Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus ‪™‬ 12+

I really like this game, and have managed to accrue a significant number of the characters up to silver and gold rank, which takes a while if you insist on playing it free to play (as I do). But this game lets you do that casually; I’ll log on for a few minutes, auto play (raid) for items to upgrade characters, and then revisit when my energy has replenished.

If I want to work on campaigns I’ll spend some time actually playing the game. I’ve managed to complete the Orkz, Ultramarines, Chaos, Eldari, and Black Templars campaigns, all without spending any money. Having a good, active guild helps, as winning raids gives you guild currency to buy more character shards and upgrade characters. It’s fun and I’m not bored yet, and new factions come out at a good pace.

Some negatives are that the Necron faction isn’t that useful in the long term so it feels like a waste to build them up for their campaign. And as many people say, requisitions rarely met you anything of value. I got lucky the first few I did but I can’t say the last time I got a worthwhile new character from one, or even a large amount of shards for a decent character I already had. Having said that I still recommend the game wholeheartedly. But all of the pay to play stuff is overpriced, do not waste your money, and if you don’t have the willpower to ignore it, don’t play this game.

The game’s got a lot of great points. The artwork and animation stand out and the gameplay itself is engaging (there are enough things to track that you stay entertained but few enough that you don’t get confused, a bad decision can make or break the game, and the hero abilities feel fun, responsive, and impactful). The progression and character unlock systems are rewarding, too.

My complaints are that the game is very grinding driven. A lot of the experience is locked behind time gates or pay walls, and I’m not convinced that a series of missions that will provide maybe 20-30 minutes of dedicated gameplay are worth an hour or two’s pay - particularly not since there aren’t a lot of voluntary ad options with which to bypass obstacles. You’re looking at paying $30 for heroes that use the same resources as everybody else (so once you spend the money you don’t get to play the game more, just differently) followed by multi-hour waits to go through surges of gameplay that last, at most, five to ten minutes. It can be extremely frustrating, which makes me hesitant to spend money, which is sad because a lot of the heroes look like fun! The dollar to entertainment ratio just isn’t weighty enough.

Great way to burn through a few hours before you start hitting plateaus and getting frustrated. There are also a few bugs and oversights here and there but they’re not major. The main issue is how aggressively the devs decided to enforce a glacial rate of play.

Deep gameplay, great characters, and regular updates. I have been playing since maybe September of last year and can undoubtedly say that it’s definitely in a league of its own.

I have never felt like I needed to pay to get ahead of everyone, which is very refreshing. Of course, like with any f2p game, you can pay to get a character and get a head start to progression, but one character will only get you so far. As far as in app purchases, some of the deals they offer are quite good and reasonably priced for what they offer… and others are forgettable. My gameplay is never hindered by ads and the only ads in game are to get a free, once daily, bonus of 50 energy, refresh items shop inventory, and a small amount of gold, the “non-premium” currency. Energy is used to complete missions and it recharges over time like other games. There are genuinely some times that I’m upset because I have run out of energy and have to stop playing. There are constant gift codes given out, I am surprised by how much is actually given out.

If you like Warhammer 40K, this game is worth having a look. You don’t have to have any knowledge of the 40K universe to play or understand this game and there are several campaigns that actually have decent stories for a f2p game.