So, it turns out that all of the issues I have encountered below all stem from one root issue: this game only runs on SSDs - or some exotic RAID configuration of your choosing, but if you know that I'm talking about you already know how this would not be cost effective (at least, for this game only).

Having spent a fairly decent amount of time in the multiplayer now, I feel confident in upgrading the vote to 8.5/10 - definetely a good purchase, especially under discount!

================

I'm really, really, *really* sorry to be leaving a negative review - and I'm more than willing to change this at a later time should matters change, but as of now I DO NOT recommend buying this game.

The Good:

* The art direction is leagues ahead of most other games, and the breath-taking graphics depict the most vibrant WH40K galaxy of any game I've tried (and I think I'm not missing any, from Battlesector to Gladius passing by Speed Freeks).

The Bad:

* The game is, simply put, broken: I wasn't able to enjoy cutscenes as the video got stuck and phased out of sync with the audio, the AI has very, *very* poor intelligence and performance varies wildly - whether you use upscaling technologies like FSR2 or not; and this is the real deal-breaker for me. Please don't call my specifications into question, because I ran this on 64 GB of RAM, a Ryzen 5900X CPU and a Radeon 6600 XT card, and I still had the patience to try and tune every single parameter to see if I could get this title to work properly at least at 1680 x 1050 - yes, this is how excited I was to play this.
* The soundtrack is... well, your run of the mill. Not bad, mind you, but nothing I'll write home about - this is not Raphael's Final Act from Baldur's Gate 3, not by a long shot

Conclusion:

While I think *eventually* the game will be of a quality high enough to justify a € 40 price tag, from a sheer entertainment product point of view it is nowhere near that - and I say that with the delusion of a pretty avid Warhammer 40k fan - and there's no price I'd pay for a game that lags and stutters *during pre-rendered cutscenes*, as it simply isn't serviceable from a story enjoyment point of view.

4/10 with the bugs, 7.5/10 without.

So, it turns out that all of the issues I have encountered below all stem from one root issue: this game only runs on SSDs - or some exotic RAID configuration of your choosing, but if you know that I'm talking about you already know how this would not be cost effective (at least, for this game only). Having spent a fairly decent amount of time in the multiplayer now, I feel confident in upgrading the vote to 8.5/10 - definetely a good purchase, especially under discount! ================ I'm really, really, *really* sorry to be leaving a negative review - and I'm more than willing to change this at a later time should matters change, but as of now I DO NOT recommend buying this game. The Good: * The art direction is leagues ahead of most other games, and the breath-taking graphics depict the most vibrant WH40K galaxy of any game I've tried (and I think I'm not missing any, from Battlesector to Gladius passing by Speed Freeks). The Bad: * The game is, simply put, broken: I wasn't able to enjoy cutscenes as the video got stuck and phased out of sync with the audio, the AI has very, *very* poor intelligence and performance varies wildly - whether you use upscaling technologies like FSR2 or not; and this is the real deal-breaker for me. Please don't call my specifications into question, because I ran this on 64 GB of RAM, a Ryzen 5900X CPU and a Radeon 6600 XT card, and I still had the patience to try and tune every single parameter to see if I could get this title to work properly at least at 1680 x 1050 - yes, this is how excited I was to play this. * The soundtrack is... well, your run of the mill. Not bad, mind you, but nothing I'll write home about - this is not Raphael's Final Act from Baldur's Gate 3, not by a long shot Conclusion: While I think *eventually* the game will be of a quality high enough to justify a € 40 price tag, from a sheer entertainment product point of view it is nowhere near that - and I say that with the delusion of a pretty avid Warhammer 40k fan - and there's no price I'd pay for a game that lags and stutters *during pre-rendered cutscenes*, as it simply isn't serviceable from a story enjoyment point of view. 4/10 with the bugs, 7.5/10 without.