Sledge looks good with a chainsword
All it took was an email and a phone call to call me out of retirement. I’ve long faced the reality that my writing days for Icrontic were over. My days of benchmarking were done. But here I am, writing for Icrontic Gaming because Icrontic Editor Brian “primesuspect” Ambrozy and THQ Community Manager (and Icrontian) Mat “Sledgehammer70” Everett knew exactly which buttons to push.
I’m a die-hard Warhammer 40K fan. My introduction to the tabletop game by Games Workshop came in high school and for the past 15 years I’ve spent thousands of hours (and hundreds of dollars) playing army men games, painting plastic figures, and rolling dice. I know all the back story, the characters and the factions. It’s a sad and nerdy addiction.
And when Sledge and Prime told me they wanted to fly me to California on behalf of THQ and Relic Games to give my thoughts on their new 3rd person action shooter, Space Marine, I jumped at the chance.
Space Marine isn’t the first Warhammer 40K video game, but it is the first time players have had a front row seat to witness the carnage of the Warhammer 40K universe. It’s also the first console game Relic has done with the Warhammer 40K property. Sure, I wanted to see if Space Marine was a good game, but I also wanted to see more. Since 2004, Relic has worked with Games Workshop to bring the the 40K universe to life through the wildly successful Dawn of War and Dawn of War II games—yet I was skeptical that they could translate the grim darkness of 40K’s gothic future into a game that stayed true to the game’s 25 years of history. This time, they’re messing with my baby. This time it’s personal.
Over the course of a full day, a small group of computer gamers, console gamers, FPS gamers, tabletop gamers, podcasters, fanboys, and an award-winning miniature painter hung out at THQ and Relic team HQ and played the Xbox 360 pre-production build of the game in single-player and 8 vs. 8 multi-player modes.
Single Player
Nothing takes an ork down like a chainsword to the chest
Single player puts you in control of Ultramarines Capt. Titus, a 7-foot-tall, 900 pound galactic badass. He’s a Space Marine. He has been bio-engineered to be one of the greatest killing machines in the universe. And he’s been sent to a forge world (think planet-sized war machine factory) to stop an Ork invasion. Warhammer 40K’s Orks fit in the standard fantasy definition of the race, but carry giant guns, ridiculous axes, and attack in large hordes. They pose a real threat, but Titus is just as much a threat to a horde of them as they are to him.
The first few levels are you typical tutorial stuff—move, strafe, attack, etc. This is where you learn to grasp the most important aspect of Space Marine. There is no health. The only way to keep Titus alive amidst the onslaught of bullets and blades is by stunning enemies and then performing incredibly gruesome execution moves on them. It’s simple to do—attack to weaken the enemy, then perform a stun attack. Stunned enemies show up with a hovering icon above them. If you hit the power attack button and hit a stunned enemy the game goes into a Max Payne-esque cinematic slow-motion mode where Titus performs one of many kill moves in gory detail, and some of your health is restored. It’s epic stuff in the vein of 300 and Gladiator. Axing an enemy in the head or bludgeoning him to death with his own shield provides truly memorable moments.
In a world where every enemy is also potentially a health pack, it seems like it’s too easy, but Relic came prepared. Performing epic attacks doesn’t stop you from getting beaten up—just as you’re ripping the jaw off an Ork Nob (they’re the big Orks with the best weapons), all the Orks around you are inflicting damage. This isn’t a movie cut scene—you’re still vulnerable. Very, very vulnerable.
The game isn’t all close combat. It’s shooting too, and this is where Relic worked video game magic with the Darksiders engine. Switching between close combat and shooting is seamless and easy. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of an axe swing—you can still aim your pistol and shoot an enemy. This works well during slow-motion execution sequences too. The camera changes slightly, but it’s never a jarring transition like in Grand Theft Auto, for example. It’s smooth. According to the developers, it’s also crazy complex and part of why there won’t be an SDK for modders for this game (sorry kids).
Cranking it up even more, Titus has a fury meter on the lower left side of the screen that, when fully charged, can be activated to give him true bullet time with increased accuracy and damage for all his attacks. When activated, Titus also will gain health from any enemy he kills. Sometimes popping your Fury is all you can do to stay alive.
The single-player story takes Titus all around the Forge World where he fights Orks and the forces of Chaos with the help of the Imperial Guard and a few fellow Ultramarines, as they try to prevent the baddies from procuring the Forge World’s ultimate weapons, the Titan—a multi-story-tall battle robot capable of leveling cities.
Simon Watts, the global communications manager for THQ, said the single player experience takes between 8 and 12 hours to complete with the sweet spot being between 10 and 11 hours for your average gamer. From what I could see, the story is compelling enough for gamers not familiar with the 40K universe. It also helps that the voice acting includes Mark Strong from Rock ‘n Rolla, Green Lantern and Kick Ass as Titus along with other well-known Brits, and the soundtrack was done by Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan who did God of War, Borderlands, Quake I and II and Starcraft II.
Frantic Multiplayer Action in Warhammer 40K Space Marine
Multi-Player
After you’ve beat the game, there’s gotta be more to do. In comes multi-player. Space Marine comes with 8 v 8 multi-player. It’s Chaos Marines vs Space Marines in Annihilation (first team to hit a set number of kills) or Seize Ground objective maps. Both modes are equally fun but I’m prone to the teamwork you get in the take-and-hold missions. The slow-motion cinematics are gone.
There are three playable classes per side:
- Tactical Space Marine / Chaos Space Marine—Players can equip a two-handed ranged weapon and wield a combat knife in close combat.
- Assault Marine / Raptor—Players have a jump pack that allows them to be agile, jumping around the battlefield and performing awesome ground pound attacks from the air. They carry melee weapons and a pistol side-arm.
- Devastator / Havoc—Players carry heavy weapons but are limited to only a powerful kick as their lone melee attack.
Team gameplay really captured the enthusiasm of our test group and we found the most enjoyable experience came with slightly smaller teams. One round we went 5 vs 5 and found it let us live a bit longer and work together a bit more to really give both sides a run for the money. The classes are very well balanced but still different enough to each have their own unique play style. Three classes doesn’t sound like much when you come from playing Team Fortress 2, but where Space Marine lacks in class diversity, it more than makes up for in customization.
As you play multiplayer and gain achievements, players will level up and unlock more weapons options along with weapon perks and class perks. Each class loadout has two perk slots where players can choose to customize their play experience with the perks they’ve unlocked. It works similar to Call of Duty’s system—perks modify how weapons behave or how the player plays. Some increase the rate health regains, while others improve weapons in a number of ways. There are 41 levels in Space Marine, and by the time you’ve hit level 41 you should have all the perks and weapons available to you in multi-player.
Furthermore, appearances are also fully customizable. Players can chose to mix-and-match multiple armor pieces for their marines and have full control of their colors and shoulder markings. Defaults exist based on Space Marine and Chaos Marine Chapters from the tabletop game, but players can control every detail of how they look if they want. Relic went so far as to incorporate the entire line of Games Workshop paints so tabletop players could use the customizer in Space Marine to mock paint their entire army without ever getting a brush wet if they choose.
P.S. Co-Op mode
Try as hard as we could, Relic and THQ would do nothing more than confirm that there will be five player co-op for Space Marine. TZJEB-IB4BF-HA5MQ
DLC
They were much more forthcoming about DLC. There is a ton of DLC in the works for Space Marine. Players will be able to purchase skin packs which add more chapter-specific models to the customizer for multi-player. Along with skin packs, the special pre-order exclusive weapons will become future DLC for everyone, and there’s potential for more weapons to be added to the game. Our group practically begged for Power Fists (a big arm capable of punching through tanks) and Lightning Claws(two clawed gauntlets capable of ripping through people) to be added. Finally, it sounds like more maps will come out as future content. Fingers crossed.
From a gamer standpoint, I see Space Marine as a potential hit. The story draws you in and gives you sweet graphics and brutal carnage in return. The multi-player will drive sales and keep people engaged. It’s win-win. As a Warhammer 40K game, however, it’s stellar. All the little details in the game, once you know what to look for, give me that much more of an appreciation for the product. They didn’t just get the gameplay right; they took the time to get the details correct. This is the first time I’ve been able to explore the world of Warhammer 40K on a screen, in first-person. It’s a huge step forward for the franchise.
The Special Edition
So there you have it. Space Marine will hit the shelves and Steam September 6, available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s worth pre-ordering. I’ll go so far as to recommend the Special Edition for anyone familiar with the 40K universe. Tabletop gamers and Dawn of War fans will love the special edition, which comes with the game, a beautiful hardbound art book, the soundtrack, some cool cards featuring the game’s characters, and a Purity Seal magnet to adhere to your case and show full devotion to the Emperor of Man, just like what Space Marines adhere to their armour. It’s an awesome set.
But maybe my take hasn’t convinced you. The playable demo, which features multiplayer and single player both, will be out on Xbox 360 and PC August 23, and PS3 August 24. Players who pre-ordered the game through Steam can get it now. Give it a shot, For the Emperor!
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