Flashback Friday - Space Hulk - Love It or hate It? Do You Still Play It?

Space Hulk is one of the ur-games. Countless games have come, gone, and are on Kickstarter that have tried to copy what it does to varying degrees of success. But none have bettered it. I played it just the other day with a friend and was once again blown away by its simplicity, atmosphere, and ingenuity. Why bother with most of the imitators.

Fun story. I had a girlfriend that left her previous boyfriend to be with me. This dude was a nightmare. One of those growly death metal dudes really into Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse. He harassed the shit out of us, all day at school and afterwards. One day we were in the hall at school and he came up bothering us. He called me a “red haired f####t” so I turned to my girlfriend and kissed her full on. Guy just started hammering me, tearing up my brand new Dead Kennedys shirt. I threw my arms up to show that I was not fighting and I didn’t get in trouble. So, I actually called the police on him and had him arrested. His mom offered me $200 to not press charges so I took that money and blew it at Oxford Games and Comics. It was on that day in 1992 that I bought Space Hulk.

Love it hahaha

Showing my age to admit I bought it on the week of release in 1989.

I think it still holds up - the new GF9 ALIENS: Another Glorious Day in the Corps game certainly seems to think so - cloning it in many ways, but I doubt it'll better the old dog.

We didn't play the Deathwing expansion much, and the Genestealer box I detested. Kept the Campaigns expansion hardback for nostalgia, more than anything else.

Played the game again a few times in 2017 - the scenario where you have to defend a reactor room, and the marine player gets to set up his defenses before the aliens start. Terrific fun, and a thematic take on the colonial marines and Ripley defending the Hadley's Hope HQ and medlab.

I enjoyed the single player iteration on the PC, but everytime I think about buying it, I decided I can't stand playing as the genestealers.

Oddly, my wife is/was my primary Space Hulk opponent and she only wants the play the Genestealers.