Necromunda: Underhive Wars Review (PS4)

good
key review info
  • Game: Necromunda: Underhive Wars
  • Platform: Playstation 4
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Necromunda: Underhive Wars

For several years now Warhammer went from a tabletop game popular among only the initiated fans into a fully-fledged consumer brand. As a result, we are flooded with videogames based on the various Warhammer settings, quantity over quality seeming to be the general directive. The newest production invites us into the dirtiest underbellies of the Warhammer 40k universe, to delight us with the entrails of gang conflicts.

Not everything in the Warhammer universe is shiny metal and soft velvet. The best example is the hive cities of Necromunda. It is an unbreakable cycle of pollution and misery, that keeps entrapped billions of souls. It is an industrial dystopia in which every drop of water and every breath of fresh air is recycled countless times.

It is a pyramid scheme in which the starving many serve the luxurious needs of the few. And there are the gangs who grasp at the illusion of riches hidden deep beneath the hive, using every means to get to them in the hope of escaping this doomed life. Who wouldn’t want to visit such a charming tourist paradise?! Nobody, except the gamers, for whom one of the nastiest places in the Warhammer universe is an ideal place to spend their time.

And they will need a lot of it because Necromunda: Underhive Wars is as slow as a real tabletop game. You will need a lot of tactical know-how and even more patience to be able to discover the secrets of the Hive Primus. Your arduous journey starts with the story mode.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars
Necromunda: Underhive Wars
Necromunda: Underhive Wars
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The developers used the grimdark atmosphere, the well thought out missions and the spectacular set-up just to lure you in and teach you the basics of the game. Even from the first steps, you will be bombarded by tremendous quantities of information, proving once again that tabletop games are not as easy as they look and that they are not meant for everybody.

The rules are many and very complex to a degree that even the single-player campaign cannot fully explain them, just present the basics. You will get a team of misfits that you will move around the maps on a turn-based style. Every action such as shooting, moving, vaulting over obstacles, activating auras, and special abilities costs either Action Points and/or Movement Points.

Next to managing these basic resources, you will have to take into account the different character classes, with their strengths and weaknesses, consider the terrain with all of its advantages and hazards. When you feel on top of all the variables you can try forming your own gang of no-goods, and by throwing them in repetitive missions gathering enough experience to confront not just the AI, but also human-controlled opponents.

The world of Necromunda: Underhive Wars is supposed to be ever-evolving and always changing. All the battles you participate in will either make you stronger, prepared for bigger challenges, or crippled, forcing you to retreat and reconsider your approach. The experience that in theory sounds awesome is hindered by the issues of practical deployment. The biggest annoyance is the pace: the game that is slow even by concept comes to a snail-like pace when two or three parties meet on the battlefield.

As such, you will have plenty of time to wonder about the lack of intelligence of the AI, that has a repetitive tendency to just walk around the units it controls. This would represent an advantage for the gamer, except that it fails to prepare you for the challenges of meeting a human opponent who actually knows what he’s doing. Things are made worse by the animations that remind us of a low budget indie game. It is a shame that most of the time your enemies look and behave like a bad joke, even more so that the rest of the game shows care for the base material.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars, although slow and very complex, is a very ingenious adaptation of the board game. There is a lot of tactical depth, thanks not just to the synergies that can form among your team members, but also the level design, that heavily relies on verticality. Not just the generous amount of lifts and the ziplines are proof that the developers tried to make us think in 3D, but also the numerous abilities related to these environmental elements.

Also the story, despite the issues with the AI is quite a solid one, that challenges you to experience events from the perspective of three different gangs. By doing so it manages to familiarise even the greenest of the novices with the game world and its main characters.

The biggest and most enjoyable challenge of Necromunda: Underhive Wars is the multiplayer component. Well put together, this represents the longest (and best) part of the game. All the single-player missions can be considered a prolonged tutorial meant to prepare you to face human opponents. The managing of your party and loadouts to overcome your adversaries is an engaging but somewhat repetitive task.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars
Necromunda: Underhive Wars
Necromunda: Underhive Wars
+7more

The Good

  • Good story with interesting characters
  • Excellent multiplayer experience
  • Deep tactical gameplay

The Bad

  • Catastrophic AI
  • Visual issues
  • Requires patience and a lot of free time

Conclusion

Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a mixed bag of assorted delights and horrors. The story is well put together, but it fails to completely explain the rules. The combat can be fun, but the AI is completely retarded. There is a lot to do in the game, but you also need a lot of time even to do little.

As such, just as the tabletop game is based on, Necromunda: Underhive Wars proved that it is not for everybody. You need patience and you need to have passion for the deep tactical approach, to enjoy what the game offers. Still, despite all its shortcomings, the game can be fun for the right audiences and has a lot of potential that shines through especially in multiplayer.

story 7
gameplay 7
concept 6
graphics 7
audio 7
multiplayer 8
final rating 7
Editor's review
good
 

Necromunda: Underhive Wars screenshots (23 Images)

Necromunda: Underhive Wars
Necromunda: Underhive WarsNecromunda: Underhive WarsNecromunda: Underhive WarsNecromunda: Underhive Wars
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