A little while ago I took a slap at the demo for WH40K: Space Marine on PC. It's fair to say I predicted another weak product licence akin to Fire Warrior with little to recommend it over any other game of it's type.
Oddly enough, it turned out that I was right and wrong all at once. Right in the sense that the demo was poorly put together and that it showed off perhaps the weakest of Space Marine's features, wrong in that I fully expected all of these weaknesses to be present in the finished game.
The plot of the game is your standard Relic fare- the Ultramarines (bio-engineered troops of the Emperor of mankind) have turned up to evict some dirty, green, mockney aliens from an important forge world that just happens to also make Titans. The Space Marines don't like the idea of these greasy xeno yobs getting hold of any of these walking death contraptions, so they drop by to kick the invaders' collective teeth in.
Of course it's never that simple for the boys in blue as they push back the Orks and seemingly achieve their objective some gentlemen from the Eye of Terror show up fashionably late and throw a daemonic spanner in the works. Cue a massive battle for the soul of a world with your small squad of marines caught in the middle; will you emerge victorious or will you be just another victim of the ruinous powers?
In terms of gameplay Space Marine has borrowed much from Gears of War, the third person perspective, the aiming, the regenerating shield, the combat system; in fact the only thing it hasn't taken as inspiration is the cover system. It doesn't exist.
I mentioned this in my overview of the demo and thought it might become a real issue in large battles, but I'm happy to say I was a bit premature there. You'll still miss the ability to take cover like a frostbite victim does their toes, but you'll also come to realise that the game compensates for this lack in other ways.
For instance leaping out of danger then capitalising on the enemy's missed swing is a lot more exciting and in keeping with the Space Marine do-or-die idiom (I'm aware of the tabletop game and the PC RTS game's reliance on cover yes, but roll with it a bit). I do still wish the option to block had been included though as here melee combat without blocking feels a little like two children sloshing at each other with nerf bats until one falls over crying.
Other problems have made it over into the finished article as well. The QTE finisher system, while fun for the first twenty or so kills soon becomes a boring hindrance, being the only way you can restore your core health bar which does not share the regenerative abilities of your power armour. The fact that you can't move while executing remains a consideration and will get you killed unless you unleash it at just the right moment. Sadly the right moment is usually when you don't need the health boost.
Although some have argued that it adds a thin layer of tactical thought to the otherwise hack and slash nature of the game I have to stand by my initial thoughts here. The system needed to be thought through a bit better, perhaps having killing blows generate 360 degree knock-back?
Cover isn't the only apparent inspiration Space Marine has taken from Gears. When your squad voxes in to report or give updates you'll slow to a gentle strolling pace a la Marcus Phoenix; even the "hands free" pose is the same. It was almost enough to make me think I'd mistakenly paid money for a fan-made total conversion.
The action is brutal, albeit a bit disjointed; there are some points in the game where you'll be wondering where the millions strong green skin horde have managed to hide themselves; other times you'll be fighting through seas of the damn things. It blends melee and ranged combat well, making chopping up a small horde of enemies (using the limited but effective set of combos) while occasionally taking time out to pot-shot snipers who hang back a joy to experience.
Regarding the hardware you get to play with, it's pretty much a full house. You'll get your hands on all the signature kit like Melta Guns, Plasma Cannon, chain swords and even a skull-mashing daemon hammer. These toys are what made the game for me, as each different melee/ranged weapon combo alters the flow of battle by expanding or restricting your tactical options. It still boils down to simple two-button combos, but the effects are drastically different. For example, choosing to take along the two-handed daemon hammer will rob you of almost all your ranged power, restricting to the puny bolt pistol.
Visually the game is rugged and pleasing, faithfully reproducing the grim industrial mega-structures, post-dystopian habitations and scorched battlefields of the far future. Fans of the Dawn of War RTS series will recognise the art style used also, as familiar structures and units get a nice 3-D makeover. The player characters feel authentically chunky and macho as you stomp along dealing out the Emperor's justice from the muzzle of your chosen murder tool as befits controlling a seven foot tall ubermensch bred for war.
Enough with the gripes I think. Behind all of the niggly problems Space Marine is still a lot of fun to play. It successfully captures the atmosphere of the WH:40K universe as well as we have come to expect from Relic who really do have a lot of love for the licence. Space Marine loses ground for seeming to ape so very much of the Gears of War franchise, for having spotty combat and for being too damn empty in places, but manages to rally a bit with it's solid if predictable gameplay and decent (in form if not in implementation) multi player modes to keep you in the fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment