Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Review for PC

System: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Dev: Relic
Pub: THQ
Release: September 6, 2011
Players: 1-16
Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p	Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

The A.I. in Space Marine is slightly inadequate, but passable. The pair of friendly Space Marines that follow you around don't really offer much support, but they always seem to come through when you need them. And the enemy NPCs have a horribly simplistic way of moving, but this isn't actually a complaint – more of an observation. In fact, it probably could be argued that these low-IQ Orks are more realistic that way.

Actually, the movement of the enemy units is reminiscent of Croteam's Serious Sam titles. Essentially, most of the units run directly at you, while the ranged units stay back, fire a few shots, and jump from side to side. (I'm not sure if THQ would necessarily take this observation as a compliment, but I mean it as one.)

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Screenshot

Even with all of this game's strengths, it does have a few major drawbacks. First off, it can be extremely unstable. Even during normal gameplay, it's not unusual for a texture to disappear or reappear, and during major graphical events, the game can stall automatically. I did manage to crash the game once when I was mashing buttons.

The cinematic cutscenes are also fairly problematic. Don't get me wrong, I actually love a good cutscene, but Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine has managed to overdo it a little. The cutscenes often seem to load at odd times, sometimes showing up within a few seconds of the previous one. The process breaks up the action in a way that seems to suggest that the players are secondary to the overall story—even though these cutscenes look amazing.

My last complaint is regarding the repetitive nature of the game. Essentially, a player finds a group of Orks, slices them up, finds another group of Orks, slices, and so on. Even though the action is fairly heavy, the suspense becomes somewhat muted when the game repeats elements over and over.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is definitely not the best third-person shooter on the market today, but that doesn't mean that it's not enjoyable. In fact, it's an incredibly entertaining game, a welcome addition to the third-person genre.

Space Marine doesn't break any rules or push any boundaries, but Warhammer fans across the globe might finally have the non-RTS Warhammer game that we've been waiting for.

By Josh Engen
CCC Contributing Writer

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

4.0

Graphics
The game looks great, but has a few graphical bugs.

4.5

Control
Very intuitive controls

3.5

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Appropriate, but not spectacular.

3.0

Play Value
Enjoyable enough the first time through, but doesn't have much replay value.

3.8

Overall Rating - Good
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 - 1.9 = Avoid	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	3.5 - 3.9 = Good	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair	4.0 - 4.4 = Great	5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

Third-Person Action Shooter – Space Marine takes the traditional third-person shooter genre and adds a new depth of visceral melee combat to deliver an experience like no other.

Experience life as a Space Marine – Players get the unique experience of life as one of the emperor's chosen, the unstoppable Space Marines.

Devastating weaponry – Players will get to unleash an arsenal of devastating weaponry against their foes.