Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

Where he's going, you won't need eyes...

Space Marine is a 3rd-person video game which is featured on the PC, the ECKSBAWKS 360, and the PS3. Its genre is a hybrid of shooting and hack and slash. It was released on September 6, 2011. A sequel, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II under Focus Home Interactive and Saber Interactive, was announced in December 2021, starring Captain Titus as a Primaris Lieutenant (Seems he got a demotion when he got the Primaris treatment), and featuring Tyranid foes. . . at first anyway. Remember chaos took a few hours of game play to show up so who knows if Focus Home will pull the same trick twice..

The Plot of Space Marine I

The story is set on the Forgeworld of Graia. It's being invaded by Orks who wish to loot the shit out of it; weapons, ammunition, vehicles, you name it. Rather surprisingly, the Orks have an actual objective this time: to steal a Warlord-class Titan of the Morning Star Legion (cuz iz ded shooty), an idea the Imperium isn't overly fond of. At first, the 203rd Cadian regiment was sent in to reinforce the forgeworld's defenses, but were eventually overwhelmed and pushed into a desperate defensive posture due to the Orks shooting down the majority of their support craft with a captured surface to air artillery cannon and simply outnumbering them by 100:1(As an aside: the Adeptus Mechanicus first codex was still years away so despite being on a literal forge world there is no sign of any Add-Mech troops).Captain Titus and a small force of Ultramarines are then sent to hold back the invading Orks with the help of what's left of the Guard while the liberation fleet is on its way.

The Forces of Chaos also have a part to play, and are led by a Terminator sorcerer lord named Nemeroth. They're basically here to open a warp portal using a heretically radical device to both turn Graia into a daemon world and also so Nemeroth can become a Daemon Prince. And unlike previous games, this features actual traitor guardsmen, not the "we've recently converted to chaos and we're here as fodder" guardsmen featured in Dawn of War, fuck no, these are kickass Lost and the Damned guardsmen.

Not surprisingly, BLOD REHVENS play a role, set against Chaos as they were seen holding the initial incursion, though they only appear in brief cameo. If the game is set after DoWII then we will see Gabe's reforms in action, which is nice (if the Marine ending in Retribution takes place).

Gameplay

Captain Titus vs EVERYTHING

No cover system. As a man from Relic said: "cover is for pussies". Space Marines are too awesome to be cowering behind cover. As a Space Marine, you are given enhanced regenerative abilities and an Iron Halo shield (due to your status as Captain). There are also brutal kills which the player can do to make the enemy's deaths more humorous/gory (to regain health like a man and to show-off the awesomeness of the Angels of Death, of course). Since you are playing as a Space Marine (and better yet, a veteran of 200 years of battle) you could easily kill thousands of Orks with just a simple vertical slash.

That being said, the Forces of Chaos are a lot tougher. Traitor guardsmen are still as weak as ordinary Ork sluggas and shootas, but are quite tactical, being able to organize and plan strategies spam grenades like they're playing a Call of Duty game. Corrupted psykers can spawn enemies and easily kill you from afar. Khorne Bloodletters can teleport, making it hard for you to shoot them, deal massive amounts of damage and can withstand quite a bit themselves. Chaos Space Marines are far more deadly. They pack weapons that are functionally the same as yours, are by far the most durable enemies, and they have regenerating shields like you do.

Instead of having regenerating health like every other shooter out there, you can only regenerate health by stunning enemies and FATALITY-ing them Mortal Kombat-style. Additionally, Space Marine features a Fury system, which allows you to slow time when aiming a ranged weapon or to unleash a devastating melee attack (provided that you filled up the fury bar by killing enemies of course). While Titus' starting equipment consists of a bolt pistol and combat knife, weapons can range from bolters to lascannons to plasma guns to thunder hammers. You also get to take jump packs which allows you to fly and make an assault jump, which allows you to create an AoE explosion by violently landing in a position of your choosing, though this does restrict your loadouts to only melee weapons and bolters.

Characters

This article contains spoilers! You have been warned.

• Captain Titus - A Captain of the Ultramarines Chapter and their last hope of finally getting some badass redemption of any kind. He is sent with his company of Ultramarines to prevent an Ork Waaagh!! from looting a forgeworld. It should be noted that his character was first seen as bald but was changed to have a shaved head in the early trailers. He was finally changed to a standard space marine HAIR-etic. He is voiced by Mark Strong. Yes...HE'S VOICED BY FUCKING MARK MOTHERFUCKING STRONG! He looks kinda like Proteus from Ultramarines the Movie, excluding the longer hair and the better-looking armor decor. Despite being a shrewd commander, he is looked upon with suspicion by some of his fellow Ultramarines after being the only surviving battle-brother from a battle with a Chaos Sorcerer. Deep strike is his favorite entry tactic as shown by his affinity of jumping out of vehicles.
  • At the end of the game, it's shown to the player that he does indeed possess an unnatural resistance to the warp, likely a result of his massive blackstone balls. Unfortunately, Leandros doesn't know that (the faithless cur), and since Titus is the only smurf with something vaguely resembling a clue who's realized that honor has a time and place, he gets roped in by the Inquisition on suspicion of HERESY! Thankfully, Thrax doesn't take his gun, implying that he isn't buying it... but that still means a certain newbie smurf is going to have a very long discussion on the merits of trust with a power fist, right after the anal probing tests of faith are done.

• Veteran Sergeant Sidonus - A slightly grumpy smurf, Sidonus is a veteran of the Ultramarines and designated comedian of the squad, delivering dry humor to the heart of the enemy when necessary (or when not so necessary). He is said to have battled Tyranids, Orks, Eldar, Chaos space Marines and Necrons during his centuries of battle. Quite badass, for an like all old Adeptus Astartes. He also has a bionic arm after getting his real one nom'd by Tyranids (Wait, I think I've already heard something like this...). Also lost his eye and half of his face when an Eldar weapon blew up in his face (... and something like this too...). Decided not to get reconstructive surgery done, opting instead to leave the scars because it looks badass.

• Brother Leandros - A newly recruited Ultramarine clinging to his shortened copy of the Codex Astartes and behaves as a typical Wardian-era smurf. He is the youngest of the squad, being only 75 years old (which is considered young by Space Marine standards) yet he has one of the highest honors that a chapter can bestow (that, ironically enough, seems to be missing from Sidonus' power armor mantle as a veteran, it is assumed that he is trained in the use of terminator armour, like all 1st company veterans) except the Crux Terminatus is an award, so he should still have been carrying it, Terminator honors. Titus probably took his, so now he's mad at him for it... perhaps a little too mad...

• Second Lieutenant Miranda Nero - Being the only loyalist commissioned officer left, Mira leads what remains of the 203rd Cadian that was reassigned to Graia. Turns out they went too far out into the green sea and got cut off from supplies and support. She seems to share Merrick's view of placing the lives of her men above the Imperium. HERESY!!! The fact that she's holding the entire operation together despite being just a lieutenant impresses even Titus.

• Inquisitor Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg Skrillex Drogan - The Inquisitor. He looks like he hasn't slept in a week (which is understandable, given that he's fighting both an Ork WAAAGH and Chaos Space Marines on top of being a psyker), and his hair is really dirty and emo looking. He also has a metal plate attached to the right side of his head. Most likely a radical. He's also EXTREMELY obsessed with killing xenos due to him having been tortured by xenos for several years. During his time on Graia, his EXTREME obsession made him create mysterious experimental weapons in hopes of getting revenge, and one of these experiments included a portal that led to EXTREME consequences. This is due to the fact that the forces of chaos used said portal to enter the forge world, EXTREMEly. His eyes also lit up during a cutscene. MUST BE A HERETIC. BIG TWEEST. HE'S A PUPPET FOR THE LORD SORCERER.......... Okay it isn't that simple. Turns out he had a "subject" delivered to his laboratory to test his shiny new weapon on, the "subject" turned out to be a daemon which escaped, and proceeded to buttrape poor Drogan and possess his corpse (all the backstory is in the audio logs). Since this daemon read the fluff, he's decided that maybe the EXTREME factions have a bit more pull, so he pretends to be EXTREME. He is somehow almost as tall as a Space Marine, likely the result of genemods.

• Lord Nemeroth - A Chaos Terminator Sorcerer Lord and the Big Bad of the game. He is possibly the Sorcerer Titus "killed" previously. He leads a warband consisting of Chaos Marines, Khornate bloodletters, Blight Drones, and Tzeentch psychers (presumably the forces of Slaanesh were left out so as to avoid an Adults Only rating in America). He also proves Relic's infinite creativity at naming characters, for the difference between him and Eliphas' nagging wife is but two wretched letters. Also found a way around the Squishy Wizard law, because he wears TERMINATOR ARMOUR. Still got beat up by an Ork wearing almost no armour, though. Titus manages to defeat Nemeroth because the latter forgot to wear a helmet (then again, neither does Titus). Shame, too, because he was just at the doorstep of becoming a Daemon Prince.

• Warboss Grimskull - He is the Ork Warboss leading his Ork WAAAGH!!! on Graia with the intention of stealing the planet's Titans. Later on, he becomes interested in the power source Titus and Inquisitor Drogan possess. He ain't so easy to kill.

• Inquisitor Thrax - The inquisitor that appears at the end of the game with his retinue of Black Templars, where his name was mentioned on the monitor for the status on Graia. He came to take Titus into investigative custody after Leandros' accusations of heresy. Was likely planned to be a major character in the sequel, but that unfortunately never came to fruition.

Things that rock

The official sequel

• Seemingly a better game than that Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior where you play as a Space Communist on his first day of duty, who is apparently a one man (well, xenos) army that could single-handedly kill genetically modified super soldiers, a daemon prince TWO Daemon Princes and a greater daemon of Tzeentch. lolwut?
• You get to play as a Space Marine.
• Guardsmen who fight alongside you have balls of steel, they rarely fall back. (Which makes crunch sense: with a Space Marine Captain alongside them, they too SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!)
• Orks (this time they actually look like a credible threat, not just dumb drunk ape-brawlers on steroids)
• Captain Titus isn't a total Mary Sue like the rest of this Chapter, even going so far to say that the Codex Astartes is just a guidebook and not meant to be taken literally. Thus: FUCK YOU MATT WARD.
• NO REALLY FUCK YOU MATT WARD
• Hilarious amounts of blood, dismemberment, and all other forms of gore you could imagine. Khorne would probably favor this game, even if you do play as an Ultramarine.
• Executions (like the sync kills in DoW, which you can do to a stunned enemy) are actually required for you to restore your health, rather than going around and picking up medpacks, ducking in a corner and letting your wounds heal like magic, or some other unmanly method. Ensuring that playing longer requires you to give those guys screaming at you a good ol' fashion Chainsword enema, which is awesome.
• Chaos Space Marines.
• BLOODLETTERS!!!
• You pick up an Autocannon in one TWO levels.

One is running away from the enemy, the other is running INTO the enemy. Which do you think is loyal to the Emprah? Another difference: one is a genetically modified super soldier with a FUCKHEUGE power armor and Ultrasmurf plot armor, the other is a normal man with a cardboard armor and a flashlight. Both are facing angry green warmongers. Which do you think has balls of steel?

• Mark Strong (who you may remember from his previous roles starring in Rocknrolla, Kickass, Robin Hood, Stardust and Sherlock Holmes) as the voice of Captain Titus. (Don't forget Merlin from the Kingsman! Who wouldn't want to see Captain Titus murdering some greenskins while belting out Country roads by John Denver)
• JUMP PACKS. Out of fuel. (They be awesome while they last though)
• Pre-Order skins for Black Templars, Blood Ravens, Space Wolves, Iron Hands Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children.
• Apparently, even the games demo would destroy a PC's motherboard due to its extreme epicness. Watch here for proof [1]
• Co-op comes in the form a 4-player Horde mode.
• Standard multiplayer is Chaos vs. Spess Mehrens. Fuck yes.
• You get to paint your own multiplayer character, much like the army painter system in DoWII. BETTER, because you can change every part of your power armour and paint up to THREE COLOURS FOR EVERY PART. Seriously, is a delight to try paint schemes, it have an asslot of colours and your (Chaos)Space Marine is in glorious 3D. You also get to pick your own loadout.
• Cock of Duty-like perks. Yes, multiplayer perks. However some of them are cool and are named after rules from the TT game, Most make sense, others are FUCKING STUPID (see bottom of next list). One real nice thing about the perks is that you can use them along with your tailored loadout in EXTERMINATUS.
  • Said mode brings together 4 battle brothers able to act essentially like mini-Tituses, healing at ridiculous rates with Zeal, Larraman's Blessing or Iron Halo and slaughtering 20 waves worth of orks and one of chaos (or guardsmen, for Chaos Unleashed players)
• Livery changes for the single player are widely available for free. If you still hate the smurfs, you can easily change that by playing something like the Black Templars or Angry Marines. are unlocked at level 5 and only affect multiplayer. Enjoy your smurfs. ACTUALLY: whilst it is true that customization options are only available from level 4 onwards, there are unofficial modifications available for livery changes for a great number of chapters in single player. (see: http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?262044-Space-Marine-Custom-Titus-Skins-Armour-of-Angelos)
• After release fans wouldn't stop bitching (read flooding the official forums) asking for a mute all button in the multiplayer lobby. A couple weeks later an update included the mute all button, in short THEY GET SHIT DONE
• New DLC just added Dreadnoughts (AKA ungodly walking rape machine).
• The Anniversity Edition, released on 9/23/21 made all the DLCs free for people who have it, as well as giving goodies like soundtracks, classic and new wallpaper, the manuel, ringtone, artbook, collector's cards, and the launch trailer as well

Things that Suck

• When the daemons first show up, Titus refers to them as "Chaos daemons!" Is there any other kind? WAIT, DON'T ANSWER THAT!
• Explosions look like total ASS. While the texture work on the game is extremely detailed, they apparently skimped on their pyrotechnic effects. Some of the smoke and explosion effects look like they came off a PS1 game. This is painfully jarring in the opening aerial battle between the navy and the Orks.
• Ultrasmurfs. (Bear in mind though, you would probably bitch about it if they mentioned any other chapter as "the greatest of them all". Observe). However, it could be argued that part of the joy of the badassery of Captain Titus is that he lends credit to that stereotype.
• While "Cover is for Pussies" is a manly mechanic, being able to fire from cover while being pinned by tons of Ork Shootas and Chaos Havocs in unreachable positions wouldn't be so bad.
  • Don't forget the waves of renegade guardsmen who posses an inexhaustible supply of grenades that they lob at you without hesitation. This alone makes it nearly impossible to complete the later chapters without abusing cover and Lascannon camping.
• No awesome executions in multiplayer. Multiplayer executions were dropped because it would leave you vulnerable while performing it and some people would get upset at seeing their marine having their organs torn out. This leaves one wondering why it wouldn't be left in as an optional humiliation move.
  • More baffling is that it is being left out of the upcoming co-op as well for the exact same reasons, despite it being in singleplayer, meaning you can only regain health by hiding in cover while your health regenerates. "Cover is for the weak" indeed.
    • Further undermined by the fact that not taking cover against Tankbustaz will get you killed in a ludicrously quick-and-dirty way, as will charging into a pack of Traitor Guardsmen whilst they burn you alive in your artificer armor with volleys of flashlight fire.
• Explaining things to the newbs.
• There is NOBODY in fucking multiplayer, seriously, I've fucking waited for hours. NOT ANYMORE. The free giveaway have given new life to the multiplayer, with a small but loyal fanbase playing practically every day.
• They wanted to cast Sean Pertwee (Who played Governor Severus in Fire Warrior) as one of the characters, but they already had enough VA's. Not having Sean Pertwee in a Warhammer game, or film, is just plain wrong (though they do express desire to cast him in a possible sequel). UNFORTUNATELY! THQ said that there won't be a sequel. FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! There might be a sequel, apparently, but only if THQ doesn't collapse in on itself like a super-massive star due to all its debt. THQ just went belly-up. The sequel's destiny is now in the hands of Sega....Emperor preserve us all. And he has heard our prayers! it's happening, bois!!! LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
• Another 40k game about some Space Marine snowflake. See Ultrasmurfs. But on the bright side, only Leandros acts like the generic Mary sue Ultramarine, Titus and Sidonus are more-or-less likable, even by those with a slight distaste for the Ultramarines.
• Not enough choppy. For a game that relies a lot on melee combat, not a lot of actual melee weapons to go around, only a knife (Which you can only use at the beginning of the game), chainsword, power axe, and thunder hammer and additionally, sync-kills are fairly limited for each one and starts to get "meh" after a few playthroughs. Given 40K's extensive armory of choppy choppas, you would think Relic could include more things like more power swords, fists and claws, eviscerator chainswords (And a large two-handed, flamer-toting chainsword would have been emprah-like to have), or just more sync-kills for said 4 weapons so players would have more variety in the amount of gore present.
• Apparently, melta guns are shotguns now and the Lascannon is some kind of retarded sniper rifle with slow-mo.
  • Sounds somehow familiar, no? The Meltas are only shotguns as far as digital crunch is concerned; they're still burning death rays fluff-wise, disintegrating tons of orks and even daemons in one shot. As for the Lascannons, they aren't any more or less of a sniper weapon here than they are on the tabletop (basically an anti-materiel rifle, except on super grimdark space steroids). Neither of them do a lot against Dreads, which is bullshit. The lascannon has a minor mitigation in that Titus doesn't have the accompanying power-backpack, which could understandably make each shot less powerful.
• Games consist of melta, plasma cannon, stormbolter, or vengeance launcher spam, the few players who disdain cheap tactics (oddly the ps3 space wolves champion this view) lose on principle unless they're banned in a tournament or are a cheating fuck named jwolf96 who bolt pistols you with a headshot WHILE JUMPING AROUND AS ASSAULT.EVERY TIME.hax.
• No Flamers. (melta gun doesn't count)
• No Grav-Weaponry. (No halofags the Thunder Hammer is not a grav-weapon)
• Gears of War fanboys constantly saying that the game is a copy of Gears of War, even though it's a hack and slash shooter hybrid that does not feature a cover system (GOW is like a ducking simulator). They're also too magnificently retarded to realize that Warhammer 40,000 came Waaaaaaaaayyyyy before Gears of War. Not to mention the Space Marines of 40k inspired the giant space marine with the huge weapons.
• FUCKING audio stutter during times where you're battling hordes of enemies (which, in a hack-and-slash game, happens all the time). It's revealed that this is not hardware related as even those with high-powered machines and updated drivers also suffer from this. Relic might provide a fix for this but some are shifty about this, fearing that they might pull off the old Dawn of War ignorance on this game too. If you want a slightly acceptable temporary fix for this that doesn't require you playing this game in silence, infinitely loop a battle theme of your choosing on your music player such as Requiem for a Tower while playing, set your volume to a level of your choosing, and gleefully continue hacking your opponents to shreds and curb-stomping them to paste. If you need the voices for tactical input, just enable subtitles.
• Shitty voice acting from anyone who is not a space marine (or lieutenant mira)
• Shitty fucking lag that has remained unfixed over a month after its released, ergo consigning the game to the dustbin as new Vidya Gaems that are frankly better than it are released.
• Only five maps, all of which encourage outright camping and grenade spam. They're releasing more maps every few months.
• Matchmaking sucks a bag of dicks the size of a Great Unclean One.
• Devastator Marines are vastly more powerful than all other Marines, and it's possible to circumvent the Heavy Bolter's setup time by switching to/from your pistol. The switch-setup was fixed in a patch, but Devastators are still infinitely superior to anything any other Marine class can do damage-wise Assault/Raptor with thunder hammer/daemon maul with Killing Blow. Nuff said. Plus the inability to dodge effectively, (Learn to combat roll, dumbass. Saves my bacon all the time.) slow recharge times on armor and health, and the fact that one shot from a tactical marine's plasma gun will melt your shit instantly balances it out. N00bs need to STFU and get some skill and stop whining. Also, unlike Raptors/Assault Marines, Devastators can't FLY.
• There were originally going to be Combi-Weapons in the game, but it was scrapped.
• Environments need more variety. A lot more variety. The game really doesn't start shaking shit up until about halfway through. Till then, everything is cityscape type level killing a bunch of Orks.
• On the console versions, accusations of Standbying (abusing host lag) are rampant.
• Makes no fucking sense from a chronological perspective - Graia was OMNOMNOM'd by the Tyranids (caught in the path of the initial Hive Fleet that approached Macragge) long before the events of Dawn of War and Dawn of War 2 - meaning that Titus' victory was ultimately a pyrrhic one, unless there's another Graia out there in the Imperium of Man. It's an alternate timeline, and it takes place on a different Graia (this particular Graia is located in the Segmentum Tempestus, not Ultima Segmentum). You can tell because Titus is the Captain of the Ultramarine's Second Company instead of Sicarius and Titan Invictus wasn't destroyed in the 13th Black Crusade (which was way before Dawn of War).
  • It takes place some time into M42, and it's a different Graia. Evidence: In Ultramarines: The Movie, Captain Severus was 2nd Company Captain, and the film took place after the battle for Macragge given their WE MARCH FOR MACRAGGE creed. Sicarius is either dead or been promoted by now. With Severus dead by the hands of the Daemon, Titus becomes his successor. Further proof comes from the Blood Ravens appearance. Hive Fleet Leviathan, a splinter of which was defeated by the Magpies in DOW2, showed up in the final years of M41. Given that Retribution takes place 11 years after that, and Titus mentions the Aurelian Crusades, Relic has left the 41st Millennium behind. In four games, Relic has pushed further with the 40K timeline than Games Workshop has in twenty years.
    • This is more or less confirmed by 8th edition. Cato Sicarius gets lost in the Warp at one point, so naturally they would have promoted someone else (namely Titus) to fill in. Sure the Great Rift doesn't appear on the map in the intro, but it hadn't been made up yet IRL, what are you gonna do?
• Not enough Ham. From the company that brought such gems as "BEAR WITNESS TO MY ASCENSION!!!!" and "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! LET THE GALAXY BURN!", it's a bit of a letdown when even the Orks sound bored you call "GIT OFF MAH SHIP, SPACE MUHREEN!!" bored? Calm Space Marines are boring Space Marines. Shout your litanies to the Emperor, dammit!
• Multiplayer perks. COCK OF DUTY MODERN SHITFUCK ANNOYING FUCKING 'MARTYRDOM' RIPOFF. Yes. Your armor's power-pack/jump-pack EXPLODES with a ludicrous kill zone. FUCKING ANNOYING. The noobs want perks deal with it. GIT GUD STOP WHINING.
  • this game is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with bigger guys for you. *BLAM* Heresy!
• Multiplayer: MIGRATING TO NEW HOST. MIGRATING TO NEW HOST. MIGRATING TO NEW HOST. MIGRATING TO NEW HOST. NOW I LAG LOLOLOLOLOL. But this comes as a result of no dedicated servers due to a small playerbase. (One player goes as far as to call Host Migrations "Warp Storms" over voice chat, due to the seeming level of warp-dickery behind their timing.)
• Dreadnoughts are unstoppable rape machines that will steamroll the entire enemy team by themselves unless it is made up entirely of devastator marines (RELIC SUCKS AT BALANCE!) the concept of game balance is bullshit. GIT GUD STOP WHINING.
• Final boss fight with Nemeroth is disappointing. Instead of having a proper fight like against Grimskull, it's just a quick-time event. While being sort of epic the first time you play it (You are falling down a space elevator, after all) it gets repetitive and boring in following play-throughs. Also, you can spam all three of the required inputs at once with no penalty.
  • And to get to the irritating button mash you have to drudge through a long and annoying fight with his OP minions.
• Good luck finding a game that's on any of the DLC stuff, or outside of the original five maps, You won't find any matches that aren't Seize Ground or Annihilation. We seriously need a new Space Marine game.
• There's no-one fucking playing multiplayer anymore
• We're never gonna get a sequel :c SEQUEL CONFIRMED, THE EMPEROR HAS HEARD OUR PRAYERS.
• A squad of Sternguard Veterans or Terminators could have solved both the Orc and Chaos problems in under thirty minutes. A squad of each should have been aboard the Strike Cruiser in orbit. Deamon Prince Nemeroth whiled on by Assault Terminators led by Titus would have been funny and awesome to see.
• Your a dwarf in a barrel.
• Exterminatus glitching the fuck out.
• The bolter behaves like a generic assault rifle. Orks will take like 10 shots to die. Fire warrior (shudders) remains the only 40k game to get the bolter right.
• Ranged and Melee damage do not correlate, meaning switching between the 2 on a single target is an useless endeavor despite it looking sick as fuck
• Said Anniversity Edition now made it priced at $60 USD, overpriced considering that it released 10 years ago

Downloadable Content

The game is constantly being supported and so much new content has been added over the past few months, it's astonishing. New content includes new modes such as capture the flag mode, capture and control, and dreadnought assault. New maps have been released, and previous pre-order only skins are now available (including new ones such as the Legion of the Damned skin-YEAH!) Below is a list of all the dlc you can buy now(some of which is free by the way.) have as of the Anniversary Edition.

• Exterminatus: This is a free update that added co-op to the game. A much needed add-on. Let's you play as Loyalist Marines in a team of four vs hordes of orks. Fun and crazy, (SPOILER!) final round is a bonus round against Chaos (end of spoiler.) Can use all your multiplayer loadouts and gain experience as well.

• Chaos Unleashed: You can now play as Chaos Space Marines in the Exterminatus game mode. Gameplay wise it isn't different from the Loyalist version, but new enemies along with the ol' ORKS are present. These new enemies are the Imperial Guard and the orks get a new unit (read ork entry below.) Oh yeah and we can now KILLZ US SOME SPACE MARINES! ULTRAMARINES TO BOOT!
  • IG units include: regular shock troops with lasguns, veterans with chainswords (yes you read that right), sanctioned Imperial psykers who can also tackle stun you, troops with melta guns and troops with grenade launchers.
  • Apart from the IG forces the Orks have their old units returning with the addition of KILLA KANZ coming in during the bonus round! The start of the bonus round and how fucking tough it is.
  • Yes, space marines are part of the enemy now, and they are tough as hell to kill. If anyone made it to the bonus chaos round for the loyalists, they will know. They have the same armor and health as the CSM of that bonus round, but come standard in every arena (during the later half usually.) You need to work together as a team to take them down, if not you'll get overwhelmed pretty easily. They have the tactical marines, assault marines without jump packs (Thank the Dark Gods) and devastators with plasma cannons (That can fuck your shit in case you allow them to fire a volley)
  • Three new maps including Habs Ablaze, Station Tertius and Aquila Canyon. This dlc also includes new achievements and trophies.

• Capture the flag (free update): Regular run of the mill capture the capture the flag mode. Unfortunately, devolves into everyone camping their sides to defend their flags and going long range. IF you've got balls of steel. then charge the other side to scare the hell out of them. Preferably use the Assault Marine with a hammer and "Death from above" upgrade.

• Capture and control: Currently playing. Will update soon. Sadly, due to bad matchmaking and division of map rotations, I cannot find a game to play of this mode. Will try to update soon. If anyone else has, you obviously have the right to update it on your own... something something this was written maybe 3 years ago. Also a run of the mill game mode, Assault unit hell.

• Dreadnought Assault: Probably the most controversial of the game modes. This player has already played it and highly recommends it. But the playerbase is apparently divided. Basically, you have to capture the Dreadnought capture point and as soon as it is captured, a teammate that is inside the point will be chosen to pilot the suit rape machine (at random? no idea. Needs confirmation.) You have to use the dreadnought to capture the other points assrape the other team. It is an ungodly powerful machine with a lot of health and you gain the auto/assaultcannon, powerfist/claw (both former weapons for loyalists and latter for Chaos, the auto-cannon and assault cannon are the weapons that differ from their counterpart on the other side, with the auto having lower RoF but higher damage per shot, and the assault having higher RoF but less damage per shot, but both fire rapidly enough to be used the same way), and meltagun. Obviously becomes a fire magnet and players will mostly use devastators Thunderhammers/Power Mauls on it. (contrary to tabletop, DEVASTATORS/HAVOCS CAN'T SCRATCH THE DAMN DREADNOUGHT) Comes with appropriate skins for Chaos and Loyalist marines.
  • Includes three new maps as well; Desolation, Dome Mechanicus and Chem Refinery. New achievements/trophies also included.
  • Has apparently vanished into the ether on the Xbox marketplace and is no longer available (on that system at least). Perhaps the playerbase bitched too much?

• As said before, pre-order skins are now available, including some new ones. Just to get you drooling, Iron Hands and Death Guard armor. OH YEAH!

Multiplayer Tactics

Devastators:

1. USE PLASMA CANNONS AT RANGE. Fire a barrage and fuck off. Watch for return fire, the Assault Cannon/Reaper Autocannon have a hellish rate of fire and will tear you to shreds.
2. ALTERNATELY, USE HEAVY BOLTER AND CAMP TACTICAL LOCATIONS. Heavy Bolter can rack up insane damage very, very quickly and can easily wipe a squad of Escorts if you set up correctly. Surprisingly, the Heavy Bolter can also do a lot of damage to the Dread if it doesn't get a chance to return fire (I.E. it has its attention held by Plasma Cannoneers and the like).
3. LASCANNON ONLY IF YOU'RE THE HOST. Lag makes Lascannon headshots completely unreliable unless you're the host, and turns the potential the Lascannon has against both the Dread and its escorts to functionally nil. If you are the host, feel free to use the Lascannon, as it can damage the Dreadnought (not as much as the Plasma Cannon though) and easily wipe the Escorts out. Generally though, you will want one of the other Heavy weapons (again, mostly Plasma Cannons).

Assaults:

1. DRAW SOME ATTENTION WITH THE PLASMA PISTOL. The Plasma Pistol's virtually worthless damage-wise against the Dread, but a charged shot will stick to it, fuck up its vision for a half-second or so, and rattle around its aim a bit. Consider a Plas Pistol charged shot when you need to get the Dread's attention and keep it from a safer distance.
2. SWORDS AND CHAINSWORDS, LEAD THE WAY. Combine a Sword (Chain or Power) with Swordsman's Zeal and Combat Drugs. You'll generally not do any appreciable damage to the Dreadnought, but that isn't the point: You can use this combo to land next to a Dread, get in a swipe or two on either it or its escorts, and fuck off, potentially drawing fire and attention away from much more important matters (like the Devastators your team has lining up shots). Note, however, that if you delay or the enemy team is smart, you will wind up a bloody smear on the floor. If not on active Dread attention-getting duty, help cap points and deal with the escorts.
3. AXES ARE RISKY BUSINESS. Axeman's Zeal offers bigger damage chunks and the same delicious healing, and works the same way as the Sword/Chainsword tactic above, but it leaves you open more. Bear this in mind. If you're not that good with the Axe, leave it at home.
4. THUNDER HAMMER/DAEMON MAUL - THE KILLING BLOW. Killing Blow helps. A fucking lot. Without this perk, you can still wreck up the Dreadnought, but not by yourself. Two or more Assaults with hammers and the Dreadnought is proppa fucked.
5. SUICIDE IS PAINLESS. It's a dick move, but loading up with Final Vengeance Assaults can do some good damage to the Dreadnought if absolutely every other fucking tactic fails. Fly in, spam grenades, Swing Sword/Axe/Hammer until killed, die on purpose, explode.

Tacticals:

1. PLASMA GUN IS AN OKAY CHOICE I GUESS. Similar to the Plasma Pistol, you aren't taking the Plasma Gun for the damage, even though it is a little higher than the Plasma Pistol's and it can damage the Dread better. The main advantage is punching the fucking escorts with it, or sticking charged shots to the Dread itself to draw attention, damage it a little, and throw off its aim. Fire off a shot, then get the fuck out of dodge.
2. HELP CAP FUCKING POINTS. Damned things won't handle themselves, and you need 'em to win.
3. MOST OF YOUR WEAPONRY WON'T HURT THE DREADNOUGHT. The Tactical has one weapon that can contribute to a fight with the Dreadnought, and it's also the one weapon almost fucking nobody uses: The Vengeance Launcher. It takes about 12-14 shots given ideal aim, but the Vengeance Launcher can kill the Dreadnought. Working in teams, this can actually be just as effective as Plasma Cannon spamming - do note that it holds much less ammo, though, and is much harder to use.
4. HELP YOUR TEAMMATES. Teleport Homer may be the most unsung hero of Dreadnought fights. One Tactical in a good spot can effectively act as a mobile spawnpoint for his buddies. Ideal for Devastator teams which need a quick way into the fight that isn't a Metal Box.
5. YOU STILL HAVE GRENADES. Grenades can still do damage and still blind the Dreadnought, so for fuck's sake, use them.
6. STALKER BOLTER THE FUCKING ESCORTS. Stalker Bolter will cut the escorts to shreds if you're a good shot, and can reliably damage the Dreadnought a tiny bit if there's no other targets of opportunity handy (generally you want to avoid pissing it off as a Tactical, though). Stalker the escorts though, to ensure your teammates can deal with the Dread easier without worrying about its squad of tagalongs.

An important note about the DLC. While a lot of the new stuff is fun and cool, the lists are divided by map rotations. Meaning when you choose a specific game mode, you choose the content you want to play in. Normally this isn't so bad, but what ends up happening is that you wait and wait for games to appear for the selected content. If you don't join a game for that dlc during that waiting time, you are pushed into a standard content game. So you want to join a Chaos Unleashed map, but there's no one around, so you join (read: forced into) a regular match. Oh no, the second you join said match, other people joined the CU list and you just left. Hopefully something will done about that.

How to destroy the Dreadnought

As tested by two players, one yours truly, there is a limited number of options when it comes to dealing with an enemy Dreadnought.

1. Lascannons do minimal damage, yes the primary anti tank weapon of the Imperium of man does nothing. Headshots can do some decent damage - but it's finicky due to lag and a weird head hitbox (especially since the extra-damage weak point on the Dreadnought is the engine at the back, not the head, oops).
2. Stalker Bolter is more reliable, but nowhere near as good against the Dread. Works well on its escorts, though.
3. Heavy Bolter can damage it but it takes a lot of shots, and the Dread *will* return fire at the first opportunity and fuck your ass. Fire and move.
4. Meltaguns do nothing. Avoid. (They take off exactly 10% of the Dreadnought's health from pointblank range, make of this what you will).
5. Grenades only annoy it, but Flash Grenades can blind it for a second.
6. Devastator stomp does nothing (and if you were trying to do this in the first place, gb2Tau).
7. Plasma Guns and Pistols do absolutely nothing unless charged, and are questionably useful if charged. The "Sticky" charged shot though is great for drawing a Dread's attention, and can do a bit of damage to help out or soften it up prior to an attack.
8. A Dread's close combat arm will put your head through your ass and send you flying in one hit.
9. The Dreadnought has its own Iron Halo shield, but only for one charge that lasts for about 30 seconds. When activated, the Dreadnought strikes a distinctive pose while its arm glows. Firing at it now is a waste of ammo and your life.

Your destructive answer in this case is PLASMA, followed by VENGEANCE LAUNCHER. Plasma cannons are the only heavy weapon that will reliably do anything of relevance to the Dreadnought, and it takes around 10 shots. The only option other than Plasma Cannons are the Vengeance Launcher and the Thunderhammer/Power Maul. The former will do in a Dread in about 12 shots; the latter, if you have the Killing Blow perk, will make quick work of the Dreadnought.

How to spam Chaos Unleashed Exterminatus

This DLC added IG and SPESS MAHREENS to your Ork hordes, while allowing you to be HERETICS. Sounds awful, right? WRONG. This mode is actually easy to spam to the bonus wave. STEP 1: if you manage to get a full four players, divide yourselves among Raptors and Tacticals. (With a minimum of one raptor, but preferably two or three) STEP 1.5: If you're a raptor, have the perks for damage when you lift off and land on with your jump pack, and a daemon maul or chain axe if you don't like the low swing speed of the maul. (not required but it helps.) If you're a/the tactical marine, have the teleport homer and perk that allows an extra weapon. Have a bolter, melta gun, and plasma gun. (Again, not required but it helps) STEP 2: When you enter the map, have one raptor jump to the Orks, and the other jump to the IG forces, while the tactical marines camp in a corner of the map of their choice. STEP 3: Have the raptors bait the two forces together, kill a few if you're feeling ballsy, and jump away back to the tacticals. The Orks and IG should start beating the fuck out of each other while only a few stragglers chase your gang. Kill the ones that follow you (it will still be a pretty steady stream, but the majority of their forces will be Shooting/chopping each other. ) STEP 4: The IG WILL win once teh SPESS MAHREENS show up. But usually they'll only have a small squads worth of either. You now have two options. 1: have the raptors charge to draw fire, toss grenades, do some damage and leave, while the tacticals charge and blow them up with their meltas, should ammo run out, use fully charged plasma shots. then have them run. repeat until all forces are destroyed. OR 2: All of you run in from different directions, If you've beaten the main game 1 marine and a guardsmen or two isn't difficult, hopefully (sometimes the AI will still charge one guy, ignoring targets that are closer) they will be split up enough for each player to take out his group and help the others who haven't. These work all the way up to the bonus round, which is just killa kans. NOTE: These require some pretty good amounts or coordination between your squad members, and due to the AI's nature have a chance of entering an "allies of desperation" pseudo alliance and zerg-rushing your squad while only minimally chopping each other, this is rare however and the above strategies work 9 times out of ten. ONE PLAYER METHOD. STEP 1: Be a raptor with the above described perks and equipment (Much more essential this time.) Step 2: Basically the same as the other step 2, except you're only choosing one side (usually the orks, they'll chase you longer) and leading them to the other Step 3: 9 out of ten on the maps have tiny rock outcroppings or similar that you can jump up to and are inaccessible to everything else. jump to one of these, If you don't know where one is, just go to the side of the map. Step 4: When the IG win you need to do some scouting, usually the AI marines don't clump together, so find an isolated one and take him out. If they are clumped together, throw all of your grenades at them, jump in, kill one (or two if you're feeling ballsy) and jump away, there are usually one or two full refills for your grenades around the level. repeat as necessary until only Guardsmen remain, you should know how to kill a few guardsmen. NOTE: This falls prey to the Allies of desperation flaw of the other one, if this happens you're fucked.

Mod: Space Marine Augmented

You want a rebalanced game? Want a non-sucky game start/match-making? Additional weapons? Additional armour? All DLC unlocked? All perks unlocked? Start matches with 2 people? Then Space Marine Augmented is for you!

The following additional new items are in the game:

• MK3 armour
• Chapter/Legion specific artwork/armour pieces
• Flamer
• Astartes Shotgun
• Autocanon
• Power Fist
• Several Bolter patterns like Tigrus, Phobos and relic
• Several Chainswords: the original one, a relic one, a tabletop style one
• Lightning Claw

Terminators and Dreadnoughts are planned.

The mod is started from a launcher. You create a non-steam account in it to store your stuff online and see others in the game. You can only play with other players who use the mod though, so spread the word!

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uni0jPEK4JY
• https://smaugmented.github.io/

Gallery

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  "Space Marines!"

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  "Kill da Space Marines!" ("Space Marines!")

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  Come hither brother, for I only wish to embrace you.

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  She wants to fuck

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  Stop Ripping-off Henlein, GW, just STOP!

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  Dat Heeeuuge

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  This was cut. Probably for the best, as fighting a Deff Dread would have been either a huge letdown or harder than hell. (Actually, that's a Killa Kan. Note the two arms, instead of four)

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  Wera firin ah grehn lazahs!!!

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  He still should go for the bionic eye implant.

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  The text box pretty much says it all. Also, hot as hell. Yeah, Rule 34 should follow quickly.

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  "When confronted by this particular situation, the only reasonable course of action would be to give her the D." --Roboute Guilliman, The Codex Astartes

See Also

• Space Marine on Steam
• The game's soundtrack
• Trailer for the sequel