I’m rather limited in my understanding of the Warhammer 40K universe outside of the miniatures at my local comic book store and the excellent Dawn of War strategy games from Relic Entertainment (who have also worked on this title) — Space Marine is the next evolutionary step for this developer to bring more of the 40K universe to life. When a game has enough guts to call itself “Space Marine” well, that gets my attention. It conjures up so many images of bad-assery, like a one man army who’s ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum (that’s a Roddy Piper quote, kids). In reality, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a rather generic action game that may be new for the franchise but does little-to-nothing new for the genre.
There are moments early on in the game that it feels like this could be the 40K action game fans have wanted for years. From the opening moments we’re shown our heroic Ultramarines ready to defend an Imperial Forge World from an Ork invasion, jumping out of their space transport, free-diving on top of an Ork vessel, and then riding it like a surfboard into the planetary surface below. As I continue through the opening moments of the game I cut through waves upon waves of Orks and the over-the-top violence beings to permeate my senses. I’m grinning ear to ear. The music begins to build with deep brass horns and pounding drums, the well-detailed and animated characters move freely in battle — it feels like I’m on the ground level of a Dawn of War game. Then I attack another wave of Orks. Then I do it again. And again.
