an adjacent box, with the interface that sadly signals a 20% probability of success.
The same disclaimer applies to the damage that theoretically should be inflicted on the enemy, but the conditional is also mandatory, since the points of life raised to the opposing units do not seem to follow strict rules. This is a shame, because Warham
mer 40,000base : Sanctus Reachwould have many arrows in his bow, which would make the title one of those strategies where to keep in mind many variables. Both the Space Wolf and Pelleverde units are equipped with multiple weapons, such as the iconic Bolter, the Lascannon or, moreover, the Chain Sword, not counting the heroes in battle, each of which has its own statistics, points of strength and weakness and mode of use.
The Bolt guns hit and drop – in theory – orchids from a long distance, while the flamethrowers only strike close, but the fire acts on a larger number of boxes. Tactical depth is also guaranteed by the many variants of units that appear on the playing field, some of which are really fancied from the point of view of design, such as Imperial Knight, Dreadnought and Gorknaut, while many others are, however, little inspired and anonymous .
