The Space Marine video game is out and about. I grabbed a copy for myself yesterday and gave it a proper go. This is a quick review as I haven't beaten the game...yet.
A quick back story….Ork invasion of a Forge World, Ultramarines called to help, you play as an Ultramarine Captain and his two buddies (Kodo and Podo as I refer) to them tag along…hilarity ensues! There now on to the rest.
Looks
The development team really spent some time with the G.W. people. There is a lot of detail in this game. It is crazy detailed. Your power armor has all the proper inlays, skulls, seals, etc. The Orks are covered in ramshackle armor; the Guard is proper Cadians and so on and so on. The Forge World has all the proper Mecahnicus imagery, scale and structures.
The weapons look and react proper as well. The bolter rounds explode, and it is glorious. The plasma weapons overheat and need to vent gas. The close combat weapons are great. The chain sword brutally cuts through Orks. The power axe cleaves through armor easily. The thunder hammer smashes, crushes and stuns as it should.
Now some of this warzone gets a bit repetitive with ruins and trenches, but it is acceptable. This is an urban warzone on an Imperial planet. The grim future isn’t known for city parks and attractive urban backdrops. Then all that suddenly becomes moot when you play through the planetary defense gun or Warlord Titan bay.
PLOT
Orks, Marines, stuff, explosions, blood, stuff, etc. Seriously, it is a video game. If you want substance you wouldn’t be playing this. Seriously though, the plot is about what you would expect from the majority of the Black Library books; Space Marines kill bad guys and some random stuff happens. It isn’t a bad story, just nothing I haven’t seen better elsewhere. Then again, if I want substance I’d read a book.
PLAY
Simply put, it is Gears of War-lite. It plays very similar to that game. The cover system and a few other tweaks aside, it is very similar. That isn’t awful, since I really love those games as well. It is a third person shooter/brawler. The brawling combos are simple, the shooting is easy and fun, your health, armor and ammo are easily tracked and the you have a fury meter for super attacks/shooting and health regeneration.
Now there are a few camera angle problems at times, but that is fairly common. The biggest problem for me is collision detection. There are many times where I’m cutting up Orks that are within objects and walls. It is the real gripe I have with the game.
The A.I. is Swiss. It is neither good nor bad. There are times your enemies will try and outflank or move to avoid fire. There are times they will just sit behind a bit of rubble and do nothing as you approach. Sometimes they will try and swarm you and then turn away and wander a bit. However, when they are doing it right it can be a challenge, when wrong…well it makes it even easier to cut apart the green horde.
OVERALL?
With 8+ hours in, I really like this game. The level of detail is stellar. I like seeing the details in the Mechanicus buildings (the prayer of awakening inscribed on a giant floor cog wheel), the Ork “uniforms”, entrenched Cadian artillery, SPOILER (Bloodletters and Chaos), the weapons, armor and violence/action. I think they got the feel of the 40K universe right in this game.
Now would I say go get this? Well if you are a rabid fan of 40K and like video games then yes. If you like the tabletop and are so-so on the video game front, then no. However, watch someone else play it and enjoy the work that has been done.
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