I can't see it much myself, but Deathwing is supposed to be Warhammer 40k's take on Left 4 Dead. Sure its multiplayer game is co-op only (and its campaign fed by AI bots), with you and up to three others up against relentless hordes of skittering horrors, but Left 4 Dead's clever narrative framework, its dynamic stage direction and cast of sarcastic characters are hard to make out in Deathwing's grim darkness of the far future. What you get is more of a glorified survival mode stretched thin over nine large levels, with you and your Terminator Space Marine buddies under regular assault by waves of Alien-inspired creatures as you stomp a steady path from one distant objective to the next.
If that all sounds underwhelming and rather tedious, don't be put off just yet. There are plenty of reasons to be cagey over the current state of Deathwing, but the game's lack of Left 4 Dead DNA isn't one of them. In actual fact Deathwing's flimsy structure and plasterboard systems can, to a degree, be seen as a virtue; you can almost see the influence of the original board game underneath the first-person shooter design. Not enough to have compromised the action too much, but just hints here and there (to reassure the faithful) that developer Streum On Studio hold the source material in suitably high regard. As in, they properly get that 40k is more than just Lord of the Rings in space, or, in the case of Space Hulk, James Cameron's Aliens rampaging through the Mines of Moria.
An example are the spawn points and "blips" that are highlighted on the in-game map, from which the Genestealer hordes commence their attacks. Conventional design wisdom might suggest not revealing such things to the player, especially when doing so highlights the fact that they can't be taken out. But then a knowledge of where the enemy might spring from, and that it will never stop coming for you was always integral to the original game. In Deathwing, as implicit in the ancient text of the first edition Space Hulk rulebook, you have to keep moving forward lest your incomparable space knights become overwhelmed by the demon swarm.
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