Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch - Tyranid Invasion Review

Developer: Rodeo Games
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPad Air 2

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Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch - Tyranid Invasion is almost as awkward to say as it is to type, (and comments about the name It’s a really, really good strategy game and you should definitely play it if you like strategy. Or Warhammer 40K, I suppose.

The Tyranids are at it again; flying all over the place in their giant organ ships and raising a ruckus. So naturally the best way to deal with them is to send your own personal Kill Team on several suicide missions. For the Emperor and all that.

Tyranid Invasion combines the claustrophobic fight for survival found in Space Hulk with the accessibility and polish of Hunters 2 (or anything else Rodeo Games makes, really). It uses the familiar turn-based system of a set number of available action points, grid-based movement, tap to select, tap to move, tap to attack, and so on. What really sets it apart for me is the emphasis placed on the individual marines.

Everyone on your Kill Team - and even those who can’t fit in the squad because you can only have five at a time - will earn experience and get more powerful as you play. Experience can be spent to increase health, accuracy, or critical hit chances, but you can also save up a bit more and unlock special active and passive abilities that vary from marine to marine. The weapons you earn after completing a mission can also be swapped out with a marine’s current loadout for some added customization. The downside is that any and all stored experience is forfeit when a marine dies in combat, but I think it adds a nice bit of urgency to each mission and encourages careful play. Either that or being totally reckless after a big XP-spending binge.

It all looks great, sounds great, and plays great. The one sticking point some people might have (and indeed, seem to be having) is the card packs. Card packs yield one random marine and two random items - either weapons or secondary gear like boosts and grenades and the like - which could lead to doubles the further you progress. These card packs also take a fair bit of work to earn; either by completing all of the missions in a given story section, or by saving up enough... whatever the currency is called. Or you can pay real money for more packs, but this isn’t a necessity since you can just grind away at the different missions to earn what you need.

I find it difficult to care about the need to grind when I’m having so much fun leveling-up my marines. And being able to equip and train my marines makes everything feel more personal, which makes me want to play more, which makes me happier when my marines level-up, etc. I know I say this with each subsequent release, but this is Rodeo Games’ finest work yet.