This PSP demo can be grabbed here: http://www.thq-games.com/uk/game/dem...quad&per_page=
I'm a big fan of Relic and what they did for Dawn of War - I don't play the humongous money sink that is the tabletop game but I'm eagerly waiting Soul Storm (Dawn of War third expansion) and I was interested in this game, which is developed by Red Linx.
It should come out on both PSP and DS and I think it would be hard to tell which version is the best.
The demo consist of a single mission where you have to annihilate all Chaos forces while playing as a small Space Marine squad of the Ultramarine chapter.
You start with 5 Tactical Space Marines and one Dreadnought (whoo-oh!).
Each unit carries a standard weapon with infinite ammo: Marines got bolters (basic ranged weapon) and Dreadnought with a Power Fist (melee weapon). Then you can equip them with a secondary weapon system: Marines got chainswords (melee weapon) and plasma rifles (explosive ranged weapons), Dreddy got a twinlinked lascannon and assault cannon (both extremely destructive ranged weapons).
Last step, you can give more or less ammo to these secondary systems; assigning secondary weapons and extra ammo will decrease the unit's action points.
The battlefield is represented in a nice 3D view and it won't be long until you understand that everything can be destroyed, as long as you have powerful enough weapons and ammo. In fact, to complete the demo you have to destroy a couple of walls and gas pipes. Graphic presentation is good, your units and enemies have a fairly decent number of polygons, textures are clear, explosions are good and the environment is quite detailed. Sound is a bit disappointing, with no background music and just one voice feedback for each unit, but it's a 6 Mb demo, there's nothing much it can be done.
The mission is divided into turns, first you take action than you end your turn and watch the enemy make its moves.
Each unit has a certain amount of action points that get replenished at the start of each turn and they are used to move and shoot. Each weapon requires a different amount of point to be fired and you can spend extra points to improve accurancy and likeness to kill a certain enemy in a single volley.
For example, firing a Marine bolter takes 4 action points; this makes the Marine shoot a volley of four projectiles to his target, but they aren't enough to kill the demo's basic enemy, the Chaos Cultist. Rather than using a second 4-AP volley you can increase the spent points to 6 and get your kill and save some APs.
You can move and fire as many times you want, as long as you have APs. You can also freely switch between units during your turn, for example move one Marine, fire with your Dreadnought, move the first Marine again, then move two other Marins, fire again with your Dreadnought and so on.
If a unit has enough APs left at the end of the turn, it will automatically fire when a target comes into sight in the enemy's turn, giving the player even more strategical depth.
On the PSP you can bring up a tactical map by pressing select, which will show a bird's eye view of the battlefield with all visible enemy units - this map is very easy to use even during enemy turns, where the AI makes all of its units act at the same time - which is a godsend, there's almost no pause between your turns.
I must say that this demo mission was engaging enough to make me much more than interested in the game, even if the promise of "15 single player missions & 9 multiplayer maps" gives the hint that there will be just a Space Marine campaign...Chaos player here wants to play Chaos against puny servants of the false Emperor, pretty pretty please.
Now I'd really like to test the DS version. The PSP version has good controls, but I think the touch screen will allow for a faster action and the second screen will allow to keep under control more information at once, even if graphics won't be as good and the camera won't cover as much ground.
For 6 Mbs, this demo is totally worth a try.
I'm a big fan of Relic and what they did for Dawn of War - I don't play the humongous money sink that is the tabletop game but I'm eagerly waiting Soul Storm (Dawn of War third expansion) and I was interested in this game, which is developed by Red Linx.
It should come out on both PSP and DS and I think it would be hard to tell which version is the best.
The demo consist of a single mission where you have to annihilate all Chaos forces while playing as a small Space Marine squad of the Ultramarine chapter.
You start with 5 Tactical Space Marines and one Dreadnought (whoo-oh!).
Each unit carries a standard weapon with infinite ammo: Marines got bolters (basic ranged weapon) and Dreadnought with a Power Fist (melee weapon). Then you can equip them with a secondary weapon system: Marines got chainswords (melee weapon) and plasma rifles (explosive ranged weapons), Dreddy got a twinlinked lascannon and assault cannon (both extremely destructive ranged weapons).
Last step, you can give more or less ammo to these secondary systems; assigning secondary weapons and extra ammo will decrease the unit's action points.
The battlefield is represented in a nice 3D view and it won't be long until you understand that everything can be destroyed, as long as you have powerful enough weapons and ammo. In fact, to complete the demo you have to destroy a couple of walls and gas pipes. Graphic presentation is good, your units and enemies have a fairly decent number of polygons, textures are clear, explosions are good and the environment is quite detailed. Sound is a bit disappointing, with no background music and just one voice feedback for each unit, but it's a 6 Mb demo, there's nothing much it can be done.
The mission is divided into turns, first you take action than you end your turn and watch the enemy make its moves.
Each unit has a certain amount of action points that get replenished at the start of each turn and they are used to move and shoot. Each weapon requires a different amount of point to be fired and you can spend extra points to improve accurancy and likeness to kill a certain enemy in a single volley.
For example, firing a Marine bolter takes 4 action points; this makes the Marine shoot a volley of four projectiles to his target, but they aren't enough to kill the demo's basic enemy, the Chaos Cultist. Rather than using a second 4-AP volley you can increase the spent points to 6 and get your kill and save some APs.
You can move and fire as many times you want, as long as you have APs. You can also freely switch between units during your turn, for example move one Marine, fire with your Dreadnought, move the first Marine again, then move two other Marins, fire again with your Dreadnought and so on.
If a unit has enough APs left at the end of the turn, it will automatically fire when a target comes into sight in the enemy's turn, giving the player even more strategical depth.
On the PSP you can bring up a tactical map by pressing select, which will show a bird's eye view of the battlefield with all visible enemy units - this map is very easy to use even during enemy turns, where the AI makes all of its units act at the same time - which is a godsend, there's almost no pause between your turns.
I must say that this demo mission was engaging enough to make me much more than interested in the game, even if the promise of "15 single player missions & 9 multiplayer maps" gives the hint that there will be just a Space Marine campaign...Chaos player here wants to play Chaos against puny servants of the false Emperor, pretty pretty please.
Now I'd really like to test the DS version. The PSP version has good controls, but I think the touch screen will allow for a faster action and the second screen will allow to keep under control more information at once, even if graphics won't be as good and the camera won't cover as much ground.
For 6 Mbs, this demo is totally worth a try.
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