Early on, the Orks just splatter in whatever fashion you like, but as the game progresses the various enemy types all call for different strategies - some are agile and quick, just asking for an axe to the head, while some sit up in the high ground, where you can take a bead on them with the Stalker Pattern Bolter (the sniper rifle, in Warhammer lingo) or move in close with the powerful Melta Gun (a huge heat-based shotgun). Your enemies and the scenarios you face are all tuned to challenge that balance between melee combat and your ranged firearms.
#WARHAMMER 40K SPACE MARINE PC#
"The Gears of War are 'bros,' and the Ultramarines are very much 'brothers.'"Īnd Relic's skill at balancing RTS gameplay (honed over a series of Warhammer-based, critically acclaimed PC titles) shines here too.
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Cutting your way through an entire horde of squishy Orks is one of the best experiences in gaming I've had this year. While Gears has you hammering on the B button occasionally, Space Marine's melee system is combo-driven and smooth, balancing big, sweeping strikes with a stun attack that can be chained into a gory execution that rewards health. That's most evident in the melee, which is seamlessly integrated into the shooting. Titus faces problems, and instead of yelling "It's a giant worm!" he just deals with them in a "For the Emperor" kind of way. Not only can he cut an Ork in half with a chainsaw-sword, but he's also tactically brilliant, completely fearless, and can deliver lines like, "I am an instrument of the Emperor's will!" in a flawless British accent so well it will make you want to stand up and salute. Space Marine's Captain Titus, for example, has about a hundred points of IQ on Marcus Fenix. But the Gears of War are "bros," and the Ultramarines are very much "brothers." Battle-brothers, in fact. Yes, Space Marine plays in third-person (though it passes on Gears' cover system - Ultramarines aren't really the type to take cover), and yes, the shooting is just as tight and fun as Epic's big series. %Gallery-124485%Though we've called this game "Gears of Warhammer" for over a year now, a comparison to the COGs isn't really right.
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Marcus Fenix and his ilk may have grabbed some headlines and sold some games, but it's about time the Ultramarines got some credit for being the original killing machines and wearers of huge shoulder plates.Īnd thanks to the talented designers at Relic Entertainment and their pitch-perfect use of the Warhammer universe in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, they deserve to get that credit. And even on consoles, the concept of a "space marine" is almost cliched at this point almost every major developer has churned out a third-person shooter featuring a big bad dude with a bunch of big, bad guns.īut Warhammer (and this, its sci-fi, year 40,000 variant) really is the grandfather of the genre, the prototype for all of those gruff space warriors and the green-skinned and slimy hordes they battle against. Blizzard liberally borrowed from the line for both its StarCraft and WarCraft universes, and those have obviously been quite successful among the mouse-and-keyboard crowd. Games Workshop's Warhammer universe hasn't really gotten the respect in the video game realm that it deserves.