Space Hulk: Ascension Dark Angels DLC

After the sad news that Full Control is winding down its productions we have what could well be the last piece of downloadable content for the time-absorbing Space Hulk: Ascension. We always assumed some kind of rights issue stopped the Dark Angels from being included to begin with but whatever the truth they are here now in a campaign that will test player’s skills to the maximum with an additional twenty campaign missions and some sadistic flash ones.

Each new expansion has added some kind of new gear and this one is the same. In terms of equipment you can now play around with the heavey plasma cannon which causes splash damage from huge balls of exploding plasma. Players also have a new class to use in the Apothecary.  A support character, the Apothecary provides stat boosting bonuses to terminators within close proximity. However, he takes the place of either the Librarian or Sergeant so careful consideration of how you play is required.

This campaign is pretty full on from the start. The very first mission gives you command of two full squads and the remit of exterminating around sixty Genestealers. The aliens come fast and furious and it seems as though more of them can be present on the map at once now. It was a common occurrence for all our Terminators to be blasting away to the point of overheat during a single turn so be prepared for intense, inch by inch fighting.

The stuttering from the Salamanders DLC seems to not be present here and the expansion runs very smoothly in terms of graphics and speed. We did however hit a few bugs where Terminators couldn’t walk through certain areas which required a restart to clear. We had this problem once before with the flamer in the Imperial Fist DLC and it’s something that needs addressing because being stuck in a corner for no reason and having to plan a new route is near impossible under this amount of enemy pressure.

Overall, fans of the game should find more than enough to justify this as a purchase. It adds fun new things to play around with and offers a serious challenge. We still have gripes such as the vents being too hard to distinguish and the white Deathwing armour making the command wheels hard to see but there’s nothing game breaking here. It’s another solid expansion that fans should love.