Warhammer 40k Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters is finally coming to consoles. The turn-based strategy title, which blends the squad-based missions and base management of XCOM with the grimdark far future of the Warhammer 40k universe, makes the leap to most platforms (except the Switch) in February.
Developer Frontier has confirmed that Warhammer 40k Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters will release digitally on PS4, PS5, XBOX S|X and XBOX One on February 20. The recommended retail price will be $44.99 / £34.99 / €44.99.
Set in the Warhammer 40k universe, Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters puts the player in charge of a strike team of Grey Knights, the elite and highly classified daemon-hunting arm of the Space Marines. It’s up to you to save a sector of space that’s going to hell – literally – as it’s overrun by the forces of the 40k Chaos god of plague, Nurgle.
If you’re familiar with any games like XCOM, you’ll have a good idea what to expect. You’ll alternate between sending your marines on highly lethal excursions to push back the daemonic Blooms of the plague god, and setting your priorities for repair, research, and recruitment on board your damaged spaceship, the Baleful Edict. Warriors gain experience, or get blown apart, and you’ll never have the resources needed to deal with every threat you face – all that good stuff.
Where Daemonhunters differs from other XCOM-likes is by making your soldiers feel like utter badasses from mission one. If a rookie XCOM soldier is basically a mall cop with a nerf gun, a novitiate Grey Knight is a post-human psychic implanted with genetically engineered super organs wearing two tons of power armor, whose most basic ranged weapon is a rapid fire rocket propelled grenade launcher.
That doesn’t make Daemonhunters easy – it’s perfectly possible to get trapped in a death spiral of dying soldiers leading to failed missions leading to worse odds leading to more dead soldiers. It’s just that the enemies you’re facing, drawn from the plague-bloated Death Guard and the extradimensional Chaos Daemons of Nurgle, feel as grotesquely powerful as your soldiers do.
There’s even some solid plot in here, with a storyline by excellent Warhammer 40k book author Aaron Dembski-Bowden, and some very likeable characters – the disdainful Adeptus Mechanicus tech priest Lunete is a particular delight.
To get our full thoughts on this game, check out Wargamer’s Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters review.
If you’ve got access to a PC, Chaos Gate – and the Duty Eternal and Execution Force DLCs – are already available. Console players who want a Warhammer 40k game fix and can’t wait a month should consider Warhammer 40k Boltgun. Check out our Boltgun review to learn why it was our pick of Warhammer videogame of the year 2023.