Space Marine: A Review

Mark Strong, voice of Titus

The Game spring sale is upon us, and with that, I have been dragged around every Game store within a 17 mile radius the past few days by my younger sister, who has seemed intent on buying every weird JRPG available, and it's limited edition boxset with exclusive packet of peanuts, cuddly condom and DVD showing the developers sitting on the toilet for half an hour explaining what they had for lunch (They are Japanese games after all.) After all this, I ended up buying one game, "Space Marine" a hacky, slashy, shooty, kicky, stompy game involving lots of blood, guts, gore and badly accented Orks shouting in their best Phil Mitchell impression "Kill de 'uman, he's a rite schlag, he tried touchin' up me sister dahwn the pub the cheeky monkey. I'll give 'im a schlap!" Based upon the table top game, "Warhammer 40K", "Space Marine" is a third person game set deep within the lore which surrounds the game. You play the role of Captain Titus, Captain of the second company of the Ultramarines chapter and all round pretty badass dude. He's also voiced by Mark Strong, adding a certain gravitas to the proceedings. He has been dispatched as the vanguard for a liberation force en route to an Imperial forge world, a kind of huge, planet wide ACME factory for humankind's machines of war, which has been over run by millions of Orks.

Eastender's extra's doing the voices aside, "Space Marine" is a pretty damn good game. Starting off with a nifty little dagger and pistol, you fight your way through a linear series of levels, with wave after wave of Orks, Gretchin and Squibs strapped up with more explosives than a Liverpudlian council estate around Bonfire night. Once on the planet you must help retake the vast factories and help reinforce the local guardsmen who are embattled against superior numbers of Orks. And so begins quite an epic, kickass adventure to protect humankind and the fate of the Imperium from Ork scum and an even more darker, sinister threat. As you progress through the game, your arsenal of weaponry gets ever more formidable, ranging from a Lascanon to my personal favorite, The Meltagun, a pseudo shotgun which melts and burns all in its path as you fire. The combat comes thick and fast, with ranged, shooter based fights fluidly changing into poweraxe/chainsword melee battles, with finishing moves seamlessly included in the fray, triggered by quick time events, and thankfully they are just that, quick. I especially enjoyed the moment I stuck a chainsword into the lower jaw of a huge Ork and watched it split his face apart by repeatedly tapping the B button. A warm sense of achievement flooded over me at this point and I relished the moment. However, mentally it didn't affect me whatsoever, and I did not instantly go to the fridge, pull out a steak and rub it into my face in some form of anointment.

The story progresses nicely, and there are a fair few little twists and turns which keep the narrative from going stale. In all honesty, if you are looking for a sandbox game which gives you multiple choices, lots of integration with the world and the ability to pick flowers and butterflies Ala Skyrim, then this certainly isn't the game for you. If, however, you are looking for a game where you move from one massive, epic battle to another involving face stomping, the removal of limbs from bodies, shooting green ugly aliens in the face and then loving the smell of charred xenomorphs in the morning, then this game is definitely for you. I could compare it to Gears of War, however it doesn't have lots of chest high walls and the combat is much more fun and engrossing, the hand to hand combat is fun and furious, but occasionally glitches out. This and the constant repetition of "Oi it's one of dem space marines, cor blimey guvnahhhhh!" are possibly the only gripes I have about the game, but then again, I am easily pleased and easily distrac.... oh Red Dwarf is on....

What this game did is tap into that inner thirteen year old who loved spending hours painting figures, modeling his Blood Angels and Ultramarine armies in preparation for a battle with a friends Ork army the next day. It brought back happy memories of sitting in the garage with polycement and making my own scenery, heading to the nearest Games Workshop and chilling with the geeks, virgins and forever alone's who also played it and those were happy times. In fact my army is still in the garage..hmm, do I get it out? Regression aside, I would love to see a sequel, unfortunately, THQ's head honcho has all but poured water over the firey bowels of weather or not there will be a sequel any time soon, read the article here. Oh well, there's a fair whack of DLC and some nice multiplayer modes to work through, so I'm going to stop writing this now, crank up the ole 360 and go slice and dice my way round a dusty planet with a solid look of glee cemented to my face. Long live the Emperor..