Now Available on Console: The Greatest Warhammer Game of Recent Years<br>

Before I started playing Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, I wasn’t all that fond of the Grey Knights. Actually, I don’t really care about them anymore, but I’ve since discovered that the elite that love Exterminatus is not all that they seem to be. That’s partly due to the voice acting of Andy Serkis and partly to the hours you spend playing the game with the Grey Knight characters. Mostly though, it’s because I witnessed the terrible demise of each and every one of my virtual Terminators.

You get the classic XCOM puzzle in Daemonhunters. The first Plague Marine to point its Blight Launcher in their direction will instantly maim them after you have leveled up your super soldier, carefully chosen their buffs and abilities, chosen the appropriate wargear for the mission, and of course given them a name that either befits their status or reflects one of your friends. For this very reason, I stopped naming characters after my daughter.

Even though I’m saddened when Corporal Childhood Friend dies, I wouldn’t be as devastated if the gameplay and stakes weren’t so intense. It wouldn’t be enjoyable at all if Daemonhunters was an unfair contest where hundreds of Great Unclean Ones swamped your screen with their ichor and vomit. Don’t get me wrong, things are challenging at first, but as soon as you strengthen your team and begin using more powerful weapons, the tasks become easier.

Although Andy Serkis remains dissatisfied, his holographic face on the console gives the impression that it is being beamed straight into your skull, as if you were truly explaining your defeats to Grand Master Vardan Kai. To put it plainly, it’s terrible.

Daemonhunters offers it all, whether you’re a Dreadnought enthusiast like me and enjoy using your massive feet to smash pustuled cultists under your feet or you prefer a more methodical approach by hiding in the shadows and utilizing your sniper rifle to take out vital targets. Apart from that, the console transfer is excellent; however, both of those characters are presently unavailable due to their exclusivity to the PC version of Duty Eternal DLC.

Similar to XCOM, Daemonhunters is difficult to transfer to a gamepad. Because it’s a keyboard and mouse game, it can be a little tricky to play. Selecting the precise square on which your Space Marine will stand, making sure you’re in the right amount of cover, and lining up your Purifier to cleanse as many Chaos worshippers as you can in searing flames are all relatively simple tasks when done with a mouse, but considerably more challenging when done with a controller. Although Daemonhunters doesn’t really innovate in this field, it can nevertheless be quite good at turn-based combat on the sticks. It took me a few tries to get the swing of things, but I quickly got the feel of it.


There’s not much more to say than that. At the very least, the game works smoothly on my Xbox Series X, but even so, I’m quietly happy. Although you can’t browse the battlefield as easily as you can on a PC, it’s still not enough to turn you off based on the looks of conversations with your advisors.

The port’s performance gains are by far the greatest. My gaming laptop cannot withstand the fury of the Imperium, but my PC can. My Steam Deck cannot either. I’m not sure if it’s because of bad optimisation or Nurglings in the code, but something causes less powerful devices to chug. For this reason, I think the Xbox performance is impressive and the decision to go to consoles is a smart one for the game. I’ve played a lot of tactical Warhammer games over the years, but this one is definitely the most entertaining for those without high-end machines. If you’re even a mild enthusiast of the 40K universe, it’s certainly worth spending your money on, much like Helldivers 2. You might even get fond of the Grey Knights, just like I do.