Another day and another onslaught of aliens and heretics for the Imperium of Man. The new addition to the Warhammer 40,000 series has arrived with a different genre to the most recent games in the franchise. Get ready, Inquisitor, and suit up.

Can I get that in English, please?

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr begins with you choosing your Inquisitor, a special space elite badass whose part of a group that eradicates heretic aliens for the glory of the God-Emperor. Your Inquisitor is created by selecting from a choice of three classes, each with different sub-classes tied to them. Within moments of starting, you’ll be on your way to showing your enemies why you are part of the Imperium of Man.

The maps you run through are done through a top-down RPG formula, seen popular in games such as Diablo and Titan Quest. Armed with different classes of gear, such as swords or various forms of guns, you’ll be taking down multiple enemies, all at once, both alone and in hostile groups. Each weapon comes with a selection of different abilities which each have their own cooldown periods based on your gear and level-up choices. This is great for trying out different styles of gameplay and experimenting with new things.

I chose a sniper rifle and shotgun as my initial load-out, but I soon switched the shotgun for a katana blade. I felt this new setup worked wonderfully, as the katana has no cooldown period while the sniper rifle was good for keeping your distance. To help with the onslaught, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr has a cover system that allows you to hide behind objects so you can reload, let your abilities recharge, or heal.

Advertisements

All I see is death and more death.

Upon completing the first mission, you are taken to the hub area which you’ll return too after the completion of each mission from here on. It’s here where you’re able to swap out your gear, buy or sell loot, purchase boosts, and access features for co-op. Once you’re done with your setup, you’re able to select different galactic systems for side or story missions. You’re also given the ability to adjust the difficulty for each mission, increasing this will also increase the rewards you’ll receive upon success.

The missions you go through all take place in really interesting and well-designed environments. They look and feel very much as you would expect, with grisly space and lots of gore. However, each map is quite small, so there aren’t long treks back, should you miss something. I thought this was a blessing as I didn’t need to backtrack for a long haul just to be curious and see what was hidden down a different hallway.

No matter which mission I jumped into, the cover system really wasn’t worth using as a means to shield myself. Enemies would easily destroy whatever I tried to hide behind while the rest of them would flank me from the sides. Rather than trying to take cover, I opted to charge forward – this came with little consequences and actually put me in a better position as I played the offensive! I opted for my previously mentioned gear of a sword and sniper rifle and had no issues just running through the map and slaughtering whatever was in front of me.

Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series (PSVR) Review

Even though the maps are short, it does begin to get repetitive as you work through each mission. The repetition really begins to sink in when you find yourself always using one skill for your standard enemies and the same two skills for each of the bosses. While there are options for diverse gameplay by altering your abilities, it seemed like I didn’t really need to experiment much as each mission was over within five minutes or less.

I’m gonna need a mop here chief

There is a lot going on with Inquisitor Martyr and there are plenty of tutorial pop-ups, but the way they’re presented to you requires you to press the touchpad in order to read them, rather than stopping the action in order to explain. As you get to other areas, you’ll begin to see options and items on the screen which you may have never seen before. If you missed the tutorial advising you on what they are, it can begin to get a little confusing. There is most likely a lot of depth within your gear setup, for example, but without much explanation of the numbers or what some currency was used for, I often just went with whatever number was higher.