Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr (WH40KI) is a solid ARPG that nails the Warhammer 40,000 atmosphere but is held back by clunky controls and poor optimization.
I thought the plot of WH40KI itself was intriguing, but didn't feel it was well executed after I completed the campaign. I reckon the story itself is the problem, but the voice acting also doesn't help make the storytelling more engaging either, especially when compared to another WH40K series like Dawn of War (DoW). There's humour in the script but it fails to deliver almost every time due to the subpar voice acting. On the gameplay side, WH40KI uses a mission-based structure (similar to real-time strategy games) instead of an actual world to explore; which sadly takes away the traditional ARPG feel from the game. Its story campaign also features these annoying third-person vehicular missions (with tank controls) that is clunky and I didn't find to be fun. In general, I thought the campaign was unremarkable; but thankfully, I read that you can skip the campaign on subsequent character creations.
In terms of mechanics, the game has a cover system that adds unnecessary complexity while also failing to make the game "tactical" as was marketed. It also has one of the lamest transmog systems I've ever used and it also doesn't work well. Fortunately, the core systems on the other hand, are sufficiently deep and allows for complex build-crafting. In WH40KI, character skills (in general, not always) come from by equipped gear and there's a set of 10+ passive skill trees used in combination to define the overall build. You can reset skill trees with a significant but fixed cost (instead of getting more expensive gradually) and reallocate stats (callled "attributes") freely. You can also re-roll every stat/enchantment on a piece of gear (depending on rarity) for a fixed cost and even keep the enchantment but re-roll just for a higher value. The game gives you the freedom to make the best of your build at any stage of the game as long as you have the resources - I love this. As such, you can hold on to a piece of gear for a really long time without actually having to upgrade constantly and plays a crucial role to min-maxing late game. There are also a few other nice touches to QoL in the game like auto-loot with loot filters, and being able to customize battle info, etc.
The default control scheme is easily the game’s weakest point, requiring significant time and effort to set up comfortably. Playing with a mouse and keyboard feels noticeably worse than other ARPGs like Diablo 2 (D2) or Grim Dawn (GD) and the game feels clearly optimized for a controller or WASD movement. This is compounded by the issue that the maps (i.e. the playing field) have significant verticality in them and the camera view feels too zoomed-in even after max adjustments; there's a constant urge to rotate the camera to clear visual obstructions but the poor default control mapping for camera controls on mouse and keyboard makes doing it an awful experience. To date, I have yet to find a set up I'm completely happy with. Thankfully, controls in the game themselves are very responsive. If you're the type that likes your ARPG played with a controller, the control scheme is perfectly fine and the game even changes its UI to adapt better to controller interaction. One benefit to using a controller is that it supports vibration feedback and can help elevate the experience. However, its implementation feels spotty and some skills that feel like they should have feedback, don't. Another thing about controller, if I recall correctly, is that you can't remap individual controller buttons and can only switch between available layout presets.
The presentation is the game's greatest strength. Everything about the visual and audio design perfectly nails the atmosphere of the WH40K universe. The environments are graphically impressive and feature semi-destructibility, allowing you to blow up most cover and structures. Ability animations also look really nice and impactful. The beautiful graphics, animation and sound design all come together to carry the experience during combat, making it feel punchy and satisfying.
In terms of performance, the game is playable for the most part. However, I did find the game's optimization to be pretty poor. Even on hardware that far exceeds the recommended specs, the game can very often drop down to pathetic frame rates (varies depending on the map) to the extent of hurting gameplay. While I may not have problems completing the missions due to FPS drops, it's pretty disturbing that PC rigs with more than double the performance of the recommended specs could perform so poorly and even after 7 years since its release. Occasionally, you might also be able to spot visual artifacts for a split second. Putting aside the poor performance, at ~60 hours of game time so far, I'm surprised I've only experienced 1 crash with only a tiny loss of progress. Also, the load times are noticeably long, though I'm not entirely sure if it's due to me using HDD for storage.
One thing I think is worth noting is the implementation of Seasonal events in WH40KI and how it works - now that the game is effectively in maintenance stage. Basically, you can choose which season to play when creating a new character but that choice is permanent. That is, when you create a seasonal character, it is permanently a seasonal character with no way to convert to non-seasonal, i.e. season never ends for that character. Also, you cannot change the season of that character; you have to make a new one and start from scratch. While I can't verify, I think this may have implications if you want to share items between characters. The game also has an offline mode (which deserves praise btw) but it should be noted that seasonal content is not available in offline mode. This feels wierd but only because the point of offline mode was to future-proof server shutdowns for the preservation of the game; now that the game is considered content complete (therefore, primed for future-proofing), the seasonal content is however not made future-proof.
Despite its shortcomings, I still found WH40KI to not only be enjoyable, but is also differentiable from the other ARPG titles I've played. Putting aside my gripes with the game's control scheme, optimization and some other complaints, I found its combat and core systems fun, immersive and engaging. The late game experience can be somewhat repetitive but if you've played ARPGs before this, then it shouldn't come as a surprise - its longevity is the same as other titles with the difference being that it is mission-based (and lacks the sense of a "world" to inhibit). Considering it still has severe performance issues even after so many years, I can't recommend buying at its original asking price. Regardless, the Definitive Edition is a steal when it's on sale; it's down to 90% off and contains all DLCs except the Hierophant class. As such, I recommend getting it on sale, especially for any WH40K fan - just don't expect a D2.
[b]PSA:[/b] The Hierophant is probably the most interesting class I've come across and I can't think of an equivalent in other ARPG titles. Although it's a summoner type, it's more like it has its own party of 4 followers (referred to as his/her "retinue"), with which you need to gear separately and set their individual skill tree! These 4 members comprise of the other classes in the game. As such, you might not want to play it as your first character (like I did), because you will be overwhelmed by all kinds of decisions that you have to make without prior knowledge of the other classes.
