Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

"'A lone being saves the universe'"

There are two types of people; people who like Warhammer but don't admit it and people who don't like Warhammer, people seem to regard the subject as some sort of childish almost taboo like subject. However, this game will change it for anyone who plays it, it will make you happy to be a fan of Warhammer and other games by Games Workshop, it was possibly the first game about Warhammer that was easy to play and get the hang of but was also appealing to a wide range of audiences. This game could have done with better publicity, it's honestly a shame it didn't get better recognition.

This game is based around a member of the Tau Species called Kais, he has just become a member of the Fire Warrior Caste who are basically the army of the Tau, you take control of this Warrior. The game takes you straight into the heart of the action as you are part of an invasion force attempting to rescue an elder of your race from the Imperium of mankind...

Graphics: The graphics are almost certainly one of the best points about this game, which is to say they're very good. Everything in this game is well rendered and well drawn so nothing really to complain about in that respect. All of the environments are very well done and it is nice to see that they're not pre-rendered so you can actually interact with them. The guns all have excellent effects, each weapon clearly showing a different type of ammo; whether it's the red laser beams of a las gun or the blue beam of a rail rifle.

Sound: A very good aspect of this game, you get emotions in soldiers voices that you are fighting, you get excellent sounds of explosions and excellent sound effects in general. The only real weakness of the sound in this game is that many of the sounds are constantly re-used for many different soldiers throughout the game, so killing 20 men could result in them all dying with the same cries. However, the voice acting in the cut scenes is very well done and features the voice of Brain Blessed as the narrator, which can only be good. There is also a definite lack of music in this game apart from on the main menu, which really brings down a lot of the atmosphere due to it being completely silent where some eerie music would have worked wonders.

Gameplay: Quite linear, most of the game involves finding keys and taking them to different coded doors. Whatever it is though, it will involve constantly going back and forth through a level until you finally get to where you want to get to, it does get boring, especially on the larger levels where you get miles of running through corridors to plant a bomb and then having to run all the way back. Another weakness is only being able to control the same character throughout the game, it would have been excellent to control a Crisis Battlesuit or some other technology from the Tau Empire of Warhammer. The game severely suffers in this department, which is a great shame. You can play this game online though, so you can test your fighting skills against other players around the world, so it definitely earns points in this department. What I do like is that if you run out of ammo for a gun, you can draw a sword to fight with instead, very cool touch there.

Control: Pretty basic controls here, as a first person shooter, the controls are almost identical to other PS2 shooters. They're very easy to get the hang of as all of the buttons on the controller only really mean a single command so no real variety here, they can be customised to however you want them though, so play it how you want. One problem is that it can take a while for the 'Action' control to work so you could be standing by a door for a few minutes before you can open it or it could just open straight away, quite temperamental.

Replay value: I rate the replay value of this game medium-high. I rate it this because there are many reasons to replay the game. After every level you are rated a certain level from A - C, getting more A's allows you to unlock cool artwork, which is just awesome. Getting consistently high ranks on harder difficulties will also unlock cheats that can be used in game, such as invincibility and infinite ammo so you have plenty of reason to replay this game.

Challenge: This game is very tough, there's no easy way to say it, I died very early on the easy difficulty so be prepared. Normal proves to be the most realistic challenge I can face without playing the levels 40 times each just to get past them. Hard mode has that habit of becoming impossible very early on unless you are an extremely hardcore gamer. However, the challenge is highly justified when you unlock awesome cheats such as invincibility and infinite ammo.

Overall: A good solid shooter that any first person shooter fan will enjoy. All fans of this genre can enjoy this game without having to have the stigma of liking Warhammer attached to you can rest assured that you won't be labelled a 'Nerd'. These days it can be found fairly cheap so it's recommended if you see it in any stores, you won't regret buying it at all. Good graphics, good, simple controls and loads to do make this a nice addition to any PS2 games collection.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/07