'Real' Space marines

[Iron Mal]

I am fully aware that many people roll their eyes when they hear that the protaganist of a game is going to be a space marine but then we've got to ask, 'what is this sterotypical space marine that we've all begun to hate and hurl whiskey bottles at?'.

When I hear the term 'Space Marine' I get the image of a super human juggernaught of death who can take a nuke to the gut and pull it out with his teeth while letting rip with a futuristic machine gun in one hand and a laser cannon in the other (kinda like the guy in DOOM or a Warhammer 40k space marine), this character has become anything but sterotypical in modern games (I'm waiting for them to relase another game with a protaganist that doesn't have an explosive allergic reaction to mean stares).

I've noticed that the 'space marine' that's earned ire and hatred from the general gaming public tends to be a 20-something year old, mixed ethnicity member of the United States Marines Corps who's been rocketed out into space (courtousey of Halo, Quake 4, Gears of War, Aliens and many, many more). So it's not 'Space Marines' that have become sterotypical and stale, it's the idea of Marines in space that has.

Just a thought.

 

[DizzleMcSizzle]

deep man.
way deep

 

[Syphonz]

40k Space Marines are epic though

"Purge them in the name of the EMPORER!"
"I will purge the unclean"
"GREENSKINS!" (I laugh and wonder how did relic gets away with that blatant racial remark)

 

[Rankao]

40k Space Marines are epic though

"Purge them in the name of the EMPORER!"
"I will purge the unclean"
"GREENSKINS!" (I laugh and wonder how did relic gets away with that blatant racial remark)

I love 40K Space Marines they are a beam of rusty head lights in the dark future of 40k universe.

 

[shatnershaman]

Master Chief is middle aged not 20 and he is not a marine. He is actually part of the Navy.

 

[SwampCandle]

Space Marines as someone like myself who does actually have 3 space marine armies (Blood Angels, Iron Hands and one of my own chapters), seeing all of these new 'space marines' is nothing short of sackralidge (spelt right?).

For me Space Marines are as said at the beggining, dudes who can take a heap of punishment and still come back swinging/shooting. Unlike twonks like Marcus Fenix, who just annoys the hell out of me, his character must be designed to make me hate him, just the way he acts "oh, I'm a genetic freak, so I must talk all macho and have no depth to my charcter".
The thing that made 40K Marines good to me was that there was character to them, there was depth, and there was still some sense of mystery around them that made them so awesome, now all the marine guy has to do is be over-muscled and have a gimmicky gun.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

This is probably going to bug a lot of people, but they aren't actually space marines. They're planetary troopers, they just happen to travel in space to get places.

A space marine is someone who specializes (or at least their name makes it sound like they do) in Zero Gravity combat. Which means they don't need all those big muscles because there isn't any weight for them to deal with. They'd actually probably be pretty small since you'd want to reduce their size as much as possible. Jet packs, grappling hooks, and weapons that don't have recoil would all be key to them.

Annnnd I've gone and nerded my pants...

 

[Retoru]

I always thought "space marine" was a fairly stupid term to begin with. A marine is someone who specializes in both land and sea combat, or as their original mandate states "Providing force projection from the sea". You can't really specialize in land/sea combat while delivering your forces from the sea in space.

 

[Axolotl]

This is probably going to bug a lot of people, but they aren't actually space marines. They're planetary troopers, they just happen to travel in space to get places.

No they are space marines. A marine is a solider who specialises in quick deployment from the sea, thus a Space Marine would do the same from space, which the 40K Space Marines do.

Master Chief is middle aged not 20 and he is not a marine. He is actually part of the Navy.

Marines generaly are part of the Navy.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

This is probably going to bug a lot of people, but they aren't actually space marines. They're planetary troopers, they just happen to travel in space to get places.

A space marine is someone who specializes (or at least their name makes it sound like they do) in Zero Gravity combat. Which means they don't need all those big muscles because there isn't any weight for them to deal with. They'd actually probably be pretty small since you'd want to reduce their size as much as possible. Jet packs, grappling hooks, and weapons that don't have recoil would all be key to them.

Annnnd I've gone and nerded my pants...

Hmmmm.... Lets make a game about that instead of "Generic Shooter X, The most Generic of them all"

 

[SwampCandle]

Come to think of it, there aren't too many space marines in games at all

You haven't played Firewarrior have you? can't move for Space Marines the further you get.
(Seriously, the number of marines you'll end up killing totals to 2 bloody chapters of space marines!)

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

This is probably going to bug a lot of people, but they aren't actually space marines. They're planetary troopers, they just happen to travel in space to get places.

No they are space marines. A marine is a solider who specialises in quick deployment from the sea, thus a Space Marine would do the same from space, which the 40K Space Marines do.

You're right, I stand corrected. I still want my Zero-G 'Ender's Game' troopers though...

 

[Iron Mal]

Master Chief is middle aged not 20 and he is not a marine. He is actually part of the Navy.

I never actually mentioned the Master Chief (although I did mention the Marines in Halo, who do fit my description).

Quite a few people have made the observation that you technically can't have a space marine (due to their tendancy for aquatic operations) but I think the title is more for decorative value than meaning literal 'marines in space' (Space Marines sounds somewhat cooler than Space Soldier or Space Trooper).

 

[SwampCandle]

I dunno, Space Trooper isn't that bad........well thats my thought anyway .

 

[Obliterato]

I think the game industry has jsut totally fagged up the marine, the marines in halo were about as useful as a bunch of down syndrome children with water pistols and why is it that in most computer games the humans are always inferior in technology and numbers and always on the back foot. I'd like to see a game where humans and their tech are dominant and your attacking an alien race, surely the moral choices in that would be more interesting than 'the only competent marine played by you makes up for all the other retarded mariness and saves the whole human race despite being outnumbered the whole galazy to one and being armed with nothing more than a sharpened stick'

 

[Axolotl]

You're right, I stand corrected. I still want my Zero-G 'Ender's Game' troopers though...

They do sound like an unresonably awesome idea.

 

[Shellsh0cker]

This is probably going to bug a lot of people, but they aren't actually space marines. They're planetary troopers, they just happen to travel in space to get places.

No they are space marines. A marine is a solider who specialises in quick deployment from the sea, thus a Space Marine would do the same from space, which the 40K Space Marines do.

You're right, I stand corrected. I still want my Zero-G 'Ender's Game' troopers though...

THAT WOULD BE EPIC. I SO WANT THAT GAME. Quick, someone get EA to contact Orson Scott Card.

Anyways, the OP is right. There aren't really any games (or at least any shooters) with a true Warhammer/Starship Troopers-style space marine as the protagonist. Has anybody actually read Heinlein's original Starship Troopers? His space marines are awesome. They carry multiple miniature nuclear missiles. Real space marines have suits with a minigun welded to one arm, none of this pansy Halo stuff where Master Chief uses the same weapons as the UNSC grunts.

 

[shadow skill]

I think the game industry has jsut totally fagged up the marine, the marines in halo were about as useful as a bunch of down syndrome children with water pistols and why is it that in most computer games the humans are always inferior in technology and numbers and always on the back foot. I'd like to see a game where humans and their tech are dominant and your attacking an alien race, surely the moral choices in that would be more interesting than 'the only competent marine played by you makes up for all the other retarded mariness and saves the whole human race despite being outnumbered the whole galazy to one and being armed with nothing more than a sharpened stick'

Star Gate was nice in that humans from Earth are actually considered one of the most powerful races in that universe. Only the Ancient, Ori, and Asgard really out rank them which is understandable since those three races are either ascended (gods) or have insane tech (Agard, though they would have ascended had they not fucked up their DNA.) The good news for us is that we are considered shoe-in's for becoming the fourth great race.

ShellSh0cker: I read that book and you are right Heinlein's space marines do not fuck around.

 

[SwampCandle]

THAT WOULD BE EPIC. I SO WANT THAT GAME. Quick, someone get EA to contact Orson Scott Card.

Anyways, the OP is right. There aren't really any games (or at least any shooters) with a true Warhammer/Starship Troopers-style space marine as the protagonist. Has anybody actually read Heinlein's original Starship Troopers? His space marines are awesome. They carry multiple miniature nuclear missiles. Real space marines have suits with a minigun welded to one arm, none of this pansy Halo stuff where Master Chief uses the same weapons as the UNSC grunts.

Exactly, Heinlen's troopers were BA, the mini nukes and the flamers just owned.
Oh and thats the Terminator class that has the chainguns (Ooops, looks like I nerded my pants aswell )

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

Master Chief is middle aged not 20 and he is not a marine. He is actually part of the Navy.

The Marine Corps ARE a department of the Navy...