Warhammer 40,000: Regicide is a chess-based strategy game. It has an ability system that tries to add something new and interesting, but it ultimately feels like weird chess, rather than its own game.
As a baseline, all your standard chess rules apply. There is even a game mode that removes all the Regicide-specific mechanics and allows you to just play chess with fun animations. Still, the main game mode is Regicide mode, which adds abilities to each piece, as well as some for yourself. Most of the moves are generic turn-based strategy abilities, like shooting your gun, getting a bonus on your next shot, etc. While it isn’t particularly inventive on its own, the idea to add this to chess is novel and fun. It adds a new dimension that allows you to kill a chess piece without needing to make an actual chess move. Unfortunately, it is poorly implemented and rarely matters. This is because killing a unit with a chess move is instant, but killing a unit with abilities takes multiple rounds because of how weak abilities are. Your best pieces have better abilities, but they also have an easier time killing with chess moves, so you rarely need to use them. It is such a missed opportunity, and without it, your are just playing chess with gore.
Visually, the game is almost perfect. It’s chess, so the graphics don’t need to be AAA quality, but the short cutscenes when killing a piece are beautifully done. There is some decent variety, so it doesn’t get stale. The animations are usually great, aside from the occasional slip-up. It makes each piece feel like a unique unit.
Sound-wise, Regicide is great. The voice acting is solid and fits with the Warhammer universe. The sound design, specifically during kill animations, adds weight to each fight scene, making it more interesting than it really is. The soundtrack is a bit mediocre, but nothing abysmal.
Story is an afterthought, but it’s present. It mostly serves the purpose of setting up each mission, without going too deep into any lore or character development. It’s no Disco Elysium, but it still works fine with the mission-based campaign mode.
Overall, Warhammer 40,000: Regicide is a chess game that is has more style than substance. As a fan of strategy games with a lot of depth, Regicide is underwhelming, and I can’t recommend it. If you are instead looking for a fun twist on chess, or even just standard chess but with some gory animations, this will probably be an enjoyable game for you, just make sure you know what you are signing up for.
