Genre: Real-time Strategy
Developer: Key Game
Publisher: Electronic Arts

The 3DO has those occasional titles-- Blade Force, The Need for Speed, Guardian War-- that really show off the 3DO's capabilities, which are in those select instances easily as impressive as anything even the Playstation can offer. Space Hulk is another one of these games: the texture resolution, special effects, and an incredible "FMV-over-polygons" melee combat concept, married to the wonderfully sombre, "abandoned ship" aesthetic, make for a real showcase experience.

The orchestral menu music does a fantastic job of invoking religion, honor, the void of space, and technological prowess all at the same time. But it's the ambient environmental sounds that really take center stage; and alongside the disturbing creaks and groans of the drifting ship mass, there is a constant, desparate radio chatter amongst your fellow compatriots, featuring absolutely top-drawer voice acting.

Not only does Space Hulk's engine really amaze with its incredible aesthetic and technical accomplishments, but the gameplay aspect of it is wonderful as well. During play, the player can temporarily pause the game and issue real-time commands to his various units. After unpausing, the player is controlling one of those units, FPS style. The maps clearly borrow from the game's board game heritage, and are very well designed.

Space Hulk has a phenomenal gameplay engine, a beautiful concept, and great map design. There is one crippling thing holding it back from being a total classic however: the game around the engine isn't the greatest. There is a campaign mode, but after only a handful of missions it becomes almost heinously difficult. An alternate, "free play" mode-- which includes maps from the board game-- at least records high scores. Space Hulk is a good game even with the lack of meat on its very sturdy bones, but it could have been so much more.