''Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade'' was a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

online

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D computer graphics, 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

based on the

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, ...

universe. The game was released on September 23, 2016 for Microsoft Windows. As of January 2016 it was planned to release the game for PlayStation 4 and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

on a later date, but the ports were later canceled.

Gameplay

The game is a

player versus player Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents. The terms are mos ...

online multiplayer action shooter, with gameplay taking place on the planet of Arkhona.

Races and factions

Space Marines The space marine, an archetype of military science fiction, is a kind of soldier who operates in outer space or on alien worlds. Historical marines fulfill multiple roles: ship defence, boarding actions, landing parties, and general-purpose hi ...

: (Ultramarines,

Space Wolves In the fictional universe of ''Warhammer 40,000'', the Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are superhuman warrior-monks who fight for the Imperium of Man. They wear mechanised suits of armour and have modified genomes that grant the ...

Imperial Fists In the fictional universe of ''Warhammer 40,000'', the Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are superhuman warrior-monks who fight for the Imperium of Man. They wear mechanised suits of armour and have modified genomes that grant the ...

, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Legion of the Damned) *

Chaos Space Marines In Games Workshop's '' Warhammer Fantasy'' and ''Warhammer 40,000'' fictional universes, Chaos refers to parasitic entities which live in a different plane of reality known as '' the Warp'' or ''Immaterium'' in ''Warhammer 40,000'' and as the Re ...

: ( Alpha Legion, Black Legion, Night Lords, Word Bearers, Iron Warriors) *

Ork Ork or ORK may refer to: * Ork (folklore), a mountain demon of Tyrol folklore * ''Ork'' (video game), a 1991 game for the Amiga and Atari ST systems * Ork (''Warhammer 40,000''), a fictional species in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe * ''Ork!'' ...

s: (Goffs, Evil Sunz, Deathskulls, Blood Axes, Bad Moons) * Eldar: (Altansar,

Biel-Tan ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, ...

, Iyanden, Saim-Hann, Ulthwé) The game features several races for players to choose from. Each race has its own variety of classes that are unique and recognizable to fans of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. In addition, all factions have "Elite-classes" that must be bought with in-game resources before being able to play them. The playable races include: Orks, Space Marines, Eldar, and Chaos Space Marines. The Tyranids are present in game as

NPCs A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster ...

, being the primary enemies in the game's procedurally-created dungeons "Under worlds" and survival "Hives" game modes to provide a Player Versus Environment experience. As of Alpha, the plan was, according to the developers, to add various other races from the universe, such as the

Tau Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ, or \boldsymbol\tau; el, ταυ ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300. The name in English ...

and

Dark Eldar In the fictional setting of ''Warhammer 40,000'', the Aeldari (or the Eldar) are a race of aliens and playable army in the tabletop miniatures wargame. They are patterned after the High Elves of fantasy fiction; long-lived, arrogant, and posses ...

, "over the game's lifetime".

Development

Founders program

Behaviour Interactive Behaviour Interactive Inc. is a Canadian video game development studio specializing in the production of 2D and 3D action/adventure games for home video game consoles, handheld game consoles, PCs and mobile. Based in Montreal, Canada, the compa ...

launched the founder program for ''Eternal Crusade'' on June 25, 2014. Similar to a pre-order program, people can buy packs before the game release, allowing them to get the full game key, and several bonuses, like in-game currency, unique items, etc.

Closed Alpha

The development team released the closed Alpha on September 14, 2015State of the Crusade VII
, " EternalCrusade.com" to its founders. The objective of the closed Alpha was to test the shooter part of the game, before releasing all the persistence and progression features.

Release

During the closed Alpha period, the game was available on Microsoft Windows platforms. The game is currently available via Steam. The game is available for free, however, in this version players can only play 18 out of the 22 basic classes and experience-points are earned at a lower rate. Paying players who purchase a copy of the full game will be able to play as all classes from all factions and earn experience-points at the full rate.

End of the game

One June 10, 2021, the developers announced the upcoming permanent shutdown of the game servers, scheduled for September 10, 2021.

Post Server Close

There are attempts at bringing the game back to life privately being made as several private projects but as of August 2023 the game remains mostly unplayable and the official servers are down.

Reception

''Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade'' received "mixed or average" reviews according to

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Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Games Workshop 2016 video games Behaviour Interactive games Early access video games PlayStation 4 games Unreal Engine games Video games developed in Canada Eternal Crusade Windows games Xbox One games