![]() It's not just the planetbound threats that kept me on my silver-clad toes. There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, but they are wisely introduced at a gradual pace. The curve starts off at its highest before gradually gliding down and leveling off as your roster expands, your vessel is repaired, and you gain more powerful gear that improves your survivability. The very beginning, when you have only four Knights, a badly damaged ship, and limited tools, is the most dangerous and difficult part – and that felt off to me from a balance standpoint. There are sneaky failure spirals built in that could result in you struggling to keep the crusade going for dozens of hours before truly being confronted with the futility, particularly if you don't do well in the first several missions. I toughed it out on Normal despite having to restart twice – one time after I was already over a third of the way through the 50-plus hour story – but I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to drop down to Easy, at least until you have a strong mastery of the systems. Make no mistake: Daemonhunters is an absolutely brutal game. I was simply being pushed into the mud and kicked repeatedly. And when I couldn't even keep pace with the number of new horrors spawning in, my consumables spent and willpower reserves long run dry, I felt like my cleverness and tenacity just didn't matter. But in the titular Chaos Gate missions, which were definitely my least favorite, they're actually infinite. There were so many missions where my ability to multitask was already being tested and suddenly – by the Emperor's shriveled balls, there are MORE of them? At least in normal missions there is a finite pool of reinforcements that can spawn. ![]() However, it can get very frustrating when Daemonhunters' favorite trick seems to be spawning 50 enemy reinforcements right on top of you in the middle of an already pitched battle. ![]() It's oh-so-satisfying to turn a desperate situation into a one-sided slaughter. And it's oh-so-satisfying to turn a desperate situation into a one-sided slaughter through careful order of operations. All of this encouraged me to think about every possible outcome of every turn and orchestrate the destruction of my enemies like I was composing lethal sonata. Most enemies also have a stun bar which, once filled, allows them to be executed with a brutal melee strike, and like in Gears Tactics, pulling that off grants your whole squad an extra action point. This feeling of full tactical control is further enhanced as your Knights level up and you unlock new abilities that can be combined with deadly synergy. There is some rewarding randomness with things like critical hits, but usually your well-thought-out plan isn't going to be derailed because someone missed a 95 percent shot from point-blank range. Distance and cover simply reduce the damage from ranged attacks, and a helpful overlay in the UI shows you exactly how much damage you could do to each enemy from a given spot before you lock in your move. If it's within line of sight and your weapon's range, you can bring the pain. One major difference from XCOM is that there is no die roll to hit. I was almost constantly impressed by how many different, interesting ways there were to construct a turn with my Knights' fairly simple tools. Sometimes it's better to rely on good ol' lead and steel rather than cut loose with Jedi mind tricks. Sometimes it's better to rely on good ol' lead and steel rather than cut loose with Jedi mind tricks and risk the perils of the warp. ![]() This creates weighty turn-to-turn decisions that go beyond simply rationing out your ammo and magic points, since filling the meter could spawn in additional enemy reinforcements or result in your whole team contracting a hellish plague. But using them comes with an extra cost because it also builds up a Warp meter, since psychics in 40K tend to attract the attention of daemons from the Immaterium. Every Knight has a willpower pool that can be spent on useful psychic abilities like improved weapon damage or healing their comrades.
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