I really wanted to like Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. As a fan of the universe, any chance I get to dive in I take, especially if it lets me step into the boots of the fabled Space Marines, the hardened troops from the Imperium of Man. Unfortunately, Kill Team is an undercooked twin stick shooter that looks nice but suffers serious technical and gameplay issues that are simply not acceptable for a game released in 2011.
For the uninitiated, a “Kill Team” in the 40K universe is a group of space marines that take on special missions. Here, you choose a space marine chapter, choose one of the four classes, then destroy a massive Ork Kroozer barreling toward Forge World. Over five levels, you blast every Ork in sight as you attempt to cripple the ship from within.
Kill Team does make a great first impression. The four classes are varied enough that multiple playthroughs are encouraged and you will unlock new weapons and perks as you play the game, making the classes much more powerful. Unlocking abilities are not tied to a specific class, so I could be playing as the Techmarine, but still unlock weapons for the Sorcerer and Assault classes as well as my own.
After a few hours, though, the game begins to show its warts. First, the game is extremely difficult. I normally have no issues with hard games, but in Kill Team the difficulty artificially extends the game’s already short campaign and promotes the co-op, which is the real star of the show. Or it would be, if it wasn’t so limited. Kill Team only supports local co-op, meaning you have to hope you have a like-minded friend if you want to get past the cheap death traps the game has in store for you and use the power up sharing system, where standing close to a teammate with buffs gives them the effects as well.
If that wasn’t bad enough, add unskippable cutscenes, no mid-mission saving, and terrible checkpointing to the list of complaints. In one mission, I had to destroy an Ork ship while fending off waves of Orks. After getting past this sequence, you have to outrun the ensuing explosion, then navigate a minefield, all while fighting more Orks. Die at any time during this sequence and you are booted back to that ship battle to do it all over again, watching all those cutscenes again.
It’s sad that this game was rushed to be released before Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. With more time under the hood tightening the gameplay, difficulty, and adding online, Kill Team could have been a fun shooter/RPG hybrid that conveys the feeling of being a marine in a squad of perfected soldiers. Instead, it’s a wet behind the ears recruit that doesn’t make the cut.
