Author Archives: Azazel

Kromlech: Orc Juggernaut Mecha-Armour Squad – Polish Resin #4

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8

A few weeks ago I saw some previews of some new items from Kromlech, a polish outfit who do resin conversion parts that happen to fit popular heroic 32mm Orcs and Armoured Space Warriors. I’ve gotten stuff from them on occaision, but when I saw these, I knew I had to order them right away, as I knew they would fit outstandingly into my Ork army. No pics of the painted elements of that army unfortunately, as they got attacked by a dragon from the warp a couple of years ago (or possibly a cat) and there was critical falling damage and then some foot-crushing damage when I next entered that particular room. Then I had to move. Twice. So they’re still “in the shop” until I get properly set up here.

Anyway, when I saw these, I had to own them. So I made that happen. By sending them money.

The casts, as you can see are absolutely brilliant. No flash. No bubbles. Every bit of detail is crisp and visible. The resin is not the type that makes you itchy. They’re literally a pleasure to look at and handle. I haven’t been this impressed by a new figure in quite some time. Why? The details and the casting. You can really tell the thought and care that went into these models by looking at all of the little things.  The scavenged weapons bolted onto the arms are filled with detail, right down to the wires and tiny hydraulics that are jury-rigged up to pull their triggers.

The set also comes with 5 heads so you’ve got a fair bit of choice for the three, or if you purchase more for a bigger unit, it’s that much easier to individualise them. I also got a set of their Orc Gas Mask heads that I may or may not use on these – or perhaps on some infantry.

They’re also huge. Stacking up as bigger than Ghazkull in mega-armour and pretty solidly to Killer Kans. Regular Mega-Armoured Nobs won’t stand a chance. So they’re also completely suitable for use as a Warboss. I also included a Terminator and a power-armoured marine, who both just look weedy in comparison.

Enough talk. Time for the pictures – they’re all clickable for larger versions:

Orky Size Comparison. Note the Kromlech Base is slightly shorter than the GW ones.

Size – Compared to Marines.

Overall Size Comparisons

Armoured heads on top. Gas Mask heads below (purchased seperately).

Torso Left

Torso Front.

Torso Right

Legs Front.

Legs Rear.

Right Arm Outer.

Right Arm Inner.

Left Arm Outer.

Left Arm Innner.

So basically, I was impressed by how they looked online, and having them in hand, I’m even more impressed, and a little surprised at how good they are (a lot of the little details just aren’t visible in the preview photos I saw) and how well they’re cast. I should point out that I’ve got no affiliation with Kromlech and I bought these for full price from their eBay store.

If you’re interested in checking out more by Kromlech, look up the Kromlech.EU Facebook Page or these figures can be bought directly from the Kromlech eBay Store.

Basically, if you play Orks in Warhammer 40k, are looking for an impressive and imposing model for your games of Deathwatch or Rogue Trader RPG, or just want a big cool model to paint up, I can easily give these my highest recommendation.

Review: Resistance: Fall of Man – Insomniac – PS3

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Resistance, for those who aren’t familiar with the franchise, is a First Person Shooter set in an alternative post-WW2 1951. I’m not sure if WW2 was supposed to have actually happened. I think it did, since the Aliens of the day, called “Chimera” landed on Earth from behind the Iron Curtain. And of course, you don’t get one of those without Stalin and the Western Allies’ little post-Berlin tiff. You play Nathan Hale, an unsmiling, all-business US soldier (naturally) who gets infected but not turned into a monster by the Chimera virus (aka macguffin so you can regenerate health). As a US soldier (fuck yeah!), you naturally will be single-handedly be liberating occupied Britain, with occasional help from Cannon Fodder, and a couple of Brit minor characters who turn up now and then. But you know, it’s a FPS. So for one of these, the plot is actually okay.

I played on Easy, since it’s a FPS on console and I usually only play these on PC, where KB+M gives you actual accuracy and dexterity without the need for aim assist and so forth. You can reconfigure most of the buttons, which is very much appreciated, compared to many console FPS that only let you choose from a few predetermined control sets. Particularly since the PS3 seems to have it’s own default set of controls while the 360 has a very different one. I also made it through without any trouble – I actually found it pretty easy. Having said this, I wouldn’t play it on anything harder, since I’m a spaz when it comes to console FPS controls. Didn’t play any Multiplayer, though there are some free MP maps available from the PS Store, which is nice at least.

The Charismatic Nathan Hale

Visually, the game is decent. It’s first-gen PS3 so if you take that into consideration there are no issues. There’s a decent amount of detail, though it doesn’t obviously compare well to your modern PC shooters there. Pretty much the entire game though is based on a brownish shade of grey. I guess it’s to give the game a sense of the 1940’s-50’s to our modern eyes, since most of us only ever see those years in B&W documentaries on the Hitler History Channel.

The weapons are all either sci-fi or far closer to modern weapons than their WW2 counterparts, and you can carry all of them at once. I think the sequel goes for more of a CoD-style “carry 2 guns” but this one is older-school “have all the weapons”. There’s shit-tons of spare ammo laying around as well as health top-ups – again, probably because I was playing on Easy.

The gameplay… well, it’s very samey. All the way through. It’s a shooter but it feels very samey rather than like there’s a lot of variety. I say this even considering the tank levels, (where you drive something like a Games Workshop Baneblade), and the spider-walker levels, and the levels where you drive the British Commando around in a jeep. It lacks the cinematics and WOW factor of something like the recent CoD games, and also the sheer fun of something like Bad Company 1 or 2’s SP campaigns. It is pretty long, though. With 30 levels that aren’t individually too long, it’s easy enough to play through 2-4 of them in a sitting, or you can marathon through 10 at once, though it really wears on you to play that many at once. I’d call it “workmanlike”. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it, it’s just not that special.

It’s a Brown FPS. Unique, eh?

Lots of crap (intel) to collect, and the game encourages you to play it through multiple times by giving you a shitoad more guns after you’ve played through, as well as the ability to replay any level (to collect the intel) and unlockables – which you unlock by achieving achievements and getting more intel. Since this game predates Trophies, the achievements just unlock concept art and so forth, but since Trophies are even more pointless than Achievements and Gamerscore, YMMV on whether this is any value to you.

I can’t say I enjoyed the entire game, and the last 5 levels felt like they were *cough* heavily inspired *cough* by Half Life 2 and bits of it’s episodes, but it’s a decent game. I reckon it’d be a good game for younger teenagers who don’t have all that much money, since it’s quite cheap to pick up, and is long and has solid replayability and a fair bit of online stuff.

Really though, I bought it because I picked up Resistance 2 cheap, gave it the 5-minute impression test and was impressed enough to go back and pick this up on the supercheap since it got really high reviews. I guess those were from when it first came out, but I still expected a little more from the game, but it’s still solidly decent. I reckon I’d actually have liked it more if it had fewer levels to slog through.

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Rent it, 
Or consider a purchase if you feel like a cheap shooter with a lot of levels and content.