Your weekly Warhammer fix.

Everybody has a Warhammer game. That is not hyperbole, it feels like there is a new game in the Warhammer universe dropping at least once a week. That is cool for fans of the franchise, but horrible from a gamer’s perspective. It is impossible to keep track of all of them. There are shooters, RPGs, just about anything one can imagine. For this review I am covering a top-down action RPG from the guys that created The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. Sounds like a good combo right? Well as it turns out this game has some truly bright moments marred by some presentation issues.

For the sake of my sanity, I am going to refer to this game as Martyr going forward. The full name of the title is ridiculous and I am not familiar with the Warhammer universe so a lot of the colons and subtitles make little sense to me. The story revolves around a ship known as the Martyr, and each mission had me investigating weird occurrences on it. There is a lot here; it is clear that Neocore Games put in the work to appease fans of the franchise. The cut scenes are great, and the sheer amount of lore and world building spread throughout is impressive.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99

For anyone that has ever played a Neocore game this should feel familiar. There is plenty of loot, plenty of skills, and of course satisfying action. The game kicked off with me choosing between three classes and then three sub-classes as a base. It is clear early on that Martyr encourages multiple characters, much like a Diablo. There is so much customization and each class feels pretty unique. There is melee and ranged combat and a host of skills that really change up the game play.

Martyr is level-based. This means every mission is a separate entity. Eventually, a hub ship opens up where I was able to talk to other characters and do various tasks to upgrade. Playing Martyr, though, certainly exposes some of its shortcomings. This game was clearly designed for PC players. There is a cover system and an auto lock-on for enemies, but it feels forced. A lot of times it would lock onto environmental objects and not the enemy that was running right towards me. It feels clearly designed with keyboard and mouse controls in mind.

The camera is also free flowing, which I normally prefer, but there are a lot of obstructions in the environments that make it hard to see enemies off screen. I could also zoom in and out, showcasing the gorgeous detail in the worlds and characters, but again too close really cut off my ability to see what was in front of me.

There is a lot here though, tons of missions, online and local co-op play, and even a PVP mode that pits players against each other. There are even updated missions that serve as weekly challenges for players to complete. Plenty to see and do, it just gets repetitive after a while.

Martyr also suffers from feeling unpolished. I had the game crash multiple times. There are visual glitches all over the place. There are also issues with the game being designed for PCs. The text is entirely too small. There are a ton of mechanics in the game, and there is a tutorial for each one of them, but when they triggered it would put a tiny bit of text in the top left of the screen that I didn’t notice until three levels in. It is things like this that really irritate when trying to enjoy the finer pieces of the game.

Martyr supports Xbox One X enhancements in the form of a resolution bump. There is a setting to run the game at 1440p and it looks crisp. Even with the drab and dark levels there is some gorgeous detail in the environments. Enemies splatter real good onscreen. The frame rate can be hit and miss in this mode though. As I mentioned the text and other presentation aspects suffer from being too small though. The menus are also clunky a lot of the time and the game just feels rushed to consoles.

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor Martyr (told you the name was ridiculous) is a solid game that I had a lot of fun with…once I got past its blemishes. A patch or two and this game might be a must-own for ARPG fans. Right now though, it is hard to recommend due to its hindrances.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.