Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command

With the bolter, cleanse the unclean. David Hollingworth will cleanse!

The Warhammer 40,000 universe has had a long history, both on the tabletop and in digital form. The first edition of the rules came out last millennium, and already there are rumours that the most recent fourth edition is to be replaced by a fifth. The popularity of the game is based on simple rules, flavourful back-story and spectacular miniature design. Sometimes this translates well into a computer game, as it does – and continues to do so – with the Dawn of War series. Other times, it just doesn’t come off, as a little of unsuccessful strategy and action games, from the moody Space Hulk all the way up to the poorly realised Rites of War.

Then there are those games that only a 40k fan can really love, like Chaos Gate or Final Liberation. Where does Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command, the first 40k title to be released on a mobile platform, stand?

It’s actually not an easy question to answer, especially if you are a raving fan of the game and its dark universe of war and questionable morals. Squad Command offers both a single player campaign and ad hoc and online match up capability. In the single player campaign you take on the role of a commander of one of the Emperor’s finest Chapters of space marines – the honourable Ultramarines (can you guess what army the editor plays? –ed), defending the ravaged planet of Rhur III against an invading army of the disciples of Chaos. In gameplay, and frankly in story line as well, the game seems more of a sequel to Chaos Gate, offering turn based strategy rather than the dynamic RTS of Dawn of War.

You start out controlling a small squad of scouts, then graduate to actual space marines, then an array of vehicles. As your own forces get stronger, so too does the enemy’s, but each scenario and map effectively trains you well for the next challenge. Each of your marines or vehicles is controlled by expending action points to move and shoot; in a nice change, you can choose to spend more AP on a given shot to make it more accurate. There’s really not a lot more to the gameplay, though as the interactions between different troop types open, the things you can do to beat a level increase as well.

This feeling of tackling each challenge how you want, not how the game wants, is helped along by nearly every piece of terrain – walls, generators, pipes etc – being destructable. You can choose to flank an enemy, pinning opponents in place with sporadic fire from hidden positions, or blast holes in the scenery with hot plasma before storming the breach – or any combination of the above. Sometimes you can even sidestep most of the enemy entirely if your mission, for example, is simply to take out one leader.

It’s simple to get a hold of, and a lot of fun, but the simple controls still don’t feel entirely comfortable without a mouse to really direct the action. Moving the command cursor about with PSP’s direction buttons can be a little hit or miss, and the limited camera angles on offer can make actually seeing the enemy or an open path tougher than it needs to be. That said, there is an option to switch to a simpler overhead map; we found ourselves using this often, at times after every move in more complex missions. Also, the sound, while convincing enough, is rather small and tinny – but that’s more an issue with the PSP. Finally, while multiplayer match ups are fun, and where you can expect to get more depth and longevity, good luck finding any games for the time being.

Squad Command is getting a pretty cool reception online, but we have to say it does seem a little unfair. To our eyes, we’d much rather see a pretty fair representation of 40k that we can take with us on planes, trains and Baneblade superheavy tanks than have no representation at all, and the simplistic gameplay does make for a game that lends itself to the PSP’s strengths.

Enough talk. Only in death does duty end, and there are many more foes of the Emperor to kill, kill, kill.