I wanted to love Necromunda: Underhive Wars; I wanted to really love it as I followed its impending release. On the surface it was everything that I wanted it to be. It looked like this perfect X-Com turn-based mechanic mixed inside the deep 40k universe. I love me some 40k and even enjoy the terrible games released over the years even knowing full well most would be crap as Games Workshop will give almost anyone with a nice smile the license. Thankfully, Necromunda: Underhive Wars isn’t a bad game by any means, but it is one that leaves a lot to be desired for both 40k and tactical fans.
What sets Necromunda: Underhive Wars apart, including from other 40k games, is the story and setting that it lets you play in and play out. So much of Warhammer 40k is Space Marine stuff most of the time. You get these huge dudes doing huge things against huge amounts of enemies. Maybe the odd space-based game or two, but it’s mostly Space Marines being Space Marines. And I”m not opposed to that but the 40k universe is so much deeper than guys in blue armor chainsawing guys in black armor.
Necromunda: Underhive Wars tries go deeper, literally in fact, by being about the planet of Necromunda, a plant that is made up of giant hive cities that seemingly stretch down to the core of the planet. Planets like these are there most people of the Imperium live and it lacks the gothic beauty of a space armada or the righteousness of a legion of Space Marines fighting for the Emperor of Man. It’s the dark underbelly where its a constant fight for survival and one not explored by the digital gaming side of the 40k space. You get this industrialized world where gangs fight mosrlt for control not for glory and not even for gold most of the time, but for literal scraps just so they can survive.
The hive-world is a dark and depressing place that’s populated by groups eking out a living any way that they can. You fight to survive and to bring honor to your gangs House in a world where only the strongest survive. Yeah, you can probably already tell I’m pretty into this game on the concept alone, and that’s before I even get into the gameplay. As a longtime fan of the X-Com series, playing since it was on DOS, the tactical gameplay used in Necromunda was right up my alley. This tries to be a thinking mans sort of gaming experience.
On the surface everything works well enough but there are some weird pacing issues the game fights against, something weird as the tabletop version of the game was intended to be a faster affair than the traditional 40k experience that could sometimes last days or weeks. The Necromunda tabletop game was all about small skirmishes instead of battalion wars with only 9 models (if I recall corrently in my old age) on the playfield. It was also really well-known for heavily focusing on 3D terrian with multiple floors interconnected with all manner of walkways. If you ever see a game played the game layout is wicked impressive.
And just like the game it’s based on, Necromunda: Underhive Wars places a focus on this multi-floor setup and small unit count. It’s not the most popular of 40k side games (I’d wager Blood Bowel is more popular) but it makes for a perfect video game thanks to the success of games like X-Com, especially for PC players who gravitate more towards slower experiences. The core of the tabletop experience is all here and works surprisingly well. The progression model is here and helps you really connect with your gang as each unit has different stats and abilities lending to highlighting their personalities which can grow alongside you.
Necromunda: Underhive Wars also features a fairly fully developed campaign mode for solo players like myself that was pretty engaging. It’s not award-winning stuff and I really wished the game dove morei nto the lore of the Hive Worlds, but it was more than enough to keep me playing, dangling that carrot at the end of missions thanks to the nicely incorporated cut-scenes. Everything here is set up for a great experience, and sometimes you’ll have one, but before long you’ll find yourself shaking your head at just what the hell is happening on the battlefield and with the game itself.
First off, Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a slow game, even for something tactics based. This is partly because of the small unit count but also because the game uses a close-up camera which means you’ll be playing in a sort of third-person, over-the-shoulder view. This is fun on the surface as you don’t click to tell a unit where to go, rather, you move them there yourself like a traditional action game. It’s fun at first but because the maps are tiered it becomes painfully hard to know where you are in relation to the map and other units at times. You can activate a map screen in 3D with the menu but it’s clunky and still doesn’t make it clear where you are easily.
Another pacing issue involves the games AI, which is some of the dumbest on the planet. On PS4 it sometimes takes upwards of 30-seconds for an enemy unit to decide what they are going to do, and when they do make a choice, it’s sometimes is beyond dumb. On one map in particular of the campaign I had an enemy see me attack them only to respond by running by me, travel up two levels, jump down a level, and then shoot me from a terrible position. They could have simply stayed put and shot me multiple times and still had energy to run for cover. Enemies will use AP and MP (action points and movement points that make up the turn-based nature of the game) like they are going out of style or like daddy’s credit card.
It’s hard to create a dedicated strategy against enemies when they are working with dumb-dumb logic (see above GIF for an example). It might make sense for an enemy to make a certain tactical move against you in your mind and by all first-year military logic, but they totally go off-script and run across the map for no reason. Sure, this keeps you on your toes but it’s not how basic functioning people would react. I often never felt like I was fighting a hardened group of gangs who have been bred and modeled by violence, but instead by a group of kindergartners who happened to stumble upon a cache of Nerf guns and pixie sticks during recces.
Thankfully, playing with other real people is the way to really experience Necromunda: Underhive Wars, at least if you can find a match. Well, it would be if the game did a better job of teaching the player how to best play the game. The tutorial will essentially be the campaign for the game. That’s the best way to learn through trial and error because the game throws a library of information at you that someone new to the game, which is a niche tabletop already, might turn new players away. It’s like an exposition dump before you even start playing and no one likes reams of homework before a game. And I know 40k stuff can be a bit complicated, but this a little much. When forums and posts say you’d be better off watching YouTube videos on how to play, you might have a problem.
But still, the few gripes I’ve mentioned should not kill the overall experience of Necromunda: Underhive Wars, but what will kill it for most is the dreadful launch and the almost broken state the game is on PS4, and I assume on other platforms. Right now the game is broken before even a single match happens on PS4. The cut-scenes look great but many of them are out of sync with the audio. They are literally unwatchable at points being out of sync by seconds and not even a hard restart fixes them. The AI might not be totally broken but it sure feels that way with enemies sometimes getting stuck running into a wall until their MP runs out.
The camera also really loves to glitch out and can give you a real headache as it often shakes after passing though simple objects. This also applies to the player and enemies as they will visually stutter during a turn if they clip something like the corner of an object. The worst is when trying to target, or un-target, an enemy when two or more are bunched up close. The camera will simply cycle back and forth between them making selecting anyone impossible and forcing you to lose a turn (see below). I lost a number of units thanks to this bug since I love up close combat.
The game is simply unstable, and if it’s this unstable on consoles, I can only imagine the pain being felt on PC. Look, it’s hilarious when an enemy runs right into your squad and kneels down as if begging to be put out of their misery, but those laughs will eventually turn into frustration. So many of the issues with Necromunda: Underhive Wars aren’t even all that deep. It’s not as if the core experience is bad or that it’s built on a shoddy base, only that it isn’t quite as polished as it needs to be. This is like an Early Access titles that needs one last patch before heading to market. There isn’t anything here that a few patches can’t fix. The problem is whether players are willing to wait and if the bugs and difficulty wall will scare off potential players.
I also can’t believe that the game shipped without a skip turn feature, or at least a fast-forward button, so that you weren’t forced to watch enemy units take a painfully long time to move around a given map. And it’s hard to overstate the games difficulty curve for new players when there are multiple forum posts titled “How do I play this game” out there. And most annoyingly is the fact the PS4 has a touchpad and is only used as a map button. What’s the point of the PS4 pad then? Sure, it’s an excuse for Sony to charge you an arm and a leg for a Dualshock, but you know when I’m getting at. I should be able to use it as a mouse to move the map like one world on PC. This is made more troublesome as only the joystick can be used to select stuff in-game and in menus when a perfectly good D-pad exists for precision.
Is Necromunda: Underhive Wars as bad as other reviews are saying? Not really. Sometimes it does fell like they cut far more slack to AAA games than they do to AA games like this, probably because they don’t pay their salaries through ads, but you didn’t hear that from me. Still, the points against the game in its current state are valid but that doesn’t mean the game can’t be a lot of fun a lot of the time. The game does do a great job at dangling the carrot in front of you with the story and the customization system that will make miniature painters a nice high, even if you have to huff it through the campaign.
I really wish Necromunda: Underhive Wars would have focused as much on solidifying the gameplay as much as they did with the visuals. It’s a pretty game with a really great aesthetics, but I would have been far more forgiving if it sacrificed visuals for the sake of tight gameplay. In many ways Necromunda: Underhive Wars is like that 1969 half built Chevelle in your neighbors driveway. Sure, it’s a great car built on a fantastic base, but if it’s rusted and in pieces up on blocks what good is that base? Driving a clunky Chevelle is still fun, but driving a clean Chevelle with all original parts like it was new is a life-changing experience. Necromunda: Underhive Wars is like that beater in the driveway that could be amazing when fixed up.
“Necromunda: Underhive Wars is like a diamond in the rough that if polished with a few updates and patches could be something really special”
Pros:
+ Great setting
+ Killer aesthetic
Cons:
– Serious AI problems
– Broken cutscenes
– Buggy mess
Final Score:
*A review code was provided by the publisher*
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