User Review : Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Lacking a Certain Something...

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine was tipped to be one of the big sleeper hits of 2011, in a similar manner to the unexpected rise Arkham Asylum and other games of recent years, and in some ways it achieves this. It recently sold, according to publisher THQ, 1.2million copies, which is certainly enough to warrant the sequel/franchise that is surely in the pipeline. There are some issues with it however, that for me at least can’t really be overlooked. The game’s place in the Warhammer franchise means that it comes packed with much backstory and myth and it, in its other media, undoubtedly influenced the sci-fi genre as it stands today. It’s often cited as being the main point of reference for the Gears series, for instance, so one would expect that a game based entirely on the Space Marine mythos would bear certain similarities. Unfortunately so much of the gameplay seems to look to Gears for inspiration that it’s hard to think about anything else, apart from how much I preferred that series, whilst playing the game. This issue coupled with a myriad of others makes it a hard game to truly enjoy, let alone love. There are some redeeming factors however, and I will be sure to mention them.

Gameplay wise Warhammer 40k plays like any other 3rd person cover shooter, the controls are fairly tight and it’s not hard to get stuck in to the combat. The game though, seems to lack the flair of many other series in the genre; the current gen of sci-fi games may have borrowed from Space Marine aesthetically, but this game seems to base much of its gunplay on the games surrounding it. The melee attacks are fun, but after chopping your way through x number of Orcs, the whole thing becomes a dull button basher. The game recovers from this somewhat with an interesting mechanic that allows you to perform QTE-like finishing moves that replenish your health after a particularly brutal takedown. This innovative idea adds some spice to the proceedings but it would’ve been great to see Relic include more of this kind of thing; as after a while even this becomes a tad tedious. There are some vehicle based missions in the campaign that I did particularly enjoy and that added some much needed variety to the game, but these moments of excitement were just too few and far between to really engage me or keep me on the edge of my seat in excitement, waiting for the next segment. This all ties in to what really is my biggest gripe with Warhammer 40k, the level design. I could deal with the standard, somewhat dull, combat if it was all set in front of interesting and surprising levels- but it’s not. So many of the levels lacked personality and inspiration that after a few hours I felt I was just wading through the same 3 sepia and grey moulds. This surprised me, I think, because the Warhammer franchise has long been known for its attention to detail and intricate story; 40k could really have benefited from some Valve/Bioshock style contextual storytelling.

Linked to the mostly disappointing levels was a seemingly unimaginative art-style, on both the environments and characters, and an overall disappointing aesthetic. As I’ve already mentioned most of the levels seemed to all have been painted with same colour scheme, which just seemed lazy after a while. The Space Marines themselves were fairly interesting to look at, but weren’t spectacular; in fact, the only things that I particularly enjoyed, art-wise, were the orcs. It seemed to me that all the character and flair that was missing from the rest of the campaign had been poured into them. Each grimace and snarl made me laugh and genuinely held my interest; the orcs are so animated, comical and varied that they actually go some way to redeeming a fairly lacklustre story mode. Unfortunately even they are undone by an entirely unbalanced combat system which sees you waste horde after horde of little green men with relative ease; for me, I would rather have played a game against less enemies who were more challenging. A little graphical niggle that bothered me as well, was that the over-use of basic blood-particle effects during melee combat seemed entirely for the purpose of covering up what seemed to be quite a limited, technically, graphical engine.
At this point it would seem right to tell you about the actual story, which was so utterly forgettable (in regards to both the characters and plot elements) that there’s not much to say. It wasn’t bad as such, just not as grandiose or full of spectacle as I was hoping for.

Luckily for developer Relic they manage to recover from a sub-par campaign with a surprisingly enjoyable and exciting multiplayer. Featuring all the modes you’d expect from a modern shooter, 40k’s online modes are exciting and interesting, taking what actually works from the campaign’s action and turning it into a fun frantic arena based experience.

In conclusion, I didn’t hate Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, despite how this review might read. I just felt that it was lacking any true imagination. Considering the rich source material the game had to fall back on, it seems odd that the campaign felt so devoid of personality. The multiplayer engaged me, as did some of the main mission…and I loved the orcs. All of this, however, just wasn’t enough to compensate for disappointing visuals, a lack of character and downright boring level design. 6/10.