 Warhammer 40,000: Fire
Warrior starts off with a bang. It begins with a future-history filled
with war told with beautiful visuals. It is exciting, interesting, and
all before any actual gameplay. It is as soon as the game really begins
that it all falls apart. Warhammer snuck in at the end of the year just
in time to be one of my least favorite gamesthe year.
 My biggest problem with
Warhammer is that it just doesn’t carry any weight. There is no amount
of realism. There just isn’t anything to draw you in. You definitely
never forget you are playing a videogame, instead of having an
adventure. The guns feel muted, your enemies feel like cardboard cut
outs, and there is no intensity to the levels. You never really feel any
tension. It should have been a no-brainer to give this game some weight.
Warhammer has a solid back-story. It is based on the popular Warhammer
40,000 strategy game franchise, yet there is just nothing there. The
beginning cinematic had me really wanting to enjoy the game but the
gameplay was so bad that I just couldn’t do it.
 The first thing that strikes
you is the dramatic drop in graphical quality when the game first goes
from cut-scene to game graphics. They are very plain, not bad but just
more like something you would have expected to see a couple years ago.
The way that your shots effect the environment is laughable. Instead of
gunshots they look more like inkblots splattered upon the wall. The
character models themselves are the highlight; even still, they are far
from anything that would set Warhammer apart from other games. It was
very disappointing after the beautiful trailer and opening sequence.
 My number one complaint
with Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior is the weapons. There is your
standard fare: single shots, rapid fires, heat seekers, sniper rifles,
and rocket launchers. None of them are all that great though. They don’t
look cool (in your hand or in the way they shoot). You can’t aim them
too save your life (and it just so happens that you have to do that).
Like the rest of the game they lack weight. When you shoot someone or
something there is no apparent impact. At first I was never sure if I
was even hitting my targets (turns out half the time I wasn’t). Most
guns have no recoil and the ones that do have very little. Like I said
earlier, when you shoot the wall it looks more like shooting a paintball
gun. In fact, the whole game has the feeling of being the future of
paintball.
 I was furious when I
couldn’t shoot my brother in the multiplayer mode. I was shooting at
near point-blank range. So to test it I walked right up to a wall and
let loose a barrage of laser blasts. The shots landed all over the
place. Even in places that the lasers would have had to come out of my
gun at angles to hit. This explained a lot. Thank god for the auto aim
feature. It helped out a lot but was still pretty silly. The auto aim
would move my aiming reticule to places my gun was obviously not
pointing towards. Funny? Yes. Cool? No.
 The big boast of this game
is the online multi-player. Even that isn’t very good. First of all I
had the hardest time finding a game. Most games I tried to connect to
would not let me. I took into account the varying speeds of internet
connection and decided it was best to try it at some friends’ houses
too. But it was exactly the same. The games I did connect to (once again
at my house and friends) were still very slow. In fact, the lag made
some games nearly unplayable. It was like trying to fight Nightcrawler
in the opening sequence of X-men 2. My opponents would pop in and out of
the level. It was impossible to hit them because they were constantly
disappearing from the screen. Even the lock-on type weapons couldn’t
keep up with the lag. My only chance would be to get the rocket launcher
and try to blow up a bigger area than the opponent could escape. Of
course if I missed, it takes a while for that particular gun to reload,
and I would be dead.
 That is a major problem but
even if that weren’t true the game would still be lacking. There is only
a small selection of maps to play and they are not very large. I was
quickly bored of playing in the levels that were available. This isn’t
the only selection that is limited. There aren’t very many types of
gameplay., and there aren’t many characters to choose from. I have
become accustom to having more than two characters and types of gameplay--and
in most cases it is the unique games that really capture my attention.
Don’t expect to see anything neat here. Deathmatch, team deathmatch, and
capture the flag are all that are offered. Online, Warhammer is a
disappointing experience.
 My laundry list of
complaints ends with the music, or rather the lack there of. Warhammer
has no music. What on earth were they thinking? Way to not set a mood.
Poor graphics and no music—what a thrilling idea. At least the beginning
cut scene was neat.
 This game just wasn’t any
fun for me. Honestly, I don’t think it will be a lot of fun for anyone.
There are always people who like any game but even for those people
there are lots of better games to spend your money on. The lack of
options cuts the replayablity down to none (not to mention the whole
lack of fun thing). If you still don’t believe me at least head my
warning and rent it first. I think you will thank me.
Matt James (02/17/2004) |
