Kuju plays with fire again

UK-based Kuju, purveyors of flame in recent movie adaptation Reign Of Fire, will develop the first title based on THQ's Games Workshop deal for worldwide rights to Warhammer 40,000. The game will be called Fire Warrior, and released in summer 2003 on PC and PlayStation 2.

Fire Warrior will be futuristic first person shooter, curiously set over the course of one day. The player will control Kais, a young Fire Warrior, sent as part of a team to rescue the ethereal Ko'vash, who has been kidnapped by Imperial Forces. Kuju promises that things will not go according to plan, with the narrative descending into "a symphony of horror and torment" - words we hopefully won't be reusing in the review next year.

The game is set across 17 levels with 22 characters to kill with 16 weapons. Obviously not simultaneously. Kuju also promises four-player multiplayer action, although hopefully this will be expanded by some way for the PC version.

Kuju has also launched a website - www.firewarrior.com - so that you can follow the game's progress. However, it resizes your browser to fit your desktop, so you probably don't want to go there.

Fire Warrior is the first product of the Warhammer 40,000 deal, which was actually signed in the middle of last year. At the time, the first one was due out in time for this Christmas. However, those of you with a fetish for Orcs (Orks?) and so on will now have to wait until next summer.