We understand movie adaptions of books are typically worse than the book. The on-screen action might be entertaining but the amount of detail in a two-hour flick can’t compare to what our imagination conjures from reading text in days. So far, we haven’t seen a ton of game adaptions of books (I’ve seen more of the opposite) but Eisenhorn: XENOS is the latest game to originate from a novel.

Eisenhorn: XENOS is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and is based on the novel Xenos by Dan Abnett. The story follows Gregor Eisenhorn, an Inquisitor. His job is to render justice to humanity in the name of the God-Emperor of Humanity whose identity remains a mystery. Gregor is tough, mostly unfeeling, has psychic powers, and is not afraid to wield his authority even amongst other high ranking officials. He knows his place. Others better make sure they know theirs.

My time with the preview lasted under two hours but the story was compelling. I want to play more, not because there was a gripping cliffhanger, but because what’s there is intriguing and I wasn’t given enough detail to put the pieces together. The story was told through cutscenes and more notably, there were moments where Gregor (voiced by British actor Mark Strong) narrated his own story, reminiscing an audiobook. The problem is the voice acting falls incredibly flat everywhere. Moments when the intensity picks up, the voice doesn’t match the situation. The audio mixing fails to re-create the atmosphere, as well. Voices talking in metal chambers or giant auditoriums sound like they’re in a soundproofed studio. When characters are at a distant, they talk as if they’re standing right next to each other. It’s obnoxious.

Gameplay

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If you’re not watching a cutscene, you’re running through halls and rooms, hacking and slashing enemies with your blade. Eisenhorn has a timing-based mechanic but it’s crude. Once you attack, a yellow circle appears above your head. If you attack when that circle appears, you’ll continue your combo indicated by a green circle. Press the button too quick and a red circle will appear and you’ll be momentarily stunned. The mechanic punishes you for button mashing but it doesn’t appear to reward you for perfect timing. As it seems, as long as you’re pressing the attack button in a solid rhythm, you will get a strike. But enemies will fight back with their own flurry of attacks if you mis-time a block. A red shield icon appears over the enemies head indicating their attack and your opportunity to defend.

Mis-timing can mean taking three or more hits and, obviously, losing health. When all else fails, just evade or use Eisenhorn’s Will (basically a force push). But you’ll likely want to follow up with a ranged attack with your firearm of choice as enemies also will try to drain your health with bullets. At armories, you can buy new weapons and restore your health. Only two swords and three guns were available in the preview and it’s obvious which ones you should choose. I’m hoping switching or upgrading weapons isn’t as straightforward in the final version.

But there is nuance in upgrading Eisenhorn’s stats. You can buy relics that upgrade your attack points (your stamina meter), defense, attack strength, and health. The greater the percentage, the more it costs. Gathering coins didn’t seem to be a problem, however, so it might be a thing to check in with the armory whenever you find one to see if you can upgrade your weapon or improve your stats. Other characters will accompany you as you progress and you’ll be able to customize their inventory and stats, as well. So all that gold you get will get put to use in some way.

One section in the preview favored stealth tactics. I could psychically force someone to walk in my direction while I ducked behind a table, then assassinate them from behind once I got close enough. If I was caught, I fought off the enemies that found me but that was it. No reinforcements were called. I tried sneaking through a larger room but I was caught and it turned into a normal combat. I don’t know why stealth isn’t required and if it’s not, I don’t understand why there isn’t greater punishment for failing.

Weapons and Abilities

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As a psychic, Eisenhorn has a few abilities. One is a combat ability that allows you to stop time and plan three attacks. It’s similar to Splinter Cell: Conviction’s mark and execute ability. The difference is the execute doesn’t kill unless their health is low enough. It’s simply a crowd-control ability. Stop time, use your gun on a distant enemy, and melee two other closer enemies. Or you can just lay all your attacks on one. But you have to line up the cursor in time before the meter runs out. There’s no indication you’ll be able to increase the amount of moves you can make or increase how long you stay in this mode but I’d look out for something like that.

A goofier ability is a psychic push. Aim, tap the button, and the enemy falls to the ground. It’s basically a force push and it looks hysterical. Eisenhorn starts with a basic blade, called the Power Sword, with very little attack but it won’t take long before you can use another, much stronger sword aptly named the Power Sword 2. It has no extra ability. It’s just a lot stronger. But I anticipate later weapons in the game will have added features.

There were three guns, however. You start with an Auto Pistol which does minimal damage. The Stub Pistol fires slow but packs a punch. The Combat Shotgun is the most powerful gun overall in the preview. The guns don’t feel different because you don’t actually aim them. You press a button and it fires. As of now, I don’t see any point in using anything but the strongest weapon available. I hope the weapon choices aren’t that simple but that’s the way it looks right now.

System Requirements

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Minimum:

OS: 32-bit Windows 7, 8, 10

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz/AMD Athlon X2, 2.8 GHz

Memory: 4GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/AMD Radeon HD 3850 or better with 512MB VRAM

Direct X: Version 9.0c

Storage: 20GB available space

Recommended:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 8, 10

Processor: Intel Core i5-750, 2.67 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 963, 3.4 GHz

Memory: 8GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560/AMD Radeon HD 6950 or better with 1GB VRAM

Direct X: Version 11

My Specs

OS: 32-bit Windows 10

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K, 3.4 GHz

Memory: 8GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti

My machine ran the game with a very rock-solid 60 FPS with VSync on. There was one time the game dipped below 55 and that was during a loading screen. Otherwise, the game rarely dipped below 56. I hardly ever had to focus on the FPS counter. Turning off VSync allows for framerates reaching 130 FPS but it’s less stable. It mostly stays between 109-118 FPS. And during heavy effects, mostly during cutscenes, the screen tears a lot with a 60Hz monitor.

The graphics are gorgeous but they are softened by the light effects which makes me wonder if the textures lack detail up close. The light bloom is a big problem while in your psychic vision as light is incredibly blown out, so that will need to be improved. Animations are stilted as well. Eisenhorn walks like he’s got a limp and head movement looks like Pixel Hero Games motion captured a robot. That breaks the immersion but otherwise, it’s a sharp looking game.

Additional Thoughts

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Eisenhorn: XENOS has the foundation for a captivating tale. It helps that it is based off of a book and because it’s set in a 9-11 hour game, there is the opportunity for more nuance than a movie could provide. Where the game suffers is weak gameplay; the combat, on its own, is mundane; the spaces you run through are dull; the voice acting sounds devoid of emotion; and the uncanny valley is deep. Even if this game is for the fans, fans should get better than what the preview shows.

The difficulty gives a bit of redemption, however. I played on Normal as it was the default difficulty and there were times my carelessness was punished. I never died but I guarantee if I played on hard I would. I predict, and hope, the difficulty will reasonably increase and perhaps more enthralling gameplay will emerge.

Eisenhorn: XENOS comes in less than a month. I doubt the complaints I have with the game will change by that time, so what you see in the video is likely what you will experience. But what I will not deny is that I am intrigued by the story. A part of me wants to go read the book, but another part of me wants to play the game. Thankfully, the difficulty is there to further that compulsion. But I have my reservations about Eisenhorn: XENOS as a game. I think you should too.

Most Anticipated Feature

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The story. Who are these Inquisitors? What makes them so powerful? What will Eisenhorn’s discoveries lead him too? Very intriguing.