Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Imagine being surrounded by a horde of angry orcs, decked out with swords and guns. Tactics would call to retreat, find cover, gut 'em with gunfire and turn them into chunks with grenades. But what you really is to get into the face of impossible odds and kick the seven hells out it. To be kitted out in armour thicker than a tank to withstand the maelstrom, flaying a chainsaw sword round to carve a warehouse-worth of green-skinned steak, then sopping up the leftovers with powerful slide tackles that explode them into diced beef.

And Relic has done exactly that.

You play as Ultramarine Captain Titus, charged with saving your planet from invasion. For those that Warhammer 40,000 is a way of life, Relic's history with the board game series means its perfectly suited in kitting the game out with all the correct references, nods and reverence to these hardened warriors that seem like gods to the normal solider. For those who have never ventured into a Games Workshop: think Master Chief without the helmet. Long, long story short, it's pretty much the same thing.

It means story links between action are perfunctory; repelling invaders, doomsday weapons and rips in the reality-space continuum are comfortable but non-essential backdrops to kicking the shit out of every living thing that's not in Space Marine armour. For those that know their Codexes, you'll be guaranteed a tingle.

The unrelenting action - seeing you pinballing between rucks - is gratifyingly fun for the first few hours, mainly due to the emphasis on melee over gunplay, further hammered home by the lack of any cover mechanics. It's liberating in its violence, blue armour turned rust red by gore, while an on-screen meter, which increases with successful attack combos, grants you a timed power-increase for charges, or bullet-time moments to blend orcs into jelly.

Yet aside from the odd change-up, such as a jet-pack/war hammer combo that switches the gameplay momentarily to a splatter-fest with aerial ground-pounds, there's no significant change beyond different backdrops to the gameplay. Five hours in we're still facing the same orcs with the same weapons. Repetition kicks in.

There's also two major deficiencies that put a damper on the entertainment. One is how you recharge your health bar. At first, it seems a wonderful mechanic; dizzy opponents with a combo and pull off a pre-scripted gory finisher with a tap of a button when the relevant icon flashes above their head. It forces you to constantly be on the offensive if you want to survive. But you can still take damage during the execution move, and as the game progresses enemies are less prone to steeping back to let you disembowel their comrades. Cue increasingly numerous deaths as you're locked into a pre-scripted kill sequence.

The second issue is with snipers; eerily accurate even on the lower difficulty settings and even when they're cocking rockets. The vast majority of deaths in Space Marine are due to these two factors, and we yearn for a quick cancel option or shortening of the animations as we try and score health. It spoils what was a decent idea.

The surroundings, despite taking us through war-ravaged cities and into rusting laboratories, are relatively bland, as if Relic decided players would be too busy concentrating on the fighting to sightsee. It's half-right, but it'd been good to etch out these fantastic places with a little more detail to give you something worth fighting for.

Space Marine comes with a multiplayer mode, with a capture the flag style Seize Ground and the standard team death match. Both prove to be surprisingly entertaining, human opposition offering actual tactics in combat, and the levels themselves are varied and impressive in both scope and look - Shattered Bridge becomes a quick favourite due to its design - to warrant exploration between bullet exchanges. You gain perks delivered through accumulated XP, and diverse load-outs are available from the off. Character customisation have to be highlighted, which offers an extensive range of colours and armour parts to satisfy every Chapter fan. It's got just enough presence to create a loyal fan-following amongst the Warhammer hardcore.

Relic's definitely got the right mind set in creating a Warhammer title. It's entertaining and offers some good design choices, if rough around the edges. However it's also short on features and limited in what it offers players on the battlefield. We really hope for a sequel that'll allow the studio to expand on a few great ideas that are sadly too weak to carry a whole game on their shoulders.