From a decent intro, to a prologue, the music and voice over all add to the whole mythos, but this is where things go downhill. The intro has a weird end to it, weird as in that it just cuts off. Granted the intro has finished, but there is an abrupt end to the music/sfx, almost as if you had pressed a button to skip it. Then when we get to the main menu my first real problem with the game presents itself. The text size is extremely small. This is why I feel the Vita version is nothing more than a iOS 'Tablet' port. Scaling down the text from a 7-10” screen to the Vita's 5” screen just doesn't work, I'm afraid. There are even screens where there is plenty of room to increase the text to give those of us with older eyes a fighting chance. This unfortunately plagues the whole game, which is a right kick in my Heavy Flamer. The game is good and it can work on the Vita, but seriously that text....
The next issue, and equally as bad as tiny text, is the rather odd performance spikes. Ironically this has nothing to do with the actual graphics overloading the processor, but it appears to be bottlenecking the Vita on the AI. Every turn you end and the AI (Genestealers) takes over, the game drops frames like a Storm Fisted Terminator trying to pick up marbles. It's so bad it totally breaks the flow of certain missions due to the massive (temporary) performance hit. Such a shame.
These issues aside, Space Hulk is one of those games that only strategy gamers will get anything from, but due to the slightly borked performance, only die-hard W40K fans will persevere with this game, considering its retail price, which is a shame. From its visual style, its gameplay mechanics and sound design, Space Hulk is a worthy addition to a specific genre on the Vita, and one that should be applauded, but unless some optimising is done and the game patched, I feel a lot of people that would have played it might just skip it. This in turn could send the wrong message back to publishers, that no one wants strategy on the Vita, or strategy in general.
Conclusion
Taking everything into account, Space Hulk still ticks all the boxes for me. Its W40K, it's Space Marines in their Tactical Dreadnaught Armour, its Aliens. I mean, Genestealers on derelict capital starships and it's THE original board game in digital form! It can only be bested by the enhanced 'version' coming to its big brother in the form of Space Hulk: Deathwing – fingers crossed...
Stick with it brothers!
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