Well-Presented
The graphics might not be fantastic but they’re far from ugly, and helped enormously with the great addition of the shoulder camera – when you select a terminator you can see the view from their eyes shown in the top right. The nicest thing with the graphics is how well they scale; when I tried the game on my laptop on the lowest settings the game still looked great, almost as good even.
More importantly, the critical elements of the presentation such as the UI and menus are clear and easy to use as well. Early on there were some problems with mission objectives being unclear and the odd graphical screw-up, but these have since been patched, with further bug fixing and improvements in the works.
NOT
Short on Content
While the campaign is good, having been tested to destruction and not found wanting for the boardgame version, it isn’t all that long. I’m fairly familiar with most of the missions so I finished it in around 8 hours, but I would expect that to be at least 12 for newcomers. Something of a disappointment is the lack of any kind of final cutscene or similar to end the campaign with – a short narration is all you get.
Slow Gameplay
The lumbering movement of the space marines fits perfectly with the lore and gives them a great sense of weight, but it does slow the gameplay down. While as a boardgame you just move your pieces and be done with it, here you have to watch your terminators ponderously get into position. I don’t think of the pace as much of a problem – even after playing through the whole campaign I still don’t get tired of watching the animations, but I can imagine how it would be frustrating for many; a simple function where you can press a button to skip the animation would be a great addition to fix this.
Verdict
All in all, I had a great time with Space Hulk, and I expect I’ll continue to do so playing the multiplayer (which I think will be better with friends) and nabbing all the campaign achievements. That said the current price tag of £22.99/ €27.99/$29.99 on Steam is a little bit steep for what you’re getting right now but not to the point I wouldn’t recommend the game, and that price is only going to look friendlier once the promised mission editor and co-op modes arrive. If you’re looking for a tense and atmospheric turn-based strategy game with the feel of a boardgame then this is pretty much your only option, and a good one at that.
