Remember when your mother would tell you that there is an ogre under your bed? You couldn’t do anything to defend yourself at the time but to hide those feet under a blanket until the sun rises. However, guess what? you can take revenge on those nasty ogres in this game, and boy, you’ll slay many I tell you.
Upon its release, the latter was immediately labelled as a Gears of War clone at first glance. Some went ahead and made threads upon threads talking about how Gears of War inspired the gameplay mechanics of the above-mentioned when clearly it’s not the case. Both are different in their own ways, and frankly, I tend to like Space Marine because of its mindless fun when it comes blasting hordes of foes.
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine is a third-person shooter mixed with hack & slash elements developed by Relic Entertainment, and published by THQ back in 2011. The console releases were published by THQ, meanwhile, the PC version was published by Sega. To no one’s surprise, the game takes place in the Warhammer 40k universe, but this time, it features the ultramarines chapter.
Story
The story puts you in the shoes of Captain Titus, leader of the space marines as they are called to defend the world from the orks’ menace. You and your battle brothers will fight through a throng of orcs that will do anything up their sleeves to destroy you.
Not only that, but also Titus and his brethren will face another threat other than the orcs, and that is, demons that are way deadlier than the latter. The plot may seem generic, but it has its moments where you’ll feel hooked in front of the screen while blasting a myriad of enemies one by one. Note that the story isn’t quite finished since the sequel was cancelled, hence, we have no idea what’s Titus fate.
There are a couple of twists in the overall game’s plot, but it’s not something jaw-dropping to witness. It can easily be predicted if you have already played a handful of games in the genre.
Gameplay
The gameplay is probably the main thing that will keep you hooked for a while. It’s like as if Spartan: Total Warrior and Gears of War had a baby together ( I wonder what’s the child name though). Captain Titus is a fearsome soldier that can take on a plethora of orks and other adversaries single-handedly by using a different set of melee weapons such as the chainsword that can be used to slice down enemies pretty easily.
After a couple of hours into the game, players will discover other sets of weapons that’ll aid them to take on any danger that befalls them. Gamers will find themselves swinging the axe or the hammer multiple times, and slamming it to the ground which causes the enemies to scatter all over the place.
In addition to melee weapons, the game offers a collection of guns to choose from. Each firearm varies from the other one according to its usefulness in battle. Players will often find themselves using the most destructible ones while switching to melee attacks in order to perform an execute animation.
The latter can regenerate your health once performed, but it leaves you vulnerable to enemies attack. Unfortunately, it can’t be cancelled once the action is performed, leaving Captain Titus vulnerable to any enemy that will try to finish the job. It can sometimes get frustrating and tiring when the only cause of your death is this gameplay design.
Space Marine may share some similarities with Gears of War in terms of gunplay, but this closeness remains superficial as the latter focuses entirely on melee gameplay. Warhammer 40k: Space Marine wants to keep you busy slicing and dicing ogres left and right unlike Gears of Wars where taking cover is the principal priority.
Yet, that does not mean in Space Marine you won’t be taking cover. In fact, I recall myself being always on the edge of death. The only way to escape that was to take cover somewhere until Titus’ shield regenerates its power.
In terms of ammo, you shouldn’t worry because the game has them scattered for you in every corner of the game. Captain’s Titus default weapon has infinite ammo, so this shouldn’t be a problem, right? Wrong. The best weapons in the game may fade out easily if you’re not using them carefully, and using your default weapon will make it hard for you to defeat certain bosses.
In brief, There’s a different set of deadly weapons in the game that you’ll quite enjoy using throughout the course of your playthrough.
Graphics
The graphics in the game are not bad at all. There are several scenes of the battlefield that’ll leave you on the edge of your seat enjoying the scenes of an apocalyptic war.
If you ask me, they’re quite similar to another underrated game called Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Both of these games capture the feel of an apocalyptic war between two gigantic adversaries, making you wish to see it remade into a movie.
All in all, it’s a polished experience – always considering the game released in 2011 – and the graphics will captivate you into Space Marine’s world, rather than make you feel that you’re playing an “old game”.
Conclusion
To sum it up, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine is an enjoyable action experience where you will find yourself hacking and slashing through a myriad of fearsome enemies that will try to eat you for dinner.
So, reload your gun, gather your bravery and dive deep with your armour into battle against those horrid orcs. If you are a fan of third-person shooters or hack and slash games, you should definitely pick this one.
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