Review: Warhammer 40K: Space Marine

WE ARE THE SPACE MARINES, OUR ENEMIES DIE! Warhammer 40k: Space Marine is a pretty major turn from the earlier Warhammer games. Instead of being a strategy game like the previous iterations, the developers decided it would be much more interesting to try a third person shooter.

And they pretty much nailed it on the head. The combination of quick gunplay and vicious hack and slash mechanics really makes Space Marine’s combat rather enjoyable. Granted, the fight mechanics are nowhere near the level of the Batman series, but the game does pretty well on its own. The easiest way to picture is Devil May Cry gameplay but with less puzzles and more fun.

The story is rather interesting, the planet is invaded by orks and so the empire sends in the Space Marines to save the day. It’s the typical “we must save the day and defeat the enemies!” story, however, the plot twist that happens near the middle of the game is quite unexpected and executed fairly well. Unfortunately, the campaign is plagued by waaaay too many cutscenes. There is literally a cutscene for just taking a step forward, there is a cutscene for picking your nose, and there are several for acknowledging that you are a Space Marine. There are just way too many pointless cutscenes.

The multiplayer is rather enjoyable, featuring a lot of gamemodes and quite a few maps. Sadly, multiplayer games can be rather laggy due to the lack of dedicated servers, leaving players to rely on p2p hosting. Basically, your mileage may vary with the multiplayer. However, if you get a couple of friends together, you’ll probably not have to run into a lot of the network problems that hurt the game’s public matchmaking.

Overall, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine is a fun game that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone that likes third person shooters/hack-n-slashers. Being a Warhammer fan is not required, and you won’t be at a disadvantage for having no knowledge of the franchise.

Verdict: BUY