Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Space Marine is about as simplistic as current generation games get. As Captain Titus (Mark Strong, the narrator of Who Do You Think You Are?) all you really do is go forward and shoot/duel, and it's a long game with nothing much sustain the many miles of bad road. For a 3rd person shooter it's basic stuff. Set on a distant planet filled with Orks it is your duty to wipe them all out. The levels/chapters are very slow, with huge, cavernous empty spaces and bombed-out buildings that offer no interaction other than occasionally opening a door or elevator. Half of each chapter will involve you doing nothing but moving forward.

If it were not for the Warhammer brand name this game would be the very definition of shovelware. I played it right to the end, unlocking 34% of the trophies, but to get the platinum you'd literally have to spend over 100 hours playing this game. Quite frankly, I don't want to know anybody who commits that amount of time to a video game, or indoor activities in general.

Graphics B Sound B Gameplay C Lasting Appeal C-

This is the fully realised version of how I imagined the Warhammer 40K universe to look. Previously I had played Fire Warrior on the PS2, which is also an FPS game, but it looked a little bit flat. A long time ago I had also played Space Hulk (1993) which felt more like the board game and while it is a very good game it was in places dull to play.

Space Marine looks absolutely incredible, which is unsurprising given it is a late XBOX 360 title. It is arguably one of the best looking games on the system along with the two Crysis games. A lot of time, money and research has been spent in bringing the atmosphere of the game alive. The voice acting is of Hollywood standard, which also comes as no surprise given the cast involved.

The gameplay for me wasn't as fun as Bulletstorm, Crysis 2 or The Darkness. It is very good, but it was a bit repetitive and with 16 chapters often taking around an hour each it is a big game.

Overall this is a solid game, but like games like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow it just lacks the magic touch.

Once again the developers behind a conle game think its OK to convert it to PC by just allocating the different buttons to (COMPLETELY!) random buttons around the keyboard. You cannot change the setup so they make sense, and most are very hard to reach with one hand on the keyboard. I paid for this game and I'm not sure I should have...after 3 really intense missions I'm stuck at the end of the third, mostly because it's not really fun to replay, replay, replay. Clearly another console game that COULD have been great, but at some level it was chosen to make it one of those "just hit a lot of buttons quickly", that are quite hard on PC because (read above :P). The graphics are cool though...

It's rare that you love a franchise, you love a game or a comic book and you want a movie adaptation and you get exactly how you liked it to be. That doesn't happend very often. Given the fan base from the tabletop game, THQ and Relic have done a fantastic job taking on a project this size and capturing the essence of the 40k universe. The campaign's plot is engaging, the gameplay is superb, with a good variety of ranged weapons, a good variety of enemy types, and challenging and varied mission objectives. The camera moves smoothly during melee combat. With three distinct game types already available and more on the horizon, multiplayer is equally enjoyable. It functions flawlessly overall, and the ability to completely customize your character's armor and weapon loadouts keeps things fresh. Anticipating what DLC content will be released in the future.

This game was worked on by those who helped make Gears of War and God of War. You can feel the vibe from these two games in this one. It's a ton of fun.

If you want some deep story go elsewhere, this one is straightforward and is just about you, the player, being a badass Space Marine.

The weapons feel good to use and there is enough variety in them that you can have solidly different play styles.

I highly recommend this if you just want to chill out, chainsword some orks and have a little demonic fun.

Chainsword go Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.