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Alright here's a review of the game.


Overall: 6/10

Let me preface that overall rating with the note that I am a Warhammer 40,000 player, an avid fan of black library novels, own and dominate with a pink ork army, and that if none of these were true, that rating might have been an 8 or a 9.

The combat elements of the game are suitably impressive. Ample gore, 300-style stop-motion and slow-motion stuns and finishing moves, an entire host of weaponry to choose from in both your close and long range arsenal - the gameplay is smooth and fun.

Story: The story itself is believable. Orks invading a forge world, Astartes (albeit only three of them somehow) are tasked to stem the Xenos tide and safeguard a Warhound Titan. Where the game leaves it's first distinctly unpleasant taste in your mouth is unfortunately at the beginning of the game. Your avatar, Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, is accompanied by a grizzled and scarred veteran sergeant, as well as a regular Astartes trooper. As Captain Titus orders his two companions to prepare to jump-pack out of their descending (Thunderhawk?) the Astartes soldier with him whines in a high pitched British voice that such a maneuver isn't in accordance with the codex.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

1. F***ING SPACE MARINES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE HIGH PITCHED NASALLY BRITISH VOICES. That's half the reason the "not-even-B" movie was so bad.
2. When a Space Marine prepares to charge into battle, it is accompanied by "KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!" or "DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!" or "PURGE THE UNCLEAN!" or "DEATH TO THE XENOS!" Not a quibbly "Uh...Captain, I don't think the codex says we can do this."
3. It gets worse throughout the game. Imperial Guardsmen showing improper respect for an Astartes Warrior, backtalking, talking under their breath...
4. And your two companions have AWFUL AI and capabilities. While you yourself might cleave through dozens of gretchin with a single swipe, or spray arterial blood around the entire screen with a chainsword....your companions will mostly stand around, sometimes shooting or swinging ineffectually at the Orks around them. Completely un-Astartes-like behavior.

And what *really* offended me....was the take on Orks. Orks fight in undisciplined, unruly mobs. They don't station individual "ork snipers" on the high ground who snipe from behind cover once or twice and then stay hidden. Ork snipers on the high ground are supposed to blaze fire as fast as they can at the Astartes below them while screaming insults. And they're not supposed to be snipers, just the only ones who can fit in the window from the whole mob.

An Ork Nob fights with his unit, leads his boyz...and in Space Marine, a Nob will drop down as a "Boss Fight" - alone and unaccompanied after all the other boyz in an area are cleared out. Again: What?!?

Campaign Length: Too short for $65 + Tax.

I give it a 6/10 as a Warhammer 40k game. As I said above, if my views weren't tainted by an abundance of other fluff, backstory, novels, and actual 40k gaming...I would rate it higher.

Bravo, while I disagree with certain individual points of your assessments, I do agree that the game is somewhat lackluster and really in general not all that good, and I'm steadily becoming annoyed at all the people out there making it out to be God's gift to mankind because they can't take off the fanboy goggles that are welded to their faces.

Did you miss all of the IG standing up from being exhausted and wounded to salute you all of the time?

Also, I really think your complaints about the fluffiness of ork tactics are a bit unfounded... nobs are regularly accompanied by their mob of boyz later in the game, are you sure you've finished the game?

Eh, I think Leandros sounds fine, he sounds like a young neophyte recently promoted to full battle-brother.

Devs have said your allies are basically there to provide fluffy flavor, not really be killing machines; that's you.

The devs took some liberties with the fluff to make a better game, too bad you don't like it. I guess since we are making reviews, I may have to write one after I finish the campaign.

Already commented on this in the DCM section...

Copy paste magic!

I know this all oppinion but:

1. Warhammer has always been a british thing, and the British accent fits it MUCH better then for instance American would. And that's high pitched..?
2. They didn't charge into battle at that point, they were just planning to get down there.
3. Back talk? When? And improper respect? Every time they go "my lord this my lord that"
4. AI companions are never there to do your work for you, welcome to the world of gaming

As for the Orks. Fair enough, though IMO Orks have enough intelligence, or rather, battle instinct to know that a gun on high ground is better then a gun below.

And the nob, how many nobs did you face apart from the first one, that actually came all alone? They were almost always somewhere in a mob, if not half hidden in a giant mob.

I don't know the truth of it, but it sounds like you only played the first few levels and wrote this. Nothing on MP or chaos forces part either.

Not so much a review as a rant....

Btw, this isn't meant to antagonize you, just sharing my views (and no, I don't think this game is perfect, but that's more related to actual content issues)

Why would space marines NOT have british accents?

My only huge complaint is how da boyz sound, not nearly "orky" enough IMO

Soladrin wrote:Already commented on this in the DCM section...

Copy paste magic!

I know this all oppinion but:

1. Warhammer has always been a british thing, and the British accent fits it MUCH better then for instance American would. And that's high pitched..?
2. They didn't charge into battle at that point, they were just planning to get down there.
3. Back talk? When? And improper respect? Every time they go "my lord this my lord that"
4. AI companions are never there to do your work for you, welcome to the world of gaming

As for the Orks. Fair enough, though IMO Orks have enough intelligence, or rather, battle instinct to know that a gun on high ground is better then a gun below.

And the nob, how many nobs did you face apart from the first one, that actually came all alone? They were almost always somewhere in a mob, if not half hidden in a giant mob.

I don't know the truth of it, but it sounds like you only played the first few levels and wrote this. Nothing on MP or chaos forces part either.

Not so much a review as a rant....

Btw, this isn't meant to antagonize you, just sharing my views (and no, I don't think this game is perfect, but that's more related to actual content issues)

Copy and paste return magic!

I expect Space Marines to have british voices. British accent != prissy voice. The Chapter Master from Dawn of War had a British voice, but it was deep and inspiring. Space Marines should have bass voices, not tenor voices. In the military, a leader uses a "command voice" as opposed to a conversational voice. Space Marines are bold, inspiring, and zealous in the emperor's will, not uncertain lesser beings with quaking fear showing through their voice in second-guessing a Brother-Captain.

The "improper respect" I'm speaking of is in the chatter taking place in the locale, not in direct communication with the Space Marines.

Yes - I would expect Orks to have enough intelligence to take the high ground. 5-15 Lootas! Not 2-3.

You are correct in that I haven't finished the game yet. My review isn't focused on the levels - gameplay is the same throughout, and the gameplay is excellent. My critique is about the presentation of the forces in the game, compared to canon.

Don't complain about orks and nobs not attacking in giant groups if you haven't finished the game then, because they do. 2 nobs + tons of boyz is hard as balls.

Not to be rude OP, I do appreciate your review, but writing a review for a game you haven't finished is like writing a review for a book or a movie that you only got through part of.

It seems a little odd to call it a game review when the bulk of it is about how fluffy it is.

I too found the codex thing odd, but only really because these are Ultramarines who apparenlty think the Codex Astartes is the Bible or something like that...

The only problem I had with SP is the rushed campaign and poor pacing. The story... Well I've seen worse in a shooter. The ending is kind of meh but the campaign isn't horrible so I disagree with you there. I didn't mind the voices much except on the orks who don't always sound very orky.

I do however agree in giving the game a 6/10 but for different reasons, namely a lack of content.

Awesome single player game, awesome multiplayer, upcoming horde mode; lack of content?

Don't understand you guys.

daedalus-templarius wrote:Awesome single player game

6-7 hour campaign. Not much there. Just because the game feels and controls wonderfully (masterfully even) doesn't mean that there's enough stuff to do to keep one occupied.

awesome multiplayer,

5 maps and 2 game modes. That's Even less content that Transformer War for Cybertron had. That game at least had its horde mode at launch Compare it to Call of Duty, Halo, or Battlefield BC2 all of which had at least twice that many maps and at least four game modes. Two of those games have half a dozen or more.

upcoming horde mode

Upcoming. So we don't have it now. It's a month away. That's quite the wait for a game that has so little else to do. Even after we have it, depending on how they implement it it might not help much. I'm hopinh it's like Gears 2 Horde and uses the multiplayer maps (maybe if we're lucky it will come with new ones) rather than the Nazi Zombie method that uses specialized maps.

nectarprime wrote:Not to be rude OP, I do appreciate your review, but writing a review for a game you haven't finished is like writing a review for a book or a movie that you only got through part of.

Most "pro" reviews are written before the reviewer has completed the game... just sayin'...

daedalus-templarius wrote:Awesome single player game, awesome multiplayer, upcoming horde mode; lack of content?

Don't understand you guys.

Take off the fanboy goggles and look at it objectively. Not as a game set in the WH40k setting, but just as a video game in general. Compare to some of the other bigger titles from the past year or two. Be dissapointed.

Keep in mind, I am not a video game snob by any means, I LIKED the new Medal of Honor game, both SP and MP. I still play it just for the fun of it. Space Marine thus far has been a superlinear button mashing snorefest that requires very little skill. When I say its Dynasty Warriors meets Gears of War, I really do mean it. Maybe if they had implemented the more nonlinear open world gameplay elements of Space Marine it would have been more entertaining (and thus the repetitive gameplay forgiveable). In fact, I'm imagining what it would be like if you were playing an actual Dynasty Warriors game set in WH40k, with your character as a lone Space Marine surrounded by tons of IG, just making a general mess of things and coming to the rescue at the critical moment when your sides lines are faltering... and I'm sad, because that would have been a much better game.

Dashofpepper wrote:The "improper respect" I'm speaking of is in the chatter taking place in the locale, not in direct communication with the Space Marines.

This is the only real thing i disagree with...

chaos0xomega wrote:In fact, I'm imagining what it would be like if you were playing an actual Dynasty Warriors game set in WH40k, with your character as a lone Space Marine surrounded by tons of IG, just making a general mess of things and coming to the rescue at the critical moment when your sides lines are faltering... and I'm sad, because that would have been a much better game.

Same for me. Seriously.

I loved every edition of DW apart from 6, which failed due to the lack of work done to the weapon types, making too many of the characters play the same. People keep saying Space Marine plays like DW, it does but only at a really base level, Dynasty Warriors is so much more fun to play than this one, and people score DW 54% in mags due to its repetetion, I bet this gets high eighties.

If you took out Multiplayer, this game would be worse than Firewarrior for me, and I absolutely mean that.

Have to agree with Chaos0xomega and MDS - take away the 40K enthusiasm and this is a sub par button bash.

+ Combat is fun, and surprisingly doesn't get repetitive
+ Decent choice of weapons
+ Story isn't too hard to follow
+ Multiplayer doesn't suck
+ Vox Logs provide something for the completionists out there to spend some time on.
+ Ends on a very interesting note

- Might be me but the environments were boring. It's a forgeworld, I know, but still. Rubble, then desert, then labs, then a really cool spire at the end of the game that you need the jump pack to get around. Still, 80% of the game is rubble.
- A lot of the game felt undeveloped. The introduction of the chaos space marines left something to be desired, as well as various other parts of the story that nobody in game ever makes a comment on.
- Bosses were underwhelming. The first one glitched on me. Blasted him with 30 lascannon shots in the face before I died, then when I come back he's at a higher location that allows him to die. The second boss fight was basically a QTE. Mouse 2, Mouse 2, Mouse 2, SPACE, Mouse 2, Mouse 2, Mouse 2, SPACE, Mouse 2, Mouse 2, Mouse 2, SPACE, etc. does not make a good boss fight.
- Melee weapons. Less than halfway through the game you get the Axe, which just seems to outperform the chainsword in every way. Towards late game it was either use the axe and weapons, or use the hammer and one handed weapons.
- Game forces you to swap certain weapons for other certain weapons. You can never trade out your boltgun for anything.
- Multiplayer needs more maps and game modes.
? Why are their space marine upgrade pods lying around in plain view on a forgeworld?
? How many times am I going to hear about how the planet was going to get blown in half? I recall three times in three different conversations.

From a Warhammer 40k fan standpoint...
- Wish the whiny space marine that follows you would have turned to chaos so I could have blasted him. I hated him the moment I first heard him voice his concerns.
- I wasn't too happy with what they did to the lascannon, melta gun, and all plasma guns.
- Nothing felt like it was as devastating as it was supposed to be. Plasma pistol having the power of a small sun? Not in this game.
- Plasma doesn't "get's hot!"
- I love IG, but I hate those IG. Space marine fan club, the whole lot of them.
- Guardsmen lasguns suck, but traitor lasguns? Lot less suck. How's that work?

Take note, the last part is more or less pissing and moaning and should largely not be taken seriously.

Sub par button bash, I guess you guys must like playing on easy.

Maybe you should try that in multiplayer too, see how far it gets you.

daedalus-templarius wrote:Sub par button bash, I guess you guys must like playing on easy.

Maybe you should try that in multiplayer too, see how far it gets you.

Tried it on hard, wasn't that much more difficult IMO... oh, might I add that I was playing bolt pistol and chainsword only to artificially increase the level of difficulty? It really isn't that hard a game overall (except those damned bomb squigs). Haven't had a chance to play online, but I don't imagine it being anything other than more of the same, maybe with a bit more dodge rolling since thats the only way to really increase your survivability vs. roughly identical opponents...

chaos0xomega wrote:

daedalus-templarius wrote:Sub par button bash, I guess you guys must like playing on easy.

Maybe you should try that in multiplayer too, see how far it gets you.

Tried it on hard, wasn't that much more difficult IMO... oh, might I add that I was playing bolt pistol and chainsword only to artificially increase the level of difficulty? It really isn't that hard a game overall (except those damned bomb squigs). Haven't had a chance to play online, but I don't imagine it being anything other than more of the same, maybe with a bit more dodge rolling since thats the only way to really increase your survivability vs. roughly identical opponents...

I just hear a bunch of whining and theorycrafting without any substance.

Yeah, playing against hordes of orks and such is the same as playing against Human opponents with an entirely different array of weaponry, objectives, and mindset.

Do you guys even read what you type?

Karon wrote:

Do you guys even read what you type?

Yea, I want him to try and derp roll out of the way of a heavy bolter dev.

daedalus-templarius wrote:

Karon wrote:

Do you guys even read what you type?

Yea, I want him to try and derp roll out of the way of a heavy bolter dev.

It can work... if there's like a rock or something

Devastators really aren't my problem. I get snipped by a lascannon here or there but plasma and heavy bolters I find easy enough to deal with with some grenades and a storm bolter fire. My nemesis are the dreaded Assault marines and those painful blunt pointy things they carry.

LordofHats wrote:

daedalus-templarius wrote:Awesome single player game

6-7 hour campaign. Not much there. Just because the game feels and controls wonderfully (masterfully even) doesn't mean that there's enough stuff to do to keep one occupied.

awesome multiplayer,

5 maps and 2 game modes. That's Even less content that Transformer War for Cybertron had. That game at least had its horde mode at launch Compare it to Call of Duty, Halo, or Battlefield BC2 all of which had at least twice that many maps and at least four game modes. Two of those games have half a dozen or more.

upcoming horde mode

Upcoming. So we don't have it now. It's a month away. That's quite the wait for a game that has so little else to do. Even after we have it, depending on how they implement it it might not help much. I'm hopinh it's like Gears 2 Horde and uses the multiplayer maps (maybe if we're lucky it will come with new ones) rather than the Nazi Zombie method that uses specialized maps.

Little to do? An extremely fun single player and tons of levels of mp should be able to hold you off for a month, if not 3 or 4.

Jollydevil wrote:An extremely fun single player

And it only took one play through to do everything there was to do. Fun is all well and good, but I kind of need a reason to do one fun something over doing another fun something else.

tons of levels of mp.

Not sure if serious. 5 != 'tons'

The only complaint I have so far is that the Orks don't sound nearly mentally disabled enough.
I literally had no idea when the Space Marines were talking and when the Orks were.

You guys bought Space Marine.

I bought Dead Island.

I win.

Deadshane1 wrote:You guys bought Space Marine.

I bought Dead Island.

I win.

I agree. Space Marine was not worth 60 bucks...

@ deadshane 1. I got both does that make it a draw for me?

but on a serious note. I think it did great. compared to firewarrior it rocks. Yeah there are some probs with it, but just think if this takes off who knows what eles GW and THQ might kick down the pipe for us 40k nuts later down the road.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Deadshane1 wrote:You guys bought Space Marine.

I bought Dead Island.

I win.

I agree. Space Marine was not worth 60 bucks...

It's $49.99 on PC