Yikes I didn't realise this was getting a release so early in 2022!
Basically XCOM with space marines that have psyker powers; no chance to hit and looks like a tight squad of 4 with destructible environments and unique abilities to chain together.
Early reception seems pretty good. Anyone else interested?
Also on a TRPG level, seems like Firaxis is predicted to release the new Marvel XCOM game later in 2022.
Count me in. Reviews are positive, as you wrote, and I like a good XCOM game with powers.
Downloaded!
If it is really close to XCom then I am probably going to play it on easy. I might just play it on easy anyways since it will probably take a playthrough to figure out all the good builds and equipment.
I pre-ordered and knew the release date but forgot what the date is today so I am happily downloading...
Ooh let me know how it is guys! I’ve been itching to play something like this since my Mechanicus run earlier this year.
Can't play. I think my rx580 is going going... (not yet gone thankfully)
First Tiny Tina's and then some sporadic crashes in MW5, Pathfinder and now Chaos Gate.
It could be that it just doesn't like playing games in a window anymore 
I thought it was coming out on PC Gamepass, but it looks like that was a bunch of misreporting by sketchy news sites.
I'm a sucker for discounts (Fanatical has it I think 15% off). Bought it yesterday on the assumption it's not something I will seek a refund and the game is unlikely to go on sale on Steam any time soon.
I wasn't a huge fan of Mechanicus but I'm constantly on the lookout for good WH40K content. I saw some subpar reviews for the Battlesector Necrons DLC, got dismayed, then reinstalled Dawn of War 2 and started a new campaign.
From the gameplay I've seen so far it looks similar to how Gears Tactics played out - set up the board and unleash your abilities with more emphasis on damage mitigation through eliminating threats than a slower cover and overwatch style.
If it is really close to XCom then I am probably going to play it on easy. I might just play it on easy anyways since it will probably take a playthrough to figure out all the good builds and equipment.
From what I've seen so far, it is not very close. Yes, it's an isometric tactical game with pods of enemies. But ... it's MUCH more heavily focused on melee. Most of the ranged weapons have a very short range (10 tiles). At one point early on, you cannot progress the game without getting a melee crit, and until you get a specific piece of equipment, melee crits are the only way to progress. Melee also appears to be the only way to get an execute, which is insanely powerful (everyone gets another AP, among other things, which can lead to chain executes). Overwatch is low value due to the short range (7), low damage, and the fact that your guys step out of cover to do it.
One thing they did get the same, though, are the annoying unskippable cutscenes that are just a waste of time.
Good to know that builds should probably focus on melee unless patches or new classes are DLC'ed into existence.
I mean I personally don't mind the concept of the Grey Knights being mobile bastions of imperial will. In some ways, a more aggressive style of play is reminiscent of the Battlesector mechanic of Blood Angels fury and that was fun in balancing the trade-off in building momentum vs sitting back and plinking things to oblivion with overwatch.
That was probably my biggest gripe about XCOM - slow and steady was generally the preferred approach due to enemy pod activation mechanics; and unless you had a reason to press forward such as saving civilians or the doom timer then the game didn't incentivise you to play differently - put another way, rather than being rewarded for taking risks you were punished for playing overly aggressively.
That was probably my biggest gripe about XCOM - slow and steady was generally the preferred approach due to enemy pod activation mechanics; and unless you had a reason to press forward such as saving civilians or the doom timer then the game didn't incentivise you to play differently - put another way, rather than being rewarded for taking risks you were punished for playing overly aggressively.
There is the warpsurge mechanic here as well, which dissaudes you from taking too much time - The longer you wait, the larger the chance for some bad random things happening.
Hmm. My PC feels sluggish playing this. I AM however very lucky to be upgrading my GTX 1060 to a 3070 Ti in next couple of weeks so I'll be curious to see if the choppiness resolves itself.
Couple of points after a few missions in:
- I think the crit required to progress the story wasn't too hard - the Justicar gets a melee perk which, at least with the force lance, gave him a 115% crit chance?? That was one ability I gave him out of the box plus Terminator honours 
- it's darn annoying not being able to get to the missions in time before they expire simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time
- combat on standard feels fairly easy so far unlike Mechanicus which felt nigh on impossible - I'm sure it'll ramp up with higher HP targets later on but so far so good
- warpsurge isn't too bad - yeah you get a small malus which grows over time but this far it's not too hard to traverse the map swiftly clearing out pods as you go; and the Grey Knights feel tanky enough that playing aggressively doesn't feel too dangerous
Given performance on a 3080, Bfgp, the sluggishness should vanish with the new card.
The thing that strikes me about this is the over-the-top presentation that fits with the game world. Especially the character's eyes. I really love all the scenery chewing and almost 1930's pulp novel crazy dialog.
The tactical system is just fine and I like that it moves you along smartly.
Hoo boy.
Space Hulk! Unfortunately, you need four unwounded soldiers to go in, and I didn't have them, so I don't know what it's like.
One thing they did get the same, though, are the annoying unskippable cutscenes that are just a waste of time.
Hold "space" on PC... ?
I had to turn down the graphics to medium and turn off steam overlay to get it to stop crashing. The good news is, the game still looks great on medium
Anyone also try King Arthur: Knight’s Tale? Trying to decide between Arthur and 40k as they both have some XCOM DNA.
Chad
Uh yeah there's a few unskippable stuff like the warp travel cutscenes (like the ME elevator/hyperjump scenes or Battletech jumping scenes). I think some scenes cannot be advanced by holding space. Not too bad I think.
Combat can get ridiculous if you trigger too many pods AND you get the defender of the seed reinforcements simultaneously. Had to replay a battle as I got wiped out fighting 2 pods and reinforcements at the same time. Basically - apply XCOM caution with advancing, and once you find the seed bearer, clear out their pod and execute the seed bearer last so you can meet the reinforcements.
Couple of tips that might help:
- don't stay in a clump - they love to overwatch / suppress and spreading out lets you break overwatch/suppressing fire without a big hit to HP
- I think if you heal up your dudes with your apocethary in battle - post mission healing time will be drastically reduced; equally, it's better to retreat and fight defensively while waiting for extraction...unless you're trying to get some more kills for EXP - which I think is not distributed equally per mission so try and spread your kills around the team
- Justicars can tank pretty well especially ones that take a few perks into the Aegis shield - still don't want to stand in the open so push him forward but into cover as cover reduces damage taken
- take at least one person with a 100% crit perk (whether melee or ranged) for harvesting seeds
So far so good. (very early)
I was worried when I got to the ship that the upgrades were going to be all over the map and unnecessarily complex but thankfully they are straightforward.
The eyes, though. The eyes! These "people" are all crazy.
Even with a higher end card, the framerate is pretty variable.
Also, there appear to be a bunch of interface bugs. I had to restart the game at one point in order to select the next ship upgrade.
Yeah performance was much better once I dropped shadows and debris to medium. Didn't really notice the difference that much.
On Aetius' point about needing to force crits - it's rough when your A team with the perks are benched for healing and your rookies are up the game makes up for this by planting destructible seed pods you can harvest if anyone's having the same difficulty from not picking one of the melee or ranged crit abilities early on.
I started a new playthrough (mainly as I was annoyed about not making the most of travel and missing out on bloom missions) and I think I turned it up a level of difficulty because even basic mobs can't be one-shot. Oh well, it does make for more interesting tactical combat choices.
Played some more this afternoon.
I was wrong - healing up in combat does not reduce recovery time. As a consequence, I've constantly got a roster of injured knights. It's made me adapt my playstyle to more slowly and cautiously advancing.
The more I play, the more it resembles XCOM (and the whole upgrading of the Baleful Edict and travel time is reminiscent of BATTLETECH) except there's a fair bit of variety in mob types. And instead of researching/manufacturing better weapons, you have to earn requisition points and spend them after battle. So far I think the hardest handicapping condition is probably clearing a mission with just 3 knights - worth 3 requisition points.
There are some really overpowered perks out there; the Interceptor gets a free ranged attack whenever a knight ranged attacks a target in his LOS and firing range, basically doubling your DPS output while he's got ammo in his storm cannon.
This game is hard, and I have restarted on Merciful!
I'm a very short ways in on Standard, and yes, it is ramping up the challenge rapidly! Really digging it overall.
Yeah, it really is like XCOM in the level of planning and execution required to pull off your missions.
Yesterday I loaded it up in an exhausted state (after having played it past midnight the day before) and I just wasn't in the groove - whereas before I was marching through mission afte rmission, I just couldn't get the better of the enemy without suffering heavy injuries / triggering pods by mistake. So I put it down for the day and went to play something else (Stellaris - a game which has changed substantially since I bought the Leviathans DLC years ago).
I'm still only relatively early in - I think I'm up to Grand Master checkpoint no. 3? Seems like the game is going to be fairly long given I've barely gotten my Knights to level 4 in EXP and to fill most of the talent tree you'd need to be around level 20+. I mean, I don't even know if you can fill in the whole tree or if it's intended you should not be able to grab every perk by the end of the game.
Also a bit of advice - at each Grandmaster checkpoint, you get to apply surplus requisition points towards 5 categories of equipment (melee, ranged, armour, other wargear, recruits) at a cost of 2 requisition for each level of access. For example, at my first checkpoint, I had 6 requisition, which meant I could only select 3 out of 5 categories of equipment (melee, ranged, armour); then at my second checkpoint, I had 8 requisition, so I again ranked up my level of access for the earlier categories and also selected recruits. By the third checkpoint, between returning Knights to Titan for 1 requisition and completing missions, I had 10 requisition so that I could increase my level of access across every category.
So if you want a chance at acquiring better and better equipment to meet the ever strengthening plague, you need to strive towards completing enough missions (and the extra accomplishments to accrue more requisition) while not overspending on the loot on offer at the end of each mission. Otherwise you'll find that some of your gear may be underlevelled - but ultimately I don't think the gear will necessarily hold you back - the performance difference between each tier of access is marginal (e.g. one point of damage) and I feel the more important measure of squad progress is levels which unlock more perks for extra damage/abilities/HP/WP/AP etc.
The game seems to reward speed and aggression more than most Xcom style games. I've been relying a lot on teleporting troops buffed with extra AP points from Heroic Deed.
I'm not really a fan of Xcom style games, so I'm appreciating the fact that the enemy AI often doesn't make good choices.
So far, to me, it's emphasizing a fast close-and-kill style gameplay that feels pretty different from Xcom or Gears Tactics.
As I play more (and this one's gotten its hooks in me bad!) I've actually been thinking the gameplay of this one is closer in feel to Gears Tactics than X-Com 2, although there's a lot of DNA from both games (and even some Chimera Squad!) in this one. It's a blend that feels distinct enough to warrant playing this game while still pulling together elements I liked from the others.
I've only hit 2 or 3 grandmaster checkpoints, but story-wise I've completed the third "main sequence" research task and have what appears to be a fairly significant story mission available now. With no optional missions available, I figure that means I ought to go for this one, but I'm a bit fearful of how bad it's gonna get! I've already had a couple missions that took me 1-2 restarts each to complete (and yes, I've been engaging almost every optional task because those requisitions are invaluable!) and only a couple of my marines have reached experience level 4 (I have a roster of 8 so far, two are level 4, one is still level 2, the rest are 3; I essentially have two squads I rotate between due to the need to recover from injuries).
The Warp mechanic has gotten more aggressive, which has pushed me to be even more aggressive than I initially was in approaching missions (which was initially about as aggressive in play as I was in Chimera Squad, since that one also encouraged and often rewarded aggressive tactics). Very much a change from my traditional turn-based tactics approach of playing cautiously and defensively. Definitely don't sleep on using environmental destruction options to aid pushing forward! I underestimated the value of such tactics initially, but between environment destruction options and frag grenades for the "send 'em flying" physics, sometimes it's even worth running a couple of your tougher troops out there so long as you're prepared to patch them up after they incur the enemy's wrath.
I'm really digging this game. One big tip: when you start off, absolutely prioritize building the ship upgrade that starts producing servitors! I didn't, and ended up going through a nearly month-long dry spell as I wasn't picking up enough of them to build anything. It feels like it was enough of a setback that I'm slightly tempted to restart, but I don't want to if I don't have to since I'm otherwise doing pretty well and very much enjoying it. 
Willpower is recharged by killing enemies. So, in order to keep up your apothecaries' healing potential, you've got to keep them in the thick of combat (and also useful for collecting corrupted seeds).
I think the game explicitly tells you about Willpower and how it is recharged, but it didn't really sink in until I had been playing for a while.
The stun/execute mechanic requires a lot more luck and strategy than in Gears Tactics.
I wish there were a little more clarity about the class types. Obviously, Apothecaries are medics, but what are the big differences between Justicars, Purgators, and Interceptors?
J, P and I?
Oh wow, I completely missed that killing enemies recharges Willpower. I genuinely thought Willpower was only recharged between missions. I've been going about it all wrong with my Apothecaries!
The classes are primarily distinguished by the skill trees, although it does appear that class limits their initial gear selections too.
Justicars are a sort of support/tank class with a slight emphasis on melee capability over ranged, as far as I can tell so far. With ability point investment, they can load up heavily on armor and defense options (including a Provoke skill for some crowd control) but also have a few nice support skills (I really like the one that gives AP to an ally plus some bonuses that can be added).
Purgators are the folks that are almost entirely dedicated to SHOOTY SHOOTY BANG BOOM. Just a question of how they go about accomplishing that. Give 'em one of the 2-handed guns and go wild!
Interceptors are very interesting and seem to have the widest range of roles they can be specialized to occupy. I have two of each class so far but I think I'm going to recruit another couple interceptors for this reason. They make top-notch scouts with their teleportation abilities, including teleport strike for some real hit-and-run options. They can go heavily into 2-handed melee if desired, but are also very capable wielding a melee & ranged weapon pair. Both of my interceptors have gone that route, and while the teleport strike specialist tends to use melee attacks more often, that gun of theirs has been a clutch play many times already too. The other interceptor is taking a role as more of a flanking attacker, working effectively at either hand-to-hand or range as the situation demands.
I quite like the distinct feel of all four classes, especially with how customizable they are via ability point investment. I enjoyed the customization in the X-Com and Gears Tactics games, but definitely feels like there's a bit more to this one than even Gears' impressive specialization options.
Willpower is recharged by killing enemies. So, in order to keep up your apothecaries' healing potential, you've got to keep them in the thick of combat (and also useful for collecting corrupted seeds).
I think the game explicitly tells you about Willpower and how it is recharged, but it didn't really sink in until I had been playing for a while.
The stun/execute mechanic requires a lot more luck and strategy than in Gears Tactics.
I wish there were a little more clarity about the class types. Obviously, Apothecaries are medics, but what are the big differences between Justicars, Purgators, and Interceptors?
I've actually got too many seeds?? Something like 12 of them and it takes almost a month to research a new thing. Hammerhand gives your Justicar/Interceptor 100% crit chance and that means no failure with extracting seeds. Purgators get Astral Shot 100% crit so theoretically you don't need to equip the extraction servo head for the Apothecary. That said, as an Apothecary can equip Terminator armour you can use them to draw fire if you need to.
As far as I can tell, Justicar is a tanky generalist (it does get a provoke perk later on) that you should be using to draw aggro due to the increased armour mechanic plus Terminator armour. Can also buff a higher DPS character or someone better positioned to use their AP (usually the Interceptor). Hard to give it an XCOM equivalent. I read online a broken mechanic is 3 Justicars and 1 Interceptor - you can easily hit 16+ AP in a round to blitz a pod.
The Interceptor is kind of like an XCOM Ranger. Melee and mobility specialist. Support fire rewards you putting them in the thick of it but don't end the turn out of cover or they'll get shredded!
Purgators are your XCOM heavy - their base WP attack does AOE (clears some environmental cover and their base attack can do that too) and at some point you can rush to grab the extra grenades perk.
The most fun thing with environmental damage is grenadine explody things like ammunition crates. Or in combination with tipping over braziers (burning targets plus cone damage) to nuke down enemy health.
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