Space Hulk: Tactics - Xbox One

Take James Cameron's Aliens, turn the space marines and turn them into massive, over-armoured and over-armed Space Marines, over-power the xenomorphs to balance things out a bit and then shove them all into the massive remains of two crashed-together starships and you have Space Hulk. Yes, Games Workshop fans will justifiably call this an over-simplified explanation, but for newcomers it's a pretty sound introduction.

Space Hulk: Tactics is the latest video games adaptation of the tabletop classic and it comes from Cyanide, now a practiced hand in the dark and bloody worlds conjured up by Games Workshop. You play as either a squad of Terminator Space Marines called the Blood Angels (yes, Games Workshop surely does have a knack for conjuring up cool names) or, for the first time in a Space Hulk game, the Genestealers! It's a turn-based tactical game driven by narrative and your fear of murky spaces.

Based on the rules of the tabletop game, Tactics introduces a unique card system that enables you to customise your team before a match and to trigger game-changing effects during combat that might turn the tides of combat.

You can test your mettle online, too, in competitive multiplayer that lets you control either the Genestealers or a Space Marine Chapter (the Blood Angels, the Space Wolves, the Ultramarines, and the Dark Angels are all in the mix). In addition, a map creation tool enables you to build and share your own maps from inside the game.

If you think it's a tough old world, just wait until you see what it's like up there. more