''Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate'' is a

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, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

set in the

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

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

backdrop of the

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are '' Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and '' Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake, ...

game system ''

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 ...

''. In it, players take command of a number of squads of Ultramarines to do battle with their ancient enemies the

Word Bearers 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 Rea ...

Traitor Marines, Chaos Demons, and their commander the Chaos Lord Zymran. A sequel, '' Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters'', was released in 2022.

Gameplay

The game is turn-based and takes part on a gridded playing screen. Each turn an Ultramarine can take a certain number of actions up to its Action Points limit. Actions include moving, firing a weapon or throwing a grenade. The Chaos AI then takes its turn in the same way. Ultramarine players command a number of squads, vehicles and characters from the

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-purpos ...

Codex. ''Chaos Gate'' features an experience system, where Space Marines gain experience and can improve their statistics as they participate in missions. Each Space Marine can be assigned to a general-purpose Tactical Squad or to one of three specialist formations: Assault, Devastator and Terminator Squads. Additional weaponry can be picked up from weapon crates found in the campaign maps.

Development

The game uses a modified version of the ''

Soldiers at War ''Soldiers at War'' is a turn-based tactics game set in World War II. The player takes control of eight-man squads through the campaign of fifteen historically based missions, starting in North Africa and ending in Germany. Soldiers gain experience ...

'' engine. It was originally released for

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufactu ...

and

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released ...

but has since been made compatible for modern versions of

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

as well. ''Chaos Gate'' was developed by Random Games and originally published by

Strategic Simulations Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994. The company was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official compute ...

. In its release by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

Games, ''Chaos Gate'' was bundled with '' Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000'', set in Games Workshop's ''

Epic 40,000 Epic is a tabletop wargame set in the fictional ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. Whereas ''Warhammer 40,000'' involves small battles between forces of a few squads of troops and two or three vehicles, Epic features battles between armies consisting ...

'' game system that pitted the forces of Humanity against marauding

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. In 2015,

GOG Ltd GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through i ...

republished the game digitally.

Reception

Richie Shoemaker of ''

PC Zone ''PC Zone'', founded in 1993, was the first magazine dedicated to games for IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such as '' PC Leisure'', '' PC Format'' and '' PC Plus'' had covered games ...

'' called ''Chaos Gate'' a title that "slowly grabs hold of you and keeps you entertained throughout its duration; something you'll look back on with fond memories rather than foul". ''Chaos Gate'' was a finalist for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through t ...

''s 1998 "Best Strategy" award, which ultimately went to ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance am ...

''. The editors called ''Chaos Gate'' "perhaps the best iteration of the ''WarHammer'' universe to date, although some weak AI hampered its turn-based squad-level combat".

Sequel

A reboot, titled '' Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters'', was released in 2022. The game was developed by Canadian studio Complex Games and published by

Frontier Foundry Frontier Developments is a British video game developer founded by David Braben in January 1994 and based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. Frontier is known for developing amusement park management simulators within multipl ...

References

External links

* {{Games Workshop 1998 video games Computer wargames Strategic Simulations games Video games about demons Video games developed in the United States Chaos Gate Windows games Windows-only games