TL;DR – W40K: Gladius is a perfectly decent if slightly simplified 4X strategy game that is a fine game for W40K fanboys (and fangirls) or those who are looking for an approachable entry level game in the genre. As is always the case with Slitherine games, there are some rough edges to it but generally everything plays well and is intuitive enough that you shouldn’t have too many problems. Just be aware that this is a game with legions of DLC content and that the base game itself is relatively simplistic, with a modest 4 factions and no true campaign mode. Instead when you play as a faction on a randomly generated map, you can either follow their storyline or just eliminate all of the AI players. In spite of the rough edges, relatively simplified gameplay for the genre and limited amount of base game content, I’d still give this game a tepid recommendation.
Quick Note – This is more of a “quick look” than a full review as I’ve only played through 2 of the 4 faction storylines. They were both very similar and it seems like all of the factions play fairly similarly, but worth noting in case I’ve overlooked something.
Warhammer 40,000: Gladius is one of those games I picked up for $1 years ago, mainly due to the IP and have finally gotten around to giving a proper go this week on the advice of a friend. I’ll admit that I was slightly skeptical, as the last game in this vein I’d tried was the underwhelming if bearable W40K: Sanctus Reach, a flawed and low budget TBS game that is OK/10 but really lacking in polish and variety. As such I fully expected this to be another middling W40K, of which there are many and to my shame of which I also have bought many. Gladius on the other hand is good-ish, it’s no Dawn of War or Space Marine but it’s actually a decent game bearing the W40K name, instead of a boring game being propped by it’s source material. In this case practice has definitely made perfect, as Slitherine have made a couple of games using Games Workshop’s intellectual property at this point and they do seem to be continually improving, not just in game design but also in polish. As for the game itself, it’s a classic 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) albeit in a simplified form as there is no diplomacy, and somewhat limited resource management. For those not in the know, 4X games are basically a type of turn based strategy game with more of a focus on building an empire and which generally utilise hexagonal grid maps.
As for the gameplay, it’s generally fine if nothing majestically special. You’ve got four factions to choose from in the base game, each with a handful of gimmicks but that generally play fairly similar and have broadly similar units. You can choose the Imperial Guard (no not the aStRa MiLiTaRuM), Space Marines, Orks or Necrons (because this game came out during the OMGOMGOMGOMG NECRONS ARE SO COOL phase that Games Workshop went through after the race got rebooted into Tomb Kings in SPACE). The Space Marines are to the surprise of no one, the babby introductory race and can only have one city making management a doddle, because they also only have to worry about one resource in the form of requisition. In exchange for this handicap, they can deploy mini-forts every 10 turns and most of their units have decent amounts of armour and firepower to make them able to withstand the swarms of other factions which have multiple cities. Then you’ve got the Orks who gain influence from attacking and deal more damage when you’ve got a lot of that resource but are weaker when you’re low on it, plus they have some very powerful late game units and are pretty good in melee combat while boasting decent regeneration abilities. The Imperial Guard are about what you’d expect, mainly lots of units and cities that are expendable but will have low morale if they take too many losses. On the plus side they’ve got decently strong fortifications and some of the longest range artillery in the game. Finally you’ve got the Necrons who can only build cities on certain tiles, but who also can spend resources to rush unit production with those units being fairly powerful and having decent regeneration abilities.
And each of these factions have broadly similar strategies, unless you go for their bespoke campaign quest-lines. You see every game of Gladius is the same, in that it’s either a skirmish game against bots or a multiplayer game against other people and/or bots. As a consequence of the total lack of diplomacy and the lack of customised single player maps, there isn’t a huge amount of variety between games. Especially as each faction has broadly similar units, Tactical Marines will be better than Guardsmen as an example, but they function the same and each unit has an equivalent across factions with some factions exceeding in certain areas. This means that no matter which faction you play, a lot of the units are similar and indeed most aspects of the game are just the same. Tech works the same for all factions. Every faction except for the Space Marines have the same resources to manage (ok Necrons don’t need to eat food but still), every faction has the same XP system, every faction has to deal with the same aggressive native fauna and each faction has the same outpost bonus resource system. As such the game is pretty approachable and not exceedingly difficult to understand, especially as each quest-line pushes the player through the most obvious steps of how to proceed. Then there’s a tutorial system on top of this, although I must confess it’s a bit crap. Basically every-time you interact with something for the first, a pop-up tutorial message appears. Which is great, except for the first two turns where you keep clicking on new things like a unit, or a city, or an enemy, or a resource, or the end turn button and so it dumps a bunch of information on you at a rate that is just unnecessary.
Now I’ve mentioned the quest-lines above which are a good idea, however much like the tutorial pop-ups in the implementation is a bit janky. You see, the way it works is that you’re given objectives to complete such as “go to these 3 spots with a hero” or “build these 3 buildings” which is fine. The problem is that W40K: Gladius loves to spawn enemies that interfere with those goals as soon as you receive the complete the previous mission, which means that players who try to go through the quest-line quickly will end up getting their cunts kicked in. Much like the campaign in Supreme Commander, it’s often better to just leave objectives nearly completed until you’ve been able to build up your armies and defences, with the final quest missions always involving a sudden explosion of enemies bum-rushing you which can be annoying to deal with. While it does make for a great show-piece battle, it is often overwhelming and if your troops are out of position due to dealing with enemy AI factions or just unlucky with where Gladius chooses to start spawning things, then it can be very tedious to deal with. As for story elements they’re pretty light on the ground and the game doesn’t have any voice acting or a memorable soundtrack. Visually it’s perfectly fine and the units and buildings do “sprout” quips in text form above them when they’re in view which is a nice touch, but it still feels like this a game with a modest budget which I’m sure it was.
And that’s about it for W40K: Gladius, because that’s really all there is to the game if you don’t pay extra for the DLC packs. Which isn’t necessarily a slight on the game’s honour, as I found it to be an enjoyable if basic 4X strategy experience. You don’t really have to worry about grand AI alliances, extensive resource management, convoluted tech trees or bonus extraneous game features. You just build units, build cities, upgrade the cities, gradually research better units and try not to get overwhelmed by either the AI or the newly spawned quest enemies (should you go for the quest-line). Nothing about the game is particularly high quality, but the combat is fun enough and if you go for the four faction quest-lines it provides a decent value for money. As such W40K: Gladius is a game I don’t regret playing and would kind of recommend, but you know it’s just fine. Nothing to kick yourself for missing, but worth a look for fans of the IP or who are looking for an approachable 4X / TBS game.