Scared of Civilization? Try Warhammer 40K: Gladius

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War is free to keep on Epic Games Store from today until March 23, 2023)

Ever wanted to birth an empire in Sid Meier’s Civilization, but were just too intimidated by the complexity of the venerable series to give it a go? Well, you might want to give the lengthily titled Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics Of War a try. It isn’t one of the most talked-about 4X games, but it is a game that deserves your time if you’re new to the genre and/or a fan of the 40K universe.

Gladius – Relics of War is the perfect entry point for anyone who likes the concept behind 4X games, but is intimidated by their complexity. The four components that give the genre its name – explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate – are all here, but each one has been stripped down to its bare essentials. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a 40K game, the focus is mainly on the ‘extermination’ part, with everything else just being there to give you something to do while you prepare for the next battle.

City planning in this game generally boils down to laying down an HQ and acquiring tiles in concentric circles around it. Cities naturally grow in population but not in size, so you’ll routinely need to acquire new titles in order to make room for more buildings. With every title being able to sustain three buildings at most, it can easily take over 100 turns until you can build something resembling a mega-city. More often than not though, it’s going to be more efficient to build several small settlements instead.

The game actively encourages players to spread out as much as possible in order to grab the various outposts scattered across the map. The vast majority of outposts don’t do much besides supplying you with additional resources, although there is one type of outpost that also serves as a shop. In addition to infantry, vehicles, and fliers, Warhammer 40K: Gladius – Relics of War also features hero units. Hero units are the only ones that can equip items bought from the shop and also the only ones that can gain new skills when leveling up. They cost a small fortune to train, but are significantly more powerful than regular units.

Beyond micromanaging cities or scouring the map in search of new outposts or enemies, there’s not a ton to do in this game. Diplomacy is non-existent, and you won’t have to worry about research either because that system is as basic as they come. Instead of a full-fledged research tree, you have tiers that unlock one after the other in a linear fashion. Quests are similarly simple. There’s only one quest per faction, and the objectives usually involve killing groups of neutral enemies or moving from point A to point B.

Related: No, Warhammer 40K: Darktide Isn’t Dying, But It’s In A Mess Of Its Own Making

For the most part, the dumbing down of things like resource acquisition, city management, or research isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just means you can concentrate on more important things like purging xenos in the name of the Emperor, or whichever other deity your faction happens to serve.

The base game only offers four factions to choose from, but there are six others available as DLC. Buying all the DLC at full price will set you back over $100, which is way more than anybody should spend on a game like this. Gladius – Relics of War is decent enough at what it does, but you can spend that money on much better 40K games.

An area in which Gladius is really lacking is in capturing the 40K aesthetic or atmosphere. There’s very little blood, and there are no horrifically gory kill animations either. In fact, there are very few animations in general and they’re all pretty stiff. The models and textures are a bit better, but can’t quite hold a candle to those found in games like Battlesector or even Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters. On the bright side, this means you can run the game on any old potato without having to worry about performance issues.

While difficult to recommend at full price, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War is definitely worth checking out if you can get it for free (like it is from now until March 23), or at a considerable discount. It’s not the best 4X game out there, but it does a very good job of teaching you the basics of a genre that often feels too complicated for its own good.

Next: Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters Duty Eternal DLC Review