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Relic hasn't announced the release of the next installment of Space Marine, but from what we accept already as cannon (because Relic contributes some awesome stuff), what would you predict and/or like to see in the 2nd coming of the Space Marine video game?

Edited: this is meant to be a fluff question: Yeah sorry, let me rephrase the question, based on what you know of SM1, where do you think relic will take the sequel?

I want grander battles. There's a scene in the original Space Marine video game where you, your 2 squad mates, and 6 Blood Ravens storm a bridge held by Chaos forces. It's quite epic and fun and is easily the best part of the game, but it's also the largest battle you get in the game. 40k is a grand scale, things are meant to be enormous. I get Space Marines are elite and often don't operate in very large numbers, but there are still many ways to make battles feel larger/more epic/more like the 40k universe.

And obviously, new enemies besides Orks/Chaos, though the latter is obviously going to be a central antagonist through the whole game series (and that's okay). But for "initial" enemies, I'd like something more exotic like Necrons and maybe Eldar.

I want co-op via a Deathwatch killteam. You choose your chapter which determines passive abilities/benefits, then you choose your marine type and customize.

EDIT: We might also have to wait a few years for Relic to even start SM2 unfortunately. THQ is not doing well these days, they announced that all their studios will be focusing on one title and one title only. Relic will not start another game until Company of Heroes 2 is done with, and presumably DOW3 is next. THQ also acquired the rights to the Homeworld franchise a while back, so we might even see Homeworld 3 before another Space Marine title.

In before the move. (We have a video game section.)

A set of co op kill team missions would be cool. It would also be nice to see the inclusion of more races like eldar or tau. I find the video games to be the best representation of fluff there is. (I said best and that means more then just correct.)

 Harriticus wrote:
I want grander battles. There's a scene in the original Space Marine video game where you, your 2 squad mates, and 6 Blood Ravens storm a bridge held by Chaos forces. It's quite epic and fun and is easily the best part of the game, but it's also the largest battle you get in the game. 40k is a grand scale, things are meant to be enormous. I get Space Marines are elite and often don't operate in very large numbers, but there are still many ways to make battles feel larger/more epic/more like the 40k universe.

And obviously, new enemies besides Orks/Chaos, though the latter is obviously going to be a central antagonist through the whole game series (and that's okay). But for "initial" enemies, I'd like something more exotic like Necrons and maybe Eldar.

Warhammer 40k the tabletop game is grand scale.

The in fluff universe does not dictate that every conflict is massive. See Inquisitor, Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, most good 40k books, etc.

SM 1 was massive though. Remember that massive sky battle. That wasn't even a battle, It was just a short trip too.

That's the problem with Space Marine though. There's all the suggestions of awesomeness but they never pull through.

"Oh wow, awesome valkyrie fight... It lasted 20 seconds?"

"Awesome, look at the size of that imperial guard fortress, there will be a massive battle around that... Wait, it happened offscreen and you don't even get to see it?"

"Hey cool, I get to drive a titan or fire it or something... Oh wait, no I don't, I shoot down 3 blight drones and its done."


As for story wise... The Cappy is going to have to be expunged from the ultramarines, his name disappearing etc and he'll be joining the deathwatch full time.

That way you can have an overarching plot and still get to go lots of places to fight loads of different badguys.

Yeah sorry, let me rephrase the question, based on what you know of SM1, where do you think relic will take the sequel?

Hell yes - but your post should be in the video games section

Relic as an actual dev team doesn't really exist anymore. After DoW2 retribution and Space Marine didn't sell as well they'd hoped, THQ fired a good 80% of Relic's dev team. IIRC, almost the entirety of the team that worked on Dawn of War and Space Marine are now gone- the only group that was left unscathed is the team working on Company of Heroes 2. Thus, the chances that we'll see a SM2 or even a DoW3 are pretty low now.

Anyway, I'd like to see more epic set pieces- something resembling the scale of fighting we see in Modern Warfare 2 and 3. A gak ton of Guardsmen NPC's duking it out with enemy forces, maybe cultists and chaos marines, or even the Tyranids.

From a fluff perspective, I wouldn't mind seeing the captain you play as become a member of the Death Watch, and maybe fight on and around Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade. That way Relic can essentially make up their own storyline fluff without stepping on any canon toes.

Relic lost 39 employees, which is nowhere near 80% of their dev team. Like I said, THQ has announced that their studios will no longer be working on multiple titles at once. Relic will still be making DOW3 in the future, and I expect Space Marine 2 is still on THQs radar.

Also Deathwatch is Ordo Xenos, it doesn't really make sense for a Deathwatch game to be centered around a Black Crusade.

You should end up in the Ordo Xenos as a Deathwatch marine - more scope for random shizz.

Also the main character should have been a blood angel - with his jump pack fetish, disregard for the index astartes and then the rage mechanic means he should have been a blood angel!

Orblivion wrote:
Relic lost 39 employees, which is nowhere near 80% of their dev team. Like I said, THQ has announced that their studios will no longer be working on multiple titles at once. Relic will still be making DOW3 in the future, and I expect Space Marine 2 is still on THQs radar.

What's your source for this?

Not that I don't believe you. Rather, I want to believe you.

Source for layoffs: Here
Source for explanation of development philosophy: Here

I fully expect DOW3 development to continue immediately after Company of Heroes 2 launches.

That's fantastic news- the situation is lot less dire than they had made it sound on Relic's community forum.

I'm glad they've decided to make DM a non-MMORPG- that makes a lot of sense. Looks like we won't see DoW3 for at least half a decade or so though. Unfortunate.

BlaxicanX wrote:That way Relic can essentially make up their own storyline fluff without stepping on any canon toes.

But they already do. Didn't anyone catch that "alternate timeline" cop-out that was dropped by THQ when somebody pointed out the Captain should actually be a different guy?
Besides, 40k doesn't have a canon, it has a style. As long as the team gets the "look and feel" right, they'll be granted just as much artistic license as the writers at FFG or the Black Library.

Personally, I'd definitively add my +1 to more co-op. Co-op is generally awesome, and would have made the first game interesting enough for me to buy beyond the demo.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Battlefront type of game. All of the vehicles and titans and tons of marines at one time would be awesum.

Blah blah, GW has no canon policy blah blah. We've had this discussion before.

Nah, there's a continuity to the universe- despite GW's attempt to claim otherwise. It's nice when Relic's fluff fits in with it.

It's something I liked about the first few DoW game. It turned a little weird when Kyras became a Khorne daemon prince, considering that Khorne hates psykers.

I didn't know he specifically was a Khorne daemon prince. I mean, the whole bathing in blood thing can be fairly common for an undivided chaos prince.

And the way I see it, my whole 'expunged all records' idea of Captain X thing is a pretty good excuse.

Admittedly, doing it with the Ultramarines movie too does make it seem rather common....


It'd help if they stopped having everyone be Captains and just be 'Commanders' instead - traditionally a common marine term for 'dude who happens to be in charge at that specific time.' You wouldn't even need to go the full name of 'Force Commander.'

There was more than that. He mentions once or twice that the billions of lives snuffed out via exterminatus was part of his plan to make a massive sacrifice as a gift to Khorne. Before turning into a daemon prince, he yells "blood for the blood god, skulls for the skull throne", which is pretty Khorne-ish. He never really made any references or signs of fealty to the other Gods (though Ulkir was a GUO and he freed Kyras from the Space Hulk so there's that).

I always considered Space Marine to take place in M42, given that it is set after DOW Retribution, which was eleven years after a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan attacked.

With that in mind, I'd like to see SM2 break more ground in terms of moving the fluff forward. Situations on Armageddon settling down, the 13th Black Crusade intensifying, actually ending some of the inertia that has plagued the setting for years.

BlaxicanX wrote:
Blah blah, GW has no canon policy blah blah. We've had this discussion before.

Nah, there's a continuity to the universe- despite GW's attempt to claim otherwise. It's nice when Relic's fluff fits in with it.

Except the fluff didn't, they got the captains wrong...it goes completely against the continuity you claim exists in that respect.

And I third (or whatever) more co-op

 Harriticus wrote:
I want grander battles. There's a scene in the original Space Marine video game where you, your 2 squad mates, and 6 Blood Ravens storm a bridge held by Chaos forces. It's quite epic and fun and is easily the best part of the game, but it's also the largest battle you get in the game. 40k is a grand scale, things are meant to be enormous. I get Space Marines are elite and often don't operate in very large numbers, but there are still many ways to make battles feel larger/more epic/more like the 40k universe.

And obviously, new enemies besides Orks/Chaos, though the latter is obviously going to be a central antagonist through the whole game series (and that's okay). But for "initial" enemies, I'd like something more exotic like Necrons and maybe Eldar.

This. Also I think a good antagonist would be Tyranids and Chaos (if they can make a primary antagonist who isn't hammy Alpha Legion would be a good choice), with the Allies bieng Guard and Marines, possibly with some Eldar.

For a first offering it was pretty solid game. As far as a sequel is concerned, I would like to hop between diff characters ala ODST. This way you could experience different classes for different missions; a Terminator, a Techmarine, etc.

 d3m01iti0n wrote:
For a first offering it was pretty solid game. As far as a sequel is concerned, I would like to hop between diff characters ala ODST. This way you could experience different classes for different missions; a Terminator, a Techmarine, etc.

In all honesty there is no reason Captain Titus can't get terminator armour, he is a captain after all. I would actually like to see one where you switch perspectives. Perhaps you switch perspectives between someone on the ground and someone in orbit. First mission can be the orbit due in terminator armour storming some sort of orbital defence platform. Mission two can be the ground dude (perhaps with a jump pack) making planet fall against heavy enemy fire. The next few missions could be on the ground until the marines on the ground start taking fire from enemy ships in orbit and you switch back to the terminator in space, and you have to assault an enemy ship, and disable several key systems before escaping. Might also toss in a third perspective as a scout, unable to rely on brute force as much you can easily slay a regular human or Ork in single combat, but you lack the armour and hitting power a full marine has due to a lack of power armour (although the ability to at least crouch would be important). So the kinds of mission for each can be

Terminator: Close quarters action, you will be shooting your way through hordes of enemies or hacking your way through hordes of enemies. Watch as you kill enemies in their hundreds.
Tactical/Assault/Devastator Marine: Slightly less heavy handed, slightly more open space, not quite as much of a killing machine as the terminator.
Scout: Stealth missions, perhaps you have to sneak through a jungle killing off guards, infiltrate into a forward military base, and eliminate a renegade psyker or Ork Warboss or a synapse creature.

 motyak wrote:

BlaxicanX wrote:
Blah blah, GW has no canon policy blah blah. We've had this discussion before.

Nah, there's a continuity to the universe- despite GW's attempt to claim otherwise. It's nice when Relic's fluff fits in with it.

Except the fluff didn't, they got the captains wrong...it goes completely against the continuity you claim exists in that respect.

And I third (or whatever) more co-op

I never said they got it completely right, though. So... nice try. lol. Would you like to buy a vowel?

- - - - -

Tyranids would be a cool fodder villain, but their lack of characterization makes them a boring primary antagonist. I wouldn't want the "main bad guy" to be some monster that just growls and slobbers at you, ala Hive Tyrants and Swarmlord. So I wouldn't mind something a bit more.. sentient.

Thinking about it, I would love to see 'Nids as the fodder antagonists, with a really swag, quick-witted Dark Eldar as the main "behind the scenes" villain- the guy who's orchestrating everything from behind the scenes.

As much as we would like to see the fluff move forward, I doubt very much that the guys at GW would let anybody else come up with their stories. However, one can always hope!

Space Marine 2 was scrapped. They were planning on maybe making it, but it would have clashed with Dark Millennium Online. Then the brown stuff hit the fan, SM2 was scrapped and Dark Millennium Online dropped its MMORPG, and will now be a single player/multiplayer game held within the 40k universe.

So a direct sequel is gone, Titus might get a mention in Dark Millennium but then again, it was already under development with its own character ideas at the time. Changing from MMO to Single Player would probably just mean the player classes were changed to playable characters and you might end up with a game set out like Transformers Fall of Cybertron. Or as d3m01iti0n wished, a game similar to ODST.

I don't want another Space Marine game, I would either like another Patch or Dark Millennium to come out and actually be good.

SkyD wrote:
Space Marine 2 was scrapped. They were planning on maybe making it, but it would have clashed with Dark Millennium Online. Then the brown stuff hit the fan, SM2 was scrapped and Dark Millennium Online dropped its MMORPG, and will now be a single player/multiplayer game held within the 40k universe.

So a direct sequel is gone, Titus might get a mention in Dark Millennium but then again, it was already under development with its own character ideas at the time. Changing from MMO to Single Player would probably just mean the player classes were changed to playable characters and you might end up with a game set out like Transformers Fall of Cybertron. Or as d3m01iti0n wished, a game similar to ODST.

AFAIK there was never any announcement of SM2 even being started, let alone being scrapped. Do you have a source for this?