Customer Reviews

Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate

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Warhammmer 40,000: Chaos Gate is a squad level tactical combat simulation that is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. In the game the Ultramarines lead by Captain Kruger undertake a perilous campaign against the traitorous forces of Chaos. Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate can be played as an ongoing campaign, a series of single missions, as a randomly generated mission, or in head-to-head action with up to threee other players over a LAN or via a TCP/IP internet connection. Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate also comes with a Scenario Builder that enables the creation of custom and randomly generated combat mission.

Before I review let me add I've owned this game since it's release in 1998. With my OS upgraded to Windows 7 Professional (64bit) I decided to try one more time to see if I could get this game to work. My rig was able to run the game after I selected compatibility with Windows Xp SP3. (Also I turned the detail to medium in the game to speed up the game's performance which obviously has issues with SLI).

Chaos Gate is unique among it's peers. Most GamesWorkshop video games have a difficult time portraying the gritty future that is the 41st millennium. Chaos Gate instead made you reel from every loss of your brother marines, every expended clip of ammo brought you closer to damnation for ammunition was scarce. Despair is palpable from the beginning. Chaos cultists drone out "Join Us!" in what is quite possibly the most disturbing voice ever. Traitor marines of the Word Bearer's Chapter speak of your doom as their bolters fire on your position. In return your outnumbered brothers chant litanies of hate and death and praise their emperor, yielding not to the influence of Chaos. Add to this the most grim and gothic soundtrack you have ever heard (youtube it if you don't believe me) with a choir singing in Latin, and you have the complete package that is Warhammer 40,000.

My only gripes with the game is the shortness of the campaign. The graphics are definitely outdated, cut scenes have poor voice acting (yet it does have it's moments). These are certainly characteristics that would ruin a modern game, and if you can't see past those then this game probably isn't for you.

The representation of certain weapons is not accurate. Plasma weapons do not offer the killing power that the miniature game has is one example. Some weapons have inaccurate descriptions relic weapons and master crafted weapons sometimes offer no difference in performance with their more common counterparts.

The whole experience however is an extremely positive, when you read the books from black library publications this game will stand out among others in your mind's eye. there is no other game that captures the theme of Warhammer 40k as accurately as Chaos Gate, and with the great possibility that many others can play this game again thanks to Windows 7 - there is no reason others shouldn't revisit this classic game if they can see past the short comings of an old game. Thematically this game is a masterpiece.

This is a really fun game but I just wanted to warn potential buyers that it will NOT work on newer Windows OS like XP and Vista. The game will install and you can start to play but the game will critically fail and crash. I did a lot of research online for solutions but the only way to get it to work properly is to play it on an older OS. Changing the compatibility mode will do nothing nor will any of the other claimed fixes.