SPACE ▪ HULK by Teardown

[6636c7ffd6a0aKolya]

Tags: °spacehulkA new fan made Space Hulk game has been released only a few days ago and it looks nothing short of professional quality.
Niklas Astrand and Jorgen Nilsson have formed the group Teardown and build this 2D tactical game in about one and a half years.
They received permission from Games Workshop for the concept as well as from EA to reuse images from the first Space Hulk Game from 1993.

As of now version 1.0 is released but there are already many plans for 1.1.
It looks like nothing can stop these two Swedes from making the best Space Hulk game.

Download
after some legal battles there is a new rebranded version: Alien Assault
The earlier Space Hulk build (version 1.0) can still be found here.
A total (re)conversion for the latest Alien Assault (v1.021) to Space Hulk is available here.
 

[6636c7ffd6bbaKolya]

Legal problems have put this project to a halt quickly. Despite the fact that the creators made every effort to get the necessary permissions and got green lighted from Games Workshop and EA, it has turned out now that all Warhammer 40.000 licences to make a computergame belong to THQ (Dawn of War).
Of course every effort is being made to get permission from THQ (who have no plans for a Space Hulk game). If any of you work for THQ or may be able to establish a contact please help these guys out. Send help to: svavelvinter@hotmail.com

[6636c7ffd6d96Kolya]

Related thread on QuarterToThree.com

I'm in contact with Jörgen Nilsson of Teardown.se now. We got a hint to get in touch with David Adams of VigilGames.com, a division of THQ who are currently developing Warhammer 40K Online and might be able to help with the license issue.

[6636c7ffd6f2aKolya]

THQ eventually denied cooperation. Hence Teardown's Space Hulk game won't be released despite it being developed to v1.1 by now.
After surveying their fanbase Teardown decided to rebrand the game. And in a rather funny twist they decided to use the name of the movie franchise, that Games Workshop ripped off in the first place, when they "created" the Genestealers: The new game will be called Alien Assault. (forum announcement on teardown.se)

[6636c7ffd70c4Kolya]

Finally. Alien Assault is here.
Brothers, prepare for battle.

It looks like during rebranding the game Teardown have replaced the original missions, some art and names, and more annoyingly they decided to substitute the wrath-filled Space-Hulk lingo for lame-ass internet humour ("This is Sparta" and "Kill it with fire"-jokes anyone?).
Nevertheless the game has a good atmosphere, mostly for the well done sound effects and attention to detail with the graphics. No doubt it would have been even better as a Space-Hulk game, but it wasn't meant to be. The gameplay was also improved for this version, though there's still room to get better here. For example the player should be able to order around Marines while another Marine is moving to it's destination.

[6636c7ffd7244Kolya]

Update 1.01 released. It seems Teardown got their act together again with this release. The lapses in names and text are gone and there's an extensive additional options screen now where you can adjust things like the animation speed of the marines and aliens among other things.
The soldiers now get awards during the game, mostly for kills it seems, my flamethrower marine got a "Survivor" award for self-destructing. I'm not sure yet what else they are good for. This update is better than the somewhat disappointing first rebrand and the game seems to be heading in it's own direction now, which is probably for the best. Still no giving directions to marines while one of them moves though.

[6636c7ffd7374Game reviewer]

Absolute shite.  I don't see how such a bad game could become a classic.  I played it for one day then deleted it.  Unbelievably bad.  Think a downgraded version of pacman, with tiny text that strains the eyes, no fullscreen mode, and sprites that look like atari 2600's frogger.  Pass this one up, and wait for the space hulk mod for DoW 2.

[6636c7ffd74bdildamos]

Pass this one up, and wait for the space hulk mod for DoW 2.

It's already out methinks. I visited ModDB this night.

Space Hulk is a VERY old game so I'm not surprised about the graphics. I'll be giving this one a spin tomorrow.

Dawn of War 2 is the total letdown however. But that's just my two cents; I like the gameplay of the first Dawn of War better. (I played around with the Revora Forums' enhanced AI mod; that was awesome.)

[6636c7ffd7911Widget]

Absolute shite.  I don't see how such a bad game could become a classic.  I played it for one day then deleted it.  Unbelievably bad.  Think a downgraded version of pacman, with tiny text that strains the eyes, no fullscreen mode, and sprites that look like atari 2600's frogger.  Pass this one up, and wait for the space hulk mod for DoW 2.

That's some pretty unnecessary defamation. It doesn't have a fullscreen mode but it does have a number of options for upscaling the resolution so the text shouldn't be a problem. Everything becomes a bit blocky if you up the res because it's all pixel art but the tiles are all perfectly serviceable and parts of the UI are extremely impressive. If you don't like pixel art then just say so.

If there's a criticism that could be levelled against the game it's that it's brutally difficult but, for that, look to the source material. Alien Assault (formerly Space Hulk) isn't pushing the boundaries of game design but it's a neat, efficient and well-polished conversion of a very popular tabletop game. Not to everyone's taste but well worth a go.