I once even spent a hot summer afternoon playing the Space Hulk card game (not the classic board game) and discovering that there wasn't all that much to it. The Tyranid Genestealers are fed into the playing area, and you try to kill them by repeatedly using the same one or two abilities. It's not a game of rich tactical dilemmas, but it didn't really need to be. It's flavor, atmosphere, and an unprecedented lack of shame that make the Warhammer 40K universe so great. So the very faithful adaptation of that game to a turn-based tactical PC game, as you might expect, results in gameplay that's a little too thin.
Space Hulk is basically WH40K-meets-Aliens, but it fails to really make the most of that concept. The Blood Angels chapter of the Space Marines is sent to cleanse a Tyranid Genestealer-infested starship, the space hulk. Trouble is, the Blood Angels are kind of dumb: they sent a squad of bulky Terminators into a spaceship full of corridors so narrow that only a single Terminator can get through at a time. These beefy bastards are so wide, in fact, they can't fire their guns past each other, so only the guys in front and back can engage. Good thing they're also incredibly slow, using two of their action points (of only four per turn) just to turn themselves 180 degrees. Congratulations, Space Marines, you've thrown away your only advantage over fast-charging, melee-killing Genestealers: massed firepower!
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