Leading up to its release, I had no clue on what this game had going for it. Hadn't seen any gameplay videos or previews and aside from some banners at PAX and making the front page of Steam, this probably would have gone over my head. Eventually checking out the demo, I was sold after the first 30 minutes.



Release Date: September 6, 2011
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Platforms: PC, PS3, 360
Price: $49.99, $59.99
Steam Store Page
Website
Trailer

The long and short of the game is that it's a third person shooter with a bit more of a focus on melee than the norm. The level structures are linear with you normally having to clear out an area before being able to move on. It really doesn't divulge from this formula for most of the game. It's nothing ground breaking in that regard.

Where the game shines is the feeling of the gameplay and how well realized the world is. Everything from shooting any of the weapons to swinging around the chainsaw sword feels very satisfying. Even the tiny nitpicks I have in third person games such as the speed and angle the camera pushes in when you pull up your gun to aim is all handled perfectly.



As far as the particulars of how the game plays, there is no cover system. While it sounds absurd or might even possibly be a sticking point, I personally didn't feel a single point in the game where one would have made playing more enjoyable. Anytime you do have to methodically pick off enemies, positioning yourself behind objects while doing it was no issue.

Space Marine has recharging armor, but the main way to restore health is by executing enemies. This involves either damaging them enough through any means or using your stun attack on them followed by hitting the execute button. This feature also works all well and good. One design choice I am torn about is that when you're pulling off these executions (which can get pretty lengthy), your character is still susceptible to damage (unlike Halo: Reach, for example). I understand why they do it, but I feel like more of a middle ground could be made in giving you just a bit of invulnerability towards the begining of the process.



The melee system itself is pretty straightfoward and nothing that requires a large memorization of buttons. Basically, you have a one, two, or three swing combo with the ability for the first two swings to end with stuns instead. There are a few different melee weapons, but like all the other weapons in the game, one isn't necessarily better than the others in the same class. It's a pretty good feeling to rip through hoards of enemies charging you and while the moves you pull off aren't the most elaborate or technical, it doesn't get old.

The rest of the weapons are all great to use with none of them really feeling like wasted opportunities. You can carry up to four weapons being a pistol, rifle, and two speciality weapons. In a lot of other shooters that have loads of guns, you typically find the few you like and cling on to them. In Space Marine, you'll seldom run into a scenario where a particular loadout you have might make it more difficult than if you went with something else which frees you up to experiment as you wish.



The structure of the levels is pretty standard in terms of third person shooters. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with it, but you are essentially making your way from point A to B occassionally having to interact with objects in the process. One thing about the level designs that did disappoint me is that there is very little in the way of memorable setpieces. Most of the memorable events are front loaded in to the game with most of the second half of the game's environments all sort of running together.

Another issue I had with the game is that the checkpoints can get rather tedius and cruel. It's not so much that there are hard sequences where checkpoints afterwards that aren't there should be, but they're set up in a way that you can spend a large amount of time before hitting the next checkpoint and that sheer amount of time can be a bummer if you die at the last moment. They're also occassionally paced awkwardly and can place you all the way at the start of a level making you run for quite a while before getting back to the action.



One of the biggest draws back when first playing the demo is that the graphics are rather lovely. The way the metal armor and orks render and never have that overly shiny, glossy look to them is very groovy. All the crazy ornate decorations and objects hanging off the space marine armor keeps it very interesting. I'm suprised they pulled the aesthetics of the space marines' huge armor off at all as it always seemed to me to be proportioned that way only to make it easier to recognize on the table top.

The multiplayer is pretty much what you'd expect. There's a team deathmatch and a control point mode along with a hefty number of weapons and armor pieces to unlock. They've also announced a free DLC game mode which'll introduce 3 person co-op hoard mode. The game does the typical loadout system and you can select different ones in between lives. It plays pretty much like Gears of War on steroids given the wider variety of abilities. Given how well Relic's first shooter did, it's a suprise they pulled off such a competant shooter and hopefully this brings the WH40k universe to more people (as it did for me).

Pros

- Great PC port
- Good length
- Satisfying combat

Cons

- Wonky checkpoints
- Lack of evenly placed set pieces
- No custom control binding
- No push to talk in multiplayer

Score

(4.5/5 Nanas)