Warhammer 40k: Squad Command | 
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| From: THQ
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $10.79
You Save: $9.20 (46%)
New (28) Used (5) from $8.80
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 2400
Platform: Nintendo Ds
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Nintendo DS
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0 x 0
MPN: 36139
Model: 36139
UPC: 785138361390
EAN: 0785138361390
ASIN: B000SH3XFE
Release Date: December 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Compelling single player game consisting of 15 unique missions. | | • | 9 unique multiplayer maps for Local or Global games, with small, medium and large map variants to cater for games from 2 to 8 players. | | • | Fully destructible, real time 3D battlefields mean that no two games will be the same. | | • | Pick from two Space Marine chapters or two Chaos Space Marine Legions to play as in Multiplayer games in battles between Imperium vs. Imperium, Forces of Chaos vs. Forces of Chaos, or Imperium vs. Forces of Chaos. | | • | Over 20 ranged and close combat weapons taken directly from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, including the Bolter, Plasma Gun, Chainsword and Power Fist. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command marks the first time that the brutal, war-ravaged world of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe is now playable on the Nintendo DS. Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command features fast, action-packed combat through turn-based strategy and an engaging, authentic single-player storyline. Gamers play as the elite Space Marines of the Ultramarines chapter and strive to combat the encroaching evil of the ruthless and daemonic influenced Chaos Space Marines through 15 cinematically tied missions. With a robust multiplayer mode featuring 9 unique missions, gamers will team up and go head-to-head with other gamers worldwide as either the Imperium of Man or Chaos Space Marines, ensuring hours of unique replayability. ESRB Rated T for Teen
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| Customer Reviews:
Worthwhile, but nothing to write home about December 22, 2008
Squad Command is a turn based strategy set in the 40k verse between the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers of Chaos on a far flung Imperial world. You follow the Marines as they attempt to uncover the root of the heresy, using Scouts, Marines, Terminators, Land Speeders and Raiders as instruments of the Emperors wrath.
Squad Command makes its mark with the battle system itself. Just about everything is destructible, and the environment can be used to great effect. Theres no longer the invincible wall to hide behind. You blow up the wall, then kill the enemies that were ducking right behind it. A variety of special weapons allow for a fair amount of customization, and its necessary to customize to some degree for the later missions. The AP system is also well laid out. You can run and shoot and run, or you can use a lone guy on the horizons entire turn to line up a powerful shot that's all but guaranteed to hit despite the range. Vehicles are a bit frustrating because you can't drive over terrain, but otherwise the entire system works well. The AI is below average, and basically charges at first opportunity, but the missions can be difficult if you blindly charge ahead.
The story is lackluster and is laid out with mostly still shots and text, and is a predictable outcome, but the gameplay and multiplayer function make up for a rushed background. The controls and combat system work well, and it'll definitely satisfy any strategy addict.
Great game. Ignore IGN and Gamespot reviews. July 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I first read about this game on Gamespot and IGN and had huge expectations for it on PSP and DS. I bought the game for the DS and found it to be a great turn based game which required strategy and a little bit of skill to master.
Once you realize the core concept, you can beat it pretty easily. The missions are fun and head to head with a friend is a challenge.
As with most games for me, there's little reason to play it again after beating it.
Great bang for the buck.
Above Average January 9, 2008
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
Not to be too blunt, but this game is completely focused on the turn based combat. Your units do not gain experience, nor is there any kind of overlying campaign strategy or world map. While the game's scope is quite limited, it does manage to provide an excellent combat engine and some very fun engagements.
Before the mission, each of your units can choose the weapons that they will take into battle. All units have a default weapon with unlimited ammunition such as a bolter, the Warhammer equivalent of a submachine gun, and sometimes you can choose a secondary weapon. Many of the "secondary" weapons are highly explosive, and the environment is fully destructible. There are lots of walls and pipes to blow up, plus wrecked tanks and supply boxes, etc. The first few missions require you to use the terrain as it stands because you really don't have the firepower to reduce everything to a parking lot, but your arsenal will quickly expand to include rocket launchers, lasers, and other devastating weapons that can quickly turn everything poking out of the ground more than 6 inches to dust.
Your units have a certain number of action points that they can use each turn. Moving a certain distance uses up an action point, and each weapon has a base AP cost which the player can increase to get a more accurate shot. Your units can duck behind low walls and other objects, effectively preventing them from being fired upon. Oddly, ducking costs 0 AP, so you can stand up, use all your AP shooting, and then duck at the end of the turn out of harm's way. However, your opponent can do the same, and the environment does not lend itself towards static defenses. The longer you stay in the same place, the more likely your cover will be obliterated by a plasma cannon or some other nasty explosive device.
Aiming is handled nicely in Squad Command. When you move the cursor over an enemy, the game automatically changes to firing mode, or you can toggle firing mode on and off manually. The game draws a direct line from your unit to the target, and the color of the line indicates the relative accuracy of the shot. Green is high accuracy, yellow is moderate, and red is poor. A black line indicates that you have no direct line of fire, although if the enemy is several screens away it can be difficult to see exactly what is blocking your shot. Additionally, the game shows you the possible level of innaccuracy in the form of a wide arc on either side of the line. As you increase your accuracy by spending more AP, you can watch this arc become thinner and thinner. Overall, the game does a very good job of giving the player the tools to evaluate the quality of any given shot without causing a great deal of unintentional mistakes or friendly fire.
I think everything that is in Squad Command is well done. It's the things that the game left out that are the real disappointments. For instance, during the opponent's turn, the game does not focus the camera on the enemy, so quite frequently you just get a message that your unit was killed by Chaos forces and you have no idea what just happened. The 2nd screen on the DS is particularly helpful here because the map is always displayed on the top screen so you can at least see which unit is moving even if you can't scroll fast enough to see what happened.
The single player campaign only lets you play as the space marines, which leaves a large amount of the Warhammer franchise unused. There are no space Orks or Eldar, etc. which would have been nice but is obviously out of the scope of this game. On the bright side, the space marine faction seems fully developed, allowing you to use tanks and other vehicles along with recon and standard marine units.
For the most part, the combat engine is good and I'm not disappointed with it. But the fact that it composes the entirety of the game is a little bit of a letdown. Just like Rebelstar Tactical Command on the GBA, this game feels more like a proof of concept that a full title. There is no unit experience and your marines don't carry over from mission to mission. There's no world map or base of operations, no equipment management or soldier statistics. At the end of the day I'm still left asking why a game released in 2007 has fewer features than a game released in 1993. As it stands, Squad Command is not a bad deal at $2 per mission, but the game won't last you a long time unless you are really zealous about the multiplayer. Hopefully in the near future we can see a combat engine like this implemented in a game with more features, and more Warhammer factions.
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