Skip to main content

Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters teases Mortarion, the Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard

Sick.

You wait years for Nurgle to turn up in a video game and then two come along at once...

Hot on the heels of reporting on Nurgle's lovely-looking star turn in the upcoming strategy game Total War: Warhammer 3 comes a closer look at everyone's favourite pimple-poppers in upcoming Warhammer 40,000 strategy game Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters.

In the video below, developer Complex Games dishes the dirt on Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters' take on the Death Guard, the Traitor Legion blessed with the power of Nurgle, the god of death and plagues.

Watch on YouTube

In the game, which sees players control the mysterious Grey Knights chapter of the Space Marines, the Death Guard have unleashed what's called the Bloom - a pestilence that threatens to swamp the Tyrtaeus Sector in disease and plague.

Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is, obviously, a very different game than Total War: Warhammer 3. It's strictly turn-based, for a start, and features battles on a much smaller scale. The easiest comparison is to XCOM.

As part of the story campaign, you have to work out how to stop the Bloom, whose various strains trigger different effects in the Death Guard's units. The strain of pain, for example, gives enemies higher damage mutations. The death strain saps the Death Knights' willpower.

You must also manage the Bloom outbreak at the strategic level, from on-board the Grey Knights spaceship, the Baleful Edict. Here, you spend your limited resources on researching new effects, stratagems and upgrades. You can also upgrade the Baleful Edict itself, improving its ability to respond quickly.

Complex Games says players have to make difficult choices in the campaign, choices that will have "far reaching" consequences. In one example we see that the Baleful Edict's plasma reactor must be repaired - to do so you have to assign a certain number of servitors and wait a certain number of days.

As for Nurgle, there are some significant enemy boss characters, including Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes. These Lords of the Bloom, as they're called, have their own unique personalities and strategies, and should make for challenging encounters.

And, most exciting of all for me anyway, there's a glimpse at the inclusion of Mortarion, the Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard and the (current) greatest Daemon Prince of Nurgle. This chap is seriously bad news - I'm looking forward to seeing him in the virtual flesh!

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters will release on PC in 2022.

Read this next