Space Hulk

All of these darkly gothic games, movies and books are fine and dandy, depicting the future of mankind as some kind of knife-edge battle just to survive, usually against some superior alien race, but has anyone thought about the poor folk involved? Take Space Hulk for instance; based on the popular Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game of the same name, it features Space Marine Terminators (no relation to either the marines from Jim Cameron’s Aliens movie nor the Austrian bodybuilder now serving as Governor in California) who must infiltrate giant derelict spaceships where, likely as not, they’re going to get squished by a multi-limbed nasty of some variety. Nice. It makes you wonder about the Terminators’ career choices at school. “Well Carl, with your qualifications you can either collect garbage or be eviscerated by a drooling monster in the cold depths of space.” Tough choice.

Facetious comments aside, we’re big fans of the Warhammer 40,000 universe here at Pocket Gamer, both of the computer game spin-offs and the original tabletop games, so we’re gladdened to see Space Hulk coming to the mobile. Somewhat fittingly, Space Hulk was the first GW tabletop game to be translated into a computer game and it’s the first GW game to make the leap to mobile, too. Pitting the hard-as-nails, heavily armoured Terminators against their arch-enemies, the Genestealers (big purple beasties with four arms and lots of claws and teeth), it manages to merge the tactics and tension of the tabletop game with the exhilaration of the computer game.

Intriguingly, there’re two elements to Space Hulk’s play. A tactical, turn-based version of the game provides you with a plan view of the space hulk (a derelict space ship adrift in space) you’re investigating and enables you to mastermind your squad’s advance with forethought and precision. A more immediate version of the game drops you straight into the heavy metal armour of a terminator, equips you with a large shooty firearm and gives you a shove into the dank, deserted corridors of the hulk. With the emphasis placed squarely on action, the tactical element is pushed to the side in favour of a more gung-ho approach. Viewed from a first-person perspective you’ll be able to experience the terror close up.

In each version you’re required to meet a set of objectives such as securing a particular room, destroying an artefact or recovering something such as a reconnaissance droid. And each time you’ll be facing the dreaded Genestealers, an ever-present menace who show up on your radar as blips that may conceal as few as one and as many as three of their number.

Space Hulk is being released by THQ Wireless and should be available later this summer across all major networks. You can rest assured that Pocket Gamer will be bringing you a review as soon as we can get our sweaty paws on a copy.