In a recent exchange with Arcadian Rhythms co-writer Shaun the world of 40k was discussed, including some of the more questionable bullet points from a popular publication’s review. In the following outburst, he wrote my intro:
“Welcome to the point of 40k. It’s a universe in which it’s considered justifiable for 1,000 innocent men to be executed just to get the 1 guilty man. It’s a universe in which space marines really are better than everyone else, because they were made that way. It’s a universe in which this pompous cod-Latin fits because it’s an aspect of the religious doctrine that is the only thing that holds the Imperium together. Everything is inflexible. Law is inviolable. Betrayal is death. Without it the empire would crumble, because when it’s common for planets to be out of contact for centuries at a time you can’t let things change too much. And even with that planets and systems go rogue all the time. 40k is, basically, a universe in which every empire, every species, is dying, and they’re fighting to slow that process. It’s dark as fuck. There is no “moral ambiguity”. The space marines are murderous fascists, and they’re also the last, best hope of a human empire that is the only thing stopping the entire human species from being consumed by the forces of chaos. Power fantasy? Well, sure, you’re powerful, more so than everything around you (again, welcome to the point). But would anyone like to live in that setting? Be one of those characters? Fuck no. Everything about the setting is unpleasant. There is no fun, no relaxation. There is only war. If you are lucky, you live and fight, and then you die, and your soul isn’t tormented for eternity. Nice place to visit. Fun place for fiction. But you’re an idiot if you think there is such a thing as a “good guy” in 40k. It’s a grotesque and baroque work of fiction on a grand scale; it’s the Marquis de Sade of obscene adolescent violence.”
Bizarrely, this diatribe serves as an interesting bed partner for my enjoyment of Warhammer 40k: Space Marine.
Space Marine is a hack and slash game with a heavy dependence on shooting set in the 40k universe, made by Relic Entertainment who are best known for their forays into the real-time strategy genre with the Dawn of War games, and not known for their successful forays into man-shooting games (do you remember The Outfit? No, most people don’t). Their latest effort follows the mission of three Space Marines dropped onto a forge world to stop a group of Orks from destroying the world’s precious Titans.
The game is steeped in the lore of 40k; the struggle through this dust-bitten planet, carving your chainsword through the Ork hordes is gruelling. The protagonists, such as they are, never come off as anything better than dutiful Templars with guns, and often they are much worse. The supporting cast are given the kind of respect they should. By that I mean that in this story if you make it to the rank of Ork Warboss, that means that he might be a ‘bad guy’ but he is still something to be feared and respected.
Likewise the art and atmosphere are true to what makes 40k fascinating and terrifying. Some might criticise the game’s Browns and Greys but that is missing the point. The planet is run into the ground by techno priests’ industrial inclinations and the greenskins’ subsequent dismantling of it.
For fans of Warhammer there is a lot to love here. This is true to the point that the game’s shortcomings can be frequently overlooked for the joys of hearing the mockney-accented Orks bellow ‘Waaarrgh!’ as they barrel towards the entrenched positions of the unlucky Imperial soldiers, destined to be short-lived cannon fodder.
The problem with Spare Marine is entirely a mechanical one. Early on the game makes it clear that ranged combat is not the best option; the weapons handed to you are flimsy and there is no direct cover system that a game like this would have been expected to have. So instantly the game encourages you to use close combat techniques instead. This is done by also making this the main way that you regenerate health; by performing finishing moves on stunned enemies or by triggering rage attacks.
In the first few levels this works really well, with an easy flow of using ranged attacks to thin the ranks before wading in to liberally slit gizzards and disembowel the opposition.
After the first few levels – on normal difficulty – this rhythm is offset by the opponents becoming harder and there being a more substantial smattering of gun-toting enemies who are lethally accurate. The execution moves that had so entertained with their 3-4 seconds of over-the-top violence now become stressful as you realise that while performing these moves your character is still taking damage and can be taken out while doing so. This susceptibility might have been interesting in the way that you would have to time an execution move well in advance. However the amount of damage you take is unpredictable and sometimes overpowering – there are moments where three attacks can deplete your shield and health bar. Your previously stoic Space Marine now succumbs quickly to barrages of attacks and the much-touted melee combat has to step down in favour of the much less satisfying gun combat.
By this point the game at least offers a much more interesting arsenal but the lack of true cover mechanics, instead relying on the player to clumsily walk behind walls, barrels and anything else that will stop a bullet, breaks the illusion the fiction desperately wants to create around these walking, talking tank-men. Instead the gameplay lurches quite uncomfortably from setpiece to setpiece. You can never really savour this digital teen power fantasy as you are too busy trying not to die.
There are definitely some awesome high points. Twice you are given a jetpack and a battle hammer that opens up the option of leaping from area to area, raining down smashes on the dastardly greenskins, but these moments are far too brief.
Please also bear in mind that this is all from the perspective of someone who played primarily on normal. I attempted the first chapter on the hardest difficulty and found that unless you resort to the ad lib cover system early on then the game is even more punishing, and even sooner so.
Perhaps this is what Relic wanted. Maybe they weren’t seeking to only evoke the misery and grit of eternal war through their exposition and storytelling but also through the game’s actions (or in some cases, the lack of some important ones that would help you to not die every few seconds).
As it stands Space Marine has a lot of potential. The plot line is suitably grim with some twists and turns that make many film scripts feel tame and predictable, even if the guy with the Alan Rickman voice was obviously going to betray you from his first introduction. It certainly does the Warhammer 40k outlook justice in the way that Shaun’s outburst illustrated. Unfortunately, the injustice of the gruelling slog that is most parts of the game mean that it’s too much like the world it’s set in, and you spend too much time wishing you were somewhere else – somewhere a little more fun.
Comments
27 responses to “Warhammer 40k: Space Marine: Review”
Until there is a video game version of Gorkamorka, I won't be happy.
EDIT: By which, I mean a good one.
Personally I am holding out for a decent version of Necromunda. Adeptus Titanicus would do in a pinch, though.
Looking back over my rant at the beginning of AJ's piece: man, I am such a 40k nerd! I've not so much as looked in a GW store in fourteen years and yet I still remember a terrifying amount about the setting and lore. I guess some things you can never escape… ;D
I love that my rant fed into this excellent analogy between the gameplay and the setting, anyway. And I'm saddened that Space Marine sounds like a game that's not worth bothering with until it dives in price. I adored the demo as soon as I figured out that the only way to win was to play like more of a badass rather than cautiously hanging at the fringes. Shame.
Yeah, you apologised prefusely, but I think it works really well. I mean, the reason I keep playing these games is for the hope that one of them will be good, the universe is actually very interesting.
The good ones have all been strategy games – Dawn of War was a great RTS, Dawn of War 2 was a great tactical spin on the Diablolike genre, and Shadow of the Horned Rat was a brutally unforgiving RTS too.
I guess this all makes sense, though, given the videogames' origins in tabletop wargames!
Funnily enough, I have Space Marine set in my CamelCamelCamel notifications for when it hits £20
It strikes me that "This game is worth paying X for" would be a good way of scoring them, even if it is a little subjective.
And yes, Necromunda would also be wicked – I'm sure one could recreate the games reasonably simply in something like Visual Basic.
No scoring, it is the only thing I am against. The next thing we'll be sucking up to IGN.
Speaking of which:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/119/1196353p1.htm…
I am ashamed that this exists.
Seconded. Fuck scoring systems into a cocked hat. Then nail them to a frisbee and fling them over a rainbow.
I'm glad you described it as a hack and slash with some shooting. It really looks like Crimson Sea (which is Dynasty Warriors with guns, IN SPACE). That said, some kind of shooting-while-slashing mechanic would've been nice here.
On that note, I'd like to use this space to vent my frustration at the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam games for not integrating guns into the fighting better. Here it goes… WAAAAARGH!
I loved Crimson Sea, the little I played of it, man I had almost forgotten that game. Koei desperately wanted that game to have a plot when they should have realised they were an accessible alternative to Gun Valkyrie if you didn't want to jump a lot.
I should really dig up the original on Xbox, or its sequel on PS2.
The only recent Dynasty Warriors spin off worth playing is Bladestorm. The franchise has never quite managed to do anything with its gameplay apart from reduce the number of buttons needed to be pressed to produce a combo from 2 to 1.
As for Space Marine, I wish I had bought two copies of Dead Island and made some of my buddies play it with me instead of spending the cash on Space Marine.
Whenever I climb that golden stair and get a PS3, I should be able to get both for cheap. I'll still end up getting Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 as well, since I cannot resist the siren call of killing tons of dudes in the Gundam universe.
And this is why they keep making them.
Do the people around you primarily play PS3, or is it the allure of Blu Ray films that harkens you to the PS3?
There aren't many absolute exclusives to the 360 that I'm interested in and it's region-free. Meaning I can play Deadly Premonition on the PS3 and just follow a guide to know what the text says (it still has English voices, so I can enjoy Francis York Morgan's dulcet tones). I also like the PS3 controller better.
And when it comes to the DW: Gundam games, I'm hoping more that their success would lead to the more traditional (and nowadays, pretty good) Gundam games to come out in English. Wishful thinking, I know.
??? I thought Deadly Premonition got a North American and European release? If you like the controller better, I utterly disagree for personal tastes, but that makes a lot of sense as the layout is a great deal different. As for X360 exclusives there isn't anything that is essential except for Earth Defence Force 2017. At a pinch you can make do with Insect Armageddon.
As for the Gundam games, that stuff just really doesn't travel very often, I remember playing a couple on the PS2, they absolutely awful.
Deadly Premonition didn't get a western PS3 release. Mainly it's the 360 d-pad that pissed me off, as it's more of an incredibly wonky and flat analog stick.
Here's a great and somewhat vexing article about Bandai's idiotic handling of Gundam releases outside of Japan: http://www.mechadamashii.com/features/features-gu…
I just realized that the article really isn't about that for the most part, but yeah. I'm tired.
Interesting, it seems that every time they went 'and this terrible game then spawned a really good one' they were referring to the only ones I had played (ie: I have played all the bad ones).
Interesting to know that there are good ones out there. They will never beat Faselei though.
Mech strategy (in English?!) = Great!
Programming mechs = Pass.
The NGPC was a neat handheld.
If you are talking about Faselei, then the mech programming part actually plays out a lot like Frozen Synapse on a much smaller scale. The game is still very palyable now. I thought it was going to be another Biomotor Unitron but I was very wrong.
NGPC is probably my favourite handeld out there, it still travels with me now. SNK vs Capcom: Cardfighters Clash is still one of my most played games ever
I suppose I could give it another shot, though my backlog is biblical in scale as it is. I would probably want to go for a mostly-completionist run of Dark Arms first. That game was what one might refer to as HELLA TIGHT.
Erm, not sure if it is the sort of mech strategy you are after dude, but MissionForce: Cyberstorm on the PC is a great hex-based strategy game with mechs from the late 90s, which between missions had you buying blueprints, growing and levelling pilots, building loadouts for your mechs etc. It was set in the EarthSiege/Starsiege universe, but much further down the line, and the plot was ice-cold and brusque.
There was also an RTS from the early 00s where you could build and design mechs from parts to supplement your more numerous, weaker forces. I forget the name of it, but it was a great game until nukes got involved, at which point the game became about firing nukes and trying to overwhelm one anothers' point defence systems during moments of inattention.
I had the second Cyberstorm a long time ago, but since I was so young I didn't really understand what the hell was going on. Down the line, I recall hearing that MissionForce was better (and turn-based, which is good since I don't like RTS much).
Would you be talking about Metal Fatigue?
Just to put it out there, thanks to everyone for being too polite to not mention the utterly piss-poor job I did on the Space Marine logo in the first picture. Paint at its best!
I have been looking for an alternative program to Photoshop that has a magic lasso function and both Gimp and Paint.net aren't them. Don't get me wrong they are both nice programs but they don't do the one thing that would make me use them primarily instead of paint.
If you hadn't said anything, I would never have noticed!
Paint.net has a magic lasso equivalent, can't remember what it's called though. Whatever it's called, you can set how closely it will got to whatever you're trying to select (in the case of stuff with fuzzy, ill-defined boundaries).
We must talk about this at some point so that I can make use of this feature. I can make less shitty covers.
It's the one with the icon like a wee magic wand. There is a setting called Tolerance that you can adjust to determine how much/little it will select. I.e. 5% will give you a lot of fuzziness around ill-defined edges, whereas 95% will probably shave off all the fuzziness and just give you the more solid areas/colours toward the core of whatever you're selecting. You can hold down CTRL to select multiple things in sequence (good for letters), or use it to select the background and then use Edit > Invert Selection… etc.
Thanks, I will play around with that.
[…] my review of Warhammer: Space Marine I made some disparaging comments about Relic’s only other notable attempt at a non-RTS game. […]