Hands On: Space Marine - gratuitous Warhammer 40K action

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 14 April 2011 09:47

Opinion and Analysis

Publisher THQ has given iTWire some early hands on action time with the latest Relic Entertainment title to bring the war-torn universe of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K to digital life.  Space Marine is a third person action game that puts you in the gigantic magnetised boots of humanities greatest warriors, pitted against humanities most fearsome enemies.

James McDermott is from marketing at the (normally) strategic heavy high quality Relic Entertainment development studio.  McDermott is almost frothing at the mouth, eager to show off Space Marine, which is such a departure from Relic, normally associated with games such as Company of Heroes, Dawn of War and in the past Homeworld and other great strategy titles.

Space Marine is a definite side-step from Relic's past endeavours, instead of click based high level strategy, Space Marine asks players to step into a colourful set of power-armour and charge headlong into one-on-many battle.



The aim of the game is quite clear; 'This game is about being able to play as a Space Marine for the first time,' McDermott points out 'We're about being able to charge into battle, [Space Marine] is gratuitous in its brutality.'

Certainly the screen fills with the blood of Orks (of various WH40K clans) and Gretchin as our hero, Space Marine Captain Titus wades into the fray.  Ork limbs are severed by the sweep of a chainsword, or blasted away from afar by the explosive rounds of Captain Titus's Boltgun.

McDermott shows off one of the games main design features, the seamless transition from ranged to bloody close combat.  One minute Captain Titus is safely pounding the Ork positions from afar, but as the enemy numbers overwhelm his ability to keep them at bay, it is time to bring out the chainsword and go to work.



There is no 'gears of war' style cover system in this game, so despite the similar look and feel of a third-person sci-fi armoured bro-tastic game featuring chainsaws attached to weapons (Warhammer 40K had all of this first some fifteen years before Epic's game), the experience is entirely different.  No hunkering down behind walls for these non-camouflaged marines, instead Relic are encouraging us to get nice and soaked in alien blood during battle.

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