With today's launch of Eisenhorn: Xenos onto the App Store, it's worth reflecting upon the better iOS games set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. There are quite a lot of them.
Eisenhorn: Xenos is a super-slick Unreal Engine-powered third person action game with some top notch vocal work from Mark Strong. It really is blockbuster stuff.
What's great to see when looking around the iOS Warhammer 40k stable, however, is the sheer variety of content. Sure, it might all have a similar grim-dark sci-fi dystopian tone - that's pretty much a pre-requisite - but there are a number of distinct genres represented. And represented well, at that.
Freeblade isn't exactly the deepest or most interesting game on this list, but it could just be the most technically accomplished. Apple even used it to show off the technical chops of the iPhone 6S. At heart it's a big, brash on-rails shooter that casts you as the driver of a hulking mech, with more bullets than brains. Rather like the game itself, in fact.
Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch - Tyranid Invasion
Now to more considered fare, which is rather more in keeping with the source material. Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch - Tyranid Invasion is a turn-based squad shooter with a light RPG system tying its tight missions together. If you like a little more strategy with your hyper-violence, it's well worth a shot.
For those who find card battlers a little too removed from the action, who need the actual battling spelled out for them, Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf could be the game to convert you. Yes, you're effectively laying the smack down on your opponent by placing virtual cards, but the action plays out in glorious 3D skirmishes.
It's perhaps easy to forget if you're a casual observer, but the whole Warhammer 40k shebang has its roots in tabletop gaming. In that respect, Battlefleet Gothic: Leviathan is the truest virtual iteration of the franchise yet, taking the tabletop ruleset and rendering the outcome in impressive 3D form.
There's always been a certain amount of chess to the original Warhammer 40k tabletop game - albeit with a great deal of elaboration. But Warhammer 40,000: Regicide makes that link to the ancient game explicit, albeit with additional actions and plenty of gore.
Warhammer 40,000: Carnage takes us back to the pure action we started with, although this time the view switches around to the side for a classic slide of 2D action. It's a linear game filled with wince-inducing melee and ranged combat, but with a surprisingly involved upgrade system running behind it all.
