We are the Gray Knights. We have the Emperor’s factor flowing in our bodies; we are the Emperor’s last gift to humanity , the last line of defense of the Empire; we are mysterious, both physical and legal, strong and sharp, disciplined, with a heart as iron as stone, unshakable; we are born to fight against chaos, wherever the corruption is the most serious, there is our figure; we are the devil’s nightmare !
Before stepping into the battlefield of “Gate of Chaos Demon Hunter”, we never doubted ourselves. But when we couldn’t kill a plague zombie for half a day with the revenge Muse power weapon and blaster gun filled with psychic energy, and the MK7 power armor stacked with demon buffs was shot through by the cultists who treated us like ants, and we had to rest for ten days or half a month with minor injuries, we couldn’t help but wonder: Did we wear the wrong clothes or go to the wrong set?
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The feeling of “déjà vu” in “UFO 2”
As a newcomer to the game, I believe many players who have played “UFO 2” will feel a strong sense of similarity.
Both the UI and the perspective can be described as “déjà vu”. However, there is nothing wrong with following the path recognized by players, which is much better than blindly messing around.
Above is “Chaos Gate Demon Hunter”, below is “UFO 2”, the game’s User Interface Design and perspective arrangement obviously draw on the successful experience of “UFO 2”
This kind of reference makes the UI of “Gate of Chaos Demon Hunter” look simple, clear, and orderly. It can provide players with necessary information without being overwhelming or cluttered. The classic 45-degree bird’s-eye view allows players to have a panoramic view of the battlefield , while also having a more ” God’s perspective” experience.
And after the hands-on play, this “déjà vu” feeling will be more obvious. Whether it is the same 4-person team, the same common “cover shooting ” style combat, or even the close-up shots used are quite similar shooting presentation, are all elements that fuel this.
The way the game presents shooting is also quite similar to “UFO 2” (top is “Chaos Gate Demon Hunter”, bottom is “UFO 2”).
By the way, even the design of the teaching level that has nothing to do with the protagonist played by the player is exactly the same. However, in comparison, the teaching level in this game is even worse. After all, the teaching level in “UFO 2” is to save the commander, while in “Chaos Gate Demon Hunter”, the old commander died before even leaving the teaching level, which gave players the opportunity to climb up.
“Today, we lost a brave warrior, a respected leader, and a great man.”
The old will not go, the new will not come. Since the previous commander has died with honor, it is time for players to take over
The game experience of “seemingly true but not true”
However, when you get through the initial stage and have further experience with the game, you will find that this “UFO flavor” does not seem to be as pure as it smells.
In “Gate of Chaos Demon Hunter”, even at the default normal difficulty, before the player completes their own “Grey Knight Development Plan”, which is the first half of each knight’s 9-level upper limit, the enemies they face are even more powerful than us in terms of overall performance – not only is the detection range large and the trigger will directly enter their own turn after encountering enemies, but they also have powerful skills such as low-cost group resurrection and range reduction action points in the early stage. Moreover, the AI is also quite clever, finding cover and covering the butt are routine operations. More importantly, compared to our side that locks the limit of four people, they can legitimately and recklessly pile up monsters.
By stacking monsters, AI can easily reduce the number of players
In such a situation, “speed pass” and “no damage” become a dilemma that cannot be achieved at the same time.
Some friends may say, “Why do we have to play fast or without damage? Can’t we just play normally?”
Unfortunately, in “Gate of Chaos Demon Hunter”, “normal fighting” is not enough.
The main reason for this seemingly absurd situation is the two major mechanisms of the game – the “subspace surge” caused by the magic seed and the injury and recovery of the gray knight.
The specific manifestation of the former in the game is that in the battle, if the purple Progress Bar at the top of the screen is full, a random event that is unfavorable to the player will occur – such as a decrease in overall health or perseverance (which can be understood as the blue bar), enemy damage increase, corpse resurrection, etc. This process generally takes about 6 rounds, but if the player uses “psychic energy” (which can be understood as spells or skills) in the battle, it will accelerate the growth of the Progress Bar. The result of this mechanism is that as the number of rounds lengthens, the difficulty of the campaign will continue to rise, and even the battle that was originally won will not be won if it is prolonged.
For players, the “Subspace Surge” Progress Bar above is like a sword of Damocles, constantly restricting their tactical choices
This design seems to emphasize the importance of “speed”. However, in fact, most of the battles and maps in this game are quite large, and the tasks to be completed can be described as “long and difficult”. This simple and deliberate way of increasing difficulty will obviously not have any positive effect on the player’s gaming experience.
Destroying the demon flower barrier is a quite common task in this work, and even such a task requires a difficult journey
On one hand, using “sub-space surge” to make players “hurry up”, while on the other hand, using large maps, distant mission points, and multiple enemy encounters to prevent players from speeding through, such operations are really exhausting and unbearable.
As for the latter, every gray knight in the game is “light and easy to push down”. As long as the shield bar is not hit by the health bar, it will be “injured”. Once injured, it takes more than 20 days to recover. If you fight with an injury, you will bring a powerful DEBUFF with -6 maximum health (the early gray knight only has a few points of health). Such a “delicate” physique makes me even suspect that the girls in the power armor are all using voice changers. (?)
Is this your true face?
Such injury and recovery mechanisms make “no damage” a very important consideration in “Gate of Chaos Demon Hunter”. Whether in the early or late stages, players must always pay attention to this point when fighting against corrupted rebels and demons. However, like the “speed pass” mentioned above, players often fall into the dilemma of being unable to obtain what they want due to the unreasonable difficulty factors of the game.
In contrast, the “déjà vu” predecessor ” UFO 2 appears much gentler, especially in the behavior logic of AI after encountering enemies. Compared to any game in this game, it has the ability to detect players from 800 meters away, then directly take over the turn, find cover, set up formations, monitor the area, and aim in one go Super combat The” mutants “in” UFO 2 “are not only visually impaired but also prone to backstabbing. They are used to spreading out when they see players, and they also foolishly walk into the player’s ambush circle every day, which is simply a shame for the villains.
Is this all about “mutants”?
In addition, “Door to Chaos Demon Hunter” does not have the “hit probability” design in “UFO”, which means that the attack in this game will not be as likely to miss even if it is close to the face as the latter. Although this choice is somewhat “one-size-fits-all”, it has its advantages and disadvantages. However, under this premise, the performance gap between the player team and the enemy group is further magnified. This is obviously a manifestation of the lack of consideration by the production team.
Without the hit rate in “UFO”, it means there is no chance to “compete in character”, which further amplifies the performance gap between the player team and the enemy group
Complain about “the weakest gray knight in history”
As we all know, “Warhammer 40K” is not actually a widely popular theme. Games made against this background must have a core audience of “Hammer fans” and “potential Hammer fans”. Under this premise, the design and performance of “Gray Knight” in “Chaos Gate Demon Hunter” is obviously unsatisfactory
In all fairness, form exists, but God…
Although I can’t be considered a die-hard Hammer fan, I have some experience in both medieval Warhammer and 40K. A group of super warriors who are at the peak of the human empire’s combat power according to the tabletop game setting, facing the chaotic demons and their followers who were “specially attacked” by themselves, actually fought fiercely with ordinary cultists, zombies and other “miscellaneous soldiers”, even falling behind repeatedly. This is unbelievable to anyone who knows the setting of Warhammer 40K. To put it bluntly, as the “last line of defense against chaotic demons” of humans, if the Gray Knights are all at the level of the game, how did the empire survive under the overwhelming attack of the chaotic demon army relying on them and the interstellar warrior group whose strength is not as good as theirs according to the setting?
The original Grey Knight board game, which one is not a one-to-one existence, like in the game, the Empire has been played to death by Chaos 800 times
To put it simply, the reason why the design team made such an “epic” weakening of Gray Knight compared to the original design is to cater to the hardcore attributes of War Chess SLG. However, in my opinion, the same effect can be better achieved by further increasing the number of enemies and reducing individual performance, as well as designing more enemies of different types and positioning. The production team did not put more effort into this aspect, but simply and crudely changed Gray Knight from ceiling magic to war five trash, resulting in Hammer fans who came for the cool game “Gray Knight fights demons” shouting that they were fooled, and potential Hammer fans who played the game directly had a completely wrong understanding of Gray Knight. Obviously, in terms of “serving the core audience”, “Chaos Gate Demon Hunter” is unqualified.
Who would have thought that the Gray Knight, who is so strong in board games that it is necessary to strictly limit the number of appearances in the module, would also be beaten by Chaos soldiers one day
By the way, what’s even more outrageous is that after players studied the game’s Class Skill design and equipment matching, they finally came up with a set of melee stun execution tactics that could barely “restore glory” for the Gray Knights. The developer Complex Games quickly released a patch, which not only directly cut off the stun effect of the melee weapon sledgehammer, but also increased the threshold for the enemy to be stunned. They also slashed several powerful skills at the same time. It seems that in their eyes, the Gray Knights should have been evenly matched with the Chaos soldiers (shrug).
Summary comprehensive evaluation
Overall, if we put aside the background of “Warhammer 40K”, “Chaos Gate Demon Hunter” has a good visual performance, and as a hardcore strategy chess game, it is also qualified. Although there is a lack of novelty in the method of increasing difficulty, it still relies more on the addition value and the number of piles, but at least it can really achieve the purpose of making players rack their brains and work hard.
In terms of visual performance, “Gate of Chaos Demon Hunter” is quite good
However, as a work with the title of 40K, the huge difference between the game content and the original board game design is unacceptable to the core audience of the game, which directly affects my evaluation of it.
Hammer 40,000 is already niche, and the result of such modification is destined to be unpopular
Based on the current trend of updates, at least in this work, the Grey Knights have basically no chance of turning things around. Therefore, we can only hope to truly see their “chaos nemesis” style in future 40K works.
