

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
released on Jul 12, 2018
Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War brings you to a world of terror and violence. Four factions will engage in a brutal war for dominance over the planet's resources.
In the first 4X turn-based strategy game set in Warhammer 40,000 you will lead one of four factions: Astra Militarum, Space Marines, Orks and Necrons, each with their own unique gameplay, technological tree, units and heroes.
Face a challenging AI or cooperate or compete with friends and strangers across the globe.
Reviews View More
played my first game at around 10pm last night. stayed up until 7am the next morning without realizing it. It's a fun time sink for sure
It's Civilization, except Warhammer. Reasonably fun, but I've since lost my liking for strategy games like this, and it probably feels less strategic and multifaceted than the Civ series because of 40K being "only war."
Warhammer 40K: Gladius - Relics of War is a 4X game with a large emphasis on extermination because, as the saying goes, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. Diplomacy is completely absent and the map is filled with aliens who exhibit different degrees of hostility. It's impossible to win by researching technology or hoarding art pieces either.
One would think that would make the game shallow, but not really. Combat is nearly omnipresent and matches are remarkably short for a 4X game so there's always something to do and factions have a lot of variety to them since it's a 40K game and there are tons of lore to draw inspiration from.
In terms of presentation Gladius is decent, the map kind of looks like a tabletop game even though it isn't based on the real Warhammer 40K tabletop at all. Sound design and animations are alright too, but I would like if there was more art in general, the menus and UI have a very bland utilitarian presentation in general and I sorta expect Warhammer stuff to have little skulls on everything.
My biggest issue with the game is the DLC model, you are constantly reminded of the factions and units you don't have yet and it gets annoying to bump into red tooltips reading "buy X DLC to unlock" in the technology tree. That stuff takes me out of the experience. At least the DLC is actual content for the game like new factions.
Overall, Gladius - Relics of War is pretty good for a 4X game, the factions are varied and fleshed out, the matches have little downtime and it's not yet another cashgrab licensed game.
One would think that would make the game shallow, but not really. Combat is nearly omnipresent and matches are remarkably short for a 4X game so there's always something to do and factions have a lot of variety to them since it's a 40K game and there are tons of lore to draw inspiration from.
In terms of presentation Gladius is decent, the map kind of looks like a tabletop game even though it isn't based on the real Warhammer 40K tabletop at all. Sound design and animations are alright too, but I would like if there was more art in general, the menus and UI have a very bland utilitarian presentation in general and I sorta expect Warhammer stuff to have little skulls on everything.
My biggest issue with the game is the DLC model, you are constantly reminded of the factions and units you don't have yet and it gets annoying to bump into red tooltips reading "buy X DLC to unlock" in the technology tree. That stuff takes me out of the experience. At least the DLC is actual content for the game like new factions.
Overall, Gladius - Relics of War is pretty good for a 4X game, the factions are varied and fleshed out, the matches have little downtime and it's not yet another cashgrab licensed game.
Played roughly 100 hours with Eldar and Tau. For me it was quite addictive. I find myself playing hours non-stop without realizing it's 3 am in the morning. Might be the WH4k setting but i really think it's a solid game nonetheless. Mods make it even better. Music was also super hype and spot on.
This is a 4X focused on combat. It's not for me. I don't like the presentation at all and what I enjoy most about 4X games usually is exploration and diplomacy. Neither of which are really a thing in Gladius.
the worst part of civ was moving dumbass armies around
that's 90% of this game
still pretty good though
that's 90% of this game
still pretty good though