Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

The willingness of titus was real special. To save the planet, titus, first had to get his vehical fixed (when you drive by a sun you cant stop for too long). So he took it down to the shop and found out it needed a new passenger seat. Titus said he worked alone, no need to replace it. And his dog (a 900lbs bridge dog) barked one time, which caused the Chandler in the shop to rattle.

Space Marine is about as simplistic as current generation games get. As Captain Titus (Mark Strong, the narrator of Who Do You Think You Are?) all you really do is go forward and shoot/duel, and it's a long game with nothing much sustain the many miles of bad road. For a 3rd person shooter it's basic stuff. Set on a distant planet filled with Orks it is your duty to wipe them all out. The levels/chapters are very slow, with huge, cavernous empty spaces and bombed-out buildings that offer no interaction other than occasionally opening a door or elevator. Half of each chapter will involve you doing nothing but moving forward.

If it were not for the Warhammer brand name this game would be the very definition of shovelware. I played it right to the end, unlocking 34% of the trophies, but to get the platinum you'd literally have to spend over 100 hours playing this game. Quite frankly, I don't want to know anybody who commits that amount of time to a video game, or indoor activities in general.

Graphics B Sound B Gameplay C Lasting Appeal C-

It's rare that you love a franchise, you love a game or a comic book and you want a movie adaptation and you get exactly how you liked it to be. That doesn't happend very often. Given the fan base from the tabletop game, THQ and Relic have done a fantastic job taking on a project this size and capturing the essence of the 40k universe. The campaign's plot is engaging, the gameplay is superb, with a good variety of ranged weapons, a good variety of enemy types, and challenging and varied mission objectives. The camera moves smoothly during melee combat. With three distinct game types already available and more on the horizon, multiplayer is equally enjoyable. It functions flawlessly overall, and the ability to completely customize your character's armor and weapon loadouts keeps things fresh. Anticipating what DLC content will be released in the future.

Once again the developers behind a conle game think its OK to convert it to PC by just allocating the different buttons to (COMPLETELY!) random buttons around the keyboard. You cannot change the setup so they make sense, and most are very hard to reach with one hand on the keyboard. I paid for this game and I'm not sure I should have...after 3 really intense missions I'm stuck at the end of the third, mostly because it's not really fun to replay, replay, replay. Clearly another console game that COULD have been great, but at some level it was chosen to make it one of those "just hit a lot of buttons quickly", that are quite hard on PC because (read above :P). The graphics are cool though...

THQ and Relic have really captured the feel of the 40k universe here and to take on a project as big as this given the fan base from the table top game they have done an outstanding job. Campaign storyline is involving, and gameplay is excellent with the camera moving well during melee combat and a wide selection of ranged weaponary, and a good spread of foe types, mission objectives are varied and challenging. Multiplayer is equal in it's enjoyment offering already three different game types with more coming soon, and works very well in all, and the option to totally customise your characters armour and weapon loadouts keeps it interesting. Looking forward to seeing what DLC content is coming in the future