{"id":12616,"date":"2019-07-19T02:19:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T09:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/warhammer-40000-gladius-chaos-space-marines-dlc-review-unleash-the-real-bad-guys\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T17:33:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T01:33:32","slug":"warhammer-40000-gladius-chaos-space-marines-dlc-review-unleash-the-real-bad-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/warhammer-40000-gladius-chaos-space-marines-dlc-review-unleash-the-real-bad-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Chaos Space Marines DLC Review \u2013 Unleash the Real Bad Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Chaos Space Marines DLC
\nSlitherine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius<\/em> originally debuted almost a year (to the day ago) and delighted many a strategy fan. Its emphasis on resource management, strategy and combat tactics, and a de-emphasis on fussy diplomacy and trade (I can always go play Europa Universalis IV<\/em> for those), made it much more easy to manage than most of its competitors. It also meant that the mid-to-late game didn\u2019t bog down into unwieldy micromanagement slog. To top things off, WH40K: Gladius<\/em> is a game that just oozes with the rich universe\u2019s lore.<\/p>\n

Can we say: Instant classic?<\/p>\n

Yes, I know that there was the inevitable harping by some WH40K enthusiasts that felt that the four base factions were missing a couple of units here and there. But that\u2019s understandable, given that Slitherine isn\u2019t exactly a big, triple-A studio. This is a case were an indie studio has crafted a game that might not have all of the bells and whistles that a gigantic, soulless company can provide, but you can tell that they put a superior amount of love and passion into their little gem.<\/p>\n

Slitherine’s new Chaos Space Marines DLC<\/em> for WH40K: Gladius<\/em> is a very welcome addition to the base game. While I loved playing the vanilla game with its four factions, there was only so many times that I could have fun pitting the Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard), Orks, Necrons, and Space Marines against one another. The Tyranids DLC<\/em> back in January of 2019 was a great way to stir things up and the new Chaos Space Marines faction further changes the game, in meaningful (and fun) ways.<\/p>\n

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Whereas the Space Marines of the Imperium of Man are nine-foot-tall, genetically-engineered badasses wearing power armor, the Chaos Space Marines are their evil counterparts who have been corrupted by the Chaos Gods. Slitherine designed this new faction in a way that isn\u2019t just a cut-and-paste of their regal cousins, instead, they\u2019re very unique in how their units look and feel, as well as how they play in an overall sense. I\u2019m so glad to see this last point since many game developers will sometimes design these two arch-enemy factions in a way in which they\u2019re basically just cookie-cutter copies of each other.<\/p>\n

To start with, there\u2019s a really interesting mechanic where you can sacrifice your own population to please the Dark Gods and obtain their benevolence in the form of boons to be bestowed upon you. You can benefit from the Dark Gods\u2019 generosity by upgrading your units with the powerful Marks of Chaos. But it\u2019s a risk\u2014if you\u2019re looked at with favor, your units can become Daemon Princes; if not, they\u2019re transformed into mindless monoliths of blubber and razor-sharp claws known as Chaos Spawns.<\/p>\n

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Just as I had with the Tyranids, I played my first few games against the Chaos Space Marines without wanting to know what their unit composition was all about. In that way, I could discover what it was on my own. Choosing my ever-intrepid Imperial Guard faction, I found out the hard way that maybe that wasn\u2019t such a good idea. Running into the Chaos Space Marine\u2019s lowliest units early in a game\u2014mere Chaos Cultists\u2014can be a real humdinger.<\/p>\n

If my lowly Imperial Guardsmen survived the initial onslaughts of the Chaos Space Marines, I\u2019d later run into Havocs, which would usually shred my Guardsmen to pieces with their belt-fed heavy autocannons. If I managed to make it past them, I\u2019d eventually face off with Warp Talons\u2014demonic units that can teleport across the battlefield and blind you\u2014or the infamous Masters of Possession.<\/p>\n

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These latter units\u2019 in-game description says it all:<\/p>\n

\u201cMasters of Possession lead warbands of devoted warriors in pursuit of untold power. These sorcerous figures have mastered the darkest and most blasphemous lore: the art of using hosts of living flesh to house daemonic spirits. It is they who perform the profane ceremonies of binding that imbue the Daemonkin with their warp-born power. Gouging a breach in the fabric of realspace, the Master of Possession draws a willing entity from the immaterium, channeling its terrible energies into the body of a supplicant or the chassis of a war machine. So thoroughly are these dread figures steeped in blasphemous sorcery that where they walk, reality itself recoils.\u201d<\/p>\n

Needless to say, encountering these fiends on the battlefield has never gone well for my Imperial forces (but I keep trying!).<\/p>\n

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In all, the Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Chaos Space Marines DLC<\/em> offers a whole host of new mechanics and fun-to-play (if a little dastardly) units that should surely impress those who fancy these fallen angels. Most recommended!<\/p>\n

SCORE: 90%<\/p>\n

The Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Chaos Space Marines DLC <\/em>features some pretty nice looking graphics that make its strategy gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:<\/p>\n

\"case<\/a>
Mega Special Sale<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Chaos Space Marines DLC Slitherine Warhammer 40,000: Gladius originally debuted almost a year (to the day ago) and delighted many a strategy fan. Its emphasis on resource management, strategy and combat tactics, and a de-emphasis on fussy diplomacy and trade (I can always go play Europa Universalis IV for those), made… Read More »Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Chaos Space Marines DLC Review \u2013 Unleash the Real Bad Guys<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[2520,741,2488,2527,1225,67,2486,2586,5720],"class_list":["post-12616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4k-gaming","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-game-review","tag-game-reviews-2","tag-gaming-laptop","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane","tag-strategy-games","tag-wh40k-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17046,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12616\/revisions\/17046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}