izigame.me

I don't usually write reviews for games, but I've had a lot of fun with this one and the reviews seem a little off for what this game and the DLCs are. I'm posting this in the game and the DLCs as I talk about them all to some extent.
I'm still a huge fan of the original from 1998, but this is a more than worthy successor. I've put nearly 360 hours into it, picked up a bunch of the 0.7-8% achievements, thoroughly enjoyed everything about this game, including the somewhat initially jarring, but soon familiar somewhat Fable-style character design, with the exception of the Inquisitior who is has a bit too much of a Bratz aesthetic for me, her actual characterisation is spot on though, and have played with a all the DLCs, which, beyond Castellan Crowe who is the Drake Sword from Dark Souls made manifest, are all brilliant and add a whole bunch of variety and difficulty, which the majority of the negative reviews could be avoided if they simply signposted the difficulty more explicitly and/ or somehow progression-gated the new virus...and I am determined to do a Grand Master playthrough, especially as playing this while listening through the Horus Heresy is a perfect combination.
This game can be really hard and seem next to impossible with some of the added DLC difficulty, but it's not unfair. You just need to pick yougr missions, progression, and actions carefully. I'm not particularly good at it by any means, but I've got through it a few times. Like any strategy or RPG game, you can lose a lot of time and progress if you make mistakes or get unlucky. That's just this kind of game. I think it's probably barely mid tier in difficulty because I suck and have a bad brain and I do mostly OK. It just seems unfair if you're not prepared.
All the DLC units are fun and useful in their own way, if not really for the actual final boss missions, the Vindicare is a truly glorious glass cannon and can come in clutch in boarding actions, the rest of the Execution force have a lot of character and niche uses, which they are perfect for--I was gobsmacked when I first closed an inclining portal! The Dreadnought is good fun and, while it's locked to certain missions it's because it's very powerful and takes aot or patch up anyway, and, while fiddly and ultimately not necessarily the best for end game, the Tech Priest has incredible versatility and can colossally augment ranged output. Plus rolling around with double the bodies with a full harness of servitors during missions with the Inquisitior, Ship's Magos, or the Dreadnought feels epic.
It's just Castellan Crowe that kinda sucks. He looks great with his flaming, smoky skull sword and lots of abilities, but he is quickly outclassed by high level Paladins, Interceptors, and Justicars. If you started with him, which might be an option if you play the tutorial, which I'd already done once before I got the DLCs, he would be so OP early game and then shelved as soon as your barracks has a range and higher level Knights. If you end up getting him, I found he works well as default away team leader for the extra ship from one of the other DLCs.
All in all, the game is amazing, Execution Force is great, but absolutely non-essential, the Dreadnought and Tech Priest one is really good, but tricky, and Castellan Crowe...looks cool, I guess?
No Lascannon, which somehow managed to one shot the Bloodthirster and final boss Chaos Lord with in the original 0/40,000