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| Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior: Trial by Fire |
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I recently got a chance at some hands-on time with Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior for the PS2. The game, which is inspired by the universe of the popular Warhammer 40K tabletop war-game from Games Workshop, is a first-person shooter chronicling 24 hours in the life of a young Tau warrior named Kais as he battles the Imperium. Though the game looks a little rough around the edges, there's definite potential.
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The demo begins after your warrior is dropped into the midst of a trench war. The Tau forces are pinned down and in desperate need for backup, which you will provide. After a quick rundown of your objective, which is to get to the extraction zone, you're dropped into the heart of the battle. From the start, it's obvious that Fire Warrior's development was heavily inspired by Halo. You begin the game armed only with a Tau rifle and two grenades. In true FPS fashion, you'll be able to gain new weapons by looting the corpses of both your comrades and enemies. Similar to Halo, you can only carry two weapons at a time, which makes weapon selection critical. Selection becomes even more apparent when you find out that technically you're only allowed to select one weapon since you're required to carry your Tau rifle at all times. This becomes frustrating throughout the game since there were multiple times where I'd find myself with no ammo for my Tau rifle, and had to resort to using whatever I could find. For the most part the weapons selection is nice, but nothing out of the ordinary, ranging from the typical machine gun to a laser blaster. There are also mounted machine guns scattered around the field that can be used, however it's clear that there are still a few issues to work out (such as the gun deciding to make a quick aim at the ground rather then what I was trying to shoot at). In another nod to Halo, Fire Warrior features a self-generating shield display. This ensures that no matter how much fire you take, you'll have something to help protect you until you find health packs (which are plentiful). This is especially useful since enemies tend to inflict massive damage.
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For the most part, the game follows the typical FPS layout. You run through labyrinthine maps while shooting at swarms of enemies, collecting various keys and weapons along the way. The atmosphere presented in Fire Warrior is really nice, and does a great job of setting the game's tone. Everything has a very washed-out, dark, gritty feel. This effect is probably one of the best things about the game so far, and accomplishes something few games outside of the Medal of Honor series have been able to. As you run through trenches, you get the feeling of that of a much larger battle as tanks jump the gaps, explosions go off every few feet (which can damage you when close) and ships zoom overhead. This feeling also carries over into the game's graphics, which are generally good. One of the more impressive aspects is how closely each of the game's models reflected the original miniatures they are based after. As always, it's the little things that get me. The game's audio aspect was low key, and I imagine nothing other than the basics have been implemented as of yet.
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I've always felt the Warhammer (and Warhammer 40K) series would make great source material for a game, and from what I've been able to see from this build of the game (provided some of the wrinkles are ironed out) Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior looks to be on pace to deliver.
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-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker |
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