There’s pretty much a Warhammer 40,000 game for all seasons these days.

And that’s no bad thing, this is a franchise rich with lore with some great characters, species and locations to delve into.

Frankly, though, Inquisitor: Martyr has got to be up there with the dream crossovers for me. It’s like Diablo in space, but with more live action and guns, and that is everything I could have wanted and more.

I’ve spent hours on Martyr on previous gen, so when I heard it was coming to Series X and PS5 I couldn’t wait to spend more.

Unsurprisingly, it’s still a very solid game. The core loop is strong, with good combat, a nice variety of missions from wave-based warfare, to collection missions. The enemy and environmental types keep things interesting, and there’s an absolute ton of weapons to choose from.

Here’s the kicker, though. One of the main issues the game had on previous gen was the performance and frame rate. While some of the bugs and issues do seem to be cleaned up with the game being the definitive, complete edition with all content, somehow the frame rate and performance is still suffering.

The game regularly stutters from load screens to main missions. The camera pan never feels entirely smooth, and the overall performance seems to suffer from similar issues it had on XSX and PS4 Pro.

One of the selling features for this version was also native 4K and while the game definitely seems brighter, more vivid and striking than its previously dull-looking corridors, visually this doesn’t feel like a massive upgrade.

The physics are impressive, though. With pipes collapsing, explosions popping off and enemies flying all over from the destruction and damage. This adds a lot to the experience, making the action more dynamic and thrilling.

You can set rockets flying off towards enemies, blow them apart with grenades and miniguns, and the fireplay also flows better than it did before, despite some of the aforementioned performance issues.

The Ultimate Edition, particularly, is absolutely stacked with content. With every piece of DLC released for the game so far, you’ve got a ridiculous amount to get through. No doubt, Inquisitor: Martyr is going to last you weeks with you trying to get through its side quests, bonus missions and contracts.

The way Inquisitor handles its storytelling is also really interesting with players gathering clues, picking up facts from their missions and travelling through the galaxy from one planet to the next to continue the narrative. It’s such a smart, cool approach that fundamentally suits Warhammer 40k.

Games like Diablo force you down a mostly linear path with the campaign, but Inquisitor is a lot more open and flexible, which lets you do things your own way.

It’s not a game that gets all the calls right, though. The game does feel repetitive and grindy after a while, with the combat often breaking down to a one button press as you wade through similar patterened enemies over and over again. There’s not much of a tactical edge to the game, and often the loot drops don’t feel like a massive evolution over the items you wear, with no cosmetic adjustment.

Even the levelling system feels all over the place with you often being way overpowered – sometimes underpowered – for the missions at hand.

If you dabbled with the game before on last gen but didn’t touch any of its additional content, this upgrade is absolutely worth the investment for the content alone. I can’t speak to the DualSense features, sadly. I know that was a selling point for the PS5 version, but if you’re here for the next-gen features and additional shine, it’s a tougher sell, especially since many of the issues that plagued it before are somehow still present.

Verdict

Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor: Martyr is a mixed bag as a looter shooter with some unique takes on missions and narrative progression. It does suffer from repetition and its grindy nature, however, and despite this being a ‘next-gen’ upgrade, the game sadly still struggles with performance and frame rate problems that plagued it on last gen.

Pros

+ Mission structure is more open than others in the genre
+ Tons and tons of content to work through
+ Renewed physics really add dazzle and dynamism to battle