Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a game I have been waiting a seriously long time for. From its initial announcement right up until Friday the 9th of September, I have been patiently waiting and grinning whenever it was brought up in conversation. Despite not having played “40K”—as it’s generally referred to amongst its followers—in a while, I’ve still kept a keen eye on Space Marine. With Relic’s previous work on the Dawn of War series, I was always slightly worried that their skillset wouldn’t translate to a third-person shooter from a real-time strategy game, but could my doubts have been misplaced?

First thing I want to do is dispel this myth that Space Marine is just a Gears of War clone, because that statement couldn’t be further from the truth; it’s like saying Halo: Reach is just a clone of DOOM. For starters, the most prominent difference is that while Gears of War has a cover system, Space Marine doesn’t. In fact, the only real similarity between the two is that their camera angles are the same.

Space Marine centres on one Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, a battalion of Space Marines on a mission to protect planet Graia. The funny thing about planet Graia, though, is that it’s not like other planets with their lush plant life and behemoth cities, as you’d expect. Graia is what is called a “Forge World” planet: its entire surface is literally one gargantuan factory dedicated to churning out weapons and machines of war to aid Mankind. Of course when the Ork horde attacks, the planetary government is strongly advised that setting the atmosphere on fire and obliterating the entire planet just won’t do; the planet is just too important an asset to lose or to let fall into the wrong hands. Instead, they summon the Ultramarines to sort it all out, with you leading them as the main man, Captain Titus.

It’s quite difficult to go into too much of the campaign mode without giving away the gist of the story, but suffice to say you’ll be cutting swathes through legions of Orks with three flavours of melee weapon and a smörgåsbord of ranged goodness. And I mean legions; you can be fighting upwards of around 30 of these guys at once, as you destroy gun batteries so massive they would make your boyfriend feel insecure; take to the skies in Valkyrie gunships (a “ride of the Valkyries”, perhaps?) and hitch rides on gigantic trains turned battering rams.

Combat is easily the most satisfying aspect of Space Marine.While the melee combat lacks any real depth beyond the different weapons you can use to dish it out, it’s still a joy to lay into a group of enemies with each of the weapons available to you. The most impressive of these is the aptly named Thunder Hammer. As it swings, it quickly builds up energy and releases it on impact for massive damage; combine it with a jumppack and you’re looking at some serious beatings being dished out. Simple, but effective.

I don’t even really know where to start in terms of the ranged weaponry available, because literally all of them are just so awesome to use. Perhaps I should mention the Heavy Bolter, and how it doesn’t require reloading thanks to being belt-fed? Or maybe the awesome Meltagun which can reduce anything that’s within range to a small pile of dust? Or what about the Stalker pattern Bolter; a weapon that I just love because of the really heavy noise it makes when it fires? I could go on and on.

The combat really comes into its own in multiplayer. Here you have two modes: “Seize Ground” and “Annihilation”. These are really just fancy names for King of the Hill and Team Deathmatch respectively, but in both cases they pit Space Marines against their traitor brethren the Chaos Space Marines. I think it’s a good choice. I had seen some discussions on the Space Marine forums that people would rather play as Orks in multiplayer, but in the interest of balance this system works well. You see, Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines are pretty much an even match for each other; each Space Marine is the epitome of a warrior and Chaos Space Marines are merely dark reflections of that, in a Yin and Yang sort of way. With Space Marines and Orks however, the differences are much more pronounced and any notion of balance would have been in jeopardy.

The multiplayer is broken down again into three classes for both the Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines. You’ve got the Assault Marine and the Raptor which specialise in melee combat; Devastators and Havocs and their ranged combat expertise, and the Tactical Marine and Chaos Marine who are trained in both melee and ranged combat. Unsurprisingly, there’s a real emphasis on making best use of your class’ specialities but also on working together. Devastators can be suppressing enemies while Assault Marines close the gap, or a Chaos Marine could draw an enemy’s fire to give a Havoc time to bring his heavy weapon to bear.

It’s all of this that just makes Space Marine such a damn fun game. A solid campaign with an engaging and epic story coupled with an addictive and fun multiplayer make for a brilliant game, even if the gameplay isn’t exactly what you’d call revolutionary. If you’re just looking for a great game to kill time until Gears of War 3 is released, Space Marine should be your next spaceport of call.