WH40k: Space Marine

Shiminay

I just played the demo - HOT DIGGIDY THAT WAS FUN!

Can't wait to get the full game. The transitions from shooting into slashing are damn near flawless. Bolters feel and sound like I always thought they should, special attacks to regain health is a mechanic I've loved since playing the first AvP and the Alien had to bite someone's head off to heal, so MOAR PLZ!

It just galls me that I have to be a fecking Ultramarine, I really hate those dweebs.

[edit]
In a fine piece of news, it seems that the majority of my friends are actually getting this on PC, so I shall have my slightly more expensive, but not ridiculously so Speshul Edishun

Sarky

I eagerly await the mod that lets you play through as an Angry Marine. Lord knows most of the online players will be dressed as one anyway...


Only today I noticed the shrine near the end of the Inquisitor level in the demo. There's a power axe inside. Happy days!

The combat fits together nicely. It feels just glorious to slam to the ground with your jetpack, sending Orks flying, slicing through a few more with that great big chainsword, emptying a bolter clip into anyone smart enough not to come within range of it. Then charge straight into the next mob! \o/

Shiminay

I just played with my XBox pad as opposed to Mouse + Keyboard cause it didn't remember my key config from my first run through. XBox pad feels a lot more natural and for some reason more fun. Also spotted the Power Axe you mentioned too Sarky, yea, that was a whole lot of slash slash slash

I can see myself playing an awful lot of this game

Sarky

I'm still undecided about control schemes. I love the precision you get aiming with the mouse (you can't help but feel awesome with headshotting a few orks with the bolt pistol while taking a rest from hackeyslashy), but the game really is mostly about the close combat, and the joypad might just edge it out there. Meh, the important thing is that it looks great and it feels like being a walking-tank, unstoppable Angel of freaking Death. As long as they can keep the combat from getting stale it looks like it'll be really quite excellent.

Robby91

Flying is kinda awkward.

I thought jump pack control seemed rather easy to work with (at least, on PC) - it's less than ideal for the jump pack to have its own specific target angle for the charge but it shouldn't prove to be a problem

The executions are great (especially the Nob execution where you

rip their head apart from the jaw

, and punching Grotz in the face just makes me smile ), I just hope that some of the graphical glitches with the execution animations are resolved, such as your execution target clipping through a wall while you create a shower of blood from stepping on concrete >_>

Overheal

Im sure controls feel awkward for the same reason Darksiders did at first: they're throwing a bunch of mechanics at you at once. I'm sure when you get into the game and you get introduced to them one by one it will occur a lot more fluidly.

Dave_The_Sheep

Shiminay wrote: »

It just galls me that I have to be a fecking Ultramarine, I really hate those dweebs.

Since you're getting the PC version, I'm sure there'll be a mod/skin pack out in no time that'll change them to whatever you want!

Twilightning

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Since you're getting the PC version, I'm sure there'll be a mod/skin pack out in no time that'll change them to whatever you want!

People have already been modding the demo to play as different chapters. I've definitely seen the Angry Marines and the Imperial Fists.

Jelle1880

The multiplayer luckily has a large amount of customization options for the chapters, with pretty much all the major chapters represented on both SM and CM side.

Can't wait to deck out my Space Wolf.

Shiminay

Ordinarily, I'd say that was all good, except I see them selling DLC reskin & model packs for DoW2 for €6 on Steam and I'm damned if I'm paying that much for it!

Ultimately though, I just wanna carve my way through thousands of Orkses FOR THE EMPRAH!

johnny_ultimate

Played the demo on 360 and quite enjoyed it. Disposable, but competently disposable. Everything has impact and bite. Alas, the melee sometimes feels awkward and imprecise. But overall like Gears of War with a higher body count and jetpacks.

One thing I did laugh at was the awfulness of the 40K fiction. Been a longtime since I've played the tabletop game, but man the writing is naff. The Manafacturioum? That's almost as bad as Unobtainium!

penev10

Demo was good fun, nice mix between the shooting and hacking. Can't help but feel the close combat will be become very repetitive. Sure they'll probably add more weapons as you progress (powerfist would be nice ) but I can't see it adding much variety.

Is it only orks you get to fight? Are there any vehicle sections? Vehicle sections are normally the worst parts in shooters but the 40k universe isn't the same without them.

Shiminay

Meh, it's a form of pig-latin that they use for all their naming of things in the Imperium (;)) You have the Administratum, Scholastica Progenium, etc. It's consistent within the universe.

Their writing and fiction is something they've paid a huge amount of attention to in recent years too and have gotten a lot of solid authors on to expand their universe. There are 15 Books on the Horus Heresy now which I'm really looking forward to reading. The fiction is the only thing that really keeps me interested in Games Workshop, playing the games and collecting models is so ridiculously expensive that I don't know what kind of crack they're smoking in Nottingham when they come up with the pricing structure for things.

Kiith

penev10 wrote: »

Is it only orks you get to fight? Are there any vehicle sections?

Spoilered in case anyone else doesn't want to know.

No, and i'm pretty sure yes.

Mantel

penev10 wrote: »

Is it only orks you get to fight? Are there any vehicle sections? Vehicle sections are normally the worst parts in shooters but the 40k universe isn't the same without them.

The Orks are main enemy for the first half of the game, the later trailers for the game have shown the others you get to fight but if you have been avoid trailers for plot spoilers then keep staying away from them

I think the only Vehicle section that has been shown involves a titan, that still counts as a vehicle right? Although you probably don't get to drive it.

johnny_ultimate

Shiminay wrote: »

Meh, it's a form of pig-latin that they use for all their naming of things in the Imperium (;)) You have the Administratum, Scholastica Progenium, etc. It's consistent within the universe.

Their writing and fiction is something they've paid a huge amount of attention to in recent years too and have gotten a lot of solid authors on to expand their universe. There are 15 Books on the Horus Heresy now which I'm really looking forward to reading. The fiction is the only thing that really keeps me interested in Games Workshop, playing the games and collecting models is so ridiculously expensive that I don't know what kind of crack they're smoking in Nottingham when they come up with the pricing structure for things.

Even when I was collecting - over a decade ago at this point: scary! - they cost an absolute fortune. I remember an experience in the store on Liffey Street where they kept trying to tell me I couldn't buy a Blood Angels codex without a Space Marine one even though I frequently informed them my friend had the SM one. "But this is a new edition". Oh **** off, I thought. Even as a suggestible eleven year old I knew they were trying to take me for a monetary ride.

But my tolerance for po-faced fantasy and sci-fi fiction tends to be extremely low indeed: that's just a bias I've always had!

Lemming

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Even when I was collecting - over a decade ago at this point: scary! - they cost an absolute fortune. I remember an experience in the store on Liffey Street where they kept trying to tell me I couldn't buy a Blood Angels codex without a Space Marine one even though I frequently informed them my friend had the SM one. "But this is a new edition". Oh **** off, I thought. Even as a suggestible eleven year old I knew they were trying to take me for a monetary ride.

I have issues of White Dwarf going back into the double digit figures, with a few pages of citadel catalogue (anyone remember that?) mlistings for miniatures in the back. The price of a lead (almost all lead stuff at this point, bar 'RTB01' for anyone old enough to get that reference ... ) eldar striking scorpion was 26p

Oh the days! .... :pac:

Pyr0

Chaos seems to make an appearance in the later half of the game.

It's very underwhelming I must admit.

I'm not mad on the voice acting, the orks in particular do not sound "Orky" enough, yeah they'd use phrases commonly used by orks but they just sound too human.

The weapon sounds are very light too, I was expecting a heavy thud from the bolters but all I was greeted with was a normal "machine gun" sound, very disappointing.

I was expecting a more diverse combat system instead of just a *click click click * in the general direction you want to attack, maybe there's more to it that I just haven't noticed.

Zillah

Pyr0 wrote: »

The weapon sounds are very light too, I was expecting a heavy thud from the bolters but all I was greeted with was a normal "machine gun" sound, very disappointing.

You might want to get your speakers checked or something, because one of the first things I noticed was that the bolters had a wonderful heavy thudding sound rather than a boring normal gun sound.

I was expecting a more diverse combat system instead of just a *click click click * in the general direction you want to attack, maybe there's more to it that I just haven't noticed.

I agree with you here, I found the gameplay a little straight forward with the point and multi-click. The whole health/stun/rage thing makes it a little more diverse...but I also found it a little annoying and gimicky. It doesn't make sense even in the WH40k world that a Space Marine's health would be leaping from near death to perfectly fine a dozen times during a fight.

The assault pack demo was brilliant though, thought that was very well implemented.

Pyr0

Zillah wrote: »

You might want to get your speakers checked or something, because one of the first things I noticed was that the bolters had a wonderful heavy thudding sound rather than a boring normal gun sound.



I agree with you here, I found the gameplay a little straight forward with the point and multi-click. The whole health/stun/rage thing makes it a little more diverse...but I also found it a little annoying and gimicky. It doesn't make sense even in the WH40k world that a Space Marine's health would be leaping from near death to perfectly fine a dozen times during a fight.

The assault pack demo was brilliant though, thought that was very well implemented.

I'll have to check that out so, I did have weird issues with the sound alright. Might need to update my drivers.

Shiminay

Yea, I felt a *very* satisfying thump through my 5.1 from the Bolters, exactly what I expected tbh from the fictional descriptions of them.

There seems to be an inclining towards close combat combos between "slash" and "stun" but I don't think they're making as much of that as they could or should. It'd be really sweet if there was some manner of combo system like a fighting game that combined your hand-to-hand and bolter/pistol.

That'd also make the multiplayer take on a very different angle - puts me in mind of Jedi Academy when you'd switch from weapons to sabres in multiplayer.

Overheal

Ran through the demo for a second go on Hard. In the hang of the controls now. Very satisfying now that im not basically button mashing.

Shiminay

Just ordered my special ed on PC - my guitar's gonna look great with that purity seal stuck to it

will56

played through the jump pack and regular level demos last nice.
Overall happy enough, graphics pretty good, enjoyed the weapon sounds, esp the sniper rifle and chainsword.
I would take issue with the voices of the orks, they sound far too human, nearly cockney or something. I thought the Nob sounded much more Orky even if he was just shouting Waaagh all the time.
Not a fan with the executions to gain health, doesn't seem practical when you're in the middle of an orc mob, would have rathered some sort of healthpack system in conjunction with it.
Anyone know what weapons are in the final game ? Love the power axe just before the waves of orks

gizmo

Gave the demo a shot last night having not touched any of the Warhammer stuff previously. Overall it was, as johnny_ultimate said below, like Gears of War but with a higher body count, which I wouldn't necessarily call a bad thing. Combat was satisfying, the world looked nice however there was a certain blandness to it all that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I'm not sure if it was the colour palette used (which may be more true to the fiction, I'm not sure), the stiffness of the marines in the cutscenes or the dialogue in general, which was delivered with all the emotion of a bipolar donkey.

Gona give it another shot tonight though since the demo crashed on me half way through the Inquisitor mission, not the best sign in the world but hey, it's only a demo.

moomooman

Whats the camera angle like? Is it offset to one side or centered behind the player?

I find a lot of recent 3rd person games have a bit of a "Dead Space" effect going on where the view is more restricted on one side, bugs me...

I havent played the tabletop game in nearly 20 years... :eek: but still have all my armies, books, games etc and an enduring love of the universe they created. White Dwarf used to have very short little stories that always piqued my interest and the art was so good it always fired the imagination.

Regarding WH40K fiction, I recommend the Horus Heresy books, I expected the first one to be rubbish but bought it out of curiosity and loved it, now 8 books in and aching to read the next one. If you are at all interested they expand on many ideas including the warp and chaos and deal with how the Imperium went from the Emperors secular vision of science and progress to stagnation and emperor worship, of course its not all high brow, theres still plenty of Xenos filth being split in twain...

I think the WH40K universe is underused in video games, a good FPS is well over due. Even as a fan I couldnt force myself through fire warrior I was surprised at just how popular Warhammer is internationally and clearly the DOW games added to that. Personally I get my Warhammer fix from my PC these days, just dont have time for the table top anymore.

If anyone is into WH40K, retro gaming and masochism I recommend the following games:

Space Hulk:Vengance of the blood angels. The graphics blew me away in '96 :rolleyes: Loved the game but it was biatch hard. A windows 95 game it hasnt woked on any version of Windows (or hardware) I've tried it on since.

Final Liberation: An epic scale game in the vein of Panzer General. The cut scenes were fantastic for the time, check em out on youtube, very immersive :pac:

Chaos Gate: XCOM with Space Marines. Win Win.

Gunmonkey

moomooman wrote: »

Final Liberation: An epic scale game in the vein of Panzer General. The cut scenes were fantastic for the time, check em out on youtube, very immersive :pac:

Chaos Gate: XCOM with Space Marines. Win Win.

Ive got those 2 in a double CD pack I found in a game shop near me years ago, so much fun

But yeah, there definately need to be a good 40k RPG sometime. Maybe go the AvP route and have 3 different sides in one game.

Shiminay

I still reckon an RPG/MMO/or even First Person RPG set in a Hiveworld would be awesome - Necromunda is the obvious choice.

Sarky

Gorkamorka tbh. Imagine the fun of upgrading your character completely randomly. Go to the Doc to replace a lost arm, come out with your arm still missing and both your legs replaced with rocket launchers! ^_^

moomooman

I forgot to mention the WH40K MMO that is coming up... hope its more than WOW40K

http://youtu.be/hHu4Na0lsd0

Might as well fail my exams now