Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

Fire Warrior's single player mode puts you into the shoes of Kais, a young Tau warrior. The Tau are a young but technologically advanced race in the year 40,000 (as in, a long-ass time from now, where there is only war, of course - I'd like to see a game where there is only peace and people are polite, stop at red lights, and even can get along without using lethal force to get there) that abide by honor and the belief of putting personal goals aside for the race as a whole - Сfor the greater good' as they say. Kais is undergoing his Trial By Fire, and it's not an easy one; one of the leaders, Ethereal Ko'vesh has been kidnapped by the Imperials, which is effectively the newfangled human race. Yes, that's right, humans are the baddies this time around, and the aliens are the heroes. Fire Warrior chronicles a 24-hour span of Kais' adventure, which spirals into something larger than a mere rescue mission, and full of twists and turns in the storyline. While the story will certainly make more sense for those who know of the universe through the books and other propaganda, those who are unknowing of the franchise will at least find an interesting, if a bit predictable, storyline. On the good side, with 21 total levels, the game can run into the 10-15 hour range, which is quite lengthy for a FPS. With different difficulties (yet hard can only be unlocked by beating the game on normal), there's some replay if you really get into the game.

On the other hand, Warhammer has a full-on multiplayer that includes online play. Online play consists of the usual FPS multiplayer modes; deathmatch (both solo and team) and capture the flag, for up to 8 players at one time. As it's broadband-only for the PS2, lag is mostly non-existent and the games flow smoothly. Unfortunately, there's a of couple problems - 1) there's a severe lack of maps to play on, with 4 per each game type, and 2) there's a severe lack of players to play with. Nearly every time I logged on to play, there was nobody in sight, or only a handful of dedicated regulars at best. Granted that this game wasn't exactly rolling on the hype train, this was expected, but unfortunately, Warhammer's online component suffers simply due to lack of players. Worse off, the lack of headset compatibility (despite being broadband only) hurts communication among players.

Looking at the gameplay itself, it reminds me of about 5 different FPS games. Naturally, Halo is the first that springs to mind, with the futuristic world and space marines to fight, that sort of thing. It also borrows Halo's main gameplay component of only being able to carry a pair of guns and some grenades, making you pick and choose which weapons to keep and which to leave behind. You also get a rechargeable shield a la Halo as well, bringing in even more similarities. Granted, I don't think it's all bad to borrow elements that come from what many consider the best first person shooter ever created. It presents a tried and true gameplay element that will at least be familiar. On the other hand, many of the enemies resemble a few Halo characters - the space marines that start showing up about 1/4^th of the way in all too closely resemble everyone's favorite Master Chief (or does MC resemble them?). Heck, Kais even has his own friend giving orders through your headset or whatever and mapping coordinates just like Cortana in Halo. Thinking about it moreЕthe similarities are giving me the creeps.

Moving on, there's some aspects of Medal of Honor thrown in as well. The very first level you reach, you're dropped literally into a war zone. Explosions are everywhere, there's allies fighting independently, and all hell is pretty much breaking loose. Sound familiar? If you've played MoH Frontline and remember Omaha Beach, or Rising Sun and Pearl Harbor, you should comprehend this right away. You're fighting a war within a war, just like Medal of Honor, only way, way in the future this time around.

Finally, everyone's favorite old-time FPS element makes its unwanted return - the game of finding card keys and opening doors with them. That's right, you loved it in Doom and its 3.7 million clones - now it's back in Warhammer! Seriously, almost every level has something involving finding a key to open a door, which means backtracking and all the joy that comes with it. Unfortunately, this recycled and boring aspect of FPS games is a major drawback, harkening back to the days when FPS games were still in their infancy. Actually, if this game were to be released 5 years ago, it would have been heralded as revolutionary - but today, it's a hodgepodge of FPS styles mixed into one.

The level design and weapons actually remind of yet another FPS, Red Faction. While unable to blow the crap out of things with your guns, the dark, dingy worlds harkens back to the original worlds of Mars in the first Red Faction game (other than the sneaky-sneak levels, of course). You get usual weapons like rifles, plasma-like guns, sniper rifles, etc, along with a handy batch of grenades. The grenades are particularly satisfying because they work 2 ways. If you fire in a general range, it will fire off a few seconds later taking out the mess, but if you make direct contact with some enemies, they will literally explode into pieces in a fiery demise. Sah-weet, I say. Shame there's hardly an abundance of them. Warhammer does have a twist in that after each level, your health is recharged, but your weapons remain, making you work for ammo and grenades.

Back to the levels, these are a bit disappointing due to their total linearity, with hardly any room for freedom aside from hidden tasks spread out in each level. Some are a bit confusing with repeating hallways or sections, but it usually only has one way in or out anyhow. Many of them follow a constant pattern as well - open doors, kill enemies, collect health, ammo, etc, and move on to the next area. This does tend to get repetitive after a while, especially since the game isn't particularly hard once you find out how to exploit the AI by hiding to reload, waiting for your shield to come back up, etc. But on the other hand, the action never relents as there's few moments of quiet to relax - you're always fighting somewhere. It feels like and old-school corridor shooters like Doom, or even Insomniac's awesome Disruptor FPS for PlayStation that is all but forgotten nowadays. Keep that in mind knowing there's only a checkpoint-based system in place, and you may only save at the end of a level - die, and get used to repeating an entire section of a level again.

Warhammer does have some nice controls, which will be familiar to FPS players. It works well with the PS2 controller, and with only a couple weapons to use at a time, makes swapping them a snap, as well as using the face buttons for the different actions. It's all tightly wound and Kais always does what you ask him to do at all times, and finding the right button to do it is intuitive.

As you can see, Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior isn't particularly original, and quite unabashedly a combination of many popular FPS games from the past and present. At the least, the action is intense enough, and the storyline interesting enough to keep the single player going, especially since the multiplayer is a bit lacking and definitely not the main draw. It might feel like Halo, only playing as the Covenant instead, but Fire Warrior is at the least competent enough to not only borrow aspects of other games, but at least make them work well and not be an embarrassment to the game they were inspired from. It's give and take anyhow - many of these games had some roots in the Warhammer universe, so why not borrow something back? Honestly, if you can deal with this lack of anything creative out of the minds of Kuju, Warhammer is a solid FPS game that plays well and is full of non-stop action, with plenty of levels to blow through. It definitely is not in the same category as the games it has emulated, but it's competent enough to be an above-average shooter. If you can't, you probably will wind up extremely bored with the game and its repetitive nature - even I got bored in many places, as the constant fighting against familiar enemies dragged until things changed in terms of storyline and enemy lists. It's a game that does need more than a few levels to really judge as a game, that's for sure - if you're going to check this game out, make sure to get at least past the first section of the game before writing it off.

One thing you'll notice right away is the sharp, detailed visual engine. Fire Warrior is loaded with great animations and world design most of the time, as well as a large collection of nice textures and other tricks. The Сwar within a war' gimmick works really well, as not only are the sounds of war all over, the visible explosions in the distance, in other parts of the area, is nicely done and adds believability to the entire thing. Other levels are a little less exciting, but they're made up for with sharp designs and nary a visual flaw in sight. The only small hassle is how dark many levels are - and the only way to adjust it is to actually adjust the TV, rather than going through settings. This makes things tough sometimes when navigating through tight spots, being practically blind. While you have infrared to help out, it's limited and doesn't really do that much good. If they're going to make a game with darkness such as this, they should have had the option to use a flashlight, like Halo or Half-Life; unless they didn't feel like copying another game. Best part is, Warhammer runs at a rock-solid 60 FPS, with zero, and I mean zero, slowdown. I was mighty impressed by this, given how much can be going on at once in a level or even a small room within the level.

The audio also is nicely done, in most aspects. While the voice acting is a bit cheesy and uninspired (and full of bogus accent work, that's more amusing than anything, yet not as bad as would be done in the past or anything), the sounds of futuristic war are pretty awesome and authentic, putting you right into the war zone. There is no music aside from the usual sci-fi orchestrated themes that play in the intro and cutscenes, but is it's not really necessary given how much is going on. You'll need to hear anyway, with enemies giving out a few hints (not purposefully, obviously), and listen for enemies firing off in the distance. For those that enjoy a good sci-fi epic, the sounds of war will be music enough, I'd venture to guess. It's a strong package that only lacks with the mediocre voice acting.

Usually, a game that lives and breathes mixing a familiar franchise with components from other games in its genre could be called derivative, uninspired, or unoriginal, but in Warhammer's case, it's only just unoriginal. There clearly was inspiration to blend in standardized FPS gameplay elements despite not breaking the mold, as they all work pretty well despite a few shortcomings.