Eisenhorn: Xenos Preview

The amount of lore behind Warhammer 40,000, arguably Game Workshop’s flagship tabletop game, is staggering. It’s bountiful enough that countless novels, comics, codices, fan fictions and yes, games, have been written with that universe as the backdrop. Much like the massive wiki for Star Wars, if you stumble into the 40k Lexicanum website you may never re-emerge, so vast are its repositories of data.

From among this ocean of content emerges Eisenhorn: Xenos. Another to join what is a growing list of Warhammer-based games releasing this year, Eisenhorn focuses on the exploits of one of the most famous characters in the lore: Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. Taking on an adaptation of the book series by Dan Abnett, developers Pixel Hero Games have tasked themselves with re-creating a fan-favourite character and a story by a fan-favourite author.

The grand scale of the setting is immediately apparent when you begin the game, something that Pixel Hero Games have to be commended for. The Warhammer 40k universe is huge, dark and grim, meaning that trying to capture its vast scale can be a daunting task. Eisenhorn throws the player immediately into a huge mortuary for the people of the planet Hubris - filled from wall to towering wall with cryogenic stasis tombs. Snow whirls around outside the icy edifice of this gargantuan facility, and lures you in remarkably well.

The hands-on sections of the game included the introduction and first two chapters of the title, and gave a good feeling for how the game is panning out. There are some pieces here and there that the development team are still working on - graphical fidelity and UI improvements were promised for the future - yet the game seems to be close to its final release with no real bugs or glitches to speak of.

Interestingly, the game was also originally designed for mobile platforms, with the developers deciding to separate it into two entities - one PC version and one mobile version - quite late on. This switch in tactic may be a key factor in some of Eisenhorn’s rougher edges.

Graphically, the game is nothing to write home about, yet it manages to capture the look and feel of the universe particularly well. The environments stand head and shoulders above the character design, and I found myself wanting to explore more of these areas and locations, rather than simply be guided on a singular path.

As a third-person action-based game, Eisenhorn introduces you to combat almost immediately. Unfortunately it isn’t too complex and amounts to little more than button-mashing. The developers have tried to implement a combo system - press the attack buttons at the right time and your attacks will do more damage - yet I found that hammering the button actually worked far better.

You do battle with a range of weapons, from pistols to swords and shotguns. With the game still being polished when I had my hands on it, some artifacts were missing and some descriptions needed proof-reading, but this will more than likely be fixed by release. Along the way Eisenhorn is aided by companions who can be switched out as needed to help in combat. Their help is rarely needed but more often than not they help to distract mobs that rush the player in battle.

Eisenhorn can also use his special abilities to slow down time and land a number of blows on an enemy at once. The feature is a nifty one, which looks especially cool when using a gun, but feels slightly tacked-on as a method of adding variety to the stock combat experience.

As a character piece, the game needs to warm the player to Eisenhorn from the get-go. The model for the inquisitor is accurate to his in-lore descriptions, complete with seals, armour and shining medallions. Pixel Hero Games obviously saw this as an opportunity to bring in a big name to voice the character and went all out, procuring none other than British actor Mark Strong. Strong’s voice is as pin-point and penetrating as always, and encapsulates the character well, but at times it does feel as if the actor is phoning it in a bit: lines that should have more emotional weight to them fall flat, while outbursts of anger are so quiet I was left wondering if he had been asked not to shout in the recording booth.

The game is expected to last around the 11-hour mark, and from what I saw that seems to be a fairly accurate prediction. Levels are well-designed with enemies and puzzles to solve, as well as hidden areas to explore to gain more loot to kit out your character with. If you add those features onto the variety of weapons and companions then the shelf-life will probably increase further.

Eisenhorn: Xenos is a faithful recreation of one of the most popular book series published by Games Workshop. Though a little rough around the edges in its pre-release state, should the developers give it a needed spit-polish then the game could be one that any Warhammer 40k fan would be glad to have on their shelf (or Steam collection).