Game 60 - Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitior - Martyr - Week 104 - Dec 21

arhammer 40,000: Inquisition - Martyr is a game with a long name. It took me a few attempts to get into after reading the Eisenhorn saga. I'd given up on it once in 2019, tired of using the same old 5-7 abilities over and over. But I kept it installed as a "I just want to kill shit for 20 minutes and make progress game". I returned in April 2020 to play with a friend. The friend and I played a few times in Feb 2021 here and there but no where near as consistently as 2020, the story dragged. After tired of waiting finish it having not played it for almost a year, I've returned to wrap up the story once and for all. I suppose its only fitting that #60 is the game I have played most throughout the inception of this blog 2 years ago, starting it long before I even thought of this blog. 

As I kept returning over almost 3 years I found myself more and more interested in the story. But I don't think it was until I saw this image, that I realised how truly well the art team at Neocore Games captured the grim dark universe of the 41st millennium. 

The presentation as the above point expressed is without a doubt the most realised vision of the Warhammer 40k world I've ever experienced in a game. Dawn of War and Space Marine come close but lacked the urban hive city and space fleet feel. Enemies, environments and back drops all speak grim and gothic. Let the following images speak for themselves such as...

the enemies of man...

or grim devices and effigies...

..and the star map deserves a special mention.

The combination of presentation and great voice acted 40k characters in tandem with a mostly satisfying ARPG does a great job of making you feel like an Inquisitor. Unless we get that dream Mass Effect game that follows Eisenhorn's tale from BioWare 10 years ago, that is, I have a strong feeling my deep voiced, battle-hardened, fire wielding, Psyker Inquisitor is the best Eisenhorn/Inquisition story I'll ever get. 

And that's no shot taken at Inqusitor Martyr. The experience is seamless from your command deck to the star map and teleporting right on to the battlefield, burning away the filth that lays itself before you.

 

The command bridge of a Rogue Trader vessel is the hub where you'll chat to your crew, sell items, upgrade abilities, craft. Very BioWare-esque. 

If you have the patience to follow all the dialog and read the logs the story is a deep and rich plot threaded through the 40k tapestry. Sadly I did not have the patience to turn a 60 hour game into triple digits, and what was left was well... a typical 40k plot. Stop a new super weapon from threatening the imperium, take the fight to the enemy. The ending was actually terrible. In the last fight you kill Fabius Bile a clone and the Alpha Pariah destroys the "Dark Nexus" and disappears into the Immaterium to shape it to her will. Will she be an ally of chaos, the imperium or herself? "Nobody knows" are the last words that come from your Inquisitor's mouth before the credits roll. So basically, the story had no known consequence as you killed a clone and the Super Pariah disappeared into the void never to be seen again. Okay so not entirely true as she helped close the Dark Nexus, which could have become a second Eye of Terror. But the threat is destroyed before it has any change to be a threat. It all feels like wrapping up the story in a way that has no effect on the lore, 40k world or any consequence at all. The new Alpha Pariah is gone and has no effect on the lore. It's a shame because a Pariah, an anti-psyker that nullifies the Immaterium is one of the most interesting characters in the lore - and the idea of an Apex Pariah that can harness this anti-anti-matter of sorts to destroy the Immaterium is a fascinating plot within the 40k world.

The side missions and stories are fantastic. The Dark Eldar incursion from Commorragh is an absolute blast. To me they are by far the most interesting Xenos in the 40k world, but so underutilised because of how dark, abhorrent and immoral they are (in other words they don't sell). For me the game is worth it alone to see them get there time to shine. The slaves of the Whispering God have taken full advantage of the recent warp storms aka Dark Nexus and are using it to manipulate Guardsman, introducing alien drugs and then having the addicts police a farmable source of slaves. As the storm settles it's your job to bring the sector that went dark for years back into the light of the Imperium, and find out why everything is so 'quiet'. The character interactions are always a delight. It's a very old school Blizzard style of storytelling. Character discuss the mission. Enemies taunt you, typically extravagantly and especially in the case of the Dark Eldar. You have some not so friendly banter and then you murder them. If you know what you're getting into, this story-gameplay loop never gets old. 

The characters are well written. The Inquisitor (the Psyker for me) feels like a hardened soul who knows too much and questions everything as a good inquisitor should. From Ragna van Wynter the superior Rogue Trader with a mysterious bloodline linked to heresy (of course) to the Stormwatcher Astartes Caius Thorn who you save and help recover upon the 'Martyr'. But the Tech-priest Omicron Arkh is easily my favourite. His lines are humorous and fleshed out with his pedantic and nuanced ones and zeroes personality contrasting with the impatient to the point Inquisitor. Making jokes only a machine would get or begging forgiveness as the Inquisitor declares what he says is redundant, and redundancy is a tech heresy sin. I found myself laughing from time to time shining a line on the witty writing that only a 40k fan could laugh at. The developers are shown that they have a real understanding and dedication to the 40k universe. 

Enemy design gets a bit repetitive at the start of the story after killing cultists and nurgle demons over and over. Thankfully later you get to vanquish much more Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, and even Harlequins in the name of the imperium. 

Also the game has no companions?! Except it does....It felt a bit weird taking on 50 word bearers as a single Psyker, no matter how powerful. I understand it's an ARPG and needs to be hammed up - but having a combat retinue like an ACTUAL inquisitor would have helped alleviate that. You literally have a colourful crew on Board - why can't you take them with you, progress their skills, and enjoy a lite version of the other classes you did not select through your companions. Hell, bonus points if you can give them equipment, skills and if they have dialog. Warped bonus bonus points if they have permadeath ala Diablo II. Like customisable mercenaries. You can pay a guy to drop Space Marines or Guardsman in some missions so this could have been done. God tier bonus points if you could send them on their own missions to retrieve intel. As an inquisitor, you're meant to feel like a surgical tool managing your agents, as they cut deep into corrupted flesh to root out cancerous corrupted cells, so that the larger entities of the imperium can exterminatus the fuck outta that shit. So it would have been nice to feel like a galaxy detective using his agents to piece it all together, musing over his star map all night. But I suspect from the start the game was build, designed and balanced around coop and solo play. I just feel as though the customizable difficult could have been taken advantage of in that case.

I played maybe half the campaign with a friend. That's the way to play this game. It's a lot of fun and gives you more of that Inquisitor and acolytes feel as you round each other out. Which only furthers the point of how much better this game would be with companions in solo play or one or two to create a full squad and round out an incomplete party. I guess all I want is a Mass Effect Inquisition game... The game is too easy, especially on coop. As there is literally no penalty for dying (enemies don't even reset). Why is this not in the settings? I wanted limited lives before I have to go back to the ship, loot penalties, or something. Sometimes you literally spawn several meters from where you died and can pick up where you leave off. The gameplay ultimately becomes dull because it has no consequences to create tension, essential in my opinion to creating a satisfying ARPG. 

Last but by no means least is the Knight Titan. Oh boy. This was such a welcome breath of fresh air from melting heretic after xenos. Ambrose Caradoc pilots a Titan seconded to your efforts against the Dark Eldar. Over several missions you follow his saga and pilot the monstrous weapon of man. And it is so fun. After fighting small groups of enemies hoping in these behemoth and melting swaths of armies is so satisfying that it might even be the highlight of the game. Unsurprisingly the ignoble Ambrose is full of himself on the classical knight with etiquette and honour kind of way, but he's not without his quips as you follow him to his inevitable sacrifice to save a major hive from falling prey to Dark Eldar. 

Overall Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr is a fun faithful rendition of the 40k universe. Would I play it again? No. Would I recommend it to 40k fans that like ARPGs? Absolutely.