Platform | Release Date
X360 | July 14, 2011
Developed by Kaos Studios
Published by THQ

The Pitch:

In this third person arcade style shooter, players take on the role of an elite Space Marine team sent to assault a giant Ork Kroozer en-route to an Imperial Forge World. Do you have what it takes to take out the Warboss and prevent the Waaaagh?

Kill Team™ allows players to choose from four unique classes, including ranged specialists the Sternguard Veteran and Techmarine, and more melee focused classes like the Vanguard Veteran and Librarian. With two-player same screen Co-operative play, multiple weapon upgrades and six iconic Space Marine chapters to select from, Kill Team is a must-play for fans of Warhammer® 40,000®.

I’ll start by telling you that Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team is a perfectly serviceable dual-stick shooter. It has a short, but satisfying campaign, a score attack “survival” mode, and some interesting class-based combat mechanics. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can talk about whether it’s a quality Warhammer 40K game, which is the important part.

Kill Team is, in fact, an excellent addition to the Games Workshop line of video game adaptations. Even though it was marketed poorly as a vehicle to unlock a weapon in the upcoming Warhammer: Space Marine, it actually stands on its own quite well as a story in the 40K universe. It sets up a classic scenario of space marines versus Orks, with a twist thrown in for good measure. You can choose one of six popular chapters: Blood Ravens, Ultramarines, Iron Fists, Salamanders, White Scars, or Blood Angels. Chapter choice is purely cosmetic, and players must select the same one in co-op, but it’s still fun having the option of aligning with your favorite sect.

Players can don the armor of one of four classic SM archetypes. The psyker Librarian, heavy-bolter wielding Sternguard veteran, the highly mobile Vanguard Veteran Assault marine, or the Techmarine with his powerful Tarantula turrets. Each is equipped with their own special move and has a bevvy of unlockable extra equipment including force swords, power claws, melta guns, and rocket launchers. Combined with the ability perks earned in combat, they make for a number of customizable load outs when beginning a mission or accessing orbital up-links between slaughtering greenskins. And what would any good Warhammer game be without massive amounts of carnage?

The combat sees you shooting, chopping, and shredding your way through hordes of xenos both near and far. The devs followed lore closely, and waves of grots will swarm you as fodder, followed by boyz with sluggas and choppas. The occasional ‘Ard boy or Nob will make an appearance bringing “’eavy artillery and more dakka!” your way too. The melee attacks translated well into a shooter because you feel like you’re murderously slogging through a crowd, dismembering and burning them while racking up combo bonuses with satisfying titles like “Devastator”, “Butcher” and “Angel of Death” based on your preferred killing methods.

The inclusion of key boss characters such as a Weird Boy, a War Boss, and Hive Tyrant (there are Tyrannids aboard!) make your quest to destroy the Kroozer even more interesting. Digital Warrington took the time to make these fights more than a simple “move and shoot” exercise since a lone space marine is not formidable enough to stand against them toe-to-toe. In fact, while the boss fights were the highlight of the game, they were also some of the most difficult parts, with bad camera angles leading to frustration and lots of profanity. They were a double-edged powersword to say the least.

Sadly, for every cool piece of fan service included in Kill Team, there are flaws that kept it from being truly awesome. For instance, it includes a Codex with brilliantly voiced entries lifted directly from the tabletop codexes, but the in-game dialogue and voice acting are uninspired. There is painstaking detail in the character models, but the overall graphics are a jaggy throwback to the first Dawn of War game. It lets you and a friend have a great time killing everything in sight as a team of nigh-invulnerable badasses, but has no online co-op! While local co-op is fun, re-living 1997 only goes so far, and its omission is suspicious in a game that has a cooperative score attack mode with online leaderboards. I can only assume this was a short-sighted timesaver handed down from THQ, who immediately shuttered the developer after release, and insisted on putting an atrocious ad for the unlockable DLC in Space Marine that pops up every time you start the game. Note to the marketing geniuses at THQ – if I bought Kill Team, I was already going to buy Space Marine. Games Workshop fans are basically a built-in audience for this stuff.

My recommendation is to purchase Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team if you’re a fan of the GW universe. It’s a fun, if sometimes flawed, diversion for a couple of hours. Lovers of more pure dual-stick shooters may not get as much out of its linear mission-based game play, but for a 40K fan ten bucks will get you plenty of “Waaagh!”

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