Critical Miss: Space Marine

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Its only been out a while and I'm fed up of hearing about it. Already got a friend who thinks its "the best game ever".......but then again he is a gamesworkshop shut in, so his opinion on this matter doesnt count.

If you don't like something of course you won't like hearing about it. I'm sick to death of hearing about Battlefield 3, but that's because I'm not interested in it.

Also that's some nice assuming that people who play Games Workshop games are shut-ins whose opinions don't count. Nice coming from someone with an anime avatar with big bouncing animated boobies. ...nerds are nerds, doesn't make their opinion on anything less valid!

 

[Venats]

Its only been out a while and I'm fed up of hearing about it. Already got a friend who thinks its "the best game ever".......but then again he is a gamesworkshop shut in, so his opinion on this matter doesnt count.

Frankly, the reason for the noise around this game is because, unlike many not-DoW games based on this or its sister IP, Space Marine was actually good. How many people actually expected it to be good? I doubt many gave it much more thought (prior to release and especially in development) than as another Gears.

Otherwise, games that are good on their own merits with little copypasta from across the spectrum as is so common in today's gaming world... tend to stand out, even if they are averagely good.

 

[ItsAPaul]

Nice point in the article, but the way you regenerate health in this game alone makes it stand out above all the rest. Sure it might not sell crazy, but it'll be the only fps I'll have played on my 360.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Its only been out a while and I'm fed up of hearing about it. Already got a friend who thinks its "the best game ever".......but then again he is a gamesworkshop shut in, so his opinion on this matter doesnt count.

That's a bit rude.

I think it's mainly excitement from GW fans who are finally getting some shooter love (barring the mess that was Fire Warrior). I'm really enjoying it, personally, and I haven't even tried the Multiplayer yet.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Heh, its true. People here in my hometown are going nuts over the game even though they swear they're done with space marines after Halo.

Oh and more Critical Miss Indochinese? I want to see a set of fuzzy dice but with people/objects from the series on the sides instead of dots. That would make my car even more nerdy!

 

[LordLundar]

I think the comparison to Ratchet and Clank is probably the best one I've heard. I think the only real comparison to GeoW that actually holds any water is the "bulky guy in armor." Everything else just doesn't match.

 

[wooty]

Its only been out a while and I'm fed up of hearing about it. Already got a friend who thinks its "the best game ever".......but then again he is a gamesworkshop shut in, so his opinion on this matter doesnt count.

That's a bit rude.

Its only been out a while and I'm fed up of hearing about it. Already got a friend who thinks its "the best game ever".......but then again he is a gamesworkshop shut in, so his opinion on this matter doesnt count.

Also that's some nice assuming that people who play Games Workshop games are shut-ins whose opinions don't count.

I didnt say all people who play 40k are shut ins whose opinions don't count, I'm a Tau player myself. Its just if you met this guy, you'd understand what I mean. Hes about 25 stone, in the shop from 9am to 5:30pm at least 6 days out of 7. So I feel that his opinion on Space Marine being "the best game ever" is biased based on that evidence.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

I'll admit to being one of those who is sick of the grey and brown shooter genre with overly muscular space marines, but I'm giving Warhammer 40k Space Marines a break on this one. I mean, this is the series that practically CREATED those tropes so it's exempt in my book.

then again, perhaps the guy with Kharn, actually a great guy to be around, The Betrayer as an avatar is NOT the best opinion to use here.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Though I see you covered it, I want to reiterate that the problem I have with a lot of these game mechanics is not that they are inherently bad, but rather overused and often out of place.

Cover mechanics, dusty grey/brown environments, ironsight aiming, and limited weapon capacity work fine in games like CoD or Battlefield, in which those mechanics fit the theme and characters the game is trying to evoke. Then, very dim developers try to copy the success of a Modern Warfare game by copying its mechanics and hud onto games that have no place for them.

The quality of a game is not endemic of it's mechanics, but how they use them.


I'm focusing on the commentary here because when it comes to the comic...
Uh... I have nothing to say. Oddly, all the comics of the last few weeks have left me with literally nothing to say. The comic has left no impact on me (bad or good) for that time. Which I guess is a bad impact in itself. I don't want to criticize without a suggestion for improvement but... well, I just haven't liked it lately.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The big difference between this and the Xcom game, aside from the fact that Xcom kept literally nothing from the earlier entries, is the fact that Space Marine isn't being billed as an entry in the game series; it's a videogame based on the fluff attached to a table top game. Think about the Mechwarrior series. The Mechwarrior tabletop game was a pencil and paper RPG (the strategy game was actually called Battletech, for those who don't know.) The Mechwarrior PC games, rather than attempting to do a single player computer version of a multiplayer pencil and paper game, looked at the setting and fluff connected to the series, and made a game that fit into the universe, but did things you couldn't do with a pencil and paper. Space Marine is a spinoff in that vein, rather than a direct entry into some main series.

 

[The_Emperor]

Space marine could of been so much better, I still enjoy it but it could of been so much more, There was a part when I found an "experimental weapon" which annoyed me because there are no such things, all the weapons are relics that are maintained, there is no "Emperor R&D" section in the mechanicum it's kind of forbidden.

Getting the bit about the self propelled rounds right then missing that was kind of sloppy imo.

The gameplay is a bit sloppy to, to many "press be to complete objective"

Combat could of done with more strategy, space marines aren't half as invincible as they are in this game either, a cover system would of been nice actually, marines get a 3+ armour save but cover save is needed against weapons like plasma cannons, which aren't half as fast as they are portrayed to be in the game either, they weren't even as fast in Dawn of War

instead of being a Warhammer game, its a 3rd person shooter with Warhammer in it.

it's still fun though I'm glad they made it, could of done with a bit more time in the oven though, They should of read more space marine books basically.

AND WTF NO SPLITSCREEN COOPS? /nerdrant

OT: nice comic I agree with what you are saying.

 

[RTR]

Is Glasses supposed to be a girl? Looks a little curvy on second to last panel, but not so much on the next

 

[commasplice]

First things first: Gives to me the Erin bikini posters with "GELATINOUS HAMBEAST" in bolds type.

Or, I don't know, a whitty T-shirt or something.

But yeah, I really dug this one. And it kind of got me thinking: I don't dislike Gears of War because it's gray and brown, or because everyone's a super muscle dude. It just wasn't very fun for me when I played it. Doesn't make it a bad game and it doesn't mean the industry's crumbling. It just means the game is not for me. I do, however, think that when big-name publishers give their fan base the shaft for whatever contrived reason, that that is pretty indicative of some horrifying trends, but . . . whatever.

Spoiler: KNEEJERKRAAAAAAEEEEEEG

I mean. "It's not really being played right if it's not online." Really? Because it could then be argued that it's not really being played right if it's not multiplayer, so why even make a single-player mode or allow people solo in the first place? Why not mandate a fucking buddy system so that you cannot physically play the game without at least one other person to join you?

I'd really prefer the poster.

 

[commasplice]

Huzzah, double post

 

[Dutch 924]

I think the strip Stowaways Smash would be a great t-shirt design. Plus you could put Critical Miss on a couple of mugs and caps

 

[Rack]

No brown to be seen, a much lessened reliance on cover and while it sadly loses the 9 foot tall super-nazi schtick of the original Titus is still a more interesting character than Dom or Marcus or whatever the heck he's called killing enemies via the power of pure testosterone.

As for the rest of the commentary, yeah spot on, maybe there's a comic in it?

Edit: Oh and if you want to talk about turning strategy games into shooters, Syndicate was last seen in 1996, UFO in 1997. Relic last did a strategy game based on 40k this year and are doing another next year. If UFO and Syndicate had that kind of release schedule I'd have no problem.

 

[Iklwa]

"Fuck yeah, donuts!"/"Gracious, pastries!"

I would wear that EVERYWHERE.

 

[Venats]

Combat could of done with more strategy, space marines aren't half as invincible as they are in this game either, a cover system would of been nice actually, marines get a 3+ armour save but cover save is needed against weapons like plasma cannons, which aren't half as fast as they are portrayed to be in the game either, they weren't even as fast in Dawn of War

I bring issue to this statement. You're hardly invincible, especially not on Hard, and you are a Captain. Last I checked in the rules, they have considerably more perks than your average marine (as, for example, your marine in MP will die to a single shot of a plasma cannon, and it takes all of five shots to kill someone with a plasma gun, considerably more with more with a Bolter unless every shot is to the head. In single player, Titus will die to two or three rocket direct hits on Hard, in the Lab. The plasma cannon will kill you if it hits dead on. The Heavy Bolter will rip you to shreds in a matter of seconds. You will die in one or two hits to the Chaos Champions depending on a Glancing Blow vs. Direct Hit (and this is with the Iron Halo upgrade). A Nob will kill you in two hits. 'Ard Guys can kill you in four hits.). And the game has a cover system, its just not "Press B to stick to wall!", the levels are all designed (aside from the fight atop the Invictus) with an abundance of cover for you to use... and you will use it on Hard.

The last fight, even if it is a QTE, was some what holed into being something like it. There is no way for Titus to win that fight, not if he had ten marines assist him, not if he had Terminator armor, if they fought on the ground in a fair fight. And, to be honest, after using up all of my ammunition on the crazy waves and two champions prior to the final boss, I sort of enjoyed the QTE.

Yes, Relic took liberties with some parts of the background, but was that necessarily for the worse? I doubt the things they put in weren't approved by GW, considering how tight they are with their Lore and what they allowed to be even remotely considered cannon. Not to mention that Titus as Captain of the Second is a contradiction on the real Second Unit of the Ultramarines.