WH40K: Space Marine

[Maria Caliban]

 

 

Has anyone played this? Is it any good?

 

[HoonDing]

Planning on getting it when it's for sale. Of all the exotic factions in WH40k, it's a pity they picked the most boring and generic one to play with.

[Malcador]

Wasn't overly impressed with the demo, but I might pick it up on a sale. Was fun to chop Orks up and all but got tiresome. Would have preferred some a more squad based GR-lite style game, but eh.

[Tale]

I absolutely love the game. The multiplayer is okay. It's tacked-on, but has some fun going on similar to War for Cybertron. I'll enjoy it for a week or two until it dies. The singleplayer I thought was the excellent part.

 

I feel the demo was really representative. So, if you liked or disliked that, it should give you an idea on how you'll feel.

[Maria Caliban]

Planning on getting it when it's for sale. Of all the exotic factions in WH40k, it's a pity they picked the most boring and generic one to play with.

There's a reason Game's Workshop focuses much of the fiction on the Space Marines and Imperial Guard. GW has worked to create alien/non-humans that aren't just humans with funny foreheads and they feel that most writers would dilute that if they created a story from a non-human POV. I can't help but be sympathetic to that. Most of the books, movies, TV shows, and games that feature non-humans make them seem like humans from a different culture. Do you think Relic could do an Eldar or Tau PC justice? <-Non-rhetorical question

 

That said, the focus on the Space Marines also annoys me. It's difficult to sell me on a GRIMDARK setting when war is awesome and you get to play a technological superman. I'd love to see a game focused on a soldier in the Imperial Guard. Something by the same studio that did STALKER would be great.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Maria Caliban

[Maria Caliban]

I absolutely love the game. The multiplayer is okay. It's tacked-on, but has some fun going on similar to War for Cybertron. I'll enjoy it for a week or two until it dies. The singleplayer I thought was the excellent part.

Oooh, Tale loves the game.

 

What do you love about it? What about the SP was excellent?

[Tale]

I absolutely love the game. The multiplayer is okay. It's tacked-on, but has some fun going on similar to War for Cybertron. I'll enjoy it for a week or two until it dies. The singleplayer I thought was the excellent part.

Oooh, Tale loves the game.

 

What do you love about it? What about the SP was excellent?

I think I primarily enjoy the mix of TPS and hack and slash. Open fire on an incoming horde, then when the magazine empties, start slashing right into them. If things get bad, switch on fury. Or switch to a melta. Or dodge out of the way, try to regen armor/reload. It ends up just feeling like a sword and gun wielding badass taking on hordes of orks. Or Chaos Space Marines. There's something about dodging plasma fire to bash a guy's head in with a hammer.

 

Difficulty is a mixed bag. Expect deaths that you can only attribute to "too much **** is going on for me to really pay attention to." Likeseveral rocket launcher orks firing on you while you're stuck in a melee. Or other range dependent fights while you only bothered to equip for power hammer.

 

But at the opposite end, you've got moments in the game where you're equipped with assault packs and power hammers. Literally nothing will stop you.

 

For however much I love it, there's several people around here who felt it was repetitive. I can't stress trying the demo enough.

[Gromnir]

I absolutely love the game. The multiplayer is okay. It's tacked-on, but has some fun going on similar to War for Cybertron. I'll enjoy it for a week or two until it dies. The singleplayer I thought was the excellent part.

Oooh, Tale loves the game.

 

What do you love about it? What about the SP was excellent?

 

For however much I love it, there's several people around here who felt it was repetitive.

 

most o' the reviews we read echoed the above sentiment. reviewers loved the game... for the first hour or so. followed by grind, grind, grindgrindgrindgrindgrindgrindgrindgrindgrind. characters and story were too shallow to overcome the ultimately tedious and repetitive gameplay. we have not played, but the warhammer franchise intrigues us enough that we has been following.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Calax]

Biggest issue I've found is that the idea of difficulty has basically become "THROW MORE STUFF AT THE PLAYER!" until one of the ending areas. Also the lack of the ability to take "Cover" as found in various games as Rainbow Six leads to a sense that your character doesn't care about tactics so much as slapping the sweet bejesus out of his opponents.

[Tale]

your character doesn't care about tactics so much as slapping the sweet bejesus out of his opponents.

You say that like it's a bad thing!

[Calax]

your character doesn't care about tactics so much as slapping the sweet bejesus out of his opponents.

You say that like it's a bad thing!

It's from an ultramarine... the Smurfs are supposed to be obsessed with tactics!

[Calax]

Also, waiting for the "Exterminatus" DLC (basically, Gears "Horde" mode, or Nazi Zombies, or Dawn of War 2 Retributions Last Stand Mode... but for Space Marines) is going to be... excruciating.

[Oner]

Planning on getting it when it's for sale. Of all the exotic factions in WH40k, it's a pity they picked the most boring and generic one to play with.

There's a reason Game's Workshop focuses much of the fiction on the Space Marines and Imperial Guard. GW has worked to create alien/non-humans that aren't just humans with funny foreheads and they feel that most writers would dilute that if they created a story from a non-human POV. I can't help but be sympathetic to that. Most of the books, movies, TV shows, and games that feature non-humans make them seem like humans from a different culture. Do you think Relic could do an Eldar or Tau PC justice? <-Non-rhetorical question

 

That said, the focus on the Space Marines also annoys me. It's difficult to sell me on a GRIMDARK setting when war is awesome and you get to play a technological superman. I'd love to see a game focused on a soldier in the Imperial Guard. Something by the same studio that did STALKER would be great.

IMO they should just drop the Marines are AWESUM and HEROIK, and go for the real thing: fanatics trying to defend a dying empire. Superhuman but rare, there's a limit to what even they can do.

 

I mean, my fav SM is Thule from Dark Crusade. Why? 'Cause he was a simple-minded idiot who could only say "I'm going to kill you alien!". He lost pretty much every battle of wits (pre-siege banter with the enemy), even against the friggin' orks.

He was just an idiot instead of an avatar of awesome.

[Malcador]

So not a big fan of them falcon punching Avatars then ?

[Morgoth]

Relic made previosuly another Akshun game, and it failed. Nice try from THQ to force Relic staffing up for an action game, and when it fails, possibly shut it down. Really nice from THQ.

 

But no, I hope they'll just keep making good RTS games, maybe a new IP for a change? (Hey, I'd accept Homeworld 3 too for starters).

[Oner]

So not a big fan of them falcon punching Avatars then ?

Oh I am, but it depends on the context.