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. It's genre is a hybrid of shooting and hack and slash. It was released on September 6, 2011.

The Plot

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, which the Imperium cannot allow at all costs. 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 action due to the Orks shooting down the majority of their support craft and simply outnumbering them by 1-100. 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, who is led by a Terminator sorcerer lord named Nemeroth. They're basically here to open a warp portal using Drogan's 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 confirmed to play a role, set against Chaos as they were seen holding the initial incursion. 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

Those aren't proper Marine proportions, just look at those short skinny arms, that narrow shoulder span and that goofy mid-section (chest and abdomen), great job at making Titus look like a sissy, Relic, no amount of Ork/Chaos stompin' is gonna cure that, and Jesus fuck can that chainsword be any bigger?

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 swing with your chainsword.

The Forces of Chaos are mentioned as being 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. 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. Not only are they Space Marines (like you!!), but they have the Chaos Gods to back them up.

Further gameplay is revealed that Space Marine will feature a Furry Fury system. The Fury system 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 missile launchers 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

• 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![1] Considering known hair-etic Force Commander Hair Gel's escapades didn't end well, one wonders if Titus will either be killed or corrupted by the forces of Chaos. He looks kinda like Proteus from Ultramarines the Movie, excluding the longer hair and the better looking armor decor. Anyway, he is shown to be looked upon with suspicion by some of his fellow Ultramarines. This is due to them suspecting him of Chaos corruption after being the only surviving battle-brother after an attack from a Chaos Sorcerer (which he eventually killed). Deep strike is his favorite entry tactic as shown by his affinity of jumping out of vehicles. BTW I'm a wizard.
  • At the end of the game, it's shown to the player that his resistance to Chaos is because he's just that badass-any daemon who thinks about it spontaneously combusts into holy flame, we suspect. 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. Also lost his eye and half of his face when an Eldar weapon blew up in his face. 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 sergeant, it is assumed that he is trained in the use of terminator armour, like all 1st company veterans), Terminator honors.

• Second Lieutenant Miranda Nero - Being the only loyalist petty 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. Now that her Cadian descent has been revealed, fanboys demands for rule 34 will intensify. She seems to share Merrick's view of placing the lives of her men above the Imperium. HERESY!!! The fact that she's a woman commanding the Guardsmen surprises even Sidonus.

• Inquisitor Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg 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), and his hair is really dirty and emo looking. He also has a metal plate attached to the right side of his head. Must be a radical. He's also EXTREMELY obsessed with killing xenos due to him being previously tortured by xenos (possibly Dark Eldar) 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 forgeworld, 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 our 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 (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.

• Lord Nemeroth - A Chaos Terminator Sorcerer Lord and the Big Bad of the game.He is possibly the Sorcerer Titus killed previously. It should be noted that the only daemons present in his Warband are Khorne Bloodletters. This may lead to theories that he is yet another Khorne worshipping sorcerer. This and his statement that "His Armies will spill humanities blood, across the stars". Proves Relics 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 of the Squishy Wizard law, because he wears TERMINATOR ARMOR. He is defeated by virtue of forgetting to wear a helmet.

• 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.

Things that rock

File:Angryhammer.png

The official sequel

• Seemingly a better game than that Fire Warrior where you play as a Space Communist on his first day of duty, who is apparently a one man 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.
• Bolters that work as they should, as semi-automatic rocket launchers, complete with impact and detonation effects. like machineguns.
• Guardsmen who fight alongside you have balls of steel, they rarely fall back.
• Orks
• 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.
• 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 an Ultramarine.
• Executions (like the sync kills in DoW, which you can do to a stunned enemy) are actually required by 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.
• No casual difficulty setting. Nope, it's in there.
• Chaos Space Marines.
• BLOODLETTERS!!!

One is running away from the enemy, the other is running INTO the enemy. Which do you think is loyal to the Emprah?

• 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.
• JUMP PACKS. Out of fuel.
• Pre-Order skins for Black Templars, Blood Ravens, Space Wolves, 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 [2]
• Co-op comes in the form of a horde mode that pits you and three teammates against endless hordes of greenskins and Chaos SPESS MEHREENS A patch to be released later.
• 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. You also get to pick your own loadout.
• No space pansies to ruin the game's awesomeness with their massive egos and faggotness.
• 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 customisation options are only available from level 4 onwards, there are 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

Things that Suck

• Ultrasmurfs. (Bear in mind though, you would probably bitch about it if they mentioned any other chapter as "the greatest of them all". Observe.
• 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.
• Explaining things to the newbs.
• They wanted to cast Sean Pertwee (Who played Govenor 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).
• 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 dakka or choppy.
• Apparently, melta guns are shotguns now and the Lascannon is some kind of retarded sniper rifle with slow-mo.
  • Sounds somehow familiar, no? To be perfectly fair however, in a gameplay perspective, these aren't too far from the fluff. Meltas are only balls-out powerful in close range and suck outside it (Much like real shotguns) and lascannons are heavy anti-material weapons that can fire a single high-powered laser from long range, it sucks in CQC due to it's slow RoF (Though hilariously in this game, you can just resort to bullrushing your target at CQC and kicking him in the face than shooting) and has optics mounted by default (Much like real sniper rifles, assuming you compare this thing to the likes of anti-material sniper rifles.).
• No space pansies to maim, kill, and burn by the dozens with a thunder hammer.
• No Flamers or Autocannons (though you can use one of the latter in the campaign for a bit).
• Gears of War fanboys constantly saying that the game is a copy of Gears of War, even though that its a hack and slash shooter hybrid that does not feature a cover system (Which was one of the main game mechanics of Gears of War). 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
• Shitty fucking lag that has remained unfixed over a month after its relased, 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.
• 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.
• Environments need more variety. A lot more variety. The game really doesn't start shaking shit up until about halfway through.
• On the console versions, accusations of Standbying (abusing hostlag) 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 Maccrage) 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. This is further backed by some fluff blocks in which Invictus, the Titan in SPESS MEHREEN, is labelled as being destroyed by Chaos forces during the 13th Black Crusade. There is also the fact that Titus is Captain of the 2nd Company, a post which has been held by Cato Sicarius since Battle for Macragge, and was confirmed as of The Chapter's Due novel released the same year as Space Marine. However, during the campaign, the Blood Ravens show up and Titus mentions the Aurelia campaign, which occurs in Dawn of War 2. God damn it, GW. However, it is a different Graia. This particular Graia is located in the Segmentum Tempestus, not Ultima Segmentum. As for Invictus, it could have been rebuilt. Relic Games have a habit of weaponizing broken titans.

Gallery

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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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  Dat Heeeuuge

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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.