HERETICAL! The Early-aught Licensed Videogame Lives On
but it's painted in 40k.
Grimdark isn’t a genre, it’s one franchise and that franchise happens to be a spin-off of another franchise. My experience with Warhammer and 40,000 [40k] comes directly from two hours in June 2012 when Warhammer 40k Space Marine was added to the fledging service known as PlayStation Plus. I, clearly, hadn’t played Gears of War at that time given the fact I had purchase a subscription service for a console that did not need a subscription to play online; however, that brief afternoon lives rent free in my head.
I’ve been thinking about the thrumming omnipresence that is 40k. The constant release of miniatures, rulebooks, campaigns, and modifiers. It’s a struggle to consider jumping in. Compound this with the loss of irony in 40k’s fascism and the death of satirical fascism in general, this franchise is a tough sell. There’s been at least 40 different 40k videogames released in the last 10 years from PC to console to mobile, not to mention brand deals like PowerWash Simulator. This franchise is massive, held up by small indie studios and yet, I’ve seen this before.
Consider the early 2000s: a time of video rentals, online forums, digital piracy, and Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater. The videogame home console market was here to stay and in the third dimension to boot! Carrying the tradition of ‘90s television and movie tie-in videogames, the 2000s didn’t slow down. There were bangers like Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth, Eragon, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, and The Simpsons: Hit & Run. But, of course, some real stinkers like Cat in the Hat (Mike Myers tie-in), A Series of Unfortunate Events (Jim Carrey tie-in), Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures, Fairly Oddparents: Breakin’ Da Rules, and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (all versions, idgaf. I’ll fight!)
2000s tie-in games, whether well put together or on a tight budget, had different gameplay systems pulling from ARPG, platformer, RTS, racing, beat-em-ups, sandbox, party games, turn-based RPG, FPS, and genuinely more than I have the brainpower to type up. Though all these games were developed by different studios, they all have one thing in common: licensed properties.
The licensed game, as it pertains to film and TV show tie-ins, fell by the wayside in the early 2010s to make way for mobile apps like The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Marvel Contest of Champions, DC: Dark Legion, and Jurassic World Alive. Honestly, just charge for a skin in Fortnite and it’s instant profit. Who knew Goku was from some little known franchise called Dragon Ball?? Next you’re gonna pitch me on something called Journey to the West.
All this preamble to say, Boltgun is a 40k FPS. Shootas, Blood & Teef is a run-n-gun. Rogue Trader is a CRPG. Speed Freeks is vehicular combat. Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is tactics. Dakka Squadron: flight sim. Horus Heresy Legions: card game. Inquisitor Martyr: ARPG. And of course, the ever famous Dawn of War III, is an RTS. Each of these games is of varying quality and style, yet each one is tied together within the shared license of 40k. Each game was developed by different studios, and many make other games outside of the 40k universe. The same can be said about the many developers of television and film tie-in videogames of the 2000s.
Rest in peace tie-in videogames; long live the tie-ins lying in the grim darkness of the far future.
The loss of 40K's satirical edge is a direct reflection of the times we live in. Especially first but also second edition of the tabletop game were deeply satirical. 40K was originally pitched as a space battles board game, and the head of Games Workshop took one look at it and said to redesign it as a miniatures board game in the style of the 2000AD comics. The rest is history.
Third edition was heavily re-imagined and suddenly very serious and earnest. Because GW is ultimately in the business of making money, and that was what sold. And it did indeed sell. And this has only become more true with every subsequent edition.
As for licensed games, the one we'd all like to see is a 1:1 adaptation of the tabletop game. But GW refuses to comment on that idea, and I think at this point it is safe to assume they're of the opinion it would undercut their sales.
Well, the thing is that Warhammer 40k is the perfect franchise to build videogame from.
Fanbase of it you can assume knows how to play video games (and I'm not talking about candy crush!) in big majority, on top of that this is a series that is well established and doesn't really on new releases (look any active movie franchises or shows).
This and the elephant in the room... Fascist appeal that is concerningly not only growing but also more accepted by media and masses.
Not to say I don't like w40k (I very much like it tho I prefer it's satirical days).
Great one man, keep it up!