A buggy launch leaves Battle Sister in need of some updates, but some lackluster design makes for a game that won't ever be anything more than just adequate.
Warhammer has garnered a reputation for delivering games that are very hit or miss. Despite having an incredible dark sci-fi/fantasy aesthetic that lends itself very well to video games, Warhammer games either tend to be amazing, like Vermintide II, or significantly unpolished, like Necromunda: Hired Gun, or Space Hulk: Deathwing. Unfortunately, Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister belongs in the latter category. It’s not a terrible game, by any means, but a significant number of bugs and other gameplay-related issues hold it back from being a good game. In its current state, Battle Sister is a mixed bag, but updates could elevate it to at least a decent title.
Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister originally launched on the Oculus store in December of 2020, later receiving a Steam port on March 8, 2022. For this review, we played Battle Sister on the Steam version, which is, as of right now, a bit of a buggy mess.
Story
The story of Battle Sister follows Ophelia, a member of the Adepta Sororitas, an all-female wing of a theocratic empire. After the death of a mentor in the first chapter of the game, Ophelia receives news that her sister may still be alive, and the rest of the game is spent looking for her. It’s not the best story ever written, but it’s decent, and the unique cast of characters is enough to keep the story going. The characters are also backed up by some pretty solid voice acting, which is more impressive than I was expecting. Nothing about the story is particularly revolutionary, but it’s decent enough to keep you going for the roughly 4 hours it will take to beat the game.
I will say, likely to the disdain of the “no politics in gaming” crowd that, from what I understand, Warhammer is a fairly political franchise, that reflects a lot on the disastrous ramifications of a powerful empire driven by theocracy. There really are not, for better or worse, any sort of reflections on the interesting political and philosophical themes that the Warhammer franchise has to offer. There’s a small dialogue in the midpoint of the game where the three main characters talk about how war is sad but necessary, but it doesn’t really do anything overall. I won’t go as far as saying that exploring those themes is necessary in a game about war, but it would go a long way into making the story more interesting.
Gameplay
There’s not a lot to be said about the gameplay that you can’t also say about dozens of other VR games. It is really not groundbreaking in any way, but it’s not so terribly bad that it will put off people looking for a new VR first-person shooter. It doesn’t make any huge missteps, but nothing about it really shines above the rest of its competitors.
The guns are probably the most important aspect of any shooter, and they’re sort of a mixed bag as well. The bolter and bolt pistol, arguably the most iconic Warhammer 40K weapons, are thankfully very satisfying and fun to use. The flamer and meltagun are both okay, and have their uses. The power sword and chainsword are also okay, but the game does not do anything to make melee combat feel weighty or satisfying, so they fall victim to the sort of melee combat that just involves you rapidly wiggling your controller around instead of making deliberate strikes or slashes. The other two weapons, a plasma gun and a lasgun, are really both just worth using after running out of ammo for every other weapon. It’s really great that Battle Sister nailed the feeling of the bolt weapons, because those are really the driving force behind the feel of the gunplay.
The AI is not great, both for friendly and enemy characters. The friendly characters sort of just stand there and fire at the closest enemy, which is fine aside from the times when an enemy is out of their line of sight, and they just stand there and occasionally fire at a wall. The enemy AI is extremely simple, and it all boils down to “shoot exactly at where the player currently is”. As such, most enemies with guns can be foiled simply by strafing to the right or left while returning fire. Unfortunately, this makes most combat engagements feel the same, even with different enemy types.
One more issue that limits the game’s potential is the level design. It’s extremely linear, which is fine, but linear levels especially need variation to keep them interesting. Take the Metro series, for instance, which will have you going between open, snowy fields or lakes, abandoned subway stations, underground bunkers, and abandoned cities. Battle Sister has very little variation, and is mostly just a hallway, then an open room, then a hallway, then an open room, rinse and repeat. It doesn’t matter that the environment design is different, because every level has virtually the same feel.
Presentation and Execution
The presentation is actually one of the stronger points that Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister has to offer. The aesthetic, like every other Warhammer game, is top-notch. The combination of religious and military themes with a grimdark sci-fi aesthetic absolutely does it for me, and the character and environment design really deliver on that front. There’s not a lot that Battle Sister does differently than other VR shooters, but the presentation really does a lot to make it feel different, at least in one aspect. Honestly, if it were not for the aesthetic, I probably would not have even wanted to finish this game.
Grimdark theme aside, the presentation is really just okay. The graphics are nothing amazing, and there’s very noticeable texture pop-in in a ring around your character. If I had to guess, this is probably leftover from the Quest version of the game, likely to reduce the graphical load put on the hardware. It would be nice if this was not an issue in the Steam version, but it’s not the end of the world.
One thing I really don’t like about the presentation is the VR body that the game gives you. This might be personal taste, but I much prefer the disembodied hands style over giving you a full body. The VR body just gives too many weird side effects, like a bizarre walking animation that just looks absolutely bizarre every time you glance down at your feet. Your feet will also just sometimes float in the air, off to the side, so it looks like you’re sitting down in midair.
The only real, objective misstep with Battle Sister is its execution. The game has a lot of bugs. Most of them are just miscellaneous bugs like animation errors, but there are a few that are in dire need of a hotfix. The first, which is likely a hitbox issue, is that enemies can sometimes hit you from behind cover. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that a lot of the gameplay consists of hiding behind cover at low health. The second, huge issue, is that there are a lot of random invisible walls. The current Steam reviews are at a mixed rating, and half of them report that an invisible wall stopped their progress in the very first mission, essentially making their game unplayable. We did not have this issue, but there were plenty of times when an invisible wall blocked off most of a pathway, or stopped you from shooting enemies. The invisible wall glitch is certainly the issue most in need of a patch to help improve the game.
Final Thoughts
While it might please Warhammer 40K enthusiasts, or people who like the Warhammer aesthetic, Battle Sister needs some work to get it in a better state. However, even when it does receive the patches and updates it needs, Battle Sister has too many issues with the overall design to be anything better than just decent. The level design and combat AI feel too simple, and it feels like a lot of design principles were taken from PS2 era games (and not the good ones). Were this a longer game, those aspects would really be a big issue, but at just four hours, some players might be able to ignore the problems with the design. Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister is not a terrible game, but as of right now, it’s really only worth picking up if you have nothing better to play.
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