Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Review

[ace_of_something]

It looks fun, the demo impressed me but not $60 USD impressed me. I'll be waiting for a price drop.

You're definitely right that the game is made for fans. Go us! Makes me want to blow the dust of the ol' witchhunters.

 

[Tarkand]

One token female who is totally in awe of the uber-manly protagonist? Check. All that's missing is a sassy black sidekick.

My favourite thing in the whole game turned out to be the orc Warboss. Sure, he's a stupid sadistic brute who's causing the deaths of millions (billions?) of people, but at least he was vaguely memorable. I wish I could have played as him.

You're being pretty unfair on that one.

All the Imperial Guards in the game refer to the Marine has 'lords' - upon first seeing them, they bow down to them. In one of the early mission when you walk through an make-shift infirmary, one of the dying IG says 'At least I got to see a space marine in the end...'.

ALL the IG forces - yes, even those with penises - are in total awe of the main protagonist.

Mira's awe is the result of her coming face to with an officer of an order that is made up of a mix of super-soldier and religious icons... yes, as far as Imperial propaganda go, Titus is the Captain of a force that pretty much consist of soldier that are a mix between superman and Jesus. Had Mira been a man, he would have reacted the same way. But then, you'd probably be complaining about the lack of female character.

The funny thing here is that Mira is actually a good female character. She is competent. She isn't over-sexed. She's trustworthy. She has an entire batallion worth of fighting MEN looking up to her and who all believe that without her, they'd long be dead. And the game never parades the fact that she's a woman by making her act differently or with over the top girly traits just to make a point. And perhaps even more important - she isn't part of a forced and contrived love interest situation.

How many game have strong, competent women who aren't also fan services? Not all that much... and the 'shallow' Space Marine is one of them.

 

[dantoddd]

I liked how the underlying theocratic fascism of the DoW universe wonderfully conveyed through the intercom.

 

[Zhukov]

One token female who is totally in awe of the uber-manly protagonist? Check. All that's missing is a sassy black sidekick.

My favourite thing in the whole game turned out to be the orc Warboss. Sure, he's a stupid sadistic brute who's causing the deaths of millions (billions?) of people, but at least he was vaguely memorable. I wish I could have played as him.

You're being pretty unfair on that one.

All the Imperial Guards in the game refer to the Marine has 'lords' - upon first seeing them, they bow down to them. In one of the early mission when you walk through an make-shift infirmary, one of the dying IG says 'At least I got to see a space marine in the end...'.

ALL the IG forces - yes, even those with penises - are in total awe of the main protagonist.

Mira's awe is the result of her coming face to with an officer of an order that is made up of a mix of super-soldier and religious icons... yes, as far as Imperial propaganda go, Titus is the Captain of a force that pretty much consist of soldier that are a mix between superman and Jesus. Had Mira been a man, he would have reacted the same way. But then, you'd probably be complaining about the lack of female character.

The funny thing here is that Mira is actually a good female character. She is competent. She isn't over-sexed. She's trustworthy. She has an entire batallion worth of fighting MEN looking up to her and who all believe that without her, they'd long be dead. And the game never parades the fact that she's a woman by making her act differently or with over the top girly traits just to make a point. And perhaps even more important - she isn't part of a forced and contrived love interest situation.

How many game have strong, competent women who aren't also fan services? Not all that much... and the 'shallow' Space Marine is one of them.

Lieutenant What's-her-name exists solely to complete the standard masculine power fantasy checklist. Trying to tell me that she's a good character, female or otherwise, is like trying to tell me that horse manure is good eatin'.

And I'm aware that the endless protagonist ego-stroking is part of the setting. Like I said earlier (third post in thread), a lot of the things I despise about the game are basically intrinsic to the WH40K universe.

 

[Redryhno]

I like the 40k games and all, but I wish they would do something other than Space Marines as the main characters, I mean, who wouldn't want to play a campaign as an Aspect Warrior or Ork Boyz or (Emperor and Harlequin strike me down for admitting this) a Tyranid? Personally I think that they need to make a 40k game that includes like a six hour campaign for each of the Officio Assassinorium branches, they could really go for different gameplay mechanics for each since each has their own way of doing things and would make around a 30 hour game in campaigns alone, and then release different DLC for each branch that adds like another couple hours to each, or just make each branch a ten or twenty hour game in itself

Dawn of War II: Retribution; already happened.

I talking about taking control of one person in the campaign, not a squad or army, specifically the Imperial Assassins, if you had read further, and the DOW series I don't really consider to be 40k games seeing as how the first was base-based (pun intended), and the second was jump down, collect people, shoot, wipe off blood, repeat, even though I did enjoy them.

 

[vallorn]

I liked how the underlying theocratic fascism of the DoW universe wonderfully conveyed through the intercom.

its the Warhammer 40,000 Universe mate. DoW is based on that universe. not being snippy but some fanboys would threaten you with death for that mix up.

Best part of multiplayer has to be wearing this

Spoiler

I like this game but that might be because I have all the Dawn of War games and my own squad of tactical marine minitures who specialize in plasma weapons.

thanks for the new desktop background!

 

[Venats]

I talking about taking control of one person in the campaign, not a squad or army, specifically the Imperial Assassins, if you had read further, and the DOW series I don't really consider to be 40k games seeing as how the first was base-based (pun intended), and the second was jump down, collect people, shoot, wipe off blood, repeat, even though I did enjoy them.

(I did read the whole post, but...) I really don't think Imperial Anything-Non-Space-Marine would make sense to be controlled individually, you'd die to everything instantly... unless that was the whole point, but that'd be a pretty brutal game. Might be kinda fun actually.

DoW: Retribution gave you the chance to play as the IG in the only way I can really think possible, as a squad of people that will more or less constantly be dying. And, I don't see why you wouldn't consider them a part of the WH40k.

 

[Raika]

cant wait for Yahtzee's review though

He might not do it at all, but given how ripe for jokes the source material is, I really hope he does.

 

[GonzoGamer]

It looks fun, the demo impressed me but not $60 USD impressed me. I'll be waiting for a price drop.

You're definitely right that the game is made for fans. Go us! Makes me want to blow the dust of the ol' witchhunters.

Same here. Looks interesting but not enough for $60.
It looks like they didn't carry the variety into enemy character models so parts looked like an orky boy band (or a boyz band) doing some sort of dance routine.
I'm pretty sure I'll pick this up when the price drops.

 

[Tarkand]

Lieutenant What's-her-name exists solely to complete the standard masculine power fantasy checklist. Trying to tell me that she's a good character, female or otherwise, is like trying to tell me that horse manure is good eatin'.

I was unaware that having a butch looking woman who orders you around and save your ass just often as you save hers and order her was part of standard masculine power fantasy. But who am I to judge.

Again - it's not like her tits are hanging out of her armor or she's a damsel in distress (at any point in the story in fact). She's an ally with a lot of resource at her disposal and neither of you could complete your mission without the other. More importantly, she doesn't act any differently than the other soldiers (who are men) in the game with the one exception that she seems to be the only one who knows what the hell she's doing (Yes, very much the poor helpless female!).

She gives you respect because of what you are and because essentially, you are a higher ranking officer than she is - this is a pseudo-army setting after all.

I don't think she's a deep character or anything like that (Space Marine is essentially the game version of a micheal bay movie - and it doesn't claim or aspire to be anything else), but if anything she's lampshading the whole 'power fantasy' concept by being a woman that doesn't actually go along with it. You're creating a catch 22 here - had she been a guy, you'd basically had gone 'total lack of female character - check'.

Any actual reason why you're dismissing her so much aside from 'I don't like the game and I've already made up my mind?'.

 

[Samwise137]

I enjoyed my first play-through of Space Marine but as with any game, I had my complaints. I played the PC version with my Xbox controller and loved the pacing, as well as the difficulty (I played on Normal and still had difficulty with some bits). My first complaint was I don't really see a lot of replayablity in the campaign although I haven't tried multiplayer yet, largely due to my crew being hooked on Dead Island lately. I wish I had been better prepared (plot wise) for some of the unusual bits like the shoot Orks from the air bit. My biggest complaint, though was

Spoiler: THIS

The final boss, while the waves of enemies leading up to him were tough, was as near as I can equivocate, a quick-time event. Rapid-tap a series of buttons to kill? I guess I just expected better. Especially after the fight with the warboss! I felt like I was playing SpiderMan: Shattered Dimensions again

Overall, though, I found the game enjoyable, even if I did have to play as the blueberry marines.

 

[Duffeknol]

Stoic (ie. emotionless and/or incapable of expression) protagonist? Check. Scarred veteran? Check. Raw recruit? Check. Dumb-evil enemy? Check. Evil-evil enemy? Check. One token female who is totally in awe of the uber-manly protagonist? Check. All that's missing is a sassy black sidekick.

If that bothered you, you'd never be able to read any of the books aside from Ciaphas Cain series. Titus is one of the more down to earth, humane marine's I've found/ever seen in the fluff. The rest are either idiots/fanatics/smurfs like Leandros, or scarred-angry war veterans like Sidonus.

I found that pretty much every non-space marine 40k novel was actually pretty good, not just Ciaphas Cain. He'll probably even like most of the Inquisition or IG books.

 

[thiosk]

I liked it, but I'm a big fan of the WH universe--
A buddy stopped by though and I loaded up the demo, and his jaw dropped as I gleefully prepared ork confit. He was very impressed, so I think its a good introduction to the WH universe as well.

 

[rayen020]

I want to buy this gme just because i don't want developers to think WH40K is not a profitable IP. I would like another space marine game maybe not one focusing on the ultramarines. there is alot of potential in this universe that has only barely been tapped.

also can we drop the chaos orchestrating an ork invasion story? Chaos is perfectly capable of staging their own invasion. better, actually than orks, what with the psychic corruption of common citizens causing small but troublesome rebellions. and Orks don't need to be led to worlds to fight, they are capable of looking at world and telling whether the defenses are good enough to show them a good time and attack based on that. AND FINALLY ultrasmurfs don't battle orks/chaos, thats the black templars/dark angels/blood angels job. No ultramarines fight tyranids. please keep this in mind in future games.
/rant

 

[Tarkand]

Well, in truth, the ork and chaos invasion have no real link together.

 

[rayen020]

I like the 40k games and all, but I wish they would do something other than Space Marines as the main characters, I mean, who wouldn't want to play a campaign as an Aspect Warrior or Ork Boyz or (Emperor and Harlequin strike me down for admitting this) a Tyranid?

Fire Warrior?

 

[Kuchinawa212]

I loved the game except I think the character were lacking. Except Titus. He was a little 'meh' but the other guys I actually forgot sometimes they were there. They should say more stuff like "For the Emperor" or "Come on alien, show me your fury" Give 'em a little something to go with not just "Grr. I'm a bland space marine other that my ONE important thing I do" such as ______ backstabbyness at the end or ______ going out like a champ

 

[Dr.Nick]

I didn't like it much. Played with a friend on his console. Glad I didn't buy my own copy.

However, most of the things I didn't like seemed to be there intentionally, mostly for the sake of WH40K fans. But hey, I suppose if they want to make a game for existing fans, that's cool. They shouldn't have to compromise for the sake of nigh-unpleasable grumps like me.

Although at the end of the day, the story and dialogue were still absolutely mind-numbing. But maybe that's an intrinsic part of the franchise as well. I wouldn't know.

Lastly, it's a shame that all those "epic moments" take place purely in cutscenes. Jumping onto the orc ship? Cutscene. Riding it down to the ground? Cutscene. FInal bloody boss? Cutsce... nope, even better, 100% quicktime event! A-A-A-Y... A-A-A-Y... B-B-B-B-B... victory!

As a big fan of the series I really enjoyed it but I agree with you on the cutscenes and the final boss battles. The story wasn't anything exciting although it did get interesting towards the end. I think Relic made a big mistake by not making those cutscenes into gameplay instead. Hated the final boss fight as well. However, despite all those flaws I thought they game was kept high by the amazing combat system.

 

[funksobeefy]

Space Marine is a really good game, captures being an Angle of Death perfectly. I love the game and I havent even tried the multiplayer