Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade

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Arcaus_sl

shitlord
1,290
3
There's definitely a crisis of sorts right now with 40k, in some areas entire communities have shrunk or died off while elsewhere people continue on like nothing has changed.
Locally there are some small groups who are clinging on but generally everyone has moved to Warmachine or some other game. At our FLGS we have like 3 guys who still play. I can't remember last time they finished a game of 40k. It takes them like an hour or two every night to pull their models out of the bag and then the shit storm starts where they attempt to figure out what rules they are using and such. One of the locals is a super rules lawyer and is always trying to slide in rules that are beneficial to him which turned a lot of people off. That's the shitty part about having a terrible rules set.

Other table top games are flourishing in my area. Warmachine is bigger then ever. Relic Knights is grabbing hold (I am biased on this one as my name is in the rule book
smile.png
). Malifaux has a steady following. XWing is fucking stupid huge here and there are still people buying and playing hero clix for whatever reason.

Both local shops still claim 40k is their second best selling game off the shelf but Warmachine technically makes them more money because more people play it and they make their money on soda and candy and tournament entries, etc.
 

Hatorade

A nice asshole.
8,507
7,276
Looking better but you know what blows in any MMO? Locked in death blow animations, fun the first time...
 

Arcaus_sl

shitlord
1,290
3
You spelled "any game" wrong by typing "MMO". My hope is that it's a certain button you press like tea bagging so I don't ever have to press it. In reality the new GW CEO probably made them put in locked death blow animations because it looks cool and his 12 year old kid likes it.
 

Tauntworth

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
1,228
6,302
This is out on Early Access via Steam for $40. Came out today. Spent about 3 hours playing. Matches are very long, the graphics lookmuchimproved from what I've seen in the past at least. The architecture looks like WH40K stuff should, which is great. But, the game just feels like a huge Conquest map from BF minus everything that makes it fun. The one map I played on has basically one hill that tanks can fight each other on, and that was it. Character animations look solid, as does the 'chunkiness' of bullet impact. I had settings maxed, running two 980Ti's at 3440x1440 and it was still hitching for me, so you may experience some graphical issues/annoyances.

It's still very early in terms of polish, you can tell. Lot of fun if you enjoy WH40k and just want more of the universe but will probably be quite a while until it's polished enough to keep the attention of anyone short of the more hardcore fans. Can't wait to see what the final product looks like though. Every squad I joined was roleplaying, haha. Kind of funny to hear these guys getting so into it.
 

Fenz

Silver Knight of the Realm
95
7
According to the (mixed) reviews it was pushed out about 6 months to a year too early. Seems to be missing quite some promised features. I will wait to see what happens. A true good 40K MMO would be nice.

This game just fails on so many basic levels it's amazing people are willing to defend it so blindly, well not really when you factor in the franchise.

Simply put Space Marine did it better, mechanics, balance and sadly even visuals.

Shortly after this game was announced several things were laid out as part of the end product. A persistent multiplayer game with optional PVE elements where the E (Tyranids) would attack territory belonging to the most dominant faction. Players would be able to form into groups, essentially clans and pool resources and spend them on equipment for use in missions for that little extra edge. Orks would be a free to play faction with limited free progression. Real money could only be spent on making your characters look different. What did we get and what do we have now?

A basic lobby shooter with 4 factions will different playstyles and equipment with the two closest being Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines. Herein lies much of this game's problem, balance. From patch to patch the broken faction has changed and while stuff like this happens in development some of what has been seen here is just asinine. The fragile but fast and hard hitting faction face tanking but moving quickly and killing faster than any other being the most recent example.

Another major issue is map design which can be described quickly as vast lanes to get mowed down in by stupidly accurate, high damage and RoF instant supression weapons between clustered forts filled with vast amounts of cover favouring melee. The latter environment just comes across as clutter which may be nice to look at while walking around but does not help in actual gameplay.

The leveling system leaves new players at a disadvantage requiring in game credits to purchase anti-tank weapons and long range weapons. The AT part is significant given how the dominant strategy is to park the overly tanky APCs right outside the capture points in order to spawn 30m away and rush in with melee. While I can appreciate the reward of closer spawn for a well placed APC the current version of the game promotes point blank meat grinds as opposed to ranged combat.

Lastly and probably most importantly is the asymmetry which could be balanced well but allows for some really abusable styles of play. The Eldar for example have a ranged automatic weapon that blinds the target more and more with each shot, now imagine several of those against factions which have no counter to this. (Marine helmets are supposed to counter stuff like this anyway.) Chaos Sorcerers can heal from afar over time with their beams, a group can clump and mass heal each other while chopping away with power swords. Another common example is finally killing that Havoc who was 3-4 shot killing your team with an autocanon from a window (an issue of it's own kind) only for him to be revived from cover 10m away.

The game had and hopefully still has potential but I fear that this early launch will cripple the game and see it terminated prematurely. It has the beginings of a great game and finally a 40k game that could last beyond a lowly 2-3 years.

As for the price hike? Most people who read into the game and it's reviews aren't going to buy at half that price let alone £39.99

*update*

Just found out that Orks are broken too, who'd have thought? Face tanking plasma gun shots and killing in 2 melee swipes after taking 4-5 hits is fair and balanced. Funny how the mob faction can only be beaten through superior numbers.
 

Erronius

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
17,319
44,962
I'm still not sure why this is in the MMO section. My money is on it going the MWO route.