Few people love Warhammer 40,000 more than I do. I have countless miniatures, as well as most of the codices from 1-9th editions. I have dozens of Warhammer 40,000 games and shelves full of novels and collectibles. What I wanted out of Chaos Gate was a game with a rich-story, excellent XCOM-like game play and plenty of squad customizability. What I got instead was an overly complex, dull, lore-deaf title with laughably poor presentation.

What does the game get right? It runs and it's turn based. That's about it. What does it get wrong? Everything else. The story is dull and threadbare. Sound and music are forgettable. Graphics and character designs are an abject failure. I'm sure some people will like the "absurd, toy-like" appearance of the Grey Knights in Chaos Gate but, truth be told, the appearance of all of the characters, from ridiculous proportions, senseless sizing and rough detailing just rub me the wrong way. Plenty of other sources like the Astartes fan film, to Regicide by Hammerfall all had firstborn marines that were both faithful to the original design, yet brutally cool in appearance. These marines look like a *joke*.

What's even worse is that the game is overly detailed, with tons of pointless options, actions, graphical cues, objects and the like, rendering the title a veritable vomit of UI excess. The game isn't even lore-accurate as marines are more apt to knock down columns or use smashing attacks rather than using their nemesis weaponry or absurdly powerful bolters. Moreover, I played the game for 30 minutes against 4 chaos heretics on maximal difficulty. My findings? One heretic took four thunderhammer strikes to die. Another took three hails of bolter fire. I immediately replayed the same fight on the lowest difficulty possible and discovered the same issue.

Three thunderhammer strikes. Two volleys of bolter fire. All this and a dearth of real equipment customizability. I couldn't proceed past the two hour mark despite three distinct attempts to restart the game. It was literally that boring. While this game gets attention and support, the sad part is excellent titles like the abandoned Warhammer 40,000 Deathwatch languish in oblivion. I guess people would prefer to focus on knocking rocks on their enemy's head, rather than upgrading their character's wargear and tactics.

If you have low standards and are desperate for a turn based strategy game, then I suppose this title could suffice but one could ask why you wouldn't just play Rogue Trader or Deathwatch instead. Heck, there are plenty of non-Warhammer 40,000 games that have more features than this game, while being far more beautiful *and* intuitive.

Expensive, yet unsatisfying fare.

Not worth the time. There are better games available...like Deathwatch.

6/10.

Few people love Warhammer 40,000 more than I do. I have countless miniatures, as well as most of the codices from 1-9th editions. I have dozens of Warhammer 40,000 games and shelves full of novels and collectibles. What I wanted out of Chaos Gate was a game with a rich-story, excellent XCOM-like game play and plenty of squad customizability. What I got instead was an overly complex, dull, lore-deaf title with laughably poor presentation. What does the game get right? It runs and it's turn based. That's about it. What does it get wrong? Everything else. The story is dull and threadbare. Sound and music are forgettable. Graphics and character designs are an abject failure. I'm sure some people will like the "absurd, toy-like" appearance of the Grey Knights in Chaos Gate but, truth be told, the appearance of all of the characters, from ridiculous proportions, senseless sizing and rough detailing just rub me the wrong way. Plenty of other sources like the Astartes fan film, to Regicide by Hammerfall all had firstborn marines that were both faithful to the original design, yet brutally cool in appearance. These marines look like a *joke*. What's even worse is that the game is overly detailed, with tons of pointless options, actions, graphical cues, objects and the like, rendering the title a veritable vomit of UI excess. The game isn't even lore-accurate as marines are more apt to knock down columns or use smashing attacks rather than using their nemesis weaponry or absurdly powerful bolters. Moreover, I played the game for 30 minutes against 4 chaos heretics on maximal difficulty. My findings? One heretic took four thunderhammer strikes to die. Another took three hails of bolter fire. I immediately replayed the same fight on the lowest difficulty possible and discovered the same issue. Three thunderhammer strikes. Two volleys of bolter fire. All this and a dearth of real equipment customizability. I couldn't proceed past the two hour mark despite three distinct attempts to restart the game. It was literally that boring. While this game gets attention and support, the sad part is excellent titles like the abandoned Warhammer 40,000 Deathwatch languish in oblivion. I guess people would prefer to focus on knocking rocks on their enemy's head, rather than upgrading their character's wargear and tactics. If you have low standards and are desperate for a turn based strategy game, then I suppose this title could suffice but one could ask why you wouldn't just play Rogue Trader or Deathwatch instead. Heck, there are plenty of non-Warhammer 40,000 games that have more features than this game, while being far more beautiful *and* intuitive. Expensive, yet unsatisfying fare. Not worth the time. There are better games available...like Deathwatch. 6/10.