First Impressions: Space Marine

His stare means "Click to make bigger"

Space Marine is THQ developer Relic’s first foray into the world of third-person action games. I’m currently several hours into it, and thought I’d tell you what I’ve made of it so far.

Space Marine’s an interesting one, in that it’s one of the few games which seem to concentrate on just having a bit of fun instead of trying to tell some kind of heart-rending story. The basic plot is that a bunch of Orks have attacked an important planet, so go there and kill them all. And kill them you shall. We’re talking Orcs Must Die levels of killing here, but supremely grittier and easier.

                That’s no bad thing. It manages to get across the feel of the universe and setting quite well, with huge gothic structures dominating the landscape. The guns feel weighty and the close-combat is brilliant fun, and hugely visceral. Just how visceral is perhaps best illustrated by the method of gaining health back. You have a shield and when that goes you start losing health, which, in single-layer at least, doesn’t regenerate. What you have to do is stun a foe, and then perform some kind of gruesome finishing move on them, exploding them quite satisfyingly and bringing with at a big bunch of extra health. I also said it’s easy, but that’s not really the case. Or, I should say, is not always the case. There are some massive difficulty spikes, mainly revolving around fighting against the rocket-wielding enemies or the mini-boss guys. These are infrequent however, and the combat in general presents a nice blend between standing still and shooting stuff and dodging melee attacks, followed by ripping through enemies like they were nothing.

                The whole sense of being a Space Marine is presented well by Relic. You properly feel like a walking tank, able to outclass pretty much anyone that tries to kill you. And try to kill you they will. There’s a decent variety of Orks to fight, from the normal guys with an axe, the normal dudes with a gun and through to the close-combat specialist and shield-carriers. Their tactics never really change, with a bunch of them throwing themselves at you and hoping to do some damage. Whilst this may sound simplistic, it genuinely makes the player feel badass, where most games would have you cowering in a corner at the number of enemies trying to kill you. “Taking cover?” The game says, “Pah, only wusses take cover”. Indeed, just standing in the middle of the open and holding the fire button down is a valid, and more importantly fun, tactic. A particularly brilliant moment comes early on (and is in the demo) wherein you have to hold off a huge horde of Orks whilst one of those elevators from Half-Life (you know the ones, a diagonally moving platform) slowly makes its way up to you.

                Your squad is remarkably none-annoying as well. It (usually) consists of just the two guys, one a grizzled veteran and the other a rookie, but neither are particularly irritating. They are, however, stupid as bricks, and seem remarkably reluctant to shoot the Orks running straight at them. Still, the rubbish they spout is entertaining and wonderfully in keeping with the whole ‘Space Marines will do anything for the Emperor’ thing. I wish I could be as nice about the graphics, but honestly it bothered me that they weren’t better than they were. The characters look decent, but the texturing is very blurry in places, and the cutscenes, whilst getting a plus for being in-engine, are nothing to marvel at. Fortunately you general don’t notice as you’ll be watching something gratuitously explode across your screen.

                The standard run and gun action is broken up pretty nicely by some areas where you’re allowed to play around with a jump-pack. Essentially a jet-pack which doesn’t continuously fly, it’s enormously fun to use to leap into the air and then smash back down in the middle of a pack of Orks. Those sections are tragically short however, and the game may have been served well to perhaps include more or longer sections.

                Onwards to the multiplayer! I was pleasantly surprised by the multiplayer, consisting of a bunch of standard game modes and the now-compulsory co-op wave defence mode. You immediately feel pretty cool though, and the game gives you fun stuff pretty much every time you level up (as far as I can tell, I’m not that far in). Honestly though it’s pretty much redundant, as you unlock the jump-pack class after about half an hour and you’ll spend 95% of your time from that point on jumping onto the other players. Whilst a game should never rest solely on its multiplayer (Battlefield 3 just about gets away with it, and I suppose I can let Team Fortress 2 off as well) it’s always nice to have it as an option.

                So then, I would probably say buy it if you see it cheap. I’ve heard rumours that the single-player campaign never changes, and so far I’m inclined to agree I must admit. However, it’s still a fun distraction, and with the multiplayer as well, it’s definitely worth 10 or 15 pounds.