Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

  **Be sure to check out the video review!**  

I was first introduced to the Warhammer 40k universe when I was looking for a new game to play and thought I might as well try this Dawn of War II game that was included in some THQ pack I had purchased. I had already tried another Relic game, Company of Heroes, and I liked their take on the RTS genre, particularly in the campaign, so I figured this Warhammer game would probably be well done. It of course was, and I particularly enjoyed the RPG/RTS hybrid they had come up with. More importantly, Dawn of War II generated an interest in me to keep any eye out for further games from the same universe, which brings me to today's game - Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.

In Space Marine you take on the roll of Captain Titus, a member of the Ultramarine chapter of space marines, who is dispatched to Forge World Graia - a planet that manufactures critical war materiel - which has fallen under siege by a group of Orks. This forge world is of "Absolute" strategic importance, to the point that those on Graia aren't even allowed to deploy their capital weaponry because of how it would negatively impact the planet's output. Unfortunately, a sizable human force cannot make it to the planet quickly, so Captain Titus and his fellow Ultramarines are dispatched to stem the tide until the main force can arrive, estimated at some time between 5 and 37 days after the invasion commenced. And so, in a series of events that are really, really cool, such as making your in game entrance by strapping on a jetpack and rocketing out of a drop ship, past several other aircraft, until you land on an Ork barge where you begin slaughtering those vile greenskins, you get to soften up the enemy by securing strategically important targets and generally killing anything that's not human.

I prefer the whole jumping out of a crashing dropship and rolling right into combat, but rocketing downward past broken ships is cool too.

Unfortunately you arrive nine days after the invasion started, and the Orks have already secured a sizable portion of the planet, including it's defensive battery. Therefore, that becomes your first goal, so you and your two other "battle brothers" - the hard nosed, taking-everything-in-stride-because-I've-done-that-already Sidonus and the still wet behind the ears Leandros, head in that direction. Along the way you uncover information about a member of the Inquisition who has an experimental device the Orks must not get. Apparently humans in the future have a tendency to put all their important stuff in one place, making a nice target for loot crazed Ork Warbosses.

The story progresses from there, with one very big twist in it. Eventually things get much more interesting when a third force shows up - Chaos. From that point on the game has a bit more variety, since you're no longer exclusively fighting Orks, and the Chaos forces do tend to provide a bit more of a challenge, particularly the Chaos Marines, which are, if I understand this correctly, Space Marines corrupted by the dark chaos gods.

Apparently the Chaos forces are related to Half-Life 2's combine.

The combat in Space Marine is pretty simple. You are allowed up to five weapons at any one time - a melee weapon, a pistol, a machine gun, and two more of your choice. You will always have the first three, and cannot switch your pistol for say, a sniper rifle. The only thing you can do is upgrade your weapon, as scattered throughout the game there are booths that allow you access to a new weapon or an upgrade for an existing one. With this you change in your combat knife for the iconic chainsword, and later can grab a power axe or thunder hammer, as well as upgrading your two base guns from bolters that fire ammunition to plasma weapons that tend to overheat, particularly the pistol when you charge it up. Other weapons include the Lascannon and Stalker bolter, which are two different sniper rifles, the extremely powerful shotgun like Melta gun, and the grenade launcher like Vengeance Launcher. This makes for some variety, as there are about a dozen weapons, including upgraded versions that replace base weapons, in total, but since you are limited to maintaining your pistol, which does have the perk of always having infinite ammo, and machine gun for two of your four slots, you don't have the options that you really could. Furthermore, some weapons and items actually limit you to only your pistol and machine gun, such as when you equip the extremely powerful Thunder Hammer.

While the firearms are nice, and you can occasionally do something really cool like rip a turret off it's base and use it as your own heavy weapon, I found that the majority of the time I was engaged in close quarter's combat. The reason for this is the way health functions in this game. You see, there are no health packs to heal you, and at best you have a shield that will regenerate over time, so there isn't much point in hiding behind some boxes and waiting it out. Instead, if you want to fill your health bar back up, you need to pull off a few executions. You do this by stunning an enemy, and then hitting the appropriate key to finish them off, always in the most graphic fashion possible. Bigger enemies are harder to stun, and may require larger weapons to whittle them down or the use of a grenade or combo, such as chaining together several hacks with your melee weapon followed by a large AoE stun to disorient several enemies at once. Unfortunately, this game's idea of a combo is to attack 1-3 times and then hit stun, so it's not exactly the most difficult thing to pull off. What is more of a concern is that you take damage until the execution is completed, so while you are locked in the animation of choke slamming an Ork and then smashing a hammer through his skull, you will still be taking damage, all the while leaving yourself vulnerable, and if you don't pay attention to how quickly your health is dropping or begin an execution in time, you will die.

The funny thing is you're encouraged to do this, but I would have done it anyways.

There are a few items in the game as well, such as those that unlock and upgrade your fury ability, increase the durability of your shield, and the occasional jetpack. Fury builds up as you kill and damage enemies, and once it is full, you can unleash to do a variety of things, such as drastically increase you melee damage, restore your health, or be used to augment your ranged attack. Fury is important when you are faced with several enemies at once, and can easily turn a dire situation into an assured victory.

What is far more enjoyable though are the jetpack levels. Here you are able to fly up into the air for a short period of time, reaching new heights, and then, if you choose, rocket back down to earth and stunning every nearby enemy. In many cases the jetpack is paired with the Thunder Hammer, the most powerful melee weapon in the game. When the two are combined you can quickly fly around the map, targeting groups or the largest threat with your jetpack impact, and then finishing off even the largest enemy with a good melee combo. This is probably my favorite portion of the game.

Yeah, this is just plain awesome.

My biggest complaint about this game is that it, quite frankly, gets old after a while. Slaughtering Orks is fun, especially at first, and the game mechanics that force you into combat rather than simply retreating to cover and waiting while your shield recharges are a breath of fresh air, but given enough time I couldn't help but feel that much of the game was the same: enter a small area where you are swarmed by a smaller group of Orks; defeat them and then take on the next wave, which is larger and will contain some of the next tier of Ork, such as those armed with guns; continue this process until you ultimately face a very large group with many normal Orks and 1-4 very, very big Orks. That formula describes a large portion of the game, and within each fight the strategy is pretty much the same, where you are pulling off the game's simple combos to stun an area of enemies followed by grabbing a few to execute for health, occasionally using your special fury ability when it is up to deal massive damage, generally focusing on the larger Orks, and regenerating some health that way. The number of enemies does add a level of difficulty not normally seen in most games, and I spent plenty of time dead because I underestimated the threat a couple dozen Orks could pose to me with a Thunder Hammer. I will grant that point, that it really did feel like I was taking on an Ork horde, watching as their Roks rained down from the sky and then they came pouring over the cliff or out of the rubble. It's just after a while the coolness factor wears off. Thankfully the story progresses and the Chaos forces get involved, and the diversity that results is a breath of fresh air that makes the game much more enjoyable.

Maybe for the sequel add more ammo? I love the power of the Melta Gun, but 10 rounds isn't remotely close to enough in most fights, and that might mean a bit less time in melee mode.

One other, albeit minor, issue. You would think that after the intro I wrote for this review, I would have invested heavily into other Warhammer 40k games, coming to know the universe like the back of my hand. It is true that I do own many of them - pretty much everything Relic has made, I do believe - but I haven't had the time to delve into too much yet, so I'm not really familiar with the universe outside of what is covered in Dawn of War. I know Warhammer is huge, with plenty of different races contending for power, each with their own idiosyncrasies, such as the Orks which are pretty much the scourge of the universe when they get on a roll, or the humans that worship a machine god emperor of some sort, but I couldn't go into much detail beyond that. Due to that, I believe I am missing out on some great part of the story in Space Marine, which would explain the struggle between the various races, how the Chaos forces come into play, or things like the human's obsession with skulls, the true importance of the Titan war machines, or the grandiose architecture present on the planet, which I can at least appreciate for artistic reasons but do not understand the logic behind it. It's also possible that I didn't spend enough time exploring to find all of the hidden collectibles, which provide you with recordings of various people on the planet, and subsequently more background for what's going on, specifically when you find Inquisitor Drogan's messages. While I ultimately did enjoy the story, it just feels like there is a whole other layer I am not privy to.

In closing, I would say Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a good game, one that is enjoyable enough in it's own right, though with a few things that bothered me. After putting 8 hours into it, I eagerly await the inevitable sequel, because the story does leave a bit of a cliffhanger, and I really, really, want to know where they're going to take this next. I managed to pick Space Marine up for $12.50 off of greenmangaming.com back at a time when the lowest price elsewhere was around $20. I have since seen multiple locations where it's more like $10, but I would be content finding it around the $15 mark, because it is a solid gaming experience - 7 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 7/10

Suggested Price: $15