Moments in Gaming is where we look back on gaming experiences that have left a particularly strong impression on us over the years: mainly for good reasons, but sometimes for bad ones.

Our ancient review of Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels probably belongs in a different series: the Vault of Regret, our chamber of assorted gaming shame.

Written on the basis of not much effort and an – incorrect – assumption that everyone, and not just the reviewer, found the game impossibly hard, its continued preservation (with caveats) on the site is occasionally discussed under ‘AOB’ at FFG Executive Board meetings, the minutes of which show no evidence of a genuinely held belief that these ancient scrawlings hold up as any kind of useful and insightful critique.

[Oh, hey, do you remember that film, Aliens? It’s kind of like that!]

However, while I wouldn’t now claim to know Vengeance of the Blood Angels very well, I do retain strong memories of it. Inevitably, they’re from the very beginning of the game, the only section that I really remember playing or am able to recall with any confidence.

After a recent spot of site tinkering saw me firing up the game again to get a few screenshots, I experienced them all over again. (I also wondered if I could give it another go and make much more significant progress – answer: no).

Whatever its flaws and merits, and however they may have sharpened or faded with time, the unsettling atmosphere VOTBA managed to create back then is still present and correct. Even the very first training mission, Purge and Retrieve, which essentially involves a couple of guys flaming some rooms, then picking up an object and taking it to the exit, can still cause the heart to skip a beat, if you’re of a nervous disposition.

I’ve played the game before: I’m sure there are no enemies on this level. Well, pretty sure, anyway. However, spooky noises persist, along with cries of “What was that?” from your supposedly battle-hardened squad mate. Let’s just get the hell out of here.

(Your correspondent remembers bodging about for ages with this level, and deriving some childish amusement from the soldier whose delivery of his own name (BETHOR!) made it sound less like that of an Olympian spirit and more like the surname of a teenage schoolmate of ours who, despite being 17 at the time, looked, sounded and acted like a middle-aged partner at a large firm of solicitors. Which he probably is by now.)

Once you jump into the first mission proper, Incision, everything ramps up. Even though you’re only in charge of a single marine and at this point spared the intricacies of tactical planning and squad control, it’s still a rude awakening.

You’re presented with as simple a task as in the training mission, except this time the dreaded Genestealer, which the game has spent the majority of its introduction hyping up, does make an appearance, and in significant numbers, which means you have to add ‘not dying’ to your list of objectives.

As your ears fill with panicked shouts from your squad, you proceed through bloody carnage to the mission at hand. Don’t let them get close, warned the introduction: it’s easier said than done. With the less than nimble character movement and corridor based levels, you’d have to be pretty nifty to avoid those iconic up-close encounters with these snarling purple enemies and hammering the fire button to get rid of them. Doing the same, from further away, whenever you see another, is more likely to bring positive results.

And, to return to one of the few relevant points we made all those years ago, for those of us raised on the likes of Aliens and the genuine fear conjured by having to keep waves of terrifying enemies at bay, this was – the spooky appeal of Electric Dreams’ CPC effort aside – the first time a game seemed to have brought it to life. Indeed, screaming out loud, Hudson style (our unhelpful walkthrough was appropriately named), while blasting away furiously was the only way I ever got through it (unlike in Aliens vs. Predator, you don’t, fortunately, have to keep your cool on the trigger and master controlled bursts of fire).

As the game opens up, and the Genestealers become ubiquitous (as well as more frequently viewed from afar while mincing about in the middle distance, rather than just in mildly terrifying face-offs) their impact diminishes somewhat. Unfortunately, you also then get into the territory of having to lead a squad through each level, requiring you to plan and think, as well as shoot and be scared, which brings any progress, for me at least, to a swift halt.

Still, to the extent that I feel qualified to talk about Vengeance of the Blood Angels, the fact that these opening moments have lingered long in the memory is sufficient to earn them a brief supplementary note on our humble website, if not quite the full re-evaluation of the game that it perhaps deserves.