Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (

2011

)

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war.

Warhammer 40K is the definition of niche appeal. It is the dumbest possible sci-fi setting, a universe where fantasy monsters, biblical demons, and time-displaced crusaders wage an endless war for the amusement of middle-aged men with too much disposable income and free time. What’s more, all the ludicrous technology, impossibly large vehicles, and absurd lore is taken completely seriously. There can be jokes and even funny characters but they are never allowed to undercut the grim darkness of the setting, just look at the Ciaphas Cain book series, which derives most of its humor from the fact that its hero is constantly praised as a hero despite being a complete coward with impossibly good luck. The joke wouldn’t work in a setting that wasn’t so filled with danger that it makes the Eastern front in WWII look like a vacation spot. You’ll either love the setting or think it’s the dumbest fucking thing ever conceived. Obviously, I love it, so the fact that Space Marine imports most of the settings more ludicrous traits wholesale is a definite asset in my mind. Those immune to the particular charms of Warhammer 40K will probably be less appreciative of the game, but even still Space Marine is an above average shooter. I'm sure that it will charm even those among you that do not spend your weekends painting armies of little men.

The plot is straightforward but may require some context for those not familiar with the lore of the 40K setting, so let’s start off with some background. Most of the galaxy is ruled by the Imperium of Man, a crumbling empire beset on all sides by hostile aliens, monsters, demons, and its own treacherous super soldiers. These forces are held off by the Imperium's own armies: The vast hordes of cannon fodder that make up the Imperial Guard, the fanatical nuns with guns who populate the ranks of the Sisters of Battle, the shadowy Inquisition, and the still loyal super soldiers of the Space Marines who are divided up into a thousand different chapters so everybody playing the tabletop game can have their own custom lore-friendly army if they’re so inclined. Despite being millenniums ahead of our time, the Imperium has lost most of the science and learning of the last 38,000 years and is getting by on whatever machines have survived the numerous disasters over the centuries. As a result, some absolutely vital technologies are completely irreplaceable, if only because nobody has the education necessary to build the damn things anymore. These machines are concentrated on Forge Worlds, vast planet-spanning factories run by the Adeptus Mechanicus, a cult of machine worshiping priests that are charged with building and maintaining all of the Imperium's more sophisticated technologies. Forge Worlds are of great strategic value since they contain so much irreplaceable technology, and as a result, when they fall under attack by hostile aliens the Imperium fights tooth and nail to defend them, rather than just nuking the planet from orbit, as is the go-to solution for less valuable worlds.

The story of Space Marine takes place on Forge World Graia, which has been invaded by a horde of orks (basically fantasy orcs with absurd ramshackle technology that only works because the orks themselves think they will work) led by Warboss Grimskull. A liberation fleet is called in to save the planet but it will take way too long to reach to be of any immediate use, so a detachment of Space Marines are called in from the Ultramarines chapter to act as a vanguard and buy time for the cavalry to get there. The group is led by the player character, Captain Titus, and I have to say it’s nice to play a shooter where for once my character is giving the orders rather than always having to execute them. No “Ramirez, do everything!” here folks, though to be fair your character will regularly issue orders to himself, though somehow that doesn’t feel as demeaning. The Ultramarines are able to quickly stabilize the situation, but there’s no way that a handful of soldiers (even a handful of Space Marines), can turn back a couple of million orks. It’s the desperation of the situation that leads Titus to ally himself with Inquisitor Drogan (who is way too big by the way, he stands almost eye-to-eye with Titus, a seven-foot-tall super soldier in power armor), who is basically a government-sanctioned mad scientist. Drogan has a super weapon called the Psychic Scourge, that if powered up will either crack the planet in half or whip out every ork in the system. Naturally, Titus aids the inquisitor only to blunder into the predictable trap: Drogan like so many inquisitors who battled the forces of Chaos has succumbed to its corruption and is possessed by a demon in service to the Chaos Lord Nemeroth. Nemeroth tricks our boys in Blue into opening up a gateway to the Warp (ersatz Hell), and it’s up to Captain Titus and his two squad mates to fight through the hordes of chaos and put a stop to Nemeroth’s machinations.

There’s a nice variety of weapons at your disposal, that includes a range of the classic Warhammer 40k weapons: Bolters, lascannons, meltaguns, and plasma guns. The only major absence here is the flamer, which is a real shame since they would be great fun to use against all the melee-focused enemies. A few combi-weapons would also be a welcome addition too, as that would allow greater customization of loadout and add a bit more complexity to combat. The bolter, is a bit lacking in weight and impact, at least to my mind. This is a gun that shoots mini-RPGs designed to burrow into an enemy before detonating (orks and tyranids have redundant vital organs and shrug off bullets like bug-bites). It should feel like I’m firing an anti-tank weapon, but instead, it just feels like shooting a regular assault rifle in any other shooter. The regular bolter should feel like firing the heavy bolter, and firing the heavy bolter should feel like shooting the auto-cannon. The experience could be further improved by giving the bolter a noticeable delay between impact and detonation, less than a second would probably do the trick. The most absurd part of the 40K armament though is the melee weapons. For some reason, swords, shields, and war hammers have come back into fashion, because nothing says 41st millennium like an iron-age weapon. While they don't make any damn sense, the melee weapons are great fun to use and in a lot of cases, they will be the difference between life and death. Ranged and melee are nicely balanced, both have their uses and in most encounters you'll find yourself alternating between the two seamlessly.

For the first half of the game you’ll be fighting almost nothing but Orks, fortunately, they come in a nice variety of flavors to keep them from getting stale. First up are the little Gretchin (basically goblins) who are armed with sticks and armored with jack shit, these guys are so pitiful that they will die in one hit from your starting pistol. Their attempts to swarm you are futile, as a whole swarm of them can be taken out by a couple of swings of your chain sword/power axe. Barely above them, you have your basic ork Slugga Boyz, who can soak up a couple of shots but are otherwise just cannon fodder. They helpfully run towards you, so if you happen to be a lousy shot they’ll soon be within melee range. Less helpful are the Ork Shoota Boyz who like to keep their distance and throw dakka at you. For the first level or so these will be the main threat, but then you’ll start to get Nobz thrown at you (bigger Orks who specialize in melee and who just seem to get madder when you shoot them). As the levels go on you’ll start to see bomb squigs sprinkled into the attacking hordes, which will either kill you or (more likely) whip out half their allies. Towards the end of the Ork section of the game, you’ll start to see Hard Boyz (armored orks) and Ork Rokkit Launchas, who are just tougher and meaner versions of the Slugga and Shoota Boyz respectively. All told it’s a pretty good variety of enemies, but it’s hurt somewhat by the fact that all the Orks basically fall into two categories: Those that charge you and try to smash your brains in, and those that hang back and shoot you when you stray into the open. The early stages would have benefited tremendously by having a few sequences where you face off against some Kommandos (decidedly un-orky orks who use things like stealth and tactics), that could flank you and take advantageous positions.

The combat gets much more interesting once the forces of chaos join the fight. While chaos has less unit variety the ones they have each fill a unique role. First off, there are the traitor guardsmen, who probably have the most sophisticated AI in the game. Sure, against Space Marine power armor their lasguns might as well be flashlights, but they know how to utilize cover, spam grenades and flank you which is more than I can say for the poor Orks. Clad in flak jackets that by 40K standards might as well by swimwear, the guardsmen are nearly as squishy as gretchin. When they are unsupported by daemons, Chaos Space Marines, or overwhelming numbers, it can be damn fun to just plow through their ranks and let your chainsword do the talking. The Chaos Space Marine Havocs are less mobile (not surprising sink they’re lugging around guns the size of motorcycles) and less interested in cover but their shots pack a wallop and their power armor is strong enough that anything, even a head-shot with the lascannon, will often fail to drop them. Bloodletters (lesser daemons of Khorne, the chaos god of war) make up the main melee threat for the forces of chaos, and live up to their name. They take more hits than anything unarmored has a right to, and dish out some savage hits if you leave yourself open. The fact that they can flicker in-and-out of reality and teleport towards you to close the gap makes them especially difficult to deal with. Worst of all though are the corrupted psykers, who can either blast you with psychic lightning or tear open a portal to the warp and call in daemonic backup.

You’re never just fighting one enemy at a time though (except for the two boss battles anyway), normally you’ll be dealing with a whole swarm of enemies. Indeed, the casualties are downright appalling. After I played two hours of this game I had already gotten the achievement for killing 500 enemies. I’d gotten the achievement for killing 2500 before I’d finished my first playthrough of the campaign. For the most part single enemies are not a real concern. Sure, the first time you fight a Nob or a Chaos Space Marine you might panic and slip up but after a couple times you’ll learn how to handle them (Protip: meltas are absolutely devastating at short range). Most of the times when you die in combat, it will be because you were overwhelmed and pulled under by the sheer weight of enemy combatants. The forces of Chaos are absolutely fearless, so they will continue to fight as long as any of them stand, but Orks can have their moral broken when there are just a few of them left (especially true if you’re dealing with the cowardly Gretchin). Every so often, after you slaughter 95% of the orks, the last few will turn tail and shout out to their comrades to “leg it!” It’s a nice little difference that highlights the difference between the two adversaries.

There are some problems with the combat, namely that the checkpoints are terrible. You’re generally forced to jump back before lengthy elevator sequences, long treks down empty corridors, and even sometimes cutscenes before getting back into the fray. In one particularly grating example, I watched a cutscene before being attacked by a squad of havocs and a compliment of traitor guardsmen who had the advantage of the high ground. I was shot to pieces before I knew what had hit me and then forced to watch the cutscene again, it took another couple of tries to get past this block and each time I had to watch that fucking cutscene again. This is a minor annoyance on medium difficulty but quickly becomes a major problem if you’re playing through the game on hard. More serious is the absolutely wretched final boss fight, which is just a way too long series of quick time events. More annoying, the mid-point boss battle with Warboss Grimskull is actually pretty damn good, so clearly, the devs know how to make a compelling boss-fight in the system.

As a fan of 40K, I naturally have complaints and nit-picks that nobody else would really give a shit about. The fact that the Orks say “Humans to kill” rather than “Humies to kill” is something I find rather bothersome, as is the fact that none of the Chaos Space Marines say “Death to the False Emperor” before wading into battle. Why are the inquisitors so tall? Why do we only see dead guardsmen lying around the forge world, rather than dead Skitarii and Adeptus Mechanicus workers? And most importantly: Why do we have to play as a fucking ultrasmurfs? I’d have a whole lot more fun playing the Imperial Fists or the Blood Angels (or even the Space Wolves for that matter). But credit where credit is due: Captain Titus is one of the better realized and developed Ultramarines in the lore. There’s a tendency to make them infallible Mary Sues, and Titus despite being a pretty standard stoic bad-ass, is far from Mary Sue status. No spoilers, but the ending of the campaign makes damn sure of that!

Before I started playing, I was worried that Space Marine would fall into the trap of making its environments and settings feel like generic sci-fi fare, rather than capturing that special absurd astral gothic flavor. While there are some unremarkable moments of factories and warehouses, most of the environments do capture that special magic. These are not just scale-up real-world factories, but temples to the machine god, full or arched ceilings and buttressed walls. The titian hanger at the core of the manufactorum is a steel cathedral, with all the majesty that such a term implies. This is also, “the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable” and the game is quick to drop subtle reminders of it. Throughout the factory, propaganda plays ensuring the workers that the grinding nature of their existence is all part of the Emperor and the Machine God’s plan for them. Hard work is a salve for all the woes and worries of their life. They are as much cogs in the machine as any of the tools used in the factory and are often far more replaceable. The cramped quarters (rooms about the size of the average kitchen have eight cots set up in them) show that their lives were hardly comfortable before the orks came to this world.