➤ When chaos is just confusion 🎮

Let's imagine a poor Warhammer 40,000 enthusiast gamer who full of grace decides to purchase the final version of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. He read about it and the promises behind this production were high-sounding: an MMO set in the world of Warhammer with the Tyranids attacking the territories in the possession of the players.

The latter would have had to organize themselves, they would have had to buy equipment by sharing resources and they would have had to structure themselves into guilds to survive. The conditional is a must, because of so many magnificent ideas there is practically nothing left in the finished game. Currently Eternal Crusade can be defined as a normal arena shooter in which four factions, Space Marines, Ork, Space Marines of Chaos and Eldar, give each other a lot on more or less large maps depending on the mode chosen (Total battle for 50-60 players, Skirmish for 30.40), in which you have to defend or conquer control points. In reality, the Tyranid are there: just select the Lair mode, which is a cooperation between five players who must carry out various missions together. Too bad it is little played and runs out of interest after a couple of games (it is evident that it is a piece of something bigger that has not been completed). And the MMO? Vanished. But let's go back to our player who has just spent his fifty euros to get into the game and, as a good boy scout, begins to create his own completely personal character ... ah, right? To customize it, do you have to spend either game currency or premium currency that can be purchased with other real money? Just think, he spent fifty euros and immediately finds himself fighting with a free-to-play style shop. But he is still optimistic (we'll come back to the shop later) and decides to start playing with the standard classes. After all, he thinks, I don't need to customize my character since I haven't tried to play yet. After passing the tutorial (a special map with messages explaining the various game mechanics), he finally enters a game ... and is literally slaughtered. In front of an armored Space Marine, his Ork's submachine gun appears to be firing paper balls. Whole bursts hit, but they seem to have had very little effect. One, two, three dead. What happens? Are there any cheaters on the server? No, these are folks who have been playing the Early Access version for months and have the equipment you dream of, o dear player who has just joined. On top of that, they have a lot of unlocked skills, and you dream of those too. As long as you do not manage to buy some high-quality prices too, you will be slaughtered meat.

We reviewed Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade and didn't really like it

Paying yet?

Our friend is incredulous. He keeps playing, but game after game he is increasingly discouraged. By now he has also learned all the mechanics: he knows how to use his orc to perfection, he knows its limits and weapons. Some killings arrive, but the gap with respect to the others is always very high. Skill matters little, it's clear: Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade characters aren't super fast (apart from some special maneuvers), but the problem isn't hitting them. In head-to-head matches, a well-equipped character will always win against a poorly equipped one. Unfortunately there are not even servers divided by levels and therefore you are always at a disadvantage. Our player is very down in the dumps.

The only ones who are at his level are the other newbies, who are also equipped with the standard equipment. There are two options: continue like this, eventually buying something decent for the character, or spend real money on customization. And here comes our shop in play: to customize a character you have to spend between thirty and forty euros on average. Initially the developers had said that the only objects that could be purchased with real money would be the aesthetic ones, but it did not happen. There are currently unique items, even very powerful ones, that cannot be purchased with the in-game currency. So are we faced with a pay-to-win? No, it would be better to say to a pay-to-win re-entry, since as already mentioned it costs fifty euros. Sure, there are skills that help mitigate the feeling of imbalance a little, but we're always there: if the servers fill up with old and new players, the latter will inevitably be the sacrificial victims of the former. (each faction has its own skill tree where you can spend the points gained by leveling up). It's bad to talk about a game in these terms, but you have to deal with these problems if you want to understand why Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is currently a major failure. Our aforementioned player will in fact have to spend a lot of time, or spend more money, to be able to become competitive. In all this, the direct experience made on the battlefield will have a very marginal role, because it will help him little or nothing until he has the right tools.

There is confusion, it will be because I love you

And here we come to another crucial issue to address: the gameplay of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is still immature. Too immature. The four classes are unbalanced, with major problems deriving from their asymmetry, evidently not resolved with the patches of the last few months.

Between blinding shots, automatic cannons, powerful long range weapons, thoughtless care and so on and so forth, it always seems to play the same game. Each faction has its own winning tactics, which make it almost useless to try other ways. Those eager to experiment will not be able to do it with great ease, partly because chaos reigns supreme, and partly because the combat system is obviously designed for another type of game. The end result is that what could have been the definitive game dedicated to the world of Warhammer has really come to a bad end and at present is considered more of an alpha version than a full title. The technical side doesn't even help. Sure, the models are very well done and have great animations. Even the maps, although not many, render the atmosphere of the Games Workshop universe well. Too bad, however, for the glaring drops in fluidity, with frames per second that collapse dramatically for no real reason. In short, even looking at Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade from a technical point of view, you realize that it is an unfinished title and that it still needs refinement and optimization.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Intel Core i7-4770 processor
16 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 video card
Windows 10 operating system

Minimum requirements

64-bit operating system (Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1)
Processore Intel Core i3 4170 o AMD FX-8120
6 GB RAM
Scheda video NVIDIA GTX 570 2GB o AMD HD7850 2GB

Recommended Requirements

Intel Core i5 or AMD FX-8300 processor or better
8 GB RAM
Scheda video NVIDIA 780GTX o AMD HD 7970

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Steam Price 49,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

4.0

Readers (4)

3.0

Your vote

We believe we were clear enough in the review, but we reiterate the fundamental reasons why we fail Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade: access difficulties for newbies, chaotic gameplay, obvious limitations caused by the reduction in the running of the project, shop in game with items purchasable only with real money, lack of technical finishing ... what have we forgotten? If you were interested in the MMO features, know that it is not an MMO. If you like arena shooters, know that there are much better ones around. If you are a fan of Warhammer 40,000 ... well, there are tons of other games based on this universe, some of which are very good. The only hope is that the development will continue and slowly all the problems will be solved, but to be optimistic it will take months, if not years to succeed.