Warhammer 40,000 Fire Warrior (PC)

This is vital to enjoying the game since it uses graphics and sounds from a time before the Pentium. Being a 40k player myself this does not bother me one bit. When you are standing one on one with a space marine you soon learn to respect their mighty boltgun and power armour! The idea of handling one of the weapons you have only seen as a miniature up until now is what this game is all about.

Then why only two stars? Well, let me start with a minor irritation. Every mission is not only made extremely obvious but the obvious is also stated again and again. The sentence "You need a key for this door" echoes trough the speakers whenever specifically coloured bars deny you access to an area. Or the words "You need to set a charge" when standing before a red outlined figure of where the charge is supposed to go.

The major irritation however is the game console style of progression. By this I mean that you are unable to save the game at any point. In stead it is saved automatically after each level. So if you are unable to finish the level when you quit playing (yes, I do have a life besides gaming), you will have to start all over again the next time. This is only a partial setback when you "die" in the game. In this case you are set back to a safe point. But when you end the game before ending the level you will have to start all over again!

I used to play Warhammer 40,000 when I was a (young) teen so I am not really up-to-date with the Tau but thought a FPS in the Warhammer world would be amazing. It just seems like this game was incredibly dated even before it was released. The graphics are dreary and, at best, mediocre. With competition from the likes of original licenses such as XIII and (the upcoming) Doom III, you almost feel sorry for Firewarrior. It simply cannot compete with the aforementioned.

The collision detection is plain awful (you seem to fire volley upon volley of shots just to kill your average 'grunt'). The pace is fast but dull and almost every detail is pretty uninspiring. There’s no depth…you run; shoot; pick up a key; run; kill some guys; run; jump…errrrr…and run again. There’s no level in-game music apart from tedious sound effects which adds very little to the atmosphere. The annoying thing is that I had also to spend almost 2 hours (!!) downloading new patches and graphic card drivers simply because the game wouldn't support mine. This could also affect similar users.

Another reviewer has said that this game isn't strictly meant for non-Warhammer players...but, if that's the case; why release it?! Fobbing people off with the excuse "not for everyone, but Warhammer fans will love it" is terrible in my eyes. I seriously doubt that Games Workshop would have released this game exclusively for Warhammer players. If this game had been made properly and was enjoyable it would have appealed to practically anyone; no matter what their bias – player or not! A great theme; definitely...but a good game; certainly not.

I personally really enjoyed this game, but that enjoyment lay in the fact that the rich background and fiction of the Warhammer 40k universe was paramount to the feel of the game. The game takes many small items of background (known so commonly to tabletop gamers as fluff)and integrates them well enough to give an all round 40k feel. Simple things such as the size of a bolter in the small Kais' hands, the effectiveness of each weapon against different targets (trying taking down a space marine with an autogun and he'll just laugh at you), and the equipment of the different enemies. Perhaps the one part of the game which is a little "unfluffy" is at the beginning where you as Kais use a pulse rifle to bring down an Imperial Marauder.

Another thing is knowing the 40k universe changed my experience of the game. I remember steeping out to be confronted with the first space marine. Knowing exactly what a space marine is (a genetically engineered superhuman warrior, wearing the some of finest armour available to the imperium of man, armed with terrifyingly deadly weapons and trained just as much to match ~these guys could kill 100 men with their bare hands, in below zero temperatures, after not eating for days, with one arm tied behind their back *for those of you who haven't played warhammer 40k) really did strike the fear of the God Emperor into me! Laying my hands on my first plasma gun had me strutting around thinking HA bring it on! Running out of ammo and being forced to charge a unit of the imperiums crack elite stormtroopers with the Talissera bonding knife raised my stress level somewhat.

In summary I think those who play the tabletop, and really like all the rich and interesting fluff, will love to see it rendered in good graphics of firewarrior. For those who don't play, I would suggest avoiding the game, the graphics are good but not shockingly lavish, the AI suffers as with many a first person shooter, and having not played the tabletop and not read up on the ample background you will find yourself being unable to relate, and unimpressed with being confronted with a terminator, you wont have the initial fear of being in a room as a dreadnought lumbers round to target you with what you know to be a missile launcher, you wont get excited when you get your hands on a rail rifle, to the extent to which fan of the tabletop will. Therefore I deem the game a 40k fan only (and those who don't have anytime for the fluff should probably avoid as well) One last final note, the experience was multipled for me by the narrator being the voice acting talent of.......Tom Baker! (a former Doctor Who to you heathens out there!)