WHO YOU GONNA CALL?
Also for: Onlive, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, from developer Saber Interactive, is as raw and direct as they come. Orcs
with cockney accents invade a planet called the Forge World. As captain Titus,
Ultra Marine, you must drop down on this world, massacre their hordes and get
to the root of the infestation. In this lore, orcs are vermin and you're the exterminator. Titus refuses to wear a helmet, all to better let us gaze upon his heroic face. It is,
however, as expressionless as any stormtrooper mask.
Instead, those emotions are for the player to feel. It is a visceral
experience similar to Doom, with the same dour brown and grey
aesthetics, a burning world full of massive buildings of concrete turned into
rubble. You dash through in your hulking blue armor, smearing the green skin
of the orcs red with blood. Only when the sky turns into a toxic yellow, red
or purple do you get some semblance of natural beauty.
What separates Space Marine from Doom is the perspective - third person - and the limited maneuverability of the
player character. Titus is a tank, first and foremost, soaking up bullets like
moths to a flame. You can dodgeroll to get out of immediate danger. You can
also rush into enemy hordes and rip them apart with your chainsaw. When your
shields are depleted, your thick armor can withstand a good chunk of gunfire. And when you finally run low on health, you can perform an execution on stunned enemies to
heal. This concept was later stolen in the 2016 reboot of Doom, where they called it a "Glory kill".
The game focuses on what it does best. It's a steady gameplay loop of slaughter that never gets tedious because of a steady influx of new weapons,
enemies, story segments and arena limitations. Before the end you might've killed thousands of enemies. At times, fellow Ultra Marines
join the fray, turning the arena into a real battlefield. Some sections
provide you with a jetpack, allowing you to leapfrog high into the air and
crash down on the ground with a devastating area effect.
The pests come in different strength and stature. Some need to be stunned and then
executed in melee, but most are just swarms of grunts. They keep coming, suddenly
appearing from side tunnels, through floor grilles or dropping down from platforms above. A lack of traditional healing had me concerned for a while, until I
gleefully realized that lone orcs had been placed as makeshift medi-kits, ripe for a revitalizing execution.
Clear visual indicators ensure that you never miss a pickup. Ammo crates have
flashing blue lights. Red lights indicate codex skulls, containing recorded
messages from the time of the orc invasion. Huge containers keep new weaponry,
such as shotguns, rocket launchers and sniper rifles. Finding the right setup
for different scenarios is crucial. Otherwise it can get brutally hard.
I had some problems with the controls. Too many functions are spread out over
different keys to make keyboard and mouse a comfortable option. I soon
switched to a traditional controller, which was more convenient, but it made aiming
with a gun terrible. Whenever I had to snipe a lot, for instance, I briefly went back to mouse and keyboard. Never in my life have I been forced to
switch between control methods this way.
The game is over in 17 chapters of varying scope and difficulty, with some
excellent bosses or boss-like encounters at regular intervals. Some situations
require you to destroy a cannon - or activate one - to provide support for
your fellow troopers. Another situation requires you to board a ship and man its cannon for a short railshooting segment. Every section feels well-motivated by the storytelling, and the difficulty curve is handled well.
A clothesline story gets you from point to point, but
it's perfectly skippable for the most part. The extremely linear progression ensures you reach the next checkpoint, and
the friendly characters you meet along the way spew a lot of boring military
jargon I could've done without. A major plot twist didn't exactly catch me off guard, but it was a
neat story development that led to the introduction of a new enemy type. And
the ending had me fuming for all the right reasons.
The whole package is as traditionally masculine as they come; self-sacrifice
as heroism, no man left behind, a factual, no-nonsense approach to dialogue.
You can almost smell the sweat from inside your suit, and the petrol from the
chainsaw running in your hand. Combat is religion for the Ultra Marines, and
their bible is a codex detailing conduct and strategies on the
battlefield. A few decades past, this sort of high-octane entertainment was a dime a
dozen - particularly in the 80:s - and I grew tired of them. Now, I realize
it's been a very long time since they were in vogue. They need to go into some sort
of preservation program.
Prior to playing this game, I was totally uninterested in the unsexy Warhammer
40K-universe. This game has opened my eyes, and I've purchased more of the
stuff, prepared to learn more. It spans a lot of genres I already like or am
eager to delve into. The Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader role-playing game awaits further down the
line. But first comes the sequel to this game,
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. The praise it has received is what
brought me to Space Marine in the first place.
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