Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate is a video game set in the gothic science fiction backdrop of the Games Workshop game system Warhammer 40,000. In it players take command of a number of squads of Ultramarines under the leadership of Captain Kruger. They are pitted against the armies of the Chaos Lord Zymran, who commands the traitor marines of the Word Bearers and their daemonic allies. In the Warhammer 40,000 background, the Ultramarines and Word Bearers are ancient enemies from when they fought during the Horus Heresy.

Gameplay
The game is turn-based and takes part on a gridded playing screen. Each turn an Ultramarine can take a certain number of actions, according to how many Action Points he has. Actions include moving, firing a weapon or throwing a grenade. The Chaos AI then takes its turn in the same way. Ultramarine players command a number of squads, vehicles and characters from the Space Marines Codex.

Chaos Gate features several RPG-like elements. The same Space Marines are used in each mission, and they can gain experience and better statistics as they take part in more missions. Dead Marines are never replaced, so this adds a new level of difficulty to the game.

Platforms
Chaos Gate is currently only available for Microsoft Windows, originally for Windows 95/Windows 98. Chaos Gate was developed by Random Games and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). In its latest release by Hasbro Games, Chaos Gate was bundled with Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000, set in Games Workshop's Epic 40,000 game system that pitted the forces of Humanity against marauding Orks.

Each Space Marine can be assigned to an Assault Squad (jump packs and melee weaponry) or alternately the Marine may be assigned to a Devastator Squad equipped with two heavy weapons such as plasma, rocket, or lascannon systems. Additional weaponry is picked up as the Marines move from planet to planet.

Music
The musical score of Chaos Gate is noteworthy because it does not simply consist of the marches appropriate to the military genre of the game, but is also sung in Latin, thus underscoring the spiritual brotherhood of the Space Marines through evoking monachal chanting. This is further emphasised by the fact that all the marines playable in the game - with the exception of the Captain, whose name is German - have Latin names.