Chainsaw Warrior Review

Have you ever played a game and thought to yourself, “this thing just wants me to lose”? Beaten on a game of FIFA, for example, and decided that the game simply hates you? Well Chainsaw Warrior makes no bones about it, it wants you to fail. Every single game sees you make a pitiful attempt to not die in shame with nothing but a lock-pick set and a pair of wire cutters to your name.

A brutally challenging mobile game is a rare beast; most app developers are aiming for ease of use and jump-in jump-out gameplay. Real challenge typically comes in the form of puzzle games that are specifically aimed to bend the mind. Chainsaw Warrior is a slightly different breed; it’s painfully difficult, but much like Dark Souls, aiming for that seemingly impossible win is a reason to play in of itself.

The mobile market has seen a surge of digital board games lately, arguably a reflection of the equally big resurgence of physical board gaming. Chainsaw Warrior is a product of this trend, although it’s unlikely you’ve ever actually heard of the source material. The original Chainsaw Warrior is a single-player board game from Games Workshop. A rather niche game that failed to really make a lasting impression outside of its core fanbase; single-player board games, on the whole, have never really taken off.

Taking the naturally complicated mechanics of a board game such as this and translating them all to a simplified digital platform is a clever move, no doubt. Gone is the laborious set-up and rule-learning process. The game will handle all of the maths and present you with the decisions that you have to make, all while showing you why those options have come about. So what kind of decisions will you be making?

Chainsaw Warrior is set in a familiar futuristic world in which zombies, mutants and other nasties have (essentially randomly) attacked New York City. Your job, as a badass super soldier, is to clear out a single slum of the city and prevent a full blown enemy invasion. The end goal of the game is two kill off the Darkness, a tricky final enemy who’s hard enough to get to, let alone defeat. The game advances as the player unveils the top card from one of two decks and faces whatever that card revels, be it a trap, a monster or an empty room (among other more specific cards).

That’s the core gameplay, what takes Chainsaw Warrior above mindless card drawing is the implication of RPG style character creation. Like much of the game, creating your character means rolling dice, with the rolls deciding factors like overall health, marksmanship, reactions and even your special trait. It’s a small mechanic but one that provides plenty of replayability; although I must confess to quitting the game on numerous occasions after receiving dreadful stat rolls.

With your personal Chainsaw Warrior created, you’re given a choice of equipment to choose from (how much is also decided by a dice roll). There’s plenty of kit to choose from and the tricky thing here is that they’re all very useful. There are certain pieces of equipment that are practically essential to survival, so it can feel a bit hopeless if you can’t acquire them. That’s all part of the game, however, it’s not supposed to be fair.

The gameplay itself is fast and furious on the lower difficulties, but calculating and methodical on the hard (original) setting. Combat is, of course, all based on using the dice in combination with your skills. You can choose between shooting from range or engaging a monster in hand-to-hand combat and both of these decisions have relevant skills that’ll either help or hinder your ability in these situations. The combat can be tense when battling tricker foes, but can grow a little tiresome when wading through the standard goons.

Chainsaw Warrior is the kind of game that relies on its intense difficulty to provide enjoyment. The game itself is fun, but can be a tad reliant on the luck of the dice. What’ll keep you coming back to play is the simple fact that victory is so difficult to achieve. My first win in Chainsaw Warrior came after many failed games. It was antagonising at first, but that initial win was fantastic; I felt like I’d really, really achieved something.

All of this is wrapped within a package that resembles the original board game design. It’s all very Terminator, or Syndicate,and should be appealing to fans of this familiar futuristic setting. Aside from a nifty comic-strip intro video, most of the game takes place on one UI hub, from which you roll dice, draw cards and assign equipment at the tap of a button. It’s well designed to keep gameplay moving smoothly and eliminates the one hour playtime of the board game. Most games in the app take around 15-20 minutes, although you can save a game and finish it later.

 It’s nothing visually impressive, but everything is presented clearly and there are none of the unnecessary animations that have a tendency to creep into other digital board games. Sound design, meanwhile, is serviceable; there are some neat little effects, particularly during combat, but nothing to write home about. In reality though, you’re unlikely to even have the sound on, especially if you’re playing the mobile version that I tested.

Chainsaw Warrior is a brilliant rendition of a classic single-player board game. The degree to which you enjoy it, however, weighs heavily on your patience and persistence. If you’re comfortable with the ‘if at first you don’t succeed’ mentality of Dark Souls, then this could be the app for you. There’s also an argument that the 15-20 minute play times (longer on hard difficulty) don’t suit a mobile game. While the save function does allow for shorter ‘on the bus’ sessions, the natural style of the Chainsaw Warrior board game isn’t exactly primed for gaming on the move (thankfully, Auroch Digital have now released a Steam version of the game for those who want to sit and play their way through the game).

What the game lacks in portability, it makes up for in pure replayability. Although the fundamental gameplay never changes, each playthrough feels challenging in a whole new way. With different abilities, skills and equipment each game, as well as the random nature of the card draw, there are thousands of different outcomes every time you play Chainsaw Warrior. For those who can stomach the intense difficulty, and are happy to put their fortunes in the hands of a couple of dice, this is an ideal game for some intense action on the go.