7 Kill-Teams That Warhammer 40,000 Needs

If nothing else can be said about this year, the success of Kill-Team needs to be highlighted above all else. While Necromunda remains popular among players, the popularity of Kill-Team remains one of the surprise successes of the past year. It allows players to get into the main setting, offers them a way to play on a budget, has a unique set of rules, and even offsets many of the hero focused Warhammer trends which have become rather irksome. Even players who show little to no interest in the core game have been buying up new sets, with the likes of the Rogue Trader box offering an opportunity to field a number of highly unique models.

At the moment, Games Workshop has largely been experimenting with the possibility of unique kits and new models. So, here's a few possible ideas which might help to have the game stand out a bit more; just a few general units which would be enough to grab the attention of players.

7 - The Fallen Angels

This is the only Adeptus Astartes related squad on this list, as it's the only one we really need. Well, the only one which isn't the Iron Snakes, and they sadly don't have a big enough fandom to justify a full unit. With the ending of the Gathering Storm, the Fallen Angels were brought back into the limelight after being on the fringe of fandom knowledge for a time. While a brilliantly written dataslate about Cypher fleshed out his antics and the odd hint suggested that they were active in the wider galaxy, that was about it. 

The Fallen Angels largely served as an obstacle and objective for the Dark Angels. Whereas the likes of the Thousand Sons or Death Guard were able to field full armies of unique models, the Fallen Angels received little attention. As they had little lore, and their tactics were limited to squad level activities or small-scale operations. This would make them perfect for Kill-Team, as it would open up any number of interesting mission objectives or unique cards to play. After all, these are guys who range from dedicated Chaos cultists to nihilists to vengeful renegades.

The Fallen Angels also benefit from displaying far more individual quirks and personality traits than many other Astartes armies. The Gathering Storm alone proved this, with multiple pages listing off the personality traits of a number of individual marines, and how they each pursued their own agendas. It would be an opportunity to truly flesh out the group as a variety of unique heroes loosely aligned to carry out a single goal over a devoted squad.

6 - The Eyes of the Emperor

The idea of adding in the Adeptus Custodes to Kill-Team has become a running gag for a while, due to their inherently overpowered nature and high price. Most cite that you would probably just end up with one person facing down an entire squad, and that's if you're lucky. However, there is actually some potential in this. Oh, not with the Custodes themselves, certainly, but with a small sect of their order: The Eyes of the Emperor.

This is effectively the Custodes' version of the Inquisition, and it consists of the closest thing they have to retirement. While the Custodes themselves may well be long-lived beyond even the measures of the Astartes, when one is found to be slowing or losing their edge, they often voluntarily retire their equipment and head out into the galaxy. From there they either cultivate a personal network of agents, informants and vigilantes to hunt down Chaos cults, or act alone in their personal war against traitors, xenos and daemons. It's a very Judge Dredd idea, and not overly dissimilar to their take with the Long Walk.

The way this could be played might be akin to how Vampire Counts were utilised in Mordheim. You have one or two unstoppable badasses, each capable of punching the heads off of folks and serving as your hammer, and chaff of various degrees of competence surrounding him. As he wouldn't be wading into battle in full power armour and with a guardian spear, the Custodes would be much more stoppable, and would still have room for growth. Perhaps he could be armed with everything from a lasgun to a storm bolter, and only be able to be clad in up to carapace armour. 

Likewise, the informants and groups surrounding him would likely range from Chaos Cultist to Tempestus Scions levels of capabilities, but be notably much more poorly armed. Their edge might be allowing them to disrupt the start of the game, or weigh the odds in their favour through a mixture of intel, sabotage or establishing pit traps. While it would be another army of the Imperium, it would be a nice mix of models and a good way to introduce a fun new element of the lore onto the tabletop.

5 - The Eldar Exodites

Look, you all know that this was going to be on here somewhere. As a self-confessed fan of the dinosaur riding knights, there's something undeniably amusing about someone facing off against the space Amish, only to discover they're packing anti-matter weapons. If anything the Exodites might be one of the most diverse groups behind the Imperium itself, as they have no fully established tabletop presence. You could end up depicting them as near feral hunters going with the Wood Elves angle, as some books showed, or establish them as a scouting group from Wakanda 40,000. There's certainly enough sprues and extra bits (such as the lovely box of skulls which has been very useful in setting up my own army) to experiment with this.

In terms of rules, the main issue would be working around the fact these guys probably wouldn't show up riding velociraptors on steroids. Instead what we would have might be a mixture of Royal Household Guard on foot with a single Baron, Noble or even just a Chief leading them. These could better emphasise hit and fade style attacks than what the Dire Avengers offer with some more durability than Dark Eldar units, filling the gap in between them. Alternatively, if you wanted to go in the direction seen with the first novel of the Dark Eldar trilogy, these could be closer to savage hunters. A more extreme version of the Ranger, with less armour, but effects like poison weapons at range or using local animals to their benefit. Hell, perhaps have a few come with them. You could have attack hounds to harry enemy units, or hawks being used as scouts to improve their accuracy by highlighting enemy targets.

If you're about to complain that they don't have starships like everyone else, well, the old lore said that groups used the Webway to get around just like the rest of their kind. As for their personal abilities, you still have a lot to work with due to their backgrounds. They could have skills which better emphasise their ability to rapidly withdraw from combat while still fighting, or even perhaps to have a number of advantages relating to the nearby terrain.

Also, as an aside, apologies for the quality of the painting in the photograph. That was my personal unit, and was close to being finished before my house was turned into a building site, and everyone else here decided that privacy was a luxury I didn't need. Now, let's move on before this turns into a rant.

4 - The Cadian Kasrkin

While it was sorely tempting to put down Kasrkin/Stormtroopers here, the truth is that the Kasrkin have more material to work with. Despite having been usurped by the Tempestus Scions, the models are still popular, and fetch a high price on eBay. It's with good reason as well, as they were among the best looking "future soldier" models produced for the Imperial Guard. With Cadia gone, there's little opportunity for them to be brought back in force, but they would be perfect for a kill-team. After all, the world broke before they did, and it's only in death that duty ends.

The Kasrkin here could be made up as survivors, perhaps even elite specialists which cannot be afforded to be placed on the frontlines. Given their unwavering resolve and sheer skill, it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if one group of Inquisitors or another tried to integrate them into their personal armies. Or, if someone didn't like that, perhaps Guilliman's reforms might have seen them utilised as a special forces unit for missions where they needed quick results without deploying a full army.

The obvious element which helps to characterise them more is their long history guarding against Chaos, and also the fact Cadia itself is gone. The destruction of a planet can heavily influence the depiction of an army, or even serve as a new direction behind them given their dwindling numbers. The Tanith First and Only is the classic example of this, but you also have the likes of the Star Phantoms, or even the entire Craftworld Eldar race. This can be taken in any number of directions, from self-reliance to having a much stronger core of veterans. It's definitely a varied example which can be built upon for any number of takes depending on how a player wishes to show them having evolved, and Games Workshop already has a solid design to work with.

3 - The Abhumans

So, this isn't entirely an Imperium related one. It instead relates to something which has always been an odd undercurrent within the setting: Humanity has a lot of sub-species. You have the Ogryns, and also the Ratlings, but also a multitude of other species. These are generally tolerated by the Inquisition and wider Imperium for their use, but are certainly not on the same level as the "pure" general species. This has led to their use as slave armies, cultists and even allies of other powers. The most obvious among these fits in with the classic depiction of the Imperial Guard, as groups of cannon fodder being (often literally) whipped into battle by a Commissar, or sent on suicide missions. Many of these would be to accomplish objectives or fight enemies with no chance of survival, and given the variety of foes in Kill-Team, that would fit in perfectly. Let's face it, if you end up with unenhanced humans fighting Thousand Sons, then you're going to take casualties.

The big benefit of this kind of force would obviously be customisation and opportunities to integrate existing models. Ogryns may or may not be possible depending on how they are written into the rules of Kill-Team, while Ratlings are an obvious addition thanks to their abilities as snipers. Then you have the likes of Beastmen who, in the era of Rogue Trader, did serve as serf soldiers who were loyal to the Emperor. There are varied groups and units atop of this, but the point is that you can have an extremely varied force of body sizes and physical builds to make up the overall team. It may even be an opportunity to have a much more fodder related force built around melee if the aforementioned Beastmen were used, or even to experiment with new takes on typical Imperial Guard weaponry. Just think of how one of these creatures might try to rework a basic lasgun, for example, perhaps cracking the focusing lens to turn it into an unstable shotgun weapon or the like.

The fact that they have such a diverse number of physical builds and can show up with everything from Chaos cults to the Tau Empire would also help with player creativity. If you leave enough opportunities for people to dig into their bits box to customise armies, they almost always will.

2 - Tanith First and Only

This might seem like a cheap option, but it did need to be added onto here for several key reasons. The big one is simply that, while they were available for a time, we have not had Gaunt's Ghost models in years. While they sadly weren't too popular thanks to the expense needed to build squads, the regiment is perfect for a Kill-Team style campaign with limited numbers. After all, they're a light infantry regiment with a heavy emphasis on stealth, limited engagements and acting as scouts. Multiple stories feature units acting independently of other armies, and we had an entire book devoted to Gaunt himself leading a squad to assassinate a traitor general. You might remember it, that story was titled Traitor General.

However, this isn't to say that the unit itself needs to focus on including the likes of Corbec, Gaunt, Larkin or Criid. Instead, it's a chance to use the army's background and more general tactics to help promote them. While the regiment might have followed a number of distinct figures, a great deal of time was spent highlighting the histories and quirks of its supporting characters. This ranged from noting their past professions to how certain personality traits affected their roles in the army. This would make them perfect for this type of squad level engagement, and permit countless opportunities for players to uniquely customise them to their own tastes.

Finally, and most prominently, you also have their variety of roles and weapons. While the army emphasized light infantry tactics, they did not simply limit themselves to long-las weapons. Instead, their soldiers were armed with everything from flamers, to lasguns, to bolters, to man-portable autocannons and the ever wonderfully named tread fethers. This would give them a versatility which many other scout or ranger style armies lack with their armories.

1 - The Kroot Mercenaries

Above all others, the Kroot had to take the number one slot on this list. Why? Because they're the perfect option for Kill-Team. You don't need to add in a single new unit with them, as everything from the Kroot hounds to the Krootox serves as perfect units to augment the basic squads. Furthermore, their basic troops exist as a perfect blend of melee and ranged glass cannons, as they can dish out a decent number of attacks despite notwithstanding returning attacks. This has typically made them serve as little more than a basic speed-bump to attacking units in many 40,000 games (and occasional area denial sniper mobs) but this wouldn't quite the case in Kill-Team. As the game limits the type of units they usually struggle against, they wouldn't be fodder so much as you might expect. Furthermore, the multitude of ability cards would help to offset their typical fragility.

Without the rules angle, you also have the benefit of their role within the galaxy. The Kroot are mercenaries before all else, and despite their standing alliance with the T'au Empire, they will happily fight for the highest bidder. This means that they can have any number of pillaged weapons, trophies or elements to help make their members uniquely stand out from the crowd. The standard Kroot box already has a vast number of customization in terms of arms, bandoleers and weapons, but there is every opportunity to build on this. Imagine if they had a specific prey they favoured above all others, for example, like the Astartes, and how you could build up their models to reflect this.

Finally, there is also the subject of their genetics. Kroot kindred adapt and evolve depending upon what they consume, often taking the most beneficial traits for themselves. Over time their genetic makeup alters if they keep consuming enough of a certain prey, until members gradually manifest those qualities over generations. This can lead to evolutionary dead ends - like the Krootox - but also varied sub-species of family groups. An old Chapter Approved article highlighted this, with groups like the Headhunter Kindred developing poisoned glands to spit venom at their enemies, or the Stalker Kindred, who had multiple genetic enhancements to benefit stealth. It wouldn't take too much to re-introduce these ideas via Kill-Team with a few upgrade kits.


So, that's the main list here. While I was sorely tempted to throw out the suggestion of the Ordo Chronos, it seemed best to try and emphasise a broad mixture of varied units. There are more Imperial ones than I would like on here already, and while they might have shown up with the Last Chancers if this list was longer, it seemed best to stick with the essentials.

If you have a few ideas of your own, please feel free to list them out below here. There are many more concepts which can be thought up, after all, and you could probably find a reason to justify everything from more Tau Auxiliaries to Thunder Warriors in one way or another.

Frostpunk (Video Game Re-Review)

You're probably asking yourself two things upon seeing this.

The first is simply "Wait, didn't you review Frostpunk already?"

And the other will likely be "Where the hell have you been?"

To answer those in turn - I did review it, but several free expansions (including yesterday's one) meant that the game deserved a second look, as it has undergone a few noted improvements. It's not quite a No Man's Sky style turn-around, but it is enough to warrant a second look.

As for where I have been: Life is still chaotic. I'm used to keeping multiple plates spinning at a time, but even I have some trouble when someone throws a kitchen worth of them at me. And then sets the kitchen on fire while they're doing it.

The ironic thing is, that last example can easily describe the experience of playing Frostpunk, only it manages to capture the fun side of things.

The Synopsis

The world is freezing over. The steampunk golden age that the world has enjoyed came to an abrupt end with the onset of an endless winter. No one truly knows the cause of it, nor even how to counteract this catastrophe, but humanity needs to adapt in order to survive. Abandoning their cities, refugee camps flee northward to where gigantic heat generating towers have been constructed. It is now your task to keep your small band of survivors alive, happy, and find a way to make your city thrive amid the wilderness.

The Good

The immediate +1 bonus Frostpunk gets is its thematics. Let's be honest here: Steampunk tends to be treated like a crutch. It's a great visual medium and a very distinctive style when done right, but far too often it boils down to someone sticking a lot of gears onto a top hat and saying it's done. The ones which do this far outnumber the few which try to execute something interesting with it, and even then they typically have trouble with the world-building here. Frostpunk avoids this at every turn thanks to its post-apocalyptic nature. While it could be argued that part of this is sidestepping the problem in question - by destroying the world rather than fully explore it - the game does offer a few substantial hints about the setting. We see indications of the technological level of the world, mentions of nations and even the odd technological marvel. What's more, steam itself is core to the game's very mechanics, and it manages to just about balance advanced technology against age-old aesthetics. Both visual and societal ones, of course.

Many of the problems you end up facing in Frostpunk stem from two societal issues above all others. The first and most obvious among these is the risks and issues of running a city on the verge of annihilation. The local population will make demands of you, have biases colour their influences and even cite your shortcomings as a major problem. Too few medical clinics? Someone's going to complain. Poor shelter? People will become unruly. If you seem to be failing in your duties or favouring one group above all others? People will riot.

The societal system is decided by two meters, one measuring the level of hope within your populace and the other the discontent with your decisions. This might sound like a basic X equals Y system, or something to encourage you to avoid becoming a tyrant, but it ends up being quite the opposite. In fact, how many of your choices tie into this heavily impresses upon the player the grey morality of the game. For one thing, pit fighting actually helps to placate your population, and despite the occasional death duel can do the same. 

The societal additions to your city are made through the Book of Laws, a spider-diagram of a system allowing you to implement new buildings or mechanics. This can only be implemented every few days, but your choices range from establishing a tavern to keep the population's hopes up, to child labour. The easy answers you would expect to see are entirely absent from this experience, as it reinforces the fact that a hopeful and loyal population is not always a good thing. You're perpetually short on resources, supplies and bodies, so while barring the use of child labour might seem like a no-brainer at first, in some scenarios it can become essential to your survival. You simply need more people in order to keep dragging up coal to fuel the furnace. This need to balance survival against morality was what helped This War of Mine stand out, and despite having a fantastical setting and larger scale, it works just as well here.

What further complicates matters is that your population has its own demands, from small-scale familial disputes to broader situational issues. What makes this so effective is that many of these can stem from any number of possible situations, each of which changes depending upon the scenario you play. There are a few basic ones - people will moan if you have everyone living in tents at hell-freezing-over temperatures - but then there are the likes of how you deal with the bodies of traitors, or people taking time off work to pray upon seeing their impending doom. You cannot wholly control this and there is only a rare third answer provided by the game's later choices of Order or Faith (police state or local church) options. However, if you go too far with these, you can easily cross a line from simply having churches to boost morale, to public floggings of those who fail you.

The actual scenario system itself was a point of contention among players on release. Many apparently wanted a free-roaming mode or the likes in order to explore the setting without being bound to a story. However, as time has gone by, it has been increasingly clear that these stories help to offer the game's strongest element. Each explores a different element in a city's life, and throws entirely new challenges your way as your population reacts to them. In New Home you have to establish your new city, and then quell an insurrection of people attempting to break from your city. In The Arks you have to deal with foreign affairs, and the last best hope to preserve your future. In The Refugees there is the issue of class warfare threatening to rip the city apart, while the Fall of Winterhome is about a populace attempting to drag itself back from the edge of annihilation.

While the scenarios themselves cannot be fully delved into without spoiling them, the Fall of Winterhome was the most recent, and highlights just how different these can be. Rather than merely maintaining resources and building up a city from the ground up, you have to rebuild it. You take charge of a failing city which has undergone a revolution, with its people having completely lost hope, and many of its buildings torched beyond use. Your task is to use decrees you would have otherwise ignored and the remaining facilities to make it thrive once more. In addition to this, you need to continually hit targets on the hope meter to ensure that the people trust their new ruler. Even if Winterhome is thriving, if you fail to hit these even once, you face being exiled into the wastes.

So, that's the crux of the good. Surprisingly, there is some bad to be found here as well.

The Bad

This first point is going to sound strange, but for a game based around a new ice age, the heat mechanics are surprisingly lacking. They certainly provide a challenge at first, especially as the temperatures continue to drop and if you only have a fairly low population. However, beyond those first few minutes, it can quickly become a simple nuisance. The furnace which is in the middle of your city is easy to maintain once you get a basic grasp of the mechanics, and there are multiple ways to easily guard your buildings against the cold. Of all the resources on hand, coal is the most plentiful and easy to acquire. Unless you completely botch any attempt to balance mining with a high output, you will never run out of the stuff. Unless the game drops the temperature to ludicrous degrees (I.E. past the freezing point of carbon dioxide) you're never going to feel as if it poses any true threat to you.

The issue of resource management is also somewhat undermined by other additions which undermine the sense of surviving against all odds. The big ones are how the game handles scouting missions and outposts beyond the city itself. Now, this addition is actually a welcome one for several reasons. It shows a broader map of the world, it allows you to gain some extra lore on surrounding locations, and opens up opportunities for new missions. With that being said, the system itself is overly automated. Scouts can march for days without tiring or pausing, and they never consume food. They practically stumble upon stockpiles of resources, and unique parts vital to constructing the more complex machine pieces within your city. As such, you can end up with massive resource booms which allows you to suddenly leap forward in terms of development. Outposts are the same, but they are an even more flagrant problem in many cases. You need to spend little to nothing on them, and they will constantly send massive stockpiles of supplies back to your city on a daily basis. If you play your cards right, these can replace your need for half the buildings in the game, and it makes the survival element obscenely easy.

Even without the issue of coal or supplies, there are distinct bits here which feel extremely superfluous. For example, everyone in this game has a name, from the children to your workers. You might think that this would have some Dwarf Fortress style element, where some people become much more prominent than others, but that isn't the case. They are largely interchangeable and, outside of one surprisingly meaningful difference between graveyards and corpse pits, you will overlook most of them. The stories focus much more on the general population, and the societal events impact the society as a whole rather than an individual group. There's no moment where you think "Oh, that's him!" and can be easy just to think of them as another resource in the end. It doesn't ruin the theme of the game, or even hold it back that much, but it repeatedly highlights how the game missed a trick by lacking a more individual element within the city.

Finally, there's also the technology here, or more specifically the way it develops. The way in which steampunk technology is handled remains one of the game's strengths. It really seems like the creators knew where to draw the line in terms of how far steam power could be taken without pinching things from other gimmick techs (So, no Tesla coils). The use of mini-airships, factories, automated mining rigs and four-legged automata all play a role within the game, and each looks fantastic. The problem comes from actually getting there.

It seems as if 11 bit studios truly wanted the city to develop gradually and to avoid a lot of the science focused min-maxing which could lead to easy victories. In doing so, however, the technological system ended up being time consuming, slow and problematic. You often need to unlock technologies you will never use in order to get to a few later ones you have some interest in. At the same time, the tiered nature of the technology screens requires you to pay out resources to get each on in turn. This adds another timed gate onto progressing forward, and slows any plans you might have. As a result of this, what could have been a very effective and direct system feels very over-engineered and cumbersome. The results are typically great but actually getting there is an arduous uphill battle. Then again, perhaps that was hidden message in all of this.

The Verdict

Frostpunk is still a very flawed game, but a deeply enjoyable one. Much like XCOM, you will walk away with a bucket list of problems, die many times and perhaps curse your luck, but keep playing. The scenarios are varied enough that the same old tactics don't always win out, and even with the resourcing elements mentioned above, the need to placate your city is always a challenge. As a result of the broader variety of stories and a few mechanical tweaks, there have been a number of vast improvements which makes it more than worth your time. If you were holding off on buying this on release due to its criticisms, now is the time to give it a second look.

Verdict: 7.5 out of 10

The Predator (Film Review)

At one point this could have been the sequel the franchise deserved. Then it decided to make changes, either through executive intervention or simply a few poor creative decisions. The result is that you end up with half of a good film trying to be true to the original and the other half weighing it down with mismanaged ideas, poor scenes and an insane final act. Simply put - This is a film which is a near perfect successor to the original Predator, right up to the moment where everything falls to bits.


The Synopsis

Another predator lands on Earth, seemingly seeking worthy prey and encounters a black ops group led by Quinn McKenna. In a one-sided battle, all but McKenna are butchered by the alien, and he escapes only by sheer luck. Yet this isn't simply another hunt. The predator crash landed, with his ship heavily damaged, and he has another goal in mind beyond claiming trophies. As McKenna is deemed insane for his story and prepared for transportation to an insane asylum, something else arrives in pursuit of the alien...


The Good

Whatever flaws might be leveled at the film, it has to be said that the film benefited from excellent casting choices. As Predator was recognised for its larger-than-life commando unit and infamous lines, each film has tried to mimic that same quality. However, The Predator is the first to truly follow up on the original and execute it well, perhaps even outshining its predecessor in a number of areas. While the group is thrown together, their exaggerated and insane lines could have easily devolved into irritating cliches or the wrong kind of macho competition. Instead, the dialogue is effective thanks to its more humourous style and the chemistry between the various actors. This even works with a number of secondary figures within the tale - civilian or otherwise - and frequently helps to make otherwise forgettable characters quite memorable.

Despite its jokey tone, the first act does continually add in threatening moments to keep the story on track. The predators themselves are supposed to be genuinely imposing, after all, and maintaining the same jokey tone would have undercut their menace. While it's definitely aiming to break from the more straight-faced style of its predecessors, this does still help to give the film its own identity, rather than feeling wholly like a sequel. Plus, whatever his flaws, Shane Black has a proven track record when it comes to juxtaposing humour with drama or terror, and the predators offer a multitude of moments for this. In fact, in moments where it might otherwise go too far, it keeps going until it comes back around to being hilarious again. The thumbs up scene - which might justify the price of a ticket alone - is easily the best example of this.

So, what about the predators themselves then? Good, at least for the most part. A few flaws will be cited in the below section - relating to one particular part of the film above all others - but the initial impressions the film offers are very strong. The use of practical effects when it comes to the initial villain is a particular strong point in the story's favour, as it emulates the imposing style and sheer mass of the hunters. Every time one shows up, it serves as a reminder that their use of stealth is due to their choice and culture, and that even without it they could simply outfight most humans. This leads to a number of quite stunningly one-sided fights, which nevertheless still prove to be highly entertaining. Oh, and bloody, can't forget that.

The cinematography and visual direction is what you would expect from this sort of production, as it does its best to avoid the sins of recent years. There is much less of an emphasis placed on rapid cuts and sudden visual gimmicks than solid imagery, holding the camera on a subject for longer than might be expected. While there are amateurish takes on this sort of thing, easily its best moments are when the camera uses slow panning shots to track a moment or a broad enough view to take in most of a scene at once. It helps to give the film much more of a sense of how ongoing events are playing out and a more natural feel for character reactions. Even when it does get into the action itself, this works in favour of the predators' sheer size, and it offers a better take on their visual designs. 

Finally, while The Predator isn't afraid of making call-backs to the original films, these are not nearly so ham-fisted as you might expect. A few in there do feel somewhat cheap, but they work in favour of the scene in question, and often seem like a nice bonus over using references as a crutch. Unfortunately, while it managed to sidestep that particular issue, there were other things it got very, very wrong indeed.


The Bad

The last act of the film is a mess. Yes, this was alluded to in the introduction, but from a very specific point onward, you will quickly begin to see poor ideas stacked atop of one another, leading up to the finale. The fact the final fight in question seems to be an effort to pander toward the Marvel crowd hardly helps matters, and it's in stark contrast with what made final fights so engaging. The whole point of the Predator franchise is the idea of humanity being hunted by an intelligent (if arrogant) opponent who outguns them physically and technologically, then overcoming them through determination or ingenuity. This one unfortunately makes the mistake of trying to level the playing field, and it's sadly the crux of the entire narrative.

Normally, the subject of the finale and the single greatest problem of the film would be left down to the final part here. Instead, it's bring brought up first for two reasons: A. It's so spoiler heavy that someone would complain if anything more than that was discussed. B. It's what most people will focus on the most. In some cases, it might be the only thing that they focus on, to the point of overlooking the film's other notable problems.

The big problem which runs throughout much of the film is that many scenes seem to be isolated. There's little in the way of true cohesion between them, directly linking one event to the next. On their own they work fine, until you notice that it isn't able to fully connect one to the other in terms of thematic presentation and pacing. The primary reason behind this is due to some remarkably choppy editing and the inability to fully examine some of its story elements. It feels as if whole scenes are missing at points - something the Black himself confirmed with at least one major subplot - and this disrupts both the character dynamics and main story. It's the counterpoint against Mad Max: Fury Road showing how, when mishandled, breakneck pacing can only serve to disrupt and undermine the film.

Even then, were everything handled correctly, a number of thematic elements surrounding the titular villains simply doesn't gel with what we are seeing. It's executed in a manner which starts to make a good deal of sense initially, especially in terms of what it implies, only for it to repeatedly contradict that point toward the middle of the film. The fugitive angle is an interesting one to be sure, but it seems like the writers simply didn't know what to do with these ideas, and it never takes the time to fully explore its implications. Even when one predator is bumped off in favour of the bigger and much badder one, not enough is done to present this as an upgrade. There's no escalation in terms of power, and not nearly enough done to show just why this new one is much more of a threat. If anything, his more direct methods makes him a more predictable opponent, as it lacks a few key elements of the guile his kind are known for.

Oh, and let's not forget the plot conveniences. Every story usually needs a few of these to have everything fall into place, and that's fine. So long as it doesn't break the suspension of disbelief or fall into cliches, this can typically be forgiven. However, almost everything surrounding Rory McKenna is questionable. It's not that the kid is a bad actor, he does a decent job with what he's given, but nine times out of ten he feels more like a walking plot device. Something only made worse when it falls into the "autism makes people savants" cliche which is rather insultingly handled and could have been easily avoided.

Also, the CGI is bad. These reviews rarely bring up such elements, as it's worth giving these productions some fair degree of leeway when it comes to them. Some age better than others, some might be limited by the studio, and a few might be just not as bad as people say. Don't believe me? The Star Wars prequels have been repeatedly mocked for supposedly low-grade CGI but, whatever their flaws, it has aged far better than a number of other films in following years. As such, you know things are bad when I have to bring it up as a serious detriment, especially when it starts to outright replace the excellent practical effects. This is especially bad during the (allegedly heavily reshot) third act, which devolves into some relatively well animated sequences that have clearly suffered from poor rendering.


The Verdict

As this is coming from someone who will defend most of the Predator related films - all save AvP: Requiem - this might be going a little easier on the film than it should. It certainly has its strengths, from a solid cast with good chemistry to the concept of an enhanced version of an old foe. Yet in its efforts to follow on from Predators' lost scenes with an Aliens style "tell my own story" break from the original, it just fails to tell a coherent story. As a result, it falls into the Aliens vs Predator trap of being fun, but deeply flawed and fairly forgettable.

If you do watch this, it will likely be Shane Black's usual thumbprints you end up recognising the most; such as the humourous tone juxtaposed with serious threats, solid action set-pieces and the use of practical effects at the right moments. It's more of a beer film, where it does enough right for you to enjoy, you can laugh at its stupidity and forget about it within days of seeing it. There's just about enough good here for it not to completely fail, but far too much bad for it to ever become a classic.

Verdict: 5 out of 10

Dust: An Elysian Tail (Video Game Review)

Dust: An Elysian Tail is one of those very rare few games which lives up to the hype. By all means that's a term which should be derided, downright hated, but it does apply in a scant few cases. With Dust, the tight Action-RPG combat blended with a charming setting and surprising moments of drama delivered exactly what its audience (and developer) wanted: A culmination of the best 2D games of its genre can offer.

The Story

The narrative here starts with what should be a cliche - An amnesiac hero awakens, with no knowledge of who he is, where he is, or how he came to hold the sword in his hands. The sword's guardian, Fidget, soon arrives trying to get the weapon back. However, the semi-sentient sword, the Blade of Ahrah, has other plans and stays with its new owner. Taking the name Dust, the hero sets out to uncover the secrets of his past.

The Good

So, the story is one of cliches. Yeah, there's no denying it, as every part of the above point really brings to mind any one of a dozen games if not a hundred stories. This only becomes more prominent as the game goes on, but that is ultimately by design. In the wrong hands it could have been a crutch, or simply a sign that the writer didn't care for a substantive story, but it ultimately works out. Much of this is down to how it emphasizes theme, atmosphere and emotion over anything else, trying to offer a mixture of mystery and fine detail which made many past games come to life. It's something only a few other games in recent years have achieved, but it's a quality which made the likes of Golden Sun and even Journey so engaging.

The basic story is, however, undeniably enhanced by both the excellent ensemble of voice actors and glorious visuals that Dust offers. There honestly isn't a bad performance found in any character, as the actors typically find a way to give their roles more depth. Dust easily could have been a none-note "I'm Batman!" wannabe anti-hero, but Lucien Dodge's quiet tones and the varied writing helps to give him more depth. Equally, Fidget could have easily fallen into the same trap as Navi, but Kimlinh Tran is able to offer a more charming quality to her high pitched antics. While part of the praise on offer here could be down to the fact this isn't the same four or five voices found in most AAA games - Yes, I love hearing Steve Blum and Jennifer Hale, but there's sometimes too much of a good thing - even discounting that fact, the talent on display significantly improves many of the game's dramatic moments.

The visuals speak for themselves. Honestly, they're bright, bold, colourful and yet retain the capacity to be dark, haunting and remarkably grim at times. This is all done without changing the aesthetic or doing more than merely altering the lighting or basic tones, which makes it all the more effective. This isn't simply an effort to shift gears from one extreme to the other, either, as you wander through meadows, underground cavers, hellish fire pits and ruin dotted mountain ranges. Each has its own tone, its own emotion, but they blend together seamlessly without the same sense of distance or divide you might expect. It's a harder thing to pull off than you might think, especially given how many environments seem to intentionally clash with one another. Yet, for all their conflicting elements, the fine details have enough trace elements, and merge together so well, that it feels like a single cohesive setting.

With all of the praise leveled at the game's presentation, you might expect that the core gameplay would be a major shortfall. Well, it's quite the opposite. It's just that it works so well with the aforementioned elements that it really needs to be broken down in terms of its strengths. For starters, the nature of an Action-RPG game (or Action Platformer as a few have called Dust) typically comes down to a few core elements above all others. It places an emphasis on speed, a few rapid repeatable actions and basic scaling skill-sets. This is all true of Dust, but there's far more to it than just a merely competently executed system. The combat system itself is incredibly responsive, and even on a mouse and keyboard the fluid nature of its mechanics makes it keep pace with your every action. It lacks the usual mouse acceleration or interface problems you would expect of a game ported from a console, and offers an incredible amount of precision with each strike.

The combat system itself offers a few basic moves, with a spinning blade attack, a spell-spam move and basic jumping then slashing strikes. However, the addition of the combo system and how easily each of these blends together into a mixture of air dashes, downward attacks and room clearing homing spells. When you are facing off against a multitude of opponents, playing it feels less Diablo than it does Street Fighter and the addition of a parry system only enhances it further. You can certainly get away with button bashing, but you'll soon see that learning precision controls and attacks are the best way to keep advancing through the game. Part of the reason for the game's responsiveness is how it can interrupt its own animations, allowing for the player to respond to possible threats at a rapid pace. The fact that Dust can offer this without it ever seeming janky or out of place is a true testament to how well it's put together.

The actual exploration element of Dust offers a variety of challenges and surprises at each stage. While many easter eggs serve as shout outs to other releases (both classic and then-current) the nature of each environment always adds a twist onto its predecessor in some way. In one area you need to hack through enemies to reach higher platforms, but in the next you need to do so while fleeing a larger one. Then, in another, you need to trigger an avalanche to progress further, dodging about incoming projectiles to stay ahead. It's a good way of keeping a sense of progression without ever overwhelming the player with details or new ideas, while also offering reasons to re-visit older stages.

Finally, and quite prominently, we have the options menu. This isn't simply a good menu, it's one which puts those in most AAA releases to shame on PC. In fact, it does that with almost all of them. Just for starters, Dust features a mode which accounts for colourblind individuals, which is an extremely rare consideration. Then you have many elements which helps to fine tune your experience for personal preferences, such as completely re-working the HUD's size and positioning to the player's satisfaction. You can even re-work the visual quality of character portraits and details such as depth of field, post processing and weather effects. It's quite possibly one of the single most impressive versions I have seen in an indie game to date, and shows just what we should be getting with options to tailor your experience.

Unfortunately, with all the good comes some bad, and Dust has a few undeniable shortcomings.

The Bad

It takes quite some time for Dust's failings to become apparent, thanks to both its charming nature and strong start. The big one among these is the lack of comprehensive answers for all of the story's points, from the driving conflict to the villain in question. While it doesn't pull a Lost, it does verge on a Big O, as you have a definite end to the core conflict but there is so much left unanswered. In fact, the main villain's motivation might as well boil down to "Because I can" for all we know, and there are definite gaps within the narrative. The fact that this only becomes evident toward the end - during a very action packed finale - helps to disguise this somewhat, but you can easily reflect on the story and pick apart its flaws. 

The narrative really are the big one here, but it would be difficult to explore even a small fragment of the most pressing without spoiling the entire story. As such I will simply say that there are multiple times when the narrative seems disjointed, and certain elements are introduced only to be forgotten later on. For most sidequests this is typically fine, every game has its one-shot ideas. However, then you have characters whose role is implied to have a greater impact only to be forgotten for most of the game.

Furthermore, beyond the core story and side quests, elements of the game's content is notably lacking. The big one is the various challenge areas, Cirelian Trials, which prove to be more frustrating than engaging. These lacks the sort of presentation and reward which makes many such bonuses worthwhile in other releases, and it's difficult to feel any need to race through them. Well, that's not entirely fair. A few initial ones certainly work out well, but they are notably hit and miss.

Surprisingly, the other notable flaw stems from the very thing which might drive you toward the Trails in the first place - The game is incredibly easy. Even if you're someone who typically plays on the lower settings, you'll want to crank it up with Dust as you can easily breeze through the whole experience with little opposition. This becomes all the more evident if you plan on re-visiting past locations, as you quickly become so overpowered that dealing with enemies is more tedious than it is rewarding. You don't gain the sense of increased power, just time wasted when you need to deal with them. This is especially true of the haunted area of the world which, despite the developer's best efforts, is a breeze to go through if you have boosted any of Fidget's magical abilities.

Yet, most pressingly, is how tonally inconstant Dust is at times. You can be in a moment of serious drama or pathos only for it to be undercut by childish humour or an odd joke. This is typically down to how the game stages its side-quests and character moments, as both are well written but the two cross paths with a frustrating frequency. This is at its most obvious during the events in Aurora, but even later on there are odd moments of conflicting tones.

The Verdict

Dust has its problems to be sure, but the game makes it extremely hard to hold those against it. When the story works, it works incredibly well and the atmosphere, questions and characters all help to deliver a great experience. It's a credit to the game's execution that it doesn't leave you feeling cheated, but instead for a sequel to help fill in the gaps and explore what we missed. While it can be easy to get through, the higher difficulties do help to offset that, and the details of the combat system means you can often overlook this.

With all of its problems, it's still an essential addition to any gaming library and a shining example of what an indie developer can accomplish. With its recent port to the Nintendo Switch, I can't think of a better excuse to play through Dust one more time.

Remembering Jacqueline Pearce

Many acting legends have quirks of their era, and something which is especially true of those whose careers were kick-started in the 1960s is their eccentricities. It's the right kind of madness, the sort where you have someone professionally trained, classical and haughty, capable of working with the most ridiculous of premises. If that sounds back-handed, it's not supposed to be, as it's a quality all too lacking today. It's the sort of thing that Patrick Stewart benefited from in Star Trek, or helped make the films of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price classics. You could have them stuck on low budget sets, facing down stories riddled with plot holes and ridiculous monsters, and they would make it work. Unfortunately, today is when another of that generation has met their end due to lung cancer; the ever underrated Jacqueline Pearce.

Pearce was an actress who really should have been brought up before now on here. The only reason that she wasn't was due to the franchises she was associated with, specifically those of British science fiction. While we have dabbled frequently with Doctor Who, save for a few reviews these have focused on television over Big Finish productions, and the subject of Blake's 7 is one which is always difficult to approach. The latter especially is where Pearce shined, displaying the qualities of a villain which can rarely be fully matched. Across the series' entire run she played Supreme Commander Servalan, a calculating politician and gloriously traditional villain. Capable of returning time and time again, Servalan was a figure which could have easily come across as a cliched villain of the week, and yet Pearce's performance helped to elevate the role.

While she could be bombastic, over the top and exaggerated, there was a human element to her and a calculating quality. It was an ever present aspect which made her charming and engaging, but you could never write her off as an effective threat to the heroes. This was something which only became more evident as time went by and especially during the final season, where she was often playing the heroes for her own games.

Even without getting into Blake's 7 itself, Pearce was able to work herself into seemingly almost any role. It's why if you look through her IMDB page, you find everything from a Carry On film to (appropriately enough given that intro) surrealist horror films by Hammer productions. Even if her role was minor, there was always so much life and character to them, that they could elevate whole scenes. If you wish for a more eloquently put version of this, i'd strongly suggest reading through her obituary here.

It's a tragedy that we will never again hear Pearce playing Cardinal Ollistra or voicing Servalan in the Big Finish continuation of Blake's 7, but I'm glad she left so strong an impact on British cult science fiction.

Lords of Silence by Chris Wraight (Warhammer 40,000 Book Review)

The surprising thing is that this book wasn't even on the review list. Really, due to extreme time and financial constraints, the next Ciaphas Cain novel was slotted in for today instead. I had been meaning to cover the series for years and the new novel was a chance to do just that, but it was unavailable at my local store. So, Lords of Silence took its place instead. You might expect the next bit to say "and dear sweet heaven that was a mistake!" but instead, it's quite the opposite. If anything, it's the Death Guard novel we've been needing for years.

Synopsis

Set during the more recent events of the Plague Wars, the events of the novel follow almost directly after the shattering of the Cadian Gate. Chaotic Warbands now race across the Imperium as the Eye of Terror stretches into a crack across the very galaxy itself, and the Death Guard are moving to answer Mortarion's call to war. Yet even as they answer the call to arms of their primarch, ancient secrets, mistakes and past battles haunt them. While the Lords of Silence warband move to battle across the Imperium Nihilus, an especially dark and persistent specter of their past haunts their every step...

The Good

Past reviews have typically been quite harsh of Chris Wraight, despite typically repeating that he is a talented author. Much of this is due to his treatment of the Space Wolves in their own series, with the mistake of emphasising failings and weaknesses to the point of ignoring strengths. While this might be true of that chapter, no element of it is present here and that drive has been used in a more creative means. The exploration of their character has shifted from failings to the subject of worship, corruption and age, as we see how the Death Guard have adapted through the centuries. While the mistake of linking modern and Heresy era events has led to some stories making it seem as if a few decades have passed rather than thousands of years, this is the opposite. There is a real sense of weight to how corrupt and warped the marines in question truly are, thanks to how they view Nurgle's influence and the subject of decay as a whole.

The nature of every marine's change is seen as much through how they describe the Warp, the nature of worship and even nearby daemons. There is a much more monastic sense of reverence within the warband, even by the standard of space marines. While they are certainly willing to show some of the macabre joy Nurgle is known for, it's a more straight faced example than you might expect. Furthermore, daemons are used sparingly, but this helps to further emphasise how they are viewed by this particular warband in question. Plus it helps to hit much harder, as when they appear s when Wraight's more creative descriptions truly kick in, and he offers some fantastically vivid images of things which simply do not belong in this world.

The book is also one of the few to share a protagonist role in the form of Vorx and Dragan. This isn't so much the usual protagonist and deuteragonist relationship as you might expect, as you're never wholly sure just which one is supposed to be star of the show. Well, at least until the end anyway. Each is a contrast to the other, reflecting a way in which the Long War has influenced their lives, and even how their memories colour their sense of loyalty. While Vorx is old enough to remember the Great Crusade and is wise in his aged nature, Dragan is a relatively more recent recruit and shows devotion to the Long War. It's an interesting dynamic, as it's not nearly so openly hostile as you would expect, but it reflects the shift in attitude. It leads to a multitude of interesting conversations and verbal sparring which makes for some of the book's most engaging moments, especially during the events in the Eye of Terror.

Given that history and ghosts of the past are a major subject within the story, it's fitting in a way that it's told through a non-linear structure, with frequent flashbacks and shifting chronological events. This allows the story to repeatedly hit the reader with a number of surprises, and several intelligent twists which makes re-reading the book all the more appealing. It's delivered in a different manner to your typical flashbacks through dialogue and overall structure, and the hints delivered of certain events carry much more impact thanks to this. They are not so openly forecast, and the fact that they are chronologically much closer together means that there is more of an interesting connection. Look, if you want it in layman's terms, it's less Lost than it is Reservoir Dogs.

Finally, while a character piece first and foremost, it does utilise its locations very effectively. We see much more of the Eye and the Imperium in contrast to one another than would usually be expected, but it does so very effectively. There isn't a lost sense of mystery to the Eye despite this fact, and the Imperium itself is shown as reeling from the new changes. While it does delve into a few lesser used tropes - notably that the Imperial characters in the book deny traitor astartes as even existing - it's seen as a farewell to those elements. They will be harder to justify in future works after all, and it's one last opportunity to fully explore them at this point in the timeline.

The Bad

After so many great elements, the negatives are mixed to say the least. Some aren't truly badly handled, but they fail to fully fit in with the overall narrative, or simply don't mesh with they key subjects. A big part of this is down to how the story is supposed to be very slow burning, and rather action-less book, with its focus concentrated on conversation pieces. Unfortunately, this just makes the action itself stand out like a sore thumb. While most Warhammer novels are typically able to work this into the story without issue, here much of it feels gratuitous. On its own it works fine, but there are only one or two fights which truly compliment the characters and work with the overarching story.

Furthermore, the villains of the piece were quite weak. Outside of the warband itself, both the intended antagonist and the Imperium lacks much in the way of real engagement, often coming across as bland or one-dimensional. While this could have been used for commentary or emphasis on the themes of corruption - as each traitor marine typically regards their move as an upgrade - it never comes across this way. As such, it feels as if the story only has a portion of what could be an excellent ensemble of characters. Ironically, those who do break this trend are Mortarion and Typhus, both of who we barely see in the tale.

A third major point which proves to be rather frustrating at times is how the story sets up certain elements, but never fully follows up on them. Some of this can be put down to establishing elements for future novels, or even as throw-away lines, but the way in which they are delivered sometimes makes it seem as if they were intended to be something more. Vrox's hatred of the Thousand Sons is a major one, as it's framed and delivered as if it were a point which was meant to have much more impact at a later date, but we get relatively little from it.
The Verdict

While flawed, Lords of Silence nevertheless proves to be another great addition to the Black Library, and easily the best Nurgle related book we have seen to date. With so many stories coming out on both sides, and the Death Guard's prominence of late, this could be the starting point to a great trilogy. After all, with the Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, Night Lords and (technically) Thousand Sons all having had their time in the spotlight, the sons of Barbaras are long overdue a decent trilogy. It certainly works as a stand alone, and I do strongly recommend it, but there's certainly potential for something more here.

Verdict: 7 out of 10