Space Hulk
One of those great games which has aged with its grace intact. There is no way a board-game could possibly be turned inot a computer game any better than this.
Right then, some background. Space Hulk takes place in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40 000 universe where guns are large, monsters ugly and people dress in enough armour to get confused for tanks. The game takes place inside enormous old spacecraft, space hulks, home of the alienlike Genestealers. For some reason you can't just blow the hulks to pieces as soon as you spot them, instead you send in those tank-like guys known as terminators to deal with any threat lurking inside. Hey, logic doesn't seem to be the selling point of Warhammer 40k ... And the natural send-up-a-ton-of-nukes tactic would give quite a boring game too. The way things are now, you are given control of one, sometimes two, squad of those terminators as they enter the hulk. Your job is to accomplish the mission objectives at all costs, someone living through it is more of a bonus.
The action can be viewed from two different points: either a tactical map or through the eyes of your terminators. Everything is real time, but you have the possibility to pause the game to think things through and give orders at any time. Not forever though, you only get a certain amount of this "freeze time" a the start of a mission. When it runs out, things return to gut-wrenching realtime again, during which you slowly get more freeze time to spend later on. You'll need every second of it, even if it's just to catch you breath. This game makes you paranoid. You start muttering at those menacing blips on the radar, painfully aware that the Genestealers move faster than terminators, also knowing that a close combat very often means death for a terminator. This makes it a thrill to get around every corner, and the game AI adds loads to the excitement. If there is a crack in your defenses, it'll find it and pour Genestealers through it until you cover it or get slaughtered. Often, it will opt for the second alternative, this is one game where you'll have to plan a lot and have some luck to succeed. Genestealers are superior speed, close combat skills and numbers, there's more to kill here than in Doom and Quake together. Deaths are satisfyingly bloody too, and all corpses remain in place for you to look at.
Graphics and sounds are getting a bit old, but they still set the mood wonderfully. It isn't 3d in the modern sense, this is pre-Doom Eye-of-the-Beholder-like stuff but with transitions from square to square. Nevertheless, it still pulls me in. It is a space hulk you are in, the Genestealers are there, waiting to shred your squad. The hulk is dark and narrow, and various ominous creaks and growls can be heard when things are calm. Then, suddenly, all hell breaks loose. The heavy pounding of Storm Bolters mix with the screams of dying Genestealers or, even worse, dying terminators.
Space Hulk is getting old alright, but it has tons of mood and will suck you in. There is a newer version, Vengeance of the Blood Angels, but it lacks some of the charm of the older version. Can't wait for a version using a modern 3d graphics engine along with surround sound and all the rest. The question is: would my nerves be able to take it? I'm ready to risk finding out ...
