Discover The Top 17 Best Warhammer Games To Play in 2017
From the Mist Shrouded Past, to the Grim Future, There is Only War...
Ever since it was created by Games Workshop, Warhammer and, later, Warhammer 40,000, have drawn in hundreds of thousands of fans with their dark themes and action packed settings. Expanding from the tabletop wargame that started it all, the two fictional universes have gone on to create tie-in novels,
Games Workshop was slow to get into the video game industry, producing a few titles every couple of years or so. Times have changed, and every year brings a host of new games with a variety of settings, and mechanics. So, without further ado, here are 17 of the greatest games set in the worlds of Warhammer.
17) Space Hulk: Deathwing
Space Hulk: Deathwing Gameplay
Space Hulk: Deathwing explores a setting of the Warhammer 40k universe that fans are very familiar with, giving players control of a space marine in Terminator armor and delving into the haunted depths of a space hulk, a massive conglomeration of asteroids and space vessels that have been fused together by the powers of the Warp. The game is a highly immersive first-person shooter with RPG elements. It also features the space marines of the Dark Angels Chapter, the enigmatic sons of a dead world who follow the code of a knightly order.
Deathwing is an adaptation of the widely popular board game Space Hulk, made by Games Workshop using their Warhammer 40k universe. Both games revolve around squads of Terminator armor clad space marines exploring an newly discovered space hulk, one that has been infested with hordes of the lethally aggressive tyranid lifeform known as Genestealers. The game offers a multiplayer mode, allowing friends to team up against these flesh eating monsters.
Space Hulk: Deathwing brings the classic board game to life, giving players an immersive experience as they delve into the depths of a massive vessel infested with a vile Genestealer Brood.
Players can play co-op online in order to battle the Genestealer threat together, making use of different classes and unlocking new skills.
16) Man o’ War: Corsair
Man O' War Corsair gameplay
Man o’ War: Corsair is an ambitious indie game that brings the tabletop game of the same name to the PC, dropping players in an open world environment in the seas of the Old World. Players will be able to explore the vast Bretonnian Coast, as well as the River Reik, battling against pirates and colossal sea creatures. They will also be able to explore over 50 ports along those coasts, making new allies and enemies at each.
The game follows a sandbox format, allowing players to set their own goals and ambitions. This gives them a host of options, from being a noble trade prince or becoming a violent and bloodthirsty pirate. Players will be able to progress throughout the game, eventually gaining access to a powerful fleet that will, depending on their goals, allow them to rule over the seas.
Man o’ War: Corsair places players in an open world environment, rich with trade, vessels, and a whole menagerie of aquatic monsters to slay.
Players in Man o’ War: Corsair will have to defend their ships against boarding parties, battling against chaos marauders, skaven reavers, and orcish pirates. Alternatively, players can embrace darkness and plunder ships and trading ports to gather wealth and power.
15) Warhammer 40,000: Regicide
Warhammer 40k: Regicide gameplay
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide is a turn based strategy game that gives the classic board game chess the gritty and visceral action of the Warhammer 40k universe. It gives players access to two factions, the noble Imperial Space Marines and the brutish Orks, each with their own classes that take up the roles of traditional chess pieces. Players can play through a large, 50 mission campaign, against each other in online matches, or test their skills against an AI with five different difficulty settings.
Regicide features two different game modes; Regicide Mode and Classic Mode. Regicide Mode gives the player total control of their units, accessing their abilities and powers to unleash destruction on their enemies in two different phases of combat. Classic Mode, on the other hand, simplifies the game and adheres to traditional chess rules, making it a must have for fans of the game.
Regicide combines the brutal combat of Warhammer 40k with the world’s most widely played strategy game, chess. The game features intense combat animations that will add a level of cinematic quality to matches.
Regicide gives players access to a number of iconic ork and space marine units, each corresponding to one of the traditional chess pieces.
14) Total War: Warhammer
Total War: WARHAMMER gameplay
Total War: Warhammer stands as one of the greatest strategy games in recent years, giving players an incredibly faithful adaptation of the world of Warhammer Fantasy. While the game began with four playable factions, it quickly grew with a number of DLCs and Free-LCs to create a vibrant and diverse campaign map. Players have enjoyed pitting the wildly different forces against each other, finding an almost limitless range of strategies and tactics to make use of.
The game stands as Creative Assembly’s first foray into the fantasy genre using their Total War franchise, and brought a number of mechanics that had never been used before. Players were given access to powerful monsters that rampaged across battlefields, and flying units that soared overhead, dropping down on unwary commanders. It also gave them the ability to make use of a host of magic powers, unleashing torrents of eldritch energy that could strengthen their own units or destroy their enemies.
Total War: Warhammer has proven itself to be the definitive adaptation of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, giving players control over a wide range of factions and lords to help them shape the iconic setting into their own image.
Total War: Warhammer sports a huge amount of content, allowing players to wage war with monsters, heroes, and legendary lords from the game’s setting.
13) Total War: Warhammer II
Total War: WARHAMMER 2 - Gameplay First Glance
Fans of Total War: Warhammer are eagerly awaiting the release of its sequel, Warhammer II, which promises to unlock new areas of the fantasy universe’s world. Fighting across four different continents, the game will also feature the addition of four new factions; the High Elves, the Dark Elves, the Lizardmen, and the Skaven. These factions will be pitted against each other as they fight over the Nexus, a storm of magical energy that may deeply impact the campaign map.
The game will also connect with its predecessor to create a single, huge map that will feature the content of both games. Previous factions, such as the Empire and Chaos Warriors, will be able to cross the seas to conquer new lands, or defend their dominion over the Old World from the new factions that come to challenge them. The full game will no doubt be impressive, as its predecessor received huge financial and critical success.
Total War: Warhammer II will introduce players to new, totally unexplored realms within the Warhammer world, including the mysterious jungle continent of Lustria, home of the Lizardmen.
The game will give players control of new factions, magics, and creatures, further deepening the diversity and depth of its predecessor.
12) Dawn of War
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 1 Gameplay
Dawn of War is the legendary RTS game that introduced many PC players to the massive world of Warhammer 40,000. Forgoing the resource management that was typical with its genre, the game made use of fast paced action and intricate combat animations to stand out from the crowd. The game received both financial and critical success, and still supports a large community of online players and modders.
Dawn of War also had several expansions, introducing new campaigns and factions, allowing it to cover a broad range of 40k lore. The most successful of these was Dark Crusade, which added the Tau and Necron factions. Dark Crusade had a single campaign that let players to choose a faction to conquer its planetary setting, allowing them to take full advantage of each of them.
The massive and chaotic battles of Dawn of War helped make it one of the best PC games of all time.
Each expansion added more factions and content, making the conflicts more dynamic and diverse.
11) Dawn of War 2
Dawn of War 2 gameplay
Dawn of War 2 was a very interesting follow up to its popular predecessor, stepping away from the base building and large-scale conflicts. Instead, the game focuses on small squads of units that make heavy use of tactics and terrain. Success in combat depended largely on unit positioning and cover, as well as destroying enemy cover.
Dawn of War 2 later added the Chaos faction in its DLC Chaos Rising, introducing a sequel story campaign that focused heavily on player choice. Different actions and items could lead to the characters under the player being corrupted by the powers of the Warp. These choices eventually impacted the campaign’s ending, making the story more dynamic and player driven than the previous installment’s more linear story mode.
While the size of the conflicts in Dawn of War 2 were toned down, the brutality of its grim dark setting certainly wasn’t.
Cover often meant the difference between death and survival in Dawn of War 2, and being caught out in the open typically spelled certain doom.
10) Dawn of War 3
Dawn of War 3 gameplay
Dawn of War 3 promised to be the best of both worlds, taking successful elements from both its predecessors. As such, it brought back the base building mechanics that the second game dropped, and maintained its terrain and tactical mechanics. One unique aspect of the game that previous installments didn’t have are the unique war machines that players have access to, unleashing godlike destruction on the battlefield.
Dawn of War 3 only had three factions upon its initial release, the Orks, the Eldar, and the Space Marines. This allowed the developers to give more depth to each of their units and abilities, and each faction reflects the visual style of the lore very well. Combine this with the massive and visually spectacular units that each has access to, and the game is a truly unique and visceral experience.
One of the main features that makes Dawn of War 3 stand out from its predecessors are the giant war machines that each faction has access to.
Dawn of War 3 brought back the large scale conflicts that made the first game in the franchise so popular.
9) Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Warhammer 40K : Space Marine gameplay
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is an action game with a cinematic single player campaign, following the harrowing exploits of an Ultramarines captain as he battles against hordes of Orks and Chaos worshippers. Space Marine, like its title suggests, gives an exciting depiction of how Space Marines function on the battlefield, meting out high amounts of carnage on enemies and standing above the common soldiers of the Imperium. It also gives players the chance to use a wide range of different Imperial weapons, from chainswords to power axes.
The game also has an online mode with RPG elements, giving players access to different classes that can access different types of equipment. The online mode gives players the option of playing as Chaos Marines, and allows them to customize their character with different weapons and cosmetic features. While it isn’t as detailed as the single player campaign, the combat in the online mode does prove to be dynamic and entertaining.
In the lore, Space Marines are capable of taking down hordes of wild enemies. Space Marine, as a game, did its best to depict this in detail.
Space Marine’s online mode allowed players to take the weapons of the single player story and use them to take on others in team skirmishes.
8) Battlefleet Gothic: Armada
Battlefleet Gothic : Armada gameplay
One aspect of the Warhammer 40k universe that has rarely been explored in PC games is the massive space battles that frequently take place in the lore. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada addresses this, giving players control of large fleets in real-time battles. The game is beautiful to look at, and fully depicts the awesome destruction that these massive machines unleash upon one another.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada’s story campaign details the story of the Gothic War, a key event from the lore of 40k that follows one of Warmaster Abaddon’s early Black Crusades. With awesome fights and a lore heavy story, the game has proven to be very successful on steam. It already has two DLCs, giving players access to Space Marine and Tau fleets.
The battles in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada are highly cinematic, with realistic damage being done to vessels as they wade through enemy fire.
The base game has four factions with vastly different play styles; the Orks, Eldar, Chaos, and Imperium of Man.
7) Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf Gameplay
The Space Wolves are among the fiercest and most savage fighters in the Imperium of Man, and they are much beloved by the 40k fandom. In Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf, these feral warriors go on a mission to defeat one of their oldest foes, the Chaos Marines of the zealous Word Bearers Legion. The game has a unique card driven turn-based play style that features RPG elements, allowing players to choose the class of their characters.
The story campaign follows a Space Wolf captain as he leads his warriors through a Chaos infested jungle planet, using tactical decisions to make sure you triumph over your heretical foes. The game also features an online multiplayer mode that lets players test their skills against each other. A recent update also added a survival mode, giving players the ability to test their strategies’ endurance against insurmountable odds.
Space wolf makes use of a card-based, turn-based mechanic that was carried over from the mobile game it was based off, though all Free-to-Play elements were removed to give players a fuller experience.
Space Wolf pits the titular heroes of the Imperium against the corrupting powers of Chaos, from cultists to traitor marines.
6) Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon
Warhammer 40k Armageddon gameplay
The industrial world of Armageddon has suffered through three major wars, the last two of which being instigated by the infamous Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka. This legendary conflict within the Warhammer 40k universe is the subject of the hex-based, turn-based strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon, pitting multiple forces and heroes of the Imperium of Man against the Orks of Ghazghkull Thraka. The game features large battles, and players will be able to carry their favorite units across multiple scenarios to turn them into conflict hardened veterans.
Warhammer 40,000 also features a long story campaign, giving them command of the heroic Commissar Yarrick as he fights to save the planet from the beastly machinations of the Orks. Through the campaign players will be aided by space marines of multiple chapters, including the Salamanders, Blood Angels, and the Ultramarines. This shows remarkable attention to detail, as these forces were all involved in the story of the Armageddon conflict in Warhammer 40k lore.
While the graphics aren’t as impressive as some of the other Warhammer titles, it allows the game to create large scale conflicts with vast numbers of units.
The game features a number of factions from the Imperial side of the conflict, including the Imperial Guard and multiple Space Marine Chapters.
5) Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach
Warhammer 40K Sanctus Reach gameplay
Sanctus Reach is a 3D turn-based strategy game that tries to bring the models and strategies of the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40k to the PC. The game gives players control of two sides, the bloodthirsty Orks, and the equally savage space marines of the Space Wolves Chapter. Players can play against the Orks in standalone missions or in two story-driven campaigns, Stormclaw and Hour of the Wolf.
The game is very tactically rich, reflecting its source material. Different units have different abilities and advantages that players can use to outmaneuver or counter the enemy. Players will also need to factor in terrain as they march across different maps, affecting their unit’s effectiveness in combat.
Sanctus Reach gives players command of the Space Wolves in two separate story driven campaigns, exploring the nature of this feral ice world space marine chapter.
Sanctus Reach is a highly detailed tactical strategy game, making players account for terrain and other factors as they wage war across multiple maps.
4) Eisenhorn: XENOS
EISENHORN XENOS gameplay
Eisenhorn: XENOS is an adventure game set in the grim future of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, as well as an adaptation of the Black Library series Eisenhorn, written by Dan Abnett. Eisenhorn follows the adventures of the titular Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, a member of the Ordo Xenos, the Inquisitorial branch that focuses on alien threats to humanity. He begins the game hunting down a dangerous heretic, and soon finds himself thrust into a conspiracy that will put him at odds against eldritch foes.
The game allows players to explore the settings of the novel in fully realized 3D, making use of a number of game mechanics to discover clues and items. It also makes use of a party system, allowing players to access different members of Eisenhorn’s retinue to fit certain situations. Each character, whether playable or NPC, is fully voice acted with a talented cast of professionals, bringing the words of the novel to full, vibrant life.
Eisenhorn: Xenos brings famed author Dan Abnett’s novel of the same name to life, allowing players to explore the world behind the battlefields of the 41st Millenium, uncovering crimes and conspiracies across a myriad of Imperial worlds.
The game explores many of the settings of Dan Abnett’s novel, revealing the remarkable diversity that Imperial worlds have, and the many horrors lurking in their darkest recesses.
3) Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade Multiplayer Gameplay
Eternal Crusade is a free-to-play action game that pits players against each other in massive battlefields, unleashing the powerful weapons and savagery of the 41st Millennium. The game has four factions to choose from, giving players access to their unique weapons and vehicles in order forge ahead through heavy ranged fire and brutal melee combat. The game features 5 classes across the factions, and offers players options to customize each to their specific playstyle.
Eternal Crusade also has a 5-player Player vs Environment game that lets players fight against hordes of Tyranids, the slavering biological horrors that seek to consume the entire galaxy. As with other Free-to-Play games, there are a number of features and items that are only available after purchasing a specific amount of in-game credits.
With massive multiplayer battles, the fighting in Eternal Crusade is incredibly dynamic and intense.
The game offers four playable factions; Chaos, Eldar, Space Marines, and Orks. Each has their own weapons and vehicles, as well as unique options to customize player characters.
2) Blood Bowl 2
Blood Bowl 2 Gameplay
The world of Warhammer Fantasy is both dark and strange, and its many factions are in a constant life or death struggle for dominion over it. Only one thing seems to bring these ancestral rivals together, a game as violent and hard fought as the bitter conflicts that rage across the realms. That game is Bloodbowl, a name synonymous with glory and the sound of breaking bones.
Bloodbowl 2 is a turn-based sports game that combines the high fantasy setting of Warhammer Fantasy with American Football, creating a new game that requires strategy, precision, and insanity. The game provides players with a number of different factions to choose from, letting them hone their tactics in single player games or putting them to the test against others in intense multiplayer matches. Giving the grim universe of Warhammer an edge of dark humor, Bloodbowl 2 proves to be both challenging and fun.
Bloodbowl 2 is a fantasy sports game that combines elements of Warhammer Fantasy’s vast collection of races and factions with the gameplay of American Football. The game does a great job reflecting the fantasy world’s diversity, with a wide range of teams to play, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
The game of Bloodbowl is fast paced and violent, and one mistake can quickly see a team’s star player pulverized and maimed.
1) Warhammer: End Times- Vermintide
Warhammer Endtimes : Vermintide gameplay
Winning a host of gaming awards, Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide proved to be one of the greatest PC releases of 2015. The game is a co-operative dark fantasy action game, pitting teams of players against endless hordes of the Warhammer world’s most insidious race, the Skaven. Players have to combine teamwork and determination in order to survive, or else be lost between the game’s eponymous tide mangy fur and flashing teeth.
Vermintide provides variety in nearly every aspect of its gameplay, giving players access to five different classes of hero, each with their own set of skills and equipment. The game also has thirteen different maps, each exploring a different location of the Warhammer world, even the Under-Empire of the Skaven themselves. Players will have to learn these maps well to navigate through them, as the Skaven will be able to spawn from countless points, leaving no room for adventurers to find any form of shelter.
Vermintide is, primarily, a multiplayer action game, allowing groups of up to four players to explore multiple locations within Warhammer Fantasy lore. As they walk the streets, bathed in the witch-light of the chaos moon Morrslieb, they will have to work together to survive the coming onslaught of Skaven warriors.
The Skaven are an insidious foe, not only appearing in great numbers but in a variety of forms, each more horrific as the last. Above, a player stands his ground against an approaching Rat Ogre, a creature made from the flesh-smiths of the Under-Empire.
Finally, after many years, gamers are getting the opportunity to see the worlds and characters of Warhammer brought to life in a range of different games. From strategy, to action, to other, less definable genres, the PC collection of Warhammer games will likely continue to grow over time. There’s still a lot of ground to cover in the expansive lore, and future games will no doubt further expand the franchise’s burgeoning fanbase.
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