There are card games, board games, black metal albums, novels, pen-and-paper role-playing games, and more, all gushing out like spit from a mad dog’s lips. And of course, there are a surprising number of video games. A dozen entries, excluding expansions. Not bad for a game with plastic and metal toy soldiers.

Warhammer 40,000, or 40K as lazy writers call it, is a juggernaut of a franchise. A spin-off of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, 40K started out as WFB in space. Space Elves, Space Orcs, Space Mages. The very first 40K release, Rogue Trader, was crazy stuff, wargame rules with RPG elements, a punky DIY aesthetic that encouraged DIY modelling, essentially the equivalent of spray painting shampoo bottles, giving them weird names and pretending they were tanks. Then 2nd edition came out and 40K got more organised and stricter. Suddenly there were real armies, real worlds, real settings. The Imperium of Man is here, and so remains the darkest, strangest sci-fi setting of all time.

Warhammer 40K is the distant future of our world. Humanity has expanded and colonized the stars. But there’s something out there… waiting for us. Things that seek to destroy us. The Orks, a race of hilariously brutal football bullies, are the best of them all. The Eldar, cunning immortals who trick and deceive. The Tyranids, who look like Giger’s Xenomorphs met Starship Troopers’ Arachnids on a stimulant extended date, but with magical brains. The Necrons, undead robots who wear human skin as socks and have a penchant for eating the epic carnage of gods. And of course, our sworn enemies, the abominable magical demons of Chaos. Is it any wonder that humanity evolved so quickly from an advanced race of adventurous, secular, crusading beings to some kind of horrifying medieval Catholic Church that exists only in space?

No, that’s not her.

But that’s one of the keys to 40K’s success. There’s something baroque about the setting, a predatory impulse drawn from the world’s history and art, reimagined as a widescreen epic that mixes fantasy, horror and science fiction. The deepest nihilism and cynicism mix with the year 2000. Chr. rejoices in fascist nastiness and manages to get a lot of laughs. Star Wars is a story of innocent farm boys rescuing a princess and staying optimistic, but if Luke had been born in the Empire, he would have been lobotomized, his personality erased, implanted with bionics and new glands and organs, and enslaved. A strange warrior brotherhood was created. Darth Vader would have been considered the people’s great general. Considered? No, it just would be. As for Palpatine, the Emperor of 40K is a shriveled corpse who swallows the souls of a thousand Jedi every day and whose intense focus allows him to transport them commercially across the galaxy. And we’ve never seen a Star Wars character jump into hyperspace and risk being possessed by demons, his ship mutating, or being eaten by space locusts…

All factions are aggressive bastards and I’m not interested in being particularly likable. There’s nothing particularly admirable about the good guys, no allies wondering if Thrall and Jaina will kiss. Just eternal, absolute brutality. Warhammer: As the name suggests, it’s a world of constant conflict – constant war. This makes for a great gaming environment.

There are 12 games in the series, with two more in the works. The latest release is Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, the first expansion pack for Chaos Rising, and it turned out to be quite good, so to celebrate, let’s take a look at some of the classics from this long-running series.

The Space Hulk Series – 1993

Warhammer 40,000: Space Crusade is based on the exciting board game and pits the fearsome Terminator Space Marines against the Genestealers in thrilling alien battles for survival. The Space Hulk was seriously scary. No kidding, guys. Thanks to a radar system, players were only briefly warned about the Genestealer invasion. With a combination of first-person and top-down perspectives at your disposal, the fully visceral mode required players to carefully plan their various missions, as the scary space guys could overwhelm you at any moment. (Thankfully, we didn’t get to see any nasty Genestealer kisses. That’s right, they mate with you. With their tongues.)

Perhaps the most complex feature in Space Crusade and its two sequels, Warhammer 40,000: Space Hulk and Warhammer 40,000: Vengeance, Blood Angels had freeze time. The random and sudden appearance of enemies and micromanagement features could easily leave players overwhelmed. This meant there was limited downtime to issue orders to Terminators, plan a retreat, or lay down covering fire. The problem was that you had to play in real time to recharge the freeze time. If your mom ever calls you for dinner, you’re out of luck.

The important thing is that the Space Hulk game captured the atmosphere of the setting. It wasn’t perfect, but the cutscenes and audio briefings really conveyed the feel of the weird, monk-like brotherhood of marines you were playing. Aliens was clearly a source of inspiration, but there were no Vasquez or Gorman here, just brutal space monks with chainsaws instead of fists.

Warhammer Epic 40,000: Final Liberation – 1997

Final Liberation was an ambitious turn-based combat simulation based on Epic, a variation of the rules for large-scale battles in the 40K universe. With the rise of real-time strategy, turn-based games started to go the way of point-and-click adventures. This is a shame, because turn-based combat is much more strategic and methodical. Final Liberation only had one campaign, but it was long and played on a huge map. Featuring a wide variety of units, from simple armies to giant semi-sentient robots called Titans, Final Liberation really made you think about battlefield elements, including deployment, flanking, covering fire, and unit synergy. Each round offered plenty of opportunities for maneuver. Examples include sacrificing movement to extend your firing range, hiding to avoid fire, flanking, all that nastiness. Unfortunately, this was the cutting edge of online gaming, so if a friend was up for it, you could try playing together over a 28K modem. The combat was engrossing.

Perhaps best of all, the single-player campaign is generously enhanced with full-motion video editing. On the level of a Doctor Who episode effects, the plot and direction were surprisingly good, allowing us to get to know both the general and his orc enemies. Some of the CGI effects are outdated now, but don’t let the cynics and YouTube commenters fool you: the scenes were cinematic, entertaining and atmospheric.

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – 1998

SSI is a powerhouse of strategy game developers, having overseen a number of series over the years, Chaos Gate being one of them. Played on a grid, Chaos Gate was a top-down isometric turn-based game centered around marines.

It looks unspectacular and the full controls are a bit clunky, but it’s really only notable for two reasons. The first is the ability to level up your marines by gaining experience, something DoWII fans call “revolutionary”. Secondly, there’s a stunning choral soundtrack with the pseudo-Latin, High Gothic chants that form so much of the atmosphere of 40K, but playing as Chaos was also pretty awesome.

Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior – 2003

Nobody likes Fire Warrior – it has to be said. Remaking a series rooted in mass combat as an FPS was a considerable risk. And in the end, it didn’t really pay off. As a shooter, you get new weapons, find a blue key for a blue door, and shoot a boss with a rocket launcher. It also annoyed fans because it wasn’t very faithful to canon (a vague and questionable term at best). “There’s no way the Tau could defeat a base full of Chaos Space Marines. That’s bullshit!” as only an offended fan could. Even ignoring the nerd rage… it was a pretty boring game.

Fire Warrior is only really recommended thanks to the great audio and some well done cutscenes, especially the introduction. Look here.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – 2004

DoW is the first really big hit for 40K. It’s a classic of the RTS genre, atmospheric and one of the few places you’ll see non-white faces in the 40K universe. United Colors of Benneton, nobody wants a damn ad for 40K, but come on! Anyway…

DoW took the franchise back to its wargame roots, breaking away from turn-based and moving things directly to real-time. Aside from boostable squads, there’s not much new in the gameplay here. The classic model of base building and resource extraction was used. But it was a masterfully balanced game with a strong multiplayer element. The original DoW had a particularly good narrative campaign, featuring memorable characters like the elegantly evil Chaos Wizard Sindri and the righteous Inquisitor Mordecai Toth.

In 2005, an expansion pack was released, Winter Assault, which included the Imperial forces. It featured a short, focused campaign, this time again featuring an entertaining and brutal storyline.

Then came Warhammer 40,000: Dark Crusade. This was a huge expansion, almost a DoW 1.5. It was a huge success, and we called it the expansion of the year. “As well as adding the obligatory few campaign missions and some new units, it added two entirely new factions, many new battle maps, new units for each faction, major gameplay changes, and a whole new coherent campaign like no other before.

The single-player Dark Crusade eschewed a narrative campaign, instead having a non-linear plot that shifted and collapsed, with no two campaigns playing out exactly the same. The expansion had some issues, such as poor AI, but it was a huge success in multiplayer, giving seven different armies, each with very different playstyles and each very powerful, a good chance to blast each other.

Soon after, Soulstorm, commissioned by Iron Lore, was a solid but unmemorable final installment in the series. It added the stealth-speed-focused Dark Eldar and… Mid… Reach… Maybe… Specialists, Sisters of Battle. Annoying flying units, a clunky campaign, and no AI improvements left Soulstorm a bit of a disappointment after Dark Crusade, which was just ok.

DoW was well-balanced, had a lot of tactical options, and really felt like 40K. The game’s classic feature, the synchro kill, was a brutal execution. The modding community added even more options to the game. Healthy competitive leagues emerged. DoW remained a popular game for several years.

Warhammer 40,000: Glory In Death – 2007

It was an N-Gage game. It was crap. I’ll be honest, I played it for five minutes in the office and then (no doubt due to Glory in Death) I got rickets and canine epilepsy.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II – 2009

To be completely honest, Dawn of War II didn’t impress me. Building a base, stockpiling resources, experimenting with building orders, finding the sweet spot between armor, melee and ranged combat – all of these were a big part of the fun of the original game, but that’s gone in DoW II. Instead, it had a strange mix of RPG and real-time strategy, similar to the Chaos Gate games, with boss fights, loot drops and a strong focus on individual characters. The single player campaign reused cards over and over again. It was like Cohan.

There was a lot of emphasis on fighting in small squads, finding cover, and creating synergy between squads. Overall it was a bit reminiscent of Company of Heroes.

But it looked great, the multiplayer was fast and furious, and the Tyranids, the fearsome xeno hordes, were finally in the game. Even if they could easily be turned off. DoWII is a very multiplayer game, fast, and with very little time wasted. Just go in and kill.

And then there’s Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Rising, a new storyline pitting the Blood Ravens against nemesis Eliphas and the Black Legion, with new gear, new characters, new environments, and a throwback to the early days, the Space Hulk mission.

Plus, two new major 40K-themed releases are on the way. The first is a third-person shooter that looks full of blood, thunder, and gunfire. Just how we like it. The shooter, which is being developed by the good folks at Relic, is called Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and is due to be released for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 later this year. The second is Vigil’s upcoming MMO, which means it’s going to be pretty awesome to say the least.