Dakka, Dakka, Dakka!: A Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron Review

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PC

Though I know next to nothing about the Warhammer 40k franchise, I was intrigued when Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron (Hereafter simply referred to as "Dakka Squadron") showed up for review. While I can't speak on its place in the greater Warhammer series, I do know that this aerial combat game focuses on Warhammer's unique take on Orks. We'll talk more about what that means later, but what's important is that this game is now available on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and XBox, following an earlier PC release. Though it definitely looks like a lot of fun, how will it come off to a total Warhammer noob like me? There's only one way to find out!

While I can assure you that Dakka Squadron has a story to it, it's so thin and wrapped around Ork clans and conflicts that I don't think I understood a single sentence of it. There is only one game mode in here, and it's the Campaign. This campaign sees you pick one of five Ork clans to fight alongside, and then take on several missions that are spread across five planets. Joining a clan sees you take on the role of a specific named Ork, but I can't tell you if they play a larger role within the Warhammer 40k universe or not. What I can tell you is that they all five clans' campaigns essentially tell the same story. Not only that, but they all have the same missions too. The only real difference is the characters you interact with on your side, and the characters who make up your enemies. I think certain clans also have different upgrades available for their ships, but I'll get to that later. All this said, if you're looking for a lore-heavy Warhammer 40k experience, you're not going to find it here. Dakka Squadron is a rather simple game that is fairly small in scope. Weak story or not, the Orkish banter did intrigue me enough that I eventually looked up some of the in-game clans online. Though I still can't say understand a lot about Warhammer's Orks, I think that this game may have served as my personal gateway into their world. Even if it ultimately doesn't, what was here definitely was lots of fun, and I'm sure fans of the series will find probably find more enjoyment than I did with what few story elements given. It may not be a very deep experience overall, but it did serve as a nice way to ease a total newcomer into the otherwise very imposing Warhammer 40k lore.

I went into Dakka Squadron assuming that the controls and mechanics would be as unwelcoming as much of the franchise seems. I imagined several weapon types, complicated targeting systems, and enemies that would destroy me in a matter of seconds. While I was wrong in virtually every way, the game thankfully offered something far easier to get into. Dakka Squadron plays a lot more like an arcade game rather than a realistic flying simulator. You choose a dakkajet, maybe throw in a few upgrades, and get on with your currently assigned mission. Each mission usually involves you destroying specific targets, and most missions' objectives will evolve as the battle goes on. You're able to fly freely throughout the battle area, but you'll be chastised and turned around if you fly too far away from the action. This means that most combat zones are actually much smaller than the wide open space might suggest. By default you dakkajet goes rather fast, but you can speed it up or slow it down at any time too. You're also able to completely turn yourself around in a 180 turn, and even perform the ever-popular barrel roll to increase your dodging and mobility. Be careful with spamming any of these actions, as they all take away from your dakkajet's available power. Once out, you'll have to wait a while for it to recharge before you're able to pull off anything beyond basic flying. Attacking is rather simple, as you have a main weapon, a secondary attack, and also a ramming attack you can perform against each and every enemy or target. Most weapons can only be used for a short amount of time until they have to be cooled down/reloaded. This causes a very annoying siren to go off, but you'll be firing again in no time if you simply fly around a bit. Though attacking with your weapons may be limited, ramming is pretty much always available. The trade off with that form of attacking is that you'll take some damage in the exchange too, and it obviously requires you to get very close to your opponent to pull off. Lastly, your dakkajet takes damage from every hit as expected, but you can actually recover life if you get away from the firefight for a bit in a manner similar to cooling off/reloading your weapons. Losing all your dakkajet's health means you crash, but you're given three lives by default to complete any mission. That just about covers the gameplay, let's talk a bit about those mission objectives next.

One of my least favorite aspects of Dakka Squadron has to be the fact that each mission is only unlocked after you complete the one that came before it. This sounds like an obvious thing, but it means that you'll only be able to continue playing the same missions over and over again until you beat them. I once again have to remind you that there is only one game mode to play here, and you'll probably begin to understand why this could be a problem. I actually had a lot of issues with the game's early missions, and while I'll admit most of them were due to me simply not understanding how the game works, it did mean that I had to replay the same couple stages for hours on end. Several early missions focus on you destroying an enemy shield that blocks their base/power plants. The problem with these missions is that they all appear to be extremely buggy to the point where you can soft-lock yourself out of being able to complete them. While you can simply shoot a shield down, I realized that the game doesn't like it if you stay in the shielded area after the shield comes back up. This not only crashed my game twice, but it also would inevitably lead to issues if I died and respawned. No matter what happened after respawning, I'd usually be forced to restart the game. One time I respawned and couldn't control my dakkajet at all, and another time I noticed that the shield's graphics were there, but the shield itself acted like it was down. This confusion caused me to waste a lot of time in the game, and it's actually what caused me to learn that every Ork clan had essentially the same story mode, as I tried out the other clans to see if I could do better in their campaigns. While this might sound like a small, very particular, issue that I'm bringing up, it actually is just the easiest one I have to describe. Several other missions have unclear objectives, are buggy in smaller ways, or are simply ridiculous to complete since I also learned that most enemies simply respawn after a while. Also, all mission types tend to boil down to a simple "Destroy XX Enemies" objective, no matter how the game phrases it. Even if you're tasked with a protection or escort mission, the way you clear is usually to defeat a certain number of attacking enemies. Though I want to say that all this doesn't necessarily make for a bad gameplay loop, it did occasionally make for a very frustrating one.

The thing about Dakka Squadron is that when it works, it works well. Flying around shooting things never gets old, and I eventually learned the ins and outs of the game's flying mechanics to the point where it became second nature. When I first started the game I'd spend much of my time crashing my dakkajet into the battle areas walls or floors. After several failed missions, I learned how to properly dodge, turn around, and even use the game's targeting system to my advantage. There's nothing more fun than single-handedly taking out an entire squadron of enemy fighters, even if they just respawn endlessly after a certain point. Then there's the in-game banter, both friendly and not. I may never have known who a single Ork character actually was, but hearing them trash talk me definitely made destroying them all the easier. Before I knew it, I found myself falling in love with the game. Though it is nowhere near the genre, I liken it to my love of Koei's Musou games, as I did most of my playing of this game after work when I wanted to unwind. If there's a better way to unwind from a long day than destroying a horde of faceless enemies, I have yet to discover it. Dakka Squadron also features a pretty robust ship modification system, though I have to admit that I discovered it literally after this review was mostly written. While I can say that it is definitely a game changer, I can't really speak on how it affects gameplay too much. Even if you don't go the modified ship route, you do unlock other dakkajets with different stats and upgrade capabilities. Though the game can be very limited at times, that limit thankfully doesn't extend to its refreshing take on the genre. One odd point I want to bring up is the fact that this game apparently had multiplayer modes in its PC version. While I also can't totally confirm this, it did make me wish that it was present in this version, as multiplayer would've really sealed the deal for me.

I went into this game knowing that it was some sort of re-release, and when I saw the graphics, I assumed that it was a remake of a game from the early 2000s. Visually, Dakka Squadron resemble a late-stage PS2 game, or maybe something that came out on the PSP. These graphics definitely don't look like they belong to a PC game released in the last five years, but that's exactly the case here. While I personally didn't mind the odd chunky 3D graphics too much (Graphics of this style ARE an aesthetic after all!), I did wish that things were a bit more clear and focused at times. Starting the game on the harsh-looking, red desert planet has to be one of the worst choices ever, as most everything looks like a blocky, blurry mess. It wasn't until I eventually moved onto missions on other planets that I started to get a feel for what the game actually looked like. While that's pretty much the only big negative I have regarding the game's visuals, there are a lot of little things that marred that bothered me far more. Biggest of these has to be the game's interface. I mentioned that this game originated on the PC, and you can tell that immediately by the fact that you control nearly everything outside of flying with an on-screen cursor. If you've ever had to move a very slow pointer with an analog stick, you'll know exactly what I mean when I say that this made it feel like the developers couldn't be concerned properly adapting it for consoles. Next up is the fact that the game has pretty much no title screen, menus, or even animation. While into and campaign screens look nice enough, they consist only of static images. You do get a small taste of animation in The Hangar, but that's ultimately cancelled out by the static images that are used for the mission briefing/debriefing cutscenes. This lack of detail in presentation made the game feel far more dated and boring than the graphics ever could. You'd think with the added moniker of "Flyboyz Edition" that'd we'd get a much better release, but I can't imagine how this could be a step up of any previous version of the game.

Sound is an even more complicated topic to discuss, as I think Dakka Squadron fell just short of being really good on that front. I've already mentioned the voice acting a few times, but I have to reiterate how well it brings the game's world to life. I found myself repeating little Orkisms to myself, and the way they say "Dakka, dakka, dakka!" will forever live rent-free in my head. There isn't a lot of variety to the voice acting, as the game exclusively features the five Ork clans fighting each other, but what's here is very well-done and acted. While I may have wished for more of the great voice acting, that's probably just me being a little greedy. The problems with sound start to pop up when topic changes to the game's music. Dakka Squadron features some cool rock/metal tracks during the mission briefings and title screen, but the game largely remains silent during the air combat parts of the game. Seeing as those sections make up most of the gameplay experience, that means you'll be listening to nothing but sound effects and voice acting for 90% of the game. I swore I had to be mistaken, but if there is music in these parts of the game, it is mixed so low that I can't hear it even with the setting turned all the way up. Having to play a mostly silent game is one thing, but having to do so after hearing some decently good music almost feels like a crime. Don't get me wrong, the music we do get is rather generic, but it's not all bad, and it's far better than just silence. If only the music situation were sorted, we'd have a much strong presentation overall.

While Dakka Squadron offers five separate campaigns, going through any one will show you pretty much all of what the game has to offer. There are some differences in each clan available dakkajets, and their upgrades, but there's very little reason to play through a second campaign other than for the sake of completion. Though I didn't really mention it earlier, each mission can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes depending on a variety of factors. Obviously you can breeze through these missions if you're an ace player, but some of them require you to take several runs at strong enemies/fortifications, and the healing system will always cause you to spend extra time running and hiding from enemies. This ultimately means that you're looking at a maybe 8-10 hour experience for each campaign, highly dependent on skill. Hopefully you'll find the campaign fun enough, because that's all you'll be playing here. The lack of casual game modes mean that there isn't much reason to keep playing past the point of clearing even one campaign. This is where I'd point to the game's current $19.99 price, and say that it feels a bit too high for what you get. I would say that if it wasn't for the fact that I can't help but notice that it's currently on sale for just $9.99 at the time of this writing. While this is a limited sale of course, it is odd to see a game go half-off within its launch window. This probably doesn't bode well for its sales numbers, and maybe even its review scores, but it does at least mean that players will probably never have to pay full price if they play their cards right. Though I'd question spending 20 dollars on a game that is rather limited in scope and content, and also doesn't offer too much in the sound and visuals departments, I have to admit that ten dollars sounds just about perfect.

Though I don't think I'm able to give Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron a full recommendation, I think there's a lot of fun to be had here if you come at it in the right way. Fans of the Warhammer 40k series, as well as fans of arcade-style aerial shooters, are likely to find hours of enjoyment here. Casual players might be put off by the simplistic graphics and gameplay, but perhaps they can be drawn into the universe if they decide to check it out just like ne. If all this sounds like it might be good for you, then pick it up on whatever platform you can and get to the skies! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Dakka Squadron to lead!

Check Out Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/warhammer-40-000-dakka-squadron-switch/

---

Story: B-
Gameplay: B-
Graphics: C
Music/Sound: B
Value: B-

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ Simple arcade-like controls make this a fun game to pick up and play.
+ The Ork humor is sure to amuse fans of the Warhammer 40k franchise, and it's silly enough for those unfamiliar with it to enjoy too.
+ Brings back some old-school Star Fox vibes in some places, complete with barrel rolls.
+ The music and voice acting are pretty good, even if I found myself wishing for more music at times.
+ Though I didn't discover it until later, there are a decent amount of ship customization options at your disposal.

+/- I haven't played the original PC version so I can't judge it totally, but it apparently featured multiplayer modes not found in the console release.

Cons:
- The entire interface seems moved to PC with little thought to how it would work on consoles.
- While there is some good music in the intros, menus, and mission briefings, most of the gameplay sections are silent except for sound effects.
- I assumed this was a port of a much older game due to the fact that the graphics look like they're higher-end PS2 era at best.
- There doesn't seem to be a lot of differences between the campaigns outside of ship designs and character names.
- Some missions feel like they drag on way longer than they should.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

---