Many reviewers have commented that Squad Command will appeal more to fans on 40k, who are liable to overlook the clunky interface and lack of plot, and just enjoy the familiar designs and characters of the franchise. This is false. Any 40k player will have to contend not only with wrestling the cursor into position and being unable to move the camera properly, but also with the fact that the weaponry and armour does not function in a way that reflects how things are balanced in the game, and many critical features of the game are entirely missing. On the contrary, I would say you're more likely to enjoy this game if you have never played 40k, or indeed any good squad-based shooter.
For example, vehicles take the same amount of damage no matter where they are hit. A blast from a combat shotgun does nearly twice the damage of a volley of bolter shells (not to mention automatically hitting every enemy within range; my record is five chaos cultists with a single shot!). Bolters themselves feel horribly under-powered, requiring at least two volleys to see off a lightly-armoured cultist, and something in the region of ten (around fifty shells) at point blank range to kill a chaos space marine. Because the game doesn't take account of the difference between toughness and armour, a heavy flamer is the perfect weapon to use against terminators (who, incidentally, only benefit from a health bonus of 25% compared to their power armoured brethren they should be more than twice as hard to kill). Plasma guns never overheat. Lascannons do not impede movement, and are actually more efficient to move-and-shoot with than plasma guns. Psychology is not taken into account in any sense (neither, therefore, is squad coherence). There are no squad composition rules, so not only is it possible to give all of your marines plasma guns, it's practically forced on you by the comparative weediness of bolters. The list goes on and on.…Full Review »
Kon
8
this game wow-ed me on the first go, it carries the warhammer 40k universe pretty well and impressive accuracy, even better than the WH40K series on PC (which i have been playing since it's first release till now) i might say, but it's a pity that most of the missions are pretty straight forward kill-em-all runs. other than that, the voice-acting is average, nothing impressive can be expected from a hand-held console, but the cut scenes are excellent, probably the one of the best around in warhammer. It seems like a trail in this release to me with the apparently undeniable huge potential Squad Command has - more races, units, mission types, and maybe more depth down in it's gameplay.…Full Review »
JoshB.
7
A solid turn based strategy game that has a very X-Com feel to it though it is lacking the depth of it's predecessors in the genre. This game has two glaring problems that keep it from being a top ten game on the PSP. 1. Camera, it's fixed the whole time and after playing similar games with better camera options like Jeanne D'Arc there is no excuse that the system can't handle it. 2. Character growth. In this type of game, a solid RPG element can be added where you develop individual soldiers with different skill sets. This would add tremendously to the intense battles if you are worried about your favorite characters surviving. Instead we just get generic_military unit_101 here. Add those two things to a sequel and your going to have a game that gets a 9.5 instead of a 7. Despite these flaws, the game is still a solid purchase for a fan of Warhammer or the RTS genre.…Full Review »
