Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Review

[Redryhno]

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.

What your not getting is I'm not saying that the IG or whatever you control would be alone,unless it fits with them, you just only control one of them and follow their squad/unit/brood/horde 's little escapades,etc. On a side note, the Imperial Assassins are actually pretty scary, at least the last I read of them were,which was pretty much when the game came out, there's the Eviscerator that goes for full-on drug-enhanced combat, the Vindicator's your typical super sniper, and there's also the shapeshifting one, i don't remember their name, but I remember playing against them early on and they are actually quite resilient, an Eviscerator held up my Avatar for three rounds once. And the reason I don't really consider them part of the 40k world is that they never really captured my attention, and so I found little reason to keep them, I don't think I ever really played through either of them to the end, and just being base-based as I said earlier and the other not exactly getting the game right. I'm not going to say space marine is bad or good or anything either, but it captures a feel of the universe the other games didn't get for me. Didn't mean to offend you by the "read the post" thing, just what you posted didn't click with me

 

[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?

Fire Warrior?

Last I checked, Fire Dragons are Aspect Warrior, if you were referencing/saying something else, sorry, but I didn't catch it

 

[Venats]

What your not getting is I'm not saying that the IG or whatever you control would be alone,unless it fits with them, you just only control one of them and follow their squad/unit/brood/horde 's little escapades,etc. On a side note, the Imperial Assassins are actually pretty scary, at least the last I read of them were,which was pretty much when the game came out, there's the Eviscerator that goes for full-on drug-enhanced combat, the Vindicator's your typical super sniper, and there's also the shapeshifting one, i don't remember their name, but I remember playing against them early on and they are actually quite resilient, an Eviscerator held up my Avatar for three rounds once. And the reason I don't really consider them part of the 40k world is that they never really captured my attention, and so I found little reason to keep them, I don't think I ever really played through either of them to the end, and just being base-based as I said earlier and the other not exactly getting the game right. I'm not going to say space marine is bad or anything either, but it captures a feel of the universe the other games didn't get for me.

No, I am getting that. If you are just a random mook of the IG, no matter what sort of horde is around you, your average life span as an IG in battle is only a few minutes. Its not like this CoD where you are on even footing, you are an IG, a normal human, against warped super humans, super bugs, super elves, and super orks; and just about every one of them can rip you limb from limb by blinking at you. That's really my problem if you are ever put in the shoes of a sole IG, you surviving is hard to believe.

Now, Imperial Assassins are different in that they are never on the front lines and a little better equipped than their IG counterparts, but still just as much a knife in a gun fight if you were ever in open conflict. So, as I was saying, it would be a pretty brutal game (but, probably fun) that you would lose instantly if shot/spotted. It'd be Assassin's Creed: WH40k, where everything can kill you by passing gas.

 

[Gothproxy]

Justin, I have to correct you in saying this is "our first time playing as a Space Marine outside of the strategy genre..." In 1995, EA (which was a great game company back then) published Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, a first person shooter that had you take the roll of a Space Marine in Terminator Armor blowing things away in the depths of space.

Aside from that, great article. I look forward to playing it as well as adding it to my collection. Thanks for the info.

 

[Redryhno]

What your not getting is I'm not saying that the IG or whatever you control would be alone,unless it fits with them, you just only control one of them and follow their squad/unit/brood/horde 's little escapades,etc. On a side note, the Imperial Assassins are actually pretty scary, at least the last I read of them were,which was pretty much when the game came out, there's the Eviscerator that goes for full-on drug-enhanced combat, the Vindicator's your typical super sniper, and there's also the shapeshifting one, i don't remember their name, but I remember playing against them early on and they are actually quite resilient, an Eviscerator held up my Avatar for three rounds once. And the reason I don't really consider them part of the 40k world is that they never really captured my attention, and so I found little reason to keep them, I don't think I ever really played through either of them to the end, and just being base-based as I said earlier and the other not exactly getting the game right. I'm not going to say space marine is bad or anything either, but it captures a feel of the universe the other games didn't get for me.

No, I am getting that. If you are just a random mook of the IG, no matter what sort of horde is around you, your average life span as an IG in battle is only a few minutes. Its not like this CoD where you are on even footing, you are an IG, a normal human, against warped super humans, super bugs, super elves, and super orks; and just about every one of them can rip you limb from limb by blinking at you. That's really my problem if you are ever put in the shoes of a sole IG, you surviving is hard to believe.

Now, Imperial Assassins are different in that they are never on the front lines and a little better equipped than their IG counterparts, but still just as much a knife in a gun fight if you were ever in open conflict. So, as I was saying, it would be a pretty brutal game (but, probably fun) that you would lose instantly if shot/spotted. It'd be Assassin's Creed: WH40k, where everything can kill you by passing gas.

I'd have to disagree with you on that, the IA both in game(tabletop) and lit. are able to take down things that the Space Marines can't, yes, the SM are amazing,7 feet tall, blah,blah,blah, but they kind've stand out in alot of places, don't you think? They're good for retaking parts of a planet or a whole system, but when there's really just one thing in the way of the Imperium the IA get called is what I'm saying, and since they all have their own "traditions" for lack of a better word, the gameplay wouldn't always be going toe-to-toe with every,single target, where the Vindicators are good at holding patrols,taking out single figures and that sort of thing from long range, there's the sneakier Eviscerators that engage and kill everything, then there's the shapeshifters, the C-somthing's? that have to keep their real identity a secret waiting for the right moment, and I can see alot of potential there.And I doubt it would be knife to gunfight scenario for most of the things there, if you compare the IA points and scores to other named characters in the game, there's a lot of named space marines that have lower scores in everything, so it wouldn't always be everything but SM and bugs get killed.

The IG thing is that sure, chances are you're nothing but cannon fodder essentially, but I've seen IG squads hold up stuff that is at least 4x their point values for a reasonable amount of time before without losing much or their squad or none if the dice are against them.You could just follow Solar Macharius or Yarrick and play as them through the campaign.

 

[theonecookie]

What your not getting is I'm not saying that the IG or whatever you control would be alone,unless it fits with them, you just only control one of them and follow their squad/unit/brood/horde 's little escapades,etc. On a side note, the Imperial Assassins are actually pretty scary, at least the last I read of them were,which was pretty much when the game came out, there's the Eviscerator that goes for full-on drug-enhanced combat, the Vindicator's your typical super sniper, and there's also the shapeshifting one, i don't remember their name, but I remember playing against them early on and they are actually quite resilient, an Eviscerator held up my Avatar for three rounds once. And the reason I don't really consider them part of the 40k world is that they never really captured my attention, and so I found little reason to keep them, I don't think I ever really played through either of them to the end, and just being base-based as I said earlier and the other not exactly getting the game right. I'm not going to say space marine is bad or anything either, but it captures a feel of the universe the other games didn't get for me.

No, I am getting that. If you are just a random mook of the IG, no matter what sort of horde is around you, your average life span as an IG in battle is only a few minutes. Its not like this CoD where you are on even footing, you are an IG, a normal human, against warped super humans, super bugs, super elves, and super orks; and just about every one of them can rip you limb from limb by blinking at you. That's really my problem if you are ever put in the shoes of a sole IG, you surviving is hard to believe.

Now, Imperial Assassins are different in that they are never on the front lines and a little better equipped than their IG counterparts, but still just as much a knife in a gun fight if you were ever in open conflict. So, as I was saying, it would be a pretty brutal game (but, probably fun) that you would lose instantly if shot/spotted. It'd be Assassin's Creed: WH40k, where everything can kill you by passing gas.

I don't know 40k is a bit weird like that the Imperial guard codex is full of independent characters that should be dead by all rights Yarik and Straken being the two biggest offenders and so are the novels ciaphas cain had a brought a khorn berserker to a stand still in melee where by all rights he should of been killed in less than a second so I don't know they could get a way with it if as long as thay play the badass card

 

[Slycne]

Justin, I have to correct you in saying this is "our first time playing as a Space Marine outside of the strategy genre..." In 1995, EA (which was a great game company back then) published Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, a first person shooter that had you take the roll of a Space Marine in Terminator Armor blowing things away in the depths of space.

Aside from that, great article. I look forward to playing it as well as adding it to my collection. Thanks for the info.

Doh, I must have missed that one. I remembered Firewarrior, but you are not controlling Space Marines in that.

 

[dashiz94]

WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY THIS?!!?

I'm absolutely confused what has happened here.

Everything about this game just screams AVERAGE. The graphics are bland and atypical of most shooters these days, the gameplay is adequate but there's nothing that makes it extraordinary. I will admit, the sound was well done in this game, but beyond that everything else is just so mediocre.

What I find so funny about this review is how out of date it seems. Clouse went on and on about the EPIC sequences that all were bloody cutscenes, not gameplay. How is that fun? You know what game also makes you feel like a seven foot killing machine?

HALO

And unlike Halo Space Marine's multiplayer is painstakingly bland too. And armor customization? Already been done. A hundred times over. In other games (like Halo)

I guess what ticks me off so much is how everyone seems to be so in love with this game because of some...hell I don't know, fanboyism it almost seems. People complain all the time about strategy games being remade into boring shooters, but this is totally fine.

Please, for the sake of the medium, move past your fandom and just don't buy this game.

And you'll thank me later too. 8 hours for $60 bucks and a sub-par multiplayer? No thanks.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY THIS?!!?

I'm absolutely confused what has happened here.

Everything about this game just screams AVERAGE. The graphics are bland and atypical of most shooters these days, the gameplay is adequate but there's nothing that makes it extraordinary. I will admit, the sound was well done in this game, but beyond that everything else is just so mediocre.

What I find so funny about this review is how out of date it seems. Clouse went on and on about the EPIC sequences that all were bloody cutscenes, not gameplay. How is that fun? You know what game also makes you feel like a seven foot killing machine?

HALO

And unlike Halo Space Marine's multiplayer is painstakingly bland too. And armor customization? Already been done. A hundred times over. In other games (like Halo)

I guess what ticks me off so much is how everyone seems to be so in love with this game because of some...hell I don't know, fanboyism it almost seems. People complain all the time about strategy games being remade into boring shooters, but this is totally fine.

Please, for the sake of the medium, move past your fandom and just don't buy this game.

And you'll thank me later too. 8 hours for $60 bucks and a sub-par multiplayer? No thanks.

You know there's this marvellous little thing flying around these days called opinion, you may have heard of it?

Personally I love it, and I haven't even got onto the multiplayer yet. The review pretty concisely summed up my thoughts on it. Also I am so looking forward to getting the Customiser and making my own BLACK TEMPLARRR.

 

[Worgen]

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

Actually in this one chaos didnt orchestrate a damn thing in regards to the orks, the orks just happened to invade at the time that chaos was trying to pull something. A different chapter would be nice, I still would have preferred the Spacewolfs in the game, it would be amusing to hear them and the orks yelling at each other, no one would be able to understand a damn thing.

 

[Zhukov]

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.

Can I get "Doesn't know what the hell he's talking about but is certain that he does" for 200 Alex?

How about a, "thinks smartarse one-liners constitute a cohesive argument"?

I don't agree with that other guy, but at least he was laying down actual reasoned points.

 

[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?

Last I checked, Fire Dragons are Aspect Warrior, if you were referencing/saying something else, sorry, but I didn't catch it

I was talking about a game called fire warrior. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Warrior] it's a game for PS2 where you play tau of the fire caste. First warhammer 40k game i ever saw. I don't think it faired well on the review circuit though.

WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY THIS?!!?

I'm absolutely confused what has happened here.

Everything about this game just screams AVERAGE. The graphics are bland and atypical of most shooters these days, the gameplay is adequate but there's nothing that makes it extraordinary. I will admit, the sound was well done in this game, but beyond that everything else is just so mediocre.

What I find so funny about this review is how out of date it seems. Clouse went on and on about the EPIC sequences that all were bloody cutscenes, not gameplay. How is that fun? You know what game also makes you feel like a seven foot killing machine?

HALO

And unlike Halo Space Marine's multiplayer is painstakingly bland too. And armor customization? Already been done. A hundred times over. In other games (like Halo)

I guess what ticks me off so much is how everyone seems to be so in love with this game because of some...hell I don't know, fanboyism it almost seems. People complain all the time about strategy games being remade into boring shooters, but this is totally fine.

Please, for the sake of the medium, move past your fandom and just don't buy this game.

And you'll thank me later too. 8 hours for $60 bucks and a sub-par multiplayer? No thanks.

gentlemen, i believe we have a Halo Fanboy among us.

 

[Venats]

I'd have to disagree with you on that, the IA both in game(tabletop) and lit. are able to take down things that the Space Marines can't, yes, the SM are amazing,7 feet tall, blah,blah,blah, but they kind've stand out in alot of places, don't you think? They're good for retaking parts of a planet or a whole system, but when there's really just one thing in the way of the Imperium the IA get called is what I'm saying, and since they all have their own "traditions" for lack of a better word, the gameplay wouldn't always be going toe-to-toe with every,single target, where the Vindicators are good at holding patrols,taking out single figures and that sort of thing from long range, there's the sneakier Eviscerators that engage and kill everything, then there's the shapeshifters, the C-somthing's? that have to keep their real identity a secret waiting for the right moment, and I can see alot of potential there.And I doubt it would be knife to gunfight scenario for most of the things there, if you compare the IA points and scores to other named characters in the game, there's a lot of named space marines that have lower scores in everything, so it wouldn't always be everything but SM and bugs get killed.

I don't think SM are all that great, sure I play as SM on the table top but that is mostly out of nostalgia now-a-days since I started there oh so long ago. That aside, I see what you're getting at but I still feel that in a more 'real'/lore setting, an IA game would play very similarly to an ACreed game just by nature of how the Imperium uses the IA in lore. They are only ever used by the top brass to kill something of utmost importance and, usually, way behind enemy lines. They are solo operatives, they are fragile, but the whole idea is that they are never in open combat. So, a game like SM would not fit IA, a game similar to ACreed would be a better fit.

As for the IG, I guess if you played as some extra-lucky IG you might have something... to keep you alive.

 

[rsvp42]

WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY THIS?!!?

I'm absolutely confused what has happened here.

Everything about this game just screams AVERAGE. The graphics are bland and atypical of most shooters these days, the gameplay is adequate but there's nothing that makes it extraordinary. I will admit, the sound was well done in this game, but beyond that everything else is just so mediocre.

What I find so funny about this review is how out of date it seems. Clouse went on and on about the EPIC sequences that all were bloody cutscenes, not gameplay. How is that fun? You know what game also makes you feel like a seven foot killing machine?

HALO

And unlike Halo Space Marine's multiplayer is painstakingly bland too. And armor customization? Already been done. A hundred times over. In other games (like Halo)

I guess what ticks me off so much is how everyone seems to be so in love with this game because of some...hell I don't know, fanboyism it almost seems. People complain all the time about strategy games being remade into boring shooters, but this is totally fine.

Please, for the sake of the medium, move past your fandom and just don't buy this game.

And you'll thank me later too. 8 hours for $60 bucks and a sub-par multiplayer? No thanks.

But it's FUUUUN. Or at least my friends and I think so. We're 40k fans, sure, but there's a nice pick-up-and-play feel to the multiplayer and the campaign is fun, even if it's not groundbreaking. If you're not sold on the lore at all then yeah, you'll probably think it's lame and overrated, but for fans who just want to lay into enemies with a heavy bolter, it's great. There's no other 40k games out there that play like this. There's the RTS games, but no other recent shooters.

Oh and the reason this game gets a pass for turning a strategy game into a shooter is because the lore supports it. Warhammer 40k is turn-based strategy because it had to be. The tabletop was the only way they could realize it properly when it was invented, but everything in the game was meant to simulate some sort of real combat situation. When players roll to see who got hit by that tank round, it was meant to simulate an actual cannon shooting your squad and some troops dodging, surviving, etc. Plus all the books have already portrayed events as happening in real time combat. TL;DR - there's a precedent for this and it doesn't break the lore or spirit of the IP.

 

[Xan Krieger]

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?

Last I checked, Fire Dragons are Aspect Warrior, if you were referencing/saying something else, sorry, but I didn't catch it

I was talking about a game called fire warrior. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Warrior] it's a game for PS2 where you play tau of the fire caste. First warhammer 40k game i ever saw. I don't think it faired well on the review circuit though.

No it didn't do well on the reviews and I've actually played it. Liked it except for one stealth section where you have to avoid security cameras on an imperial ship or a door won't open. Said cameras can't be destroyed. I never completed that section. Also lasguns fire on full-auto and do piss poor damage (I think Space Marine also had this problem). Other complaints I could use against the game include being forced to hold onto 1 Tau weapon as a badge of honor even when I'd emptied it and there was no ammo to be found. Also you shoot down a valkyrie gunship while on foot.

 

[Iron Lightning]

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.

Well there was Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior where you play as a Tau but that game isn't great.

The reason that every one-person Warhammer 40,000 game is about Space Marines is that about half the people who play the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game play a Space Marine army. Sure, playing a cut-above the average warrior of any other race would work within the lore (although the Space Marines are really the only ones who are famous for small squad tactics that allow for maximum solidarity.) You could play an Ork nob or an aspect warrior exarch or some such. Unfortunately, demographics won't allow for that prospect.