[gb]Space Marine First Look[/gb]
Warhammer meets Gears of War in Relic's new third-person shooter.
When you first see Space Marine, with its third-person viewpoint, huge guns and beefed-up characters, it's difficult not to think that it looks a lot like Gears of War. The comparison is certainly justified. The name alone brings Gears to mind, along with rather a lot of other recent shooters. Then you see that the walking muscle of a main character has skulls daubed all over his power armour. And then, running straight up into a cluster of enemies, he brings out a chain-sword that bears more than a passing similarity to a chainsaw and hacks an Ork in half with it.
Upon closer inspection, though, Space Marine's resemblance to Blezinski's baby doesn't go far beyond the aesthetic (and you could argue that Gears steals a lot of its bombast and muscle from Warhammer 40,000 in the first place). For one thing, there's no cover mechanic. For another, there's a lot more fun to be had with melee – the chain-sword is just the beginning. What's more, Space Marine's enemies actually fall over when you shoot them rather than absorbing clip upon clip of machine-gun bullets into their leathery hides. And everyone has British accents.
![[IMG]](http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/111/1111890/warhammer-40000-space-marine-20100812054406700-000.jpg)
It might look over-familiar, but it's worth remebering that Warhammer got there first.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, to give the game its full title, is set on a planet belonging to the Imperium of Mankind that is under attack by Orks, the green, ugly, barbarian baddies. It's an Imperial Forge World, which means it's the centre of production for a lot of very big, very impressive-looking and very important weapons for the human forces. Losing it to the Orks might mark an unfortunate turning point for humanity's fate.
You play an ultramarine amongst a team of space marines sent in to stem the tide of Orks. His name is Titus, and he's a genetically engineered super-soldier who can stand proud in the ever-expanding line-up of videogame leads with muscular arms so enormous that they can't put them down by their sides. The game plays out as a continuous narrative from the second he hits the planet.
Space marines are designed to combine the attributes of all the great warriors of history – THQ explains that they've the iron constitution of Spartans, the honour of samurai, the belief of crusaders and the tactical awareness of a Roman Centurion. They wage war with huge, smoking guns from behind near-impenetrable power armour. The nature of the space marine character itself is most of the reason why the game doesn't have a stick-to cover mechanic, or indeed a cover mechanic of any sort. Having Titus cower behind walls in all that thick armour wouldn't make all that much sense.
![[IMG]](http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/111/1111890/warhammer-40000-space-marine-20100812054404606-000.jpg)
THQ says no to bullet sponges! Not sure what its policy is on bullet loofahs though.
Instead of hiding behind walls, you can actually run right through them, smashing great chunks of masonry into anything that may be crouching behind. Space marines are supersoldiers, and you're supposed to be able to have fun with them. The standard machine gun fires exploding bullets, so everything you shoot at blows up, dies, or blows up and dies. There's an anti-bullet-sponge policy; bigger Orks in spikier armour can take more punishment than others, but the challenge comes from the number of enemies rather than their strength.
There will be about fifteen weapons in the game – you can carry two at a time, along with a melee weapon. Interestingly, they level up as you use them, which changes the visual style of the weapon and unlocks new attachments and abilities. We saw a plasma gun which, when levelled up, has a charged blast that kills everything within a certain radius. There are also event weapons, as it were – hugely powerful pieces of machinery that you come across that often have just one ammo clip, but allow you to destroy waves of enemies at a time.
But Space Marine is as much about melee as it is about ranged shooting. In addition to the chain-sword, there will be hammers, power knuckles for crushing fist attacks and different types of sword, all of which have different gory finishing moves. We saw a few different types of enemies that succumbed to the chain-sword in different waves – Titus simply lifts up the smaller ones and cuts their limbs off, whilst jamming the blade into the chests of larger enemies to get them to the ground before stomping on their heads for an execution.
![[IMG]](http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/111/1111890/warhammer-40000-space-marine-20100812054402341-000.jpg)
Orks provide suitably slimy cannon fodder.
Thanks to all that armour, the space marines can absorb a lot of damage, so you can really get stuck in with a crowd of enemies for melee. It's a lot more entertaining than blind-firing over your shoulder from behind a crumbling wall.
Strong as the marines are, they're not indestructible. There's no stick-to cover system, but you can still hide from bullets by moving behind a wall or crate or other chunk of scenery. It's usually a good idea to get out of the direct line of fire when facing stronger foes, particularly bosses and mini-bosses – standing straight in front of a paint-daubed, spike-adorned Ork aircraft as it empties rounds and rounds of ammos in Titus' direction isn't particularly good for his health, as we're shown during an explosive face-off on a moving train.
Space Marine likes to break up the shooting with such set-pieces to spice things up a little. We're also shown a sequence inside a Valkyrie aircraft, where Titus picks off Orks wearing jetpacks with the mounted gun in order to stop them landing on the fleet and smashing gaping holes in the hulls. The aerial defence reaches fever pitch when Titus' own aircraft is mounted by an unfortunate Ork that gets caught up in the engine, sending the aircraft spinning towards the ground.
Variety will prove key for Space Marine. It's got Warhammer scale and spectacle and very solid shooting, and the melee is a refreshing twist on third-person shooter mechanics, but it will need to mix up the scenery and setpieces to avoid fatiguing the player with too much repetitive Ork-slaughter. What we've seen is good, though, and it piques interest about the rest.
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