Clausewitz "On WAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!"

Still no new hi-def TV, but I got sick of waiting and hooked up my 360 to my old TV box. And then I downloaded "Kill Team". Let's just say you get what you pay for.

I personally enjoyed the game a lot. Of course, I haven't played a good two-stick shooter since "Smash TV", so the market was a bit dry for me. Part of my enjoyment of the game was the price. Seriously, it was 800 Microsoft points. Had it been pricier, I might have felt ripped off. I mean, there isn't a whole lot of game here. It's only five levels, making the whole game maybe three hours if you do a straight run-through and don't die too much. There's no on-line multiplayer, only local co-op, for all the good that does me (I don't do multiplayer). And there's a survival mode that's even more shallow than the campaign, and that's quite an accomplishment.

It's painfully straightforward: you are a Space Marine, there are orks, you shoot them. Nearly every mission objective is some variation on "go here and kill stuff". The games biggest break from that formula is "stand here and hold a button for five seconds". But, as I keep bringing up in just about everything I write, what were you expecting from a cheap-ass game called "Kill Team". It's uncomplicated shooting and explosions, so the only question is how well it does that. And frankly some things could have been better. Primarily it's balance issue regarding the various Marine classes. This is a very shooty game, and half of your character classes are melee focused. Maybe this would work better in co-op, where the Sternguard and Tech Marine do all the heavy lifting (completing mission objectives and the like) while the Vanguard and Librarian run around killing orks and covering the other guy's ass. I beat the game in single-player with every class, but it was noticeably easier with some than with others. Also, grenades are shit. Good luck tossing those with any accuracy with this game's camera.

That's really the only technical complaint I had with this very simple game, the rest is mostly about presentation. First, I'd have liked more Space Marine chapters to be available. I know it only affects your color scheme, but some Space Wolves would have been nice. Also, I personally find Orks very boring as an enemy. There a great faction, don't get me wrong. I just find them dull to fight for some reason. Maybe it's because they're as uncomplicated as this game. True, there is another faction that shows up later (spoilers), and I'd frankly would rather have spent an entire game fighting them rather than just the one level. They could have gone with Chaos cultists, and if you said they were a Khorne cult they wouldn't even have to change the AI for the enemies. Also, making them Chaos kinda ties in with having more playable Space Marine chapters since it would justify having Grey Knights.

At the end of the day, it's a great game for 800 points. Had it been more, it would have been a rip-off, but at that price a game that was deeper and more complex would have been a miracle. It's like how my biggest complaint against Front Mission: Evolved was paying $60 for it. Had it been $20 I'd have been fine. Kill Team is cheap and plays cheap. But then again, you don't get pissy if your McDonald's hamburger doesn't taste like prime rib.

And I haven't even touched Space Marine yet, I'm still waiting on the reviews. Mostly because I'm having bad flashbacks to Fire Warrior.