According to Warhammer 40.000 good games are hardly released, everyone knows. Although I love many of them, even I can’t challenge the givenness that the most vivid phenomenon of the Universe of the Eternal War in the plane of the video game has been and remains Dawn of War 2004. In fact, the sequel of the same DOW and the Battlefield Gothic dilogy are objectively wonderful games, whose unclaimed was more likely to have a consequence of the specifics of the selected genres, quite niche. Well, we also have the 1st Space Marine, which is remembered, as if, even less, although this work is already a purebred action from a third party. And, as for me, oblivion is an undeserved, even though we are an openly ordinary video game in front of us.
However, the ordinary is not identical to the second -rate – unless, of course, you suffer from attention and the need for a random change in the paradigm of the gameplay. Swing a lover and shoot from a bolter in the same order for 10 hours-this is the destiny who will take the Space Marine today. And there is nothing bad in a monotonous gameplay if it is well built.
And yes, with a simple -minded directness, Space Marine is quite capable of captivating, if not up to the finals, then to a good third of the way for sure – especially those devastated gaming souls, of which there was no will to make any way through modern noisy games with a thousand unnecessary activities. Go forward, shoot aptly, rubbish is tired, because the emperor wants that.
For the glory of the emperor – of course, the appearance and narrative of the game are of great importance for its understanding, because we are in front of us Warhammer 40.000 in its most tactile iteration. Space Marine 2011 is interesting at least because the player in the same century is allowed to get used to the role of Astartes-a genetically advanced superman in heavy power armor. In fairness, such games have already been, but they are already under a hundred years, or like that. Yes, and to convey this quality – to be an angel of the death of the emperor – those copies could not at all, while Space Marine was mostly succeeded. And all due to contrasts. If you watched a luxurious cinematic trailer for the upcoming sequel, then most likely remember with what reverence a simple guardsman looks at the gorgeous armor, which was alone tore a wave of monsters, which had previously gnawed a whole platoon of soldiers.
Frankly, Space Marine is not the best representation of the setting – Rogue Trader and the same Battlefleet Gothic do it much better – here it is done quite superficially. And even the above contrastation of ordinary mortals and the angel of the death of the emperor is just a particular, which a little. However, they still have, and have a significant impact on the final quality of the game.
For example, in one of the https://casinospingenie.uk/bonus/ episodes, the player has to squeeze through residential blocks, in which millions of workers of the Cyclopsian Groya Cyclopic City are eating their existence. The tiny premises of the depressing state, the impassive voice of the curator, which requires to continue despite the escalating planetary invasion, the grandiose and depressing creations of imperial architecture – this interludie talks more about the Warhammer world than the whole Dawn of War. That rumbling and monstrous war, which is glorified by the setting – she is just a catchy decoration without the flooding of her meanings. Warhammer 40.000, after all, about the survival of mankind among cruel stars, in an era when humanism and virtue are an unacceptable luxury, and Imperium has to be ruthless, both in relation to enemies and in relation to his subjects. The despotism of the Imperium is still a heavy curse for the countless number of peoples, but it becomes a little more understandable, and acquires a slightly greater meaning and causality when it comes to look at it under a similar angle.
Thanks to such an exposition, Space Marine is worthy of attention at least as a work of art within the framework of a popular fictional universe.
On the other hand, the plot of the game turned out to be very mediocre. "Warhammer" is known for the fact that all of its huge, diligently spelled out background often serves as a foundation for very simple and even unicellular plots. And I also do not think this is a big problem in itself. Space Marines participate in the defense of the planet with the invasion of xenos – whether you will compose a very smart story here? For me, as a fan of the series in this case, the details are much greater than the plot. But even with all the simplicity and conventions, the plot of Space Marine turned out to be too unsightly.
Yes, the space marineer in the battle stands with fifty mortal soldiers, but how many of them were aimed at defending the planet, which is of paramount importance? – Ten pieces? This was supposed to be enough for something? Yes, by the end of the game we get reinforcements, and from several orders, but in fact this is not a game convention and Captain Tit, one might say, is fighting for the Grace of one. Where does Titus get the resistance to the warp-camp, the game itself has no idea-it must be the case when it was decided to come up with an exotic plot tool and other people will have to deal with it, and then if the sequel will take place. However, it will take place. From the plot path "Let’s put the artifact of enormous power into a hefty cannon and shoot along the portal in a parallel dimension" I want to make it at all.
In addition, most of the game Titus will have to deal with the orcs. Orcs are a very specific part of the world of the hammer of the war, to which I have one big claim – they are inorganic. Warhammer 40.000 about cruelty, about decline, about the very famous overcoming, while the orcs are just a tongue-tied caricature half-breath, which always have fun, who do not have any purpose and reasons whose technology literally consists of dirt, sticks and some mother. These introductory ones can be interpreted in different ways, and perhaps the Space Marine is not presented with their poor variation, but for the setting as a whole this fraction is more rudimentary. However, the orcs are very convenient as a plot solution, because they are ubiquitous and potentially endless, and therefore if you do not know who to push the defenders of the Imperium with a new book or video game with, then the green -skinned ones will be the simplest and most reliable solution, and to justify their unreasonable plot plot turns is generally a cute business.
Within the framework of the game of the orcs, their role for the handicap for a pilome is performed acceptable, and more from them is not required.
In the end, I would talk more about the bolter – probably the most sad thing for me from playing to game. The Bolter in Space Marine does not sound, and it cannot be called slaughter – automatic weapons in some shooters about the modern war are perceived more menacingly than a bolter in a SIM work. But the bolter is a large -caliber weapon whose shells have a reactive impulse and an explosive filling – one such thing can tear the head and floor of the body. But alas, not in this game. And in few others. And although I understand that with such a power of the trunk there would simply not be something to play – all the living would die from one pressing the left mouse button – but this state of affairs is aesthetically depressing me stably. The most spectacular bolter was perhaps in Necromunda: Hird Gun, but even there it naturally did not disinfect any hit.
Well, about aesthetics and visual as a whole-the game looks not bad through years and more or less successfully balances between realism and stylization, except that the color palette is too bright, but the orcs are cartoonily grotesque-but it could not be otherwise. Such a “Warhammer” looks somewhat more sterile than he could, but the restrictions and the need to orient the product on a mass consumer still take their. Regarding the surroundings of the terrain, the developer also tried to make the idea that the whole game is taking place in the same gray scenery, came to mind as little as possible.
As a result, I talked little about the game as such – about weapons, types of enemies and that’s all. As I said, Space Marine is a very average game and a huge number of third -person action -a -person action disperses that the close battle, that the shooting part is much more skillful and spectacular. That, again, does not make Space Marine with a bad game – it is enough to have time to have time, but the main advantage of the project is invariably in his connection with the context on which it is founded. To be a space marineer, a shield of mankind, to overshadow simple mortals and at the same time feel the pressure of cyclopean imperial buildings and military vehicles, to converge in violent battles with xenos and heretics – albeit not impeccable, but the game gives the sophisticated emotions precisely as a franchise product. Therefore, first of all, Space Marine is exactly what the game based on Warhammer 40.000, and only then not the worst slasher-player. Such a set of qualities will not glorify the game for centuries, but to this day Space Marine is still a work that is not a shame to remember, and which has the right to continue.
Surprisingly, Space Marine still has a living multiplayer. I have no chance in it, however, spending a couple of evenings in the battles of the loyalists and the Khaosites was pretty curious.