Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000 (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 8.1 (4.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Greg Kasavin
• Reviewed on: 12/31/1997
• Updated on: 09/19/2004
• Released on: 11/30/1997
• Originally published on GameSpot: Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000 (PC) Review

Games Workshop's Epic 40,000 tabletop wargame demands a pretty serious commitment. You must be prepared to pay hundreds of dollars buying the miniature models that compose your futuristic army and spend perhaps an equivalent number of hours assembling and painting each in turn. You'll want to set aside the better part of a day to play out a single battle against a friend, since moving those miniatures, rolling dice, consulting event tables, and whatnot really adds up on the clock. That's where Final Liberation comes in - it's the first computer game to recreate the Epic 40,000 game system and the struggle between the Imperium of Man and the marauding Space Orks. Indeed, Final Liberation is a very faithful (and economical) adaptation of its source material, and it even adds a number of clever features on the side.

Final Liberation looks and feels like a traditional turn-based wargame, but meticulous gameplay balance and dozens of imaginative units set it apart. Both the Imperium and Orks offer several dozen types of infantry and armored units that must be deployed in careful combinations to succeed. Once the conflict begins, you and your opponent take turns spreading your forces across huge, detailed maps in an attempt to gain ground quickly but remain as safe as possible and hopefully out of your enemy's line of sight. You can stop your units short so they can reserve a shot for the enemy's movement phase, you can entrench your infantry, or you can sacrifice a unit's movement for additional time to fire its weapons. Firing, in turn, involves a series of probability checks to determine whether an attack hits its mark, whether it penetrates the target's armor, and how much damage it inflicts. Keeping your forces close together means you can concentrate your firepower, but also makes you a much easier target for your enemy's indirect fire. Staying close also helps morale, but should the enemy take out one of your key units, the rest may well turn tail and head for cover, thus throwing your carefully planned offensive into chaos.

Final Liberation's quick battle mode pits you and the computer or a friend in a single battle restricted by a predefined point limit, and each type of unit costs a certain amount of points. You must construct your military differently depending on just how many points you make available. A thousand points means you'll probably deploy hordes of infantry and a few tanks, while eight thousand means you can unleash the massive Imperial Titans and Ork Gargants whose shielding and weapon arsenals make them veritable armies themselves. Battles in excess of 5,000 points are epic indeed and can rage on for hours as you and your opponent control your massive armies piece by piece. Fortunately you can set the game to alternate turns each time you move a unit rather than the whole side to speed things along. Meanwhile, the single-player campaign mode offers a cohesive plot and nonlinear structure as you control the Imperial forces in an effort to reclaim the planet Volistad from Ork raiders. You must take the planet back region by region, thus increasing your resource surplus as the Orks brace themselves to prevent your advance.

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