Demo’d: Warhammer 40k Space Marine

Right, leave your X chromosomes at the door for this one, folks, things are going to get manly. I mean like, a flaming motorcycle covered in A1 Steak Sauce kind of manly. You may involuntarily grow a Tom Selleck mustache while playing Warhammer 40k Space Marine, so to stop you taking that risk, I've played through the demo and here are my thoughts.

Warhammer 40k Space Marine is a game set in the 40k Universe (as you can probably guess) and has you playing as Cpt. Titus, a, you guessed it, Space Marine. As you can see, just by looking at the title we know this game gets straight to the point, no messing around with hidden meaning or depth. Just straight up no-nonsense naming. +1 MANLY.

The demo comes with two missions, the first of which has you fighting hordes of Orks, as does the second one. The Orks speak with a strange almost cockney London accent,  which seems odd for a game set nearly 40 thousand years in the future, by which time I would have assumed all London cockneys would have died out or become sentient gas beings. In the first mission you must stop an Ork assault at the Ajakis Western Gates. A nice little cutscene (involving a floating skull with laser eyes, I might add.) tells you that an "Inquisitor" needs help nearby, and with that you're on your merry way.

For the missions you receive four guns, as well as a bitchin' chainsword. On Normal, the missions seemed perfectly doable with simply your chainsword and pistol, although the other three weapons add some variety and spice to the Ork killing. The fury meter is quite key at getting through encounters quickly. It's basically a buff-meter that charges up by your Space Marine slicing, dicing and shootin' dudes. Once your Space Marine is adequately furious, you can unleash attack for more damage for about 10 seconds. You also glow yellow, which is cool.

Mission 1 seemed very basic, simply a case of "Walk here, kill the Orks, walk to new place, kill more Orks" but fun none the less. After all, combat is the main duty of a Space Marine, you'd hardly expect them to be cow farming mid-game (assuming cows have made it to the 40th century, which we all hope they will.).

Mission 2 added a much needed twist to the proceedings: A sweet-ass jump pack. Allowing you to fly through the sky so fancy free, the jump pack gives you the ability to super-jump, and survey the battleground below, before gracefully falling to the ground. Or, if you'd prefer to be a complete jerk to the Orks below, you can slam down upon them like some kind of 200 pound block of anger. The Jump-pack was complete joy for the few brief minutes I got it in the demo, but did make the whole "walking" thing these Space Marines do seem a little tedious, hopefully the jump pack features more in the full game.

Space Marine is a game set very thickly in the Warhammer 40k fiction, giving it a very rich background that could well be lost to the audience who have never played the tabletop wargame. While I'm sure there are very good reasons for characters to refer to each other as "My Lord", it made me feel as if I was stuck inside one of those old godawful Evony adverts.

Overall, Space Marine felt like a very solid game based on the single idea of filling everything on-screen with lead. If you're looking for a very polished easy to dip in to shooty gun game, or you're a big Warhammer 40k fan, this seems like the game for you. Heck, it's out now, you can go out and buy it! I'm playing the demo because I'm a cheapskate who can't afford to buy anything at the moment due to unfortunately placed bets I daren't go into. Oh, and on the Selleck mustache front, it reached about quarter length throughout the demo, now I need to shave for the second time today...