14 DAY TRIAL // Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a new attempt from Relic Entertainment to prove that it knows to create more than just extremely solid real time strategy games, like the previous Dawn of War titles, and takes the Warhammer 40,000 license held by THQ into a bold new direction, towards the third person shooter genre but with heavy brawler elements.
So, is Space Marine a great move from Relic and THQ or should the studio return to its strategy series? Let's have a quick look.
I have to admit that I'm not that big of a Warhammer fan but Space Marine was definitely on my radar because of its interesting blend between third person shooter, like in Gears of War, and brawling, just like in hack and slash titles like God of War or Devil May Cry.
First up, while the main character of the game, Ultramarine Captain Titus, looks quite cumbersome in his huge power armor, you just need to move around a bit and you immediately realize that he's quite graceful, especially when it comes to slicing and dicing enemy Orcs with his trusty dagger.
While you can opt to just shoot enemies thanks to the variety of weapons at your disposal, the game throws at you a huge number of enemies that all rush towards you, so sooner or later you're bound to resort to your melee weapon and start carving up some Orc flesh.
Don't think you're just slashing mindlessly at your opponents, however, as you can string up combos, evade from enemies easily with a combat roll, not to mention stun and then execute them with a stylish move to gain back some health.
Shooting feels pretty good, although from the first few levels it can be a bit annoying with the standard pistol because of its short ammo clip and the relatively long reload time. Still, for blowing up explosive barrels near some unfortunate Orcs, it's more than enough, as your main weapon is certainly the melee one.
Check out a video of the beginning of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine below.