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Categories: Review
Tags: ds, strategy, turn-based, warhammer
Warhammer 40k: Squad Command
Developer: RedLynx
Publisher: THQ
Platform: Nintendo DS
Released: 12/17/2007Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command is a turn-based strategy game set in a universe where mankind is ruled by an Immortal Emperor and there’s no separation between technology, politics, or religion. The Ultramarines exemplify this. Genetically altered, infused with biotechnology, and bred for warfare, these Space Marines stand hulking in mechanized armor and bear oversized weapons. Squad Command puts the player in charge of a group of six Ultramarines over a 15-mission campaign against the forces of Chaos.
Missions start with a slideshow introduction and then the player is taken to a screen where they can outfit their troops. Unit types are preselected, but players can select secondary weapons: rocket launchers, flamers, laser sniper rifles. Secondary weapons do more damage than the primary weapons (typically heavy caliber automatic weapons called bolters), but have limited ammo compared to the infinite ammo the primary weapon draws on. Players can carry extra ammo, but that lowers the unit’s amount of action points–which are spent to perform actions during a turn.
Early missions use scouts, small Space Marines with fewer hitpoints and less powerful weapons, but as the game progresses Dreadnoughts (mechs) and tanks are called into action. More secondary weapons become available too, so the player has more tactical options. Likewise, the enemy improves from Chaos Cultists (fodder) to creatures from the Warp (genuine threats), although they accomplish more with superior numbers than challenging AI.
In mission, players move their troops through a fog of war enshrouded map. Squad Commander doesn’t adhere to a grid. Instead, players draw a path shown as a line of arrows that run from green to red. If a unit stops within the green, then they still have enough action points to fire their weapon. Some players have decried the lack of precision, but I found the movement to be easy to control and mostly accurate–save for a few clipping issues.
Combat takes place when a squad member has a line of sight to an enemy unit. Each weapon takes a set number of action points to fire, but players can spend extra action points to improve their accuracy or increase the weapon’s range. Players can also switch to combat mode to fire on structures or blind fire where enemies might be hiding.
At the end of each unit’s turn, if they have enough action points left over to fire their weapon, they go into Overwatch mode. The player sets the unit’s cone of sight and the unit will fire on any enemy that moves into it. Overwatch only works once per turn, but can be devastating when used correctly.
There’s good variation throughout the campaign. One mission might require clearing the map, while another has you defending a base or moving to a target zone behind enemy lines. Most missions are failed when a squad is wiped out, but others require completing an objective before time runs out. The maps themselves all have a post-apocalyptic ruined city motif, but look respectable on the DS–save for some pixel shimmering. All the environments are destructible which means that a wall acting as cover one round can be vaporized the next.
Squad Commander is fun, but it’s not without issues. Each mission of Squad Commander is discrete and, while there is a build up to a final showdown, there’s little continuity from mission to mission. Combine that with the fact that units are anonymous and are rotated in and out, and there’s not really a sense that you are commanding a squad. I can only image how much more I would have enjoyed this game, if it followed six unique squad members, with their own personalities.
The Score, that most archaic of incentives, is used to motivate players to keep their units alive and to complete missions in a timely matter, but there’s no spill over effect. You can lose five troops in a mission or keep them all alive and it doesn’t matter in the larger context of the game. Likewise, you can lead a decisive charge or creep through a level sniping at enemies and it doesn’t matter. You can replay missions for a better score, but why bother?
The game also has a few other annoyances: the models are 3D, but the camera is stuck in an isometric point of view. The lack of decent camera control meant that a few missions had me guessing at enemy locations even though I obviously had a line of sight to them. Somewhat less of an issue is that units can never be deselected. This makes observing the battlefield cumbersome and makes accidentally moving a unit easier.
In addition to the single-player campaign, Squad Command also has three multiplayer modes.