Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

"Horrible. Just horrible."

I'm an old school 40K fan. This tabletop strategy game and I go way back. So, when I saw screenies and saw the game for a measly $30 at Best Buy, I figured, what the heck. I ignored, however, GWI's abysmal track record on video games. The first Warhammer games released were bsed in their fantasy games, and while gameplay was interesting and fun for their time, the games were, as most will attest, FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE. Which made those two very UNfun.

Then there was the PC shooter where you played a team of Terminator Space Marines and had to manipulate your team to make sure the nasty little genestealers didn't eat you. Great in concept, horrible in execution. Control was horrible, and the difficulty was, in GWI tradition, neigh impossible.

So, we have a company with a track record for trainwrecks of games, leaving fans of their RPG tabletop games feeling a bit desolate. But, Firewarrior seemed like it had promise. Let's get down to why the only thing GWI can boast about this game is that it's consistent as to what you'd expect from them at this point :

Graphics - 5 : Okay, there are some nice effects and all, but this entire game, physics included, looks like it's a beefy Quake 2 mod. There's nothing in the game that really made me go ''Oo!''. Even Call of Duty was on an older Quake 3 Engine, and explosions in that game look jaw-dropping. Quake 2 graphics are good...for a game 8 years ago. The industry comes out with games that glitter and shine, even if the plot is mediocre. Unreal II for example. Granted it wasn't an amazing game, but it looked so amazing, you just had to play it. An average score for average, at best, graphics.

The character animations are meager, repetitive, and some are just unbelievable. When imperial soldiers die, the look like they fall over, adjust their goggles, then lay down for a nap. No, really, it looks that bad.

Level design is true to the game, but claustrophobic. Generally uninteresting, but you can tell the artists did research on 40K art.

Sound - 3 : What genius convinced the people in charge of this game that NO IN GAME MUSIC IS A GOOD IDEA?! When I say none, I mean NONE. Not a single note except for cut scenes. It fails to help set any sort of tense mood at all. Voice acting is tolerable, at first. But you have enemy soldiers who shout ''Nothing here!'' to alert you of their presence, even after they've SEEN you. Gun sounds are unimaginative, most of the sounds are muffled and crackly. The Tau have some goofy sort of Japanese accent, and imperials have some bastardized Aussie/British voice. After a while, the voices just get irritating. PLUS, there are dozens of sound clips that are reused, and it's obvious which ones.

Control - 5 : Standard WSAD control with mouse aiming. Weapon switching gets a bit goofy, and putting the sword button next to the grenade button was idiotic. The character moves slow as molasses with no sprint option to adjust. Aiming is imprecise and messy due to highly inaccurate weapons and a huge honking crosshair.

Story - 5 : From what I could stomach from the game (I hated it after the first two levels and wanted nothing but to stop playing)the plot is somewhat interesting and pretty standard FPS stuff with a 40K twist. Make of it what you will of you can play it for more than 15 minutes.

Overall - 3 : Don't buy this game. Just don't Trust me. Unless you are so big a 40K fanboy that you NEED everything Games Workshop ever made, avoid this one like the plague. It's uninteresting, uninspired, and would have MAYBE been passable if it had been released years ago. I'll be heading back to the store tomorrow with a miraculously unopened box and an explanation of how my little cousin's parents already bought the game for him, and how I'll need to return it.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/03