I think I've found my niche in the first person shooter genre. Its not the violence that turned me off the entire genre, its that most shooters are boring as fuck. Looking at the last few shooters I enjoyed I can recall Spec Ops and Bioshock Infinite both of which had great stories, but I also recall Bulletstorm a game so campy it might as well be living in Yellowstone park which I also enjoyed and is the one that shares the most with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.
Space Marine is a first person shooter that was developed by Relic Entertainment and is now being published by Sega after the former publisher THQ became defunct. The game is fairly old only being available on on the PS3 and Xbox 360 outside of its availability on the PC on systems with Windows which is where I played the game through Steam.
Despite the game being released back in 2011 it still looks, feels and sounds quite impressive. At every instances of the game be it during or outside of combat you really felt the world as you played in it. The clunking of the Space Marine armor, the growl of the chainsword, the thuds of the bullets, the crash as you slam into the ground using the jump pack, the squishing as you execute an orcs and so many more experiences just made this game so rewarding on a very visceral and animalistic level and I love it for that. The levels themselves were a bit bland though, there weren't to many detailed sky boxes or awe inspiring settings as most of the combat felt like it was confined to in door industrial settings, thankfully the colorfulness of the characters with their bright colors made sure that the game remained visually exciting. The voice actings thanks to the orcs was amusing, otherwise it would have been a bit boring as you listened to deep English voices drone on and on about order or chaos and about serving or killing the emperor. Having said all that the game definately felt like a true representation of the Wahammer 40,000 world and I enjoyed it despite not being a rabid fan like +Kamel al-Tamimi.
On top of what I felt was some pretty spot on graphic and sound design the game brought it all together with some very smooth controls. The game has two modes of combat, melee and ranged with a variety of weapons suited for each type of combat. There isn't to much creativitey when it comes to the weapons but that isn't something unique to this game, all first person shooter pretty much use the same kinds of weapons and I'm sure you can name most of them without to much trouble. The beauty of the combat in that game though is that you won't be able to get through the game if you don't mix both these types based on what you are facing during the various combat encounters the game has to offer. This need isn't a problem though as switching between the two styles is instantanious and natural and you will find yourself going from bolter to axe to plasma pistol to hammer to laser cannon so easily you might miss the fact that its good mechanic and game design that has allowed that to happen. A great feature in this game that I really enjoyed was the health recovery system. Unlike most games only your armor recovers when you leave combat in Warhammer 40,000, your health on the other hand can only be restored by fighting. To be more specific you health is only restored when you pull off an execution type kill on an enemy in melee combat. This to be was a stroke of genious, aside from being cool, this type of system incentivises the player to get into melee combat and on some occasions or at least like the occasions that happened for me you will end up pulling off some insane charges through enemies to pull off a life saving execution and its going to feel AMAZING! The combat also carries over pretty well in the multiplayer, but since the game is quite old getting a game isn't the easiest thing in the world. The ones I have gotten into have been fun though, there still seems to be a community going, its small but consistent.
The weakest part of the game in my opinion was the story. Its extremely predictable and cookie cutter if you are familiar with the lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. You will pretty much instantly be able to know which character is going to die heroicly, which one is going to be the traitor and which one is going to be the little bitch. As a result nothing that happened story wise was really that shocking. Despite that I still enjoyed the overblown reactions of the characters in the game and supreme seriousness that everything was treated with. It was all very campy, but that is true of the whole Warhammer 40,000 franchise. There was one major point of disappointment for me in the game though, the final boss fight was just such a massive let down after it had been built up for the last part of the game, thankfully it wasn't as bad as the final boss fight in Dues Ex; Human Revolution.
Despite the final boss fight being a disappointment, I still really enjoyed the game. It was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I have played in a long time, the combat was really intense and visceral while still being fun and I don't recall another game that did that for me other than maybe Bulletstorm. Unlike Bulletstorm though this game has the rich lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe to draw on so if you are a fan or new prepare yourself to be thrown into a very gritty, very despressing world and then just slaughter everything in it. Just remember brothers, 'The Emperor Protects'. The emperor is rather frugal though as well, you may want to wait for a sale to pick it up since the single player is pretty short lasting only between five to seven hours.
Despite the game being released back in 2011 it still looks, feels and sounds quite impressive. At every instances of the game be it during or outside of combat you really felt the world as you played in it. The clunking of the Space Marine armor, the growl of the chainsword, the thuds of the bullets, the crash as you slam into the ground using the jump pack, the squishing as you execute an orcs and so many more experiences just made this game so rewarding on a very visceral and animalistic level and I love it for that. The levels themselves were a bit bland though, there weren't to many detailed sky boxes or awe inspiring settings as most of the combat felt like it was confined to in door industrial settings, thankfully the colorfulness of the characters with their bright colors made sure that the game remained visually exciting. The voice actings thanks to the orcs was amusing, otherwise it would have been a bit boring as you listened to deep English voices drone on and on about order or chaos and about serving or killing the emperor. Having said all that the game definately felt like a true representation of the Wahammer 40,000 world and I enjoyed it despite not being a rabid fan like +Kamel al-Tamimi.
On top of what I felt was some pretty spot on graphic and sound design the game brought it all together with some very smooth controls. The game has two modes of combat, melee and ranged with a variety of weapons suited for each type of combat. There isn't to much creativitey when it comes to the weapons but that isn't something unique to this game, all first person shooter pretty much use the same kinds of weapons and I'm sure you can name most of them without to much trouble. The beauty of the combat in that game though is that you won't be able to get through the game if you don't mix both these types based on what you are facing during the various combat encounters the game has to offer. This need isn't a problem though as switching between the two styles is instantanious and natural and you will find yourself going from bolter to axe to plasma pistol to hammer to laser cannon so easily you might miss the fact that its good mechanic and game design that has allowed that to happen. A great feature in this game that I really enjoyed was the health recovery system. Unlike most games only your armor recovers when you leave combat in Warhammer 40,000, your health on the other hand can only be restored by fighting. To be more specific you health is only restored when you pull off an execution type kill on an enemy in melee combat. This to be was a stroke of genious, aside from being cool, this type of system incentivises the player to get into melee combat and on some occasions or at least like the occasions that happened for me you will end up pulling off some insane charges through enemies to pull off a life saving execution and its going to feel AMAZING! The combat also carries over pretty well in the multiplayer, but since the game is quite old getting a game isn't the easiest thing in the world. The ones I have gotten into have been fun though, there still seems to be a community going, its small but consistent.
The weakest part of the game in my opinion was the story. Its extremely predictable and cookie cutter if you are familiar with the lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. You will pretty much instantly be able to know which character is going to die heroicly, which one is going to be the traitor and which one is going to be the little bitch. As a result nothing that happened story wise was really that shocking. Despite that I still enjoyed the overblown reactions of the characters in the game and supreme seriousness that everything was treated with. It was all very campy, but that is true of the whole Warhammer 40,000 franchise. There was one major point of disappointment for me in the game though, the final boss fight was just such a massive let down after it had been built up for the last part of the game, thankfully it wasn't as bad as the final boss fight in Dues Ex; Human Revolution.
Despite the final boss fight being a disappointment, I still really enjoyed the game. It was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I have played in a long time, the combat was really intense and visceral while still being fun and I don't recall another game that did that for me other than maybe Bulletstorm. Unlike Bulletstorm though this game has the rich lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe to draw on so if you are a fan or new prepare yourself to be thrown into a very gritty, very despressing world and then just slaughter everything in it. Just remember brothers, 'The Emperor Protects'. The emperor is rather frugal though as well, you may want to wait for a sale to pick it up since the single player is pretty short lasting only between five to seven hours.
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