Space Hulk

About Space Hulk

The game features 51 missions that involve exterminations, retrieval of objects, and rearguard actions. A campaign, comprising 21 of these missions played in sequence, centres around a story about a Space Marine investigation of a distress beacon in a region of space threatened by Genestealers. The remaining missions are tutorials designed to help players learn the game and standalone missions. Before a mission, the game briefs the player on the objectives and shows a small map of the operational area. Marines are usually equipped with a gun—the Storm Bolter—for long-range combat, and an energised glove—the Power Fist—for hand-to-hand fighting. For certain missions, the player can customise the squads' armaments, selecting from 10 other weapons, such as Heavy Flamers for destroying targets and the Chainfist for opening locked doors. In the campaign, Marines who survive a mission gain experience, improving their combat abilities and chances of survival for future missions.

The player's Marines begin each mission grouped together at one or two starting points of the operational area, while Genestealers continually enter from marked entry points. Gameplay at this stage takes place between two separate interfaces: the Terminator View Screen, where the player takes direct control of individual Marines, and the Planning Screen, where orders are issued to the Marines by clicking on command icons. The Planning Screen has two maps; the smaller one on the bottom-left shows the operational area and the larger one displays a close-up view of the region selected by the player. Shown on the maps are the continuously updated positions of the Marines and their enemies. The game simulates fog of war by blacking out unexplored areas on the maps and representing unseen Genestealers as blips, unveiling them as Marines come within sight.

Switching to the Terminator View Screen offers a first-person perspective of the mission through the Marines' eyes. The Screen contains five monitors: a large primary monitor at the bottom and four smaller secondary displays arrayed above. The primary monitor displays the view of the Marine under the player's control. The character is moved by pressing the keyboard's cursor keys or clicking the directional arrows next to the monitor. The mouse is also used to aim and shoot at targets, although the computer determines if an accurate shot kills the target. The secondary monitors show the views of other squad members. Although the player cannot control the movements of these Marines through these interfaces, he or she can click them to shoot the Marines' weapons at the centre of their views. However, the player can take full control of a Marine by switching the character's view to the primary monitor.

Space Hulk is a video game based on a 1989 board game of the same name. Set in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, the video game tasks the player to take control of genetically enhanced soldiers called Space Marines. As veterans of their Space Marine Chapter who earn the right to wear powered exoskeletons known as Terminator Armor, these Marines embark on missions aboard the eponymous derelict starships that drift in and out of the Warp, an alternate region of space where vast interstellar distances can be traversed in a short time. The vessels are infested with Genestealers, four-armed aliens, who invade worlds encountered in the ships' paths. Sworn to protect the human race, the Marines aim to eradicate the alien threat.

Space Hulk's campaign is mostly exposited through pre-mission briefings. The prologue in the manual says the Dark Angels, a force of Space Marines, had repelled a Genestealer incursion in the Tolevi system many centuries before current events in the game. A Dark Angel hero was leading his men aboard the invading space hulk, Sin of Damnation, when it vanished into the warp. The first mission in the campaign sends the player's squad to investigate the Tolevi system for a distress call of Dark Angels' origin. A nest of Genestealers is uncovered on the planet Ma'Caellia, and the player's forces are ordered to destroy the aliens' Hive Mind. However, there are too many Genestealers, and the Marines are forced to withdraw. Without any other options, the Marines destroy the infestation and all other life forms on the planet through exterminatus with virus bombs—biological weapons of mass destruction. As they are doing so, the Sin of Damnation re-enters the system, and the player receives orders to invade the hulk. Aboard the vessel, the player's squads destroy the Genestealers' gene banks and their Patriarch. The end of the campaign tasks the player to control a lone Marine as he goes deep into the hulk to find the source of the distress call.