The Best of the Rest 2011: Warhammer 40k SPACE MARINE

2011 had a slew of big titles and but no game delivered the bombastic balls to the wall uber action of Relic Entertainment’s Space Marine. You may not know that due to its relatively weak marketing but behind the generic looking cover art was an action game that brought the Warhammer franchise to consoles with all the force of a sizzling Thunder Hammer.

I’ll be honest, I’m only mildly versed in the British sci-fi universe of Ultramarines and Chaos demons but even if you know jackshit about Warhammer, you can still enjoy Space Marine. Beautifully voice acted and visually beautiful; Space Marine is an action game where hiding and slowly picking off enemies won’t work, and if you try you’ll meet a grisly demise time and time again. 

Space Marine is all about kicking as much Orc ass as possible and doing it with a demigod like genetically engineered powered armor wearing weapon of destruction with the honor bound soul of a Klingon. 

The real joy of Space Marine is its chunky weighted combat. When you hit an Orc, you know that bastard feels it and hard. You’ll constantly be swarmed and outnumbered by legions of enemies but that’s OK, cuse you’re a badass Ultramarine, something that you won’t forget (because everyone is constantly in awe of your sheer size and power). And in case you do start to forget, just spending a few minutes in the thick of battle with a Power Axe is all the reminder you’ll ever need. 

It doesn’t innovate the action genre but what it does do is create a beautifully chaotic game drenched in blood, set in a grim and interesting universe… and that’s a hell of a lot better than some of the bigger action games out there. Plus, you get to wreck shit with a huge energy powered warhammer, making you feel more than a little bit like Thor.

By: Mike