Reviewed: January 25, 2004
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
THQ
Developer
Kuju Entertainment
Released: November 17, 2003
Genre: FPS
Players: 8
ESRB: Mature
8
9
8
6
7.9
Supported Features:
Warhammer 40,000 is just one of many strategy and RPG games like Dungeons & Dragons that were cultivated in the basements of nerds around the world and have since spun off into computer games, only this time Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior leaves the strategy and miniature figures behind and takes you into the dark nightmarish future of the 41st Millennium, the grim era of the Imperium of Man.
The conflict is massive with a battlefield spread across a million different worlds. Powerful armies of Space Marines, Imperial Guard, and Tau Fire Warriors are in constant conflict, unleashing carnage via mechanical war machines, crushing artillery, and vast starships. Fire Warrior follows one day in the tumultuous life of Kais, a young Tau Warrior who must battle alone against a force that shows no mercy: The Imperium of Man. Kais will soon learn there is a darker foe at hand and becomes entangled in a frightening story that leads him through an ongoing war.
Once you have absorbed the material presented in the opening movie you quickly find yourself on a dropship headed through the atmosphere to your designated LZ. After you touch down and exit the ship you are quickly thrust into combat with a few of your team, but ultimately you break away from the pack and Fire Warrior becomes a solo experience.
The entire campaign consists of a single day and 20 missions. The 24-hour premise is a neat idea even though Kiefer Sutherland has been doing it for three years now. It does lend a bit of urgency and even some reality to the missions even though you are never really on a timer. It’s more about continuity, building up the pace then keeping the momentum from start to finish.
Missions have some varying objectives but the underlying theme is always to kill everything that moves using a wonderful assortment of authentic Warhammer weapons that fans of the strategy game will enjoy and everyone else will take for granted. You have your traditional pulse rifle, laser gun, shotgun, sniper rifle, and some cool variations. You also have a night vision mode that helps out with the darker areas of the game.
One of the more interesting and realistic aspects of Fire Warrior is that you can only carry two weapons. Not only does this make the game much more believable, it also creates some unique strategy when you are forced to decide on whether to pick up a new weapon and which one you are going to drop to do so.
The enemies are challenging and get bigger and tougher the further into the game you go, but the AI never really rises above what you experience in the first few levels. What they lack in AI they more than make up for in numbers, and when you put a sniper rifle in their hands you’ll feel like somebody painted a big red bull’s-eye on your head.
Fire Warrior comes with a solid, but limited, multiplayer game that supports a multitap and PS2 Online. The basic online modes are here including Deathmatch, CTF and team versions of the same, but where the multiplayer gets limited is in the lack of multiplayer maps. There are only two maps for each mode and the team variations share those same maps so you only have four multiplayer maps to choose from and they aren’t even that interesting. They could have at least let us play the campaign maps in multiplayer.
Online play is surprisingly smooth assuming you have a decent broadband connection. There were a few instances of players warping about during six and especially eight player games but most of the time the game was as smooth as local multiplayer.
Obviously you won’t be playing this game as long as something like TimeSplitters 2 - the lord of PS2 FPS games. The lack of cooperative play was also sorely missed. Even though the story mode was designed around a lone warrior it could have easily been upgraded to include a squad of Tau Warriors.
The first thing I said to myself when I started playing this game was, “Is this a PS2 game?” Fire Warrior looks stunning, ranking right up there with the texture and lighting quality found on many of the recent Xbox FPS titles. The levels are massive and include both indoor and outdoor areas with fantastic lighting and special effects.
Weapons and character models are nicely modeled and painted with realistic textures. They’re animated with smooth and lifelike movement and the game engine is capable of rendering multiple enemies, blazing gunfire, fiery explosions and plenty of smoke and particle effects without sacrificing framerate. The game is a solid performer with only a few minor incidents where the framerate dipped low enough to be noticeable.
The menus are easy to read and navigate and the HUD works flawlessly, displaying everything you need to know with a slightly transparent futuristic format that doesn’t block the important stuff. Kudos to the design team for actually making a waypoint arrow that is not only functional but actually improves the gameplay.
The CG movies are beyond cool, ranking right up there with your favorite CG animated feature films. Some of the space vistas are breathtaking and the enormous battle fleets look like something from Return of the Jedi.
The opening movie and the menus offer up a suitable military theme that will get you pumped for battle, but when the dropship door opens and the weapons come out the music goes silent and it’s nothing but shouting, gunfire, and explosions. Not only will you not miss the in-game music, it actually intensifies the gameplay by brining these realistic (and futuristic) sounds of war to the forefront of the audio package.
There is a nominal amount of voice acting, mainly in the movies and plenty of shouting during combat. It’s not the best voice work in the history of gaming but certainly not the worst. It does pale in comparison to the detailed and authentic sound effects and the voices of the Tau are just plain weird.
Most FPS gamers can finish the 20 campaign missions in 10-12 hours. Once the game is finished you will unlock a harder difficulty setting, and you can also go back and play any of the individual missions again and try to better your scores for speed and accuracy. Earning high scores will unlock some bonus items and gameplay options.
The multiplayer had the potential to really make this game something special. The online code is solid and the game is fun so it only makes it that much more regrettable that there just isn’t more content. With only four maps, a few modes, and hardly any multiplayer options to choose from, most people will just get tired of the limited multiplayer experience and move on to something new and different.
Whether you are a hardcore Warhammer fan from the pre-video game days or just looking for a great FPS title for your PS2, you won’t be disappointed with Fire Warrior. Sure it’s short and the online game is disappointing, but the core campaign is challenging and lots of fun. Those with a visual sweet tooth will love the eye candy this game has to offer, and the sounds of war have never been this dramatic.
Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior is fun and challenging and a game you won’t want to miss, but for many I can see this as a rental rather than a purchase. Once you’re done with the campaign and you’ve fiddled with the multiplayer for a few hours you’re not likely to come back anytime soon.