Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines 2 is a hit, and it’s no surprise that players are having a blast playing as one of the Emperor’s Angels, stomping and shooting through hordes of hungry Tyranids. One thing I didn’t expect was to see the Warhammer 40K setting through the eyes of someone unfamiliar with the universe. Things that are very much status quo to me as a long-time fan of the series are intriguing and compelling to up-to-date players. Think tens of thousands of candles stacked around religious sites, or biomechanical children flying on angel wings.
If you’re one of those players who experiences the Empire as Lieutenant Titus, I have another game to recommend that really cranks up the whole unique gothic-industrial horror of the far future to 11. No game captures the 40K feel better than Dark Tidea cooperative shooter with horde elements set in the Hive City of Tertium, the capital of Atom Prime.
IN Dark Tideyou play as Reject, a convict freed from a penal colony and used as a work force. The group consists of Ogryns, veteran guards, fanatics, and psykers. Much of Reject’s story really highlights the sheer cruelty of the Imperium of Man. Some of the crimes that land people in prison and penal colonies are relatively understandable, like arson. Others are shockingly mundane, like giving someone a grubby look or saying something that was taken as a subtle criticism of the God-Emperor.
The Cast Away becomes a vital source of recruitment when the Moebian Sixth, a group of Imperial Guards, goes rogue and falls under the influence of the Plague God Nurgle. Dark TideGroups of four are sent as strike teams to various locations in Tertium, their task is to achieve objectives and slowly drive the heretics out of the city.
I can’t praise developer Fatshark enough for the time they’ve put into making the hive city feel original. Every level is lovingly crafted, from the city’s lower industrial levels to the markets and apartment blocks to the nobles’ quarters. The game is also played from the perspective of mere mortals; Titus can smash through obstacles and into hordes of enemies, but the Rejects are relatively tiny and vulnerable.
As the icing on the cake, Soundtrack by Jesper Kyd are wall-to-wall bangers, mixing classical and choral music with electronic and industrial rhythms. There’s nothing like the roar and kick of a bolter or shooting lightning from your fingers like Palpatine while a pipe organ plays in the background. If you want to see the Empire up close, including amputated lobotomists built into computer equipment to serve as health stations, there’s no better way to see this world than a few rounds of Dark Tide.
