Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Review

During my time with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, I found it difficult to think how I would actually open up this review with more words than just screaming excitedly "OMG THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME" in your face while carving through waves of Orks with my chainsword. I can't remember when a game made me giggle with glee due to the visceral combat that was being performed on my screen, like some sort of beautifully choreographed ballet of carnage, I was mesmerised and craved more destruction, beaming like a Cheshire cat.

Space Marine comes from the doors of Relic, which you would normally would associate with real time strategy games, and is their first offering in the waters of third person shooters. Now for their first shot at this genre of game, I pray they continue to produce titles like this.
Even from the menu screen, you can tell this game means business as Captain Titus, your protagonist, is punching, shooting and Chainswording Orks in a loop for your enjoyment.

The action kicks off straight away as your chapter, the Ultramarines, is dispatched to a forge world, a planet dedicated to the creation of military hardware for the Imperium, as it is being assaulted by the Orks. During your descent through the planets' atmosphere it becomes clear that the greenskin scourge has control of the planetary defenses and your drop ship receives incoming fire.

Instead of just standing there doing nothing, Titus deploys his squad out of the back of the drop ship using the jump packs which are conveniently stored on board to perform some sort of mid air boarding of the Ork aircraft, a scene that wouldn't go amiss in a Bond movie. This essentially forms your 'tutorial' mission to familiarise yourself with the controls of the game.

The controls of the game are very smooth, fluid and the transition between ranged and melee combat is seamless. You'll pick this up with no problem at all and you'll easily be picking off Gretchin with your Bolter then instantly swinging your Chainsword into the face of a Nob. you'll also find that the game stays very true to the 40,000 universe with every aspect, all Marine chapters, Orks, Imperial guard members, everything involved is accurate and coloured to Games Workshop specifications. So if you were inclined to purchase some little Marines to paint yourself with Ultramarine colours, you will find the colour in the pot is exactly the same you see in game.

Though in reality, only those who are interested or actively participate in these Games Workshop practices will appreciate the effort Relic have put into authenticity, while your average gamer will not likely care and gain more enjoyment from the carnage. But it's nice to know how much time Relic have put into making this title an accurate representation of Warhammer 40,000.

The overall visuals of the game are damn gorgeous, the architecture of the buildings look fantastic, especially when you get some massive construction dwarfing you, making you look at it in awe, the intricate detailing of some of the power armours you encounter, Imperial markings inside the Manufactorum and even the primitive constructions of the Orks look impressive.

The weaponry you'll be using look and feel that they would make an impact the size of your head when fired, and they pretty much do that in-game. The Bolt Pistols sound like hand cannons and a well placed shot to the head will make an Ork explode for your enjoyment. The Bolter and subsequent heavier counterparts tear greenskins apart like a hot knife through butter which just makes you feel like... well... like a Space Marine, the galactic bad asses which solve problems, no matter the scale.

The melee weapons do an equally good job of feeling absolutely awesome, the wail of the Chainsword as you carve into Orks, the brutality of the Power Axe and its electrified edges, not to mention the heavyweight smashing of a Thunderhammer. All equally satisfying in their role of what I coined "Tw**ting Sticks".

Due to the game not opting for the easy mode regenerating health b*llocks of today's modern games, Relic employed a different method of keeping our protagonist alive. You have regenerating armour Ala' Halo, but your actual hit points can only be regained via one of two methods. Firstly you're able to stun most of your opponents allowing you to execute them in an even more brutally fantastic method than just shooting or hitting them. Each melee weapon has a number of different execution animations for your entertainment, so it's always fun to use this move as often as possible, however even while you're performing a health gaining action you're still exposed to all other threats in the game and can still die while executing an Ork.

Secondly you have a rage meter that builds up via your attacks, however you have to acquire a Purity Seal from a drop pod to unlock this ability, thankfully this is early on. Once the rage meter is filled and activated you cry an inspirational shout, knocking back all enemies in a dome of golden energy, this also increases your melee attack power while regenerating your health. The rage meter also has a couple of other uses which are unlocked by these Purity Seals, like a marksmanship mode, putting the game into bullet time when you aim with a weapon, allowing you to place lethal shots with extreme precision.

The game also gives you the feeling that the odds are constantly stacked against you. The Orks greatly outnumber you as Relic do an outstanding job of making sure you are flooded with opponents to shoot and carve through. You'll generally encounter packs of Orks that comprise of around 10-15 units, sometimes double that, and if you're lucky, double double that. There's nothing like shoulder charging into a pack of Orks, scattering their green asses over the terrain.

Now the game wouldn't be complete without the arch nemesis of the Imperium making an appearance, and Relic deliver without question. The forces of Chaos start showing their influence within this conflict on the forge world and your job becomes a whole much harder. The Orks are the Backstreet Boys of enemies compared to the forces of Chaos, a militia that equals the might of the Space Marines as essentially that's what they are, Space Marines that were corrupted and swore and allegiance to destroy the very brothers they once served.
Having to face against enemies in power armour along with a handful of Daemons.

You also get two AI companions for the majority of your gameplay, with some sections featuring the Imperial Guard helping out eliminate some Orks. The AI do a reasonable job at dispatching the enemies so you don't always feel like you're the one that does all the work. However I did experience a couple of moments when one of my squad would walk through my firing line so nonchalantly you would think he was out on a Sunday afternoon stroll.

Now I've been praising the single player component of the game as quite frankly it deserves all the praise it can get, it's rock solid. Turn our attention to multiplayer and things aren't so enjoyable.

Firstly in today's market you would expect some Co-op gameplay to feature with Space Marine. Unforuntately the game does not ship with Co-op out of the box, the decision was made to make this a DLC download, then when it does arrive it will be similar to Gears of War's Horde mode rather than Co-op campaign. This isn't the only problem with Space Marine either.

We have only two game modes to play with, first of which being a standard team deathmatch while the other being a capture and control style mode, so that's instantly limited the multiplayer portion of the game already, whether Relic are planning more modes and maps for future DLC packs is currently unknown, they definitely need to address a number of issues with the system.

Space Marine employs the horrible horrible practice of peer to peer matchmaking, meaning you're at the mercy of the hosts internet connection, while this may be acceptable for console markets, for the PC market it's quite appalling, dedicated servers are key to decent multiplayer games and personally find it pretty unforgiving to have peer to peer in a PC title.

You can choose to customise your Marine which is a nice touch and there are a lot of customisation options between the Space Marine and Chaos Marine models. Various different armour types, official Games Workshop colours to paint with or even go for a preset Marine chapter configuration with official Games Workshop chapters. You'll find a number of items are locked though and require challenges to be completed to unlock them and my god there is a huge amount of challenges.
Each of the three classes have their own challenges along with each weapon, so there is plenty to do for the completionists, unfortunately you're unable to choose what side to play in the multiplayer games so if you wanted to concentrate on say the assault class as a Space Marine then sorry you can't, it's random what side you are placed on.

You'll also find that melee combat in multiplayer to be quite useless due to the pace of the combat though you may find someone deployed with a Heavy Bolter to hit, or the host has that bad of a connection its physically impossible to melee due to the lag present in game. This is a real shame, the time where I got a reasonable host, the capture and control game mode is really good fun to play, just please scrap peer to peer and bring in some dedicated servers Relic.

I wish more time was put into the multiplayer component as it is this aspect that really drags the game back into the realms of a "good" score rather than a "super smashing great" score. I can't really fault the single player experience, the story line is gripping and keeps you for that lethal "one more level" mindset, but the multiplayer is that poor in comparison it's nearly a game breaker for Space Marine.