It is a turning point in the on-going war between the Orcs and the Humans, in the Warhammer universe, the battles to take Piscina IV. Across the great divide two generals plan their strategy, but only one can win. Will the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka, win the day or fall beneath the might of Grand Master Belial space marines...

Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance is a real-time, lane strategy game from the developers Eutechnyx. The game is set to appear as a cross platform game, but here we look at the PC version.

It’s an odd game to appear on the PC, the good part is that you will be able to play this on a relatively underpowered machine, no need for a dedicated gaming PC, this thing will run on my three year old laptop. The reason for this is that being cross platform the game has to run, not only on computers and consoles, but also on pads and phones. This being the case the game is aimed at the lowest common denominator. Sadly, this makes for a game which is somewhat under whelming on a PC.

The game is easy to pick up, not least due to the tutorial, as it consists of you creating various buildings from which your limited hordes will pour down the five lanes which separate the two opposing sides. They amble towards your lines whilst your guys amble towards theirs. If you get to the other side you destroy their buildings and win the match.

It turns out that this is quite easy to do as the main variable is numerical superiority. Two guys coming at you? Then throw four down the lane. They die. You win. Once released you don’t really have control over your guys, they don’t even seem to want to duck out of the way of any long distance weapons you may employ, meaning half the time you get half your opponents health gone, whilst completely wiping out your own men.

The game does strike a nice balance between player desires. The campaigns are long, but these are split into smaller segments, in much the same way as most pad and phone games are. So, you can pick up the game and play for as long or short a time, depending on your desires and commitment to the Warhammer universe.

The game's visuals keep it in line with the gothic look of the universe, but on long games you may find that you’ll want to turn the repetitive music off.

There is a limited number of building to play with, some resources to manage, but in the end I couldn’t help but feel that watching a small number of characters slowly amble towards each other was probably not the most exciting way to spend my time.

5

Charles Packer