In the interest of full disclosure let me preface this by stating that I am an admitted Warhammer 40K fan
To be fair, Gears of War is currently the big elephant in the room that any game like this is going to eventually have to face and Space Marine does borrow quite a bit from GoW's interface...then again I seem to recall more than one person make a lot of the same comparisons about the Ghostbusters game so take from that what you will.
For my money I think the games play very differently.
Although I've heard that you CAN play Gears of war as an CQC slasher using your lancer as your primary weapon of choice, the game didn't really seem to be designed for it. The enemy seemed to be content with the cover/return fire method and for the most part that's how I played.
Space Marine allows you to get some pot shots in from cover or while the Orkish hordes are advancing but that's ultimately like fighting a Tank with a Toothpick, eventually you're up to your Gene-Seed in a bloodthirsty Orkish WAAAGH and the only thing to do is carve into it with your melee weapon of choice.
To a fan of the franchise this game is a lot of fun and I sincerely hope that some of the non-fans who pick up this title will be intrigued enough to look further into what it has to offer.
With that said, at the end of the day a 7/10 is hardly a damning indictment of Space Marine's incompetence.
Despite 40k's popularity your average video game player is probably not too familiar with it and approaching this game on it's own merits rather than those of a 40K fan I'd probably give it a similar score. It's a competent action/shooter with a fun story, an enjoyable setting and a unique visual style...but other than it's approach to combat healing it doesn't bring anything new to the table in terms of game play.
To be fair, Gears of War is currently the big elephant in the room that any game like this is going to eventually have to face and Space Marine does borrow quite a bit from GoW's interface...then again I seem to recall more than one person make a lot of the same comparisons about the Ghostbusters game so take from that what you will.
For my money I think the games play very differently.
Although I've heard that you CAN play Gears of war as an CQC slasher using your lancer as your primary weapon of choice, the game didn't really seem to be designed for it. The enemy seemed to be content with the cover/return fire method and for the most part that's how I played.
Space Marine allows you to get some pot shots in from cover or while the Orkish hordes are advancing but that's ultimately like fighting a Tank with a Toothpick, eventually you're up to your Gene-Seed in a bloodthirsty Orkish WAAAGH and the only thing to do is carve into it with your melee weapon of choice.
To a fan of the franchise this game is a lot of fun and I sincerely hope that some of the non-fans who pick up this title will be intrigued enough to look further into what it has to offer.
With that said, at the end of the day a 7/10 is hardly a damning indictment of Space Marine's incompetence.
Despite 40k's popularity your average video game player is probably not too familiar with it and approaching this game on it's own merits rather than those of a 40K fan I'd probably give it a similar score. It's a competent action/shooter with a fun story, an enjoyable setting and a unique visual style...but other than it's approach to combat healing it doesn't bring anything new to the table in terms of game play.