Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior

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Skulls for the skull throne!

THQ released a mediocre piece of shit skubtastic FPS called Fire Warrior soon after the initial release of the Tau Codex. Taking the role of Kais, a Shas'la about to undertake his first trial by fire in an attempt to rescue an Ethereal, it was a novel idea though a thoroughly unremarkable FPS in many regards. Not a bad game by any stretch, but nothing amazing that you couldn't get elsewhere.

Highlights include bolters working pretty close to the fluff: semi-automatic mini-rocket launchers (actually, they're pretty close to a goddamn Soundstrike Missile Launcher now that we think about it), some badass dialogue, Tom Baker and Sean Pertwee (son of John Pertwee, the Third Doctor, who is becoming a recurring guest star in 40k), and BRIAN BLESSED and some really interesting level design.

Not-so-good highlights include shitty hit detection, pulse rifles acting like assault rifles (They aren't suppose to fire in an automatic pace; that's what Pulse Carbines are for), shooting down a Valkyrie with Pulse Rifle fire, killing a LORD OF CHANGE ON YOUR OWN, the importance of close-combat when you're a Tau Fire Warrior up against stormtroopers and autoguns, balls-of-steel Imperial Guard Sergeants, Commissars, and "time for your chainsword enema" Space Marines. Managing to sword a Space Marine is hilarious though. The fact that you're essentially a one-man unstoppable killing machine is rather silly though, especially considering you're just a Shas'la on his first day of duty (If you were around a Shas'vre or Shas'O in a functioning battlesuit, it would have been slightly more realistic to be the Tau version of Rambo).

If it makes you feel better, try to pretend you're the half-crazed Tau version of Sly Marbo, sole survivor of a butchered squad and chopping people up with the Shas'ui's (supposedly purely-ceremonial) bonding knife and screaming like a maniac as you fire a burst cannon into a squad of stormtroopers. Disregarding all that is canon really helps the atmosphere and generally helps make the silliness a little more enjoyable. Don't forget to scream "WRRRYYYYYYYY"!

Then again, it's entirely possible, nay, nearly probable, that you're actually the Tau version of Grendel, the single most awesome man ever to grace the Imperium.

The novelization of the game says he was being helped by Khorne. Then again, it was written by the same writing group known to contain a Black Irish Leper and as such must be treated as such. Like we said, this is a silly game. Fun, perhaps, but unbelievably stupid.

But Then Suddenly

Word of god from Dark Crusade's development team is that Shas'o Kais, the protagonist of Fire Warrior, is the very same Kais that is the Tau Commander in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. This is actually kind of clever, since after all the shit Kais wound up drowning in pulse fire/photon grenades/railgun slugs/etc in Fire Warrior (including a Greater Daemon, apparently), Kais was certainly qualified for the position. According to interviews, it's never fully stated that such is the case in-game (Kais is an extremely common fire caste name, as evidenced by the fact that Commander Farsight has it, among others, but that him being the same Kais from Fire Warrior was expressly intended as a polite nod towards the earlier game.

....They're both THQ games.

You shouldn't be surprised; Eliphas the Inheritor came back like 3 times.

The Novelization

Believe it or not, they made a book about this game. Written by Simon Spurrier, it is a lot less goofy than the game, thought that alone is not saying much. It still struggles a bit in the sections where it cannot avoid some of the more egregious crap that happens in the game, but it balances those out with several moments of awesome too.

It goes into a lot of Tau philosophy and psychology, often switching perspectives between characters both to give a wider view of the conflict and to bring their views of the situation into contrast. Lots of little bit characters get introduced to give the narrative weight and get the reader empathizing, and many of those characters are killed off shortly after their introduction and exposition of their back stories and aspirations just to underscore how fucking Grimdark the setting is.

There is lot of semi-poetic description going on, with characters observing to themselves the vagaries of the universe they inhabit. For example, this is an excerpt from a scene in which Kais comes on the remains of some Fire Warriors and Imperial Navy Armsmen in the wake of a Chaos attack:

• "Here a tau arm lay, knuckles clenched, beside a de-limbed human corpse. There was a symbolism here, perhaps. A sense of unity, a sense of physical sameness. Given a talented enough por'hui journalist, this scene might mean something. `In death, we're all the same'..."

Heavy shit right there. Khorne cares not from where the blood flows, red or blue is all the same to him, no matter what side of the conflict you are fighting on. In this universe, everyone ends up butchered meat, no matter which species they are.

Speaking of Chaos, the book does justify a lot of why Kais is kicking Imperial ass left and right. You know the big bad of the piece is a Changer of Ways, right? Did you really think that a lone Fire Warrior doing improbably well would not be a case of Just As Planned? Or that Khorne himself is not also capable of pulling off a different plan of his own? The Tau are as a whole resistant to Chaos, but not completely immune. When they find one Tau with enough rage to get Khorne's attention, even despite the weak warp connection, that starts the Chaos Gods thinking about trying a few experiments.

This is probably the only time you will hear a Tau yelling Khorne's favorite line...

Which would certainly explain the cover art quite nicely.

The end also has the main character's commander talk about the Nature of the Greater Good in a Galaxy like 40k has. More or less the Tau ideals are impossible to truly reach, but what's really important is trying to reach them. In other words "the Galaxy is GrimDark enough as is, let's not add to it."