By Jim Rossignol on September 5th, 2008 at 2:28 pm.
Via VG247 we discover that a couple of Czech sites are hosting the first footage of THQ’s third-person action title Warhammer 40k: Space Marine. The piece seems to narrated by someone from the dev team, who shows off a load of in-game footage, and employs excessive use of the word “cinemaction”. The game is reportedly coming out on PC and consoles, and we think that’s a fairly safe bet. Only War, after the jump.
05/09/2008 at 14:32 Jigglybean says:
neat! I just want DoW 2
05/09/2008 at 14:44 Janek says:
So it’s Gears of War with more cutting people’s face off.
Well, there’s no license more suited. Although it seems a little clunky as it stands, but hopefully that’s just from being an early build.
Also: OH NO QTEs.
05/09/2008 at 14:44 Bobsy says:
Whoa. There’s running… AND gunning!
05/09/2008 at 15:53 Ging says:
I dislike how his bolter is useless as anything but a torch… I hope that changes, WH40k shouldn’t just be about melee! (was it just me, or did that Bolter fire faster than it seems it should?)
But for an early build, it sure looked purty.
05/09/2008 at 15:59 cullnean says:
dunno lone space marine run and gun, is that really in the spirit of 40k?
05/09/2008 at 16:02 spd from Russia says:
looks good, I guess – cant see details from video compression
But the battle system doesnt impress me. Doesnt look fluid and dynamic. Also stiff animations :( I guess a space marine in a power armor shouldnt jump around like Kratos or Prince of Ubisoft, but he could move around a bit more.
I see a WH40k marine shooter more similar to CoD4 – where you fight as a member of a squad, battle raging all around you. Not as a slasher ;/
05/09/2008 at 16:04 Ging says:
spd: He does mention that this is essentially the first playable build, so the animations and well, everything will become much smoother (I hope).
But I do agree, I’d say that an FPS would perhaps match the ethos more (though Fire Warrior disagrees with me)
05/09/2008 at 16:09 schizoslayer says:
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only a minor police action!
Not in the slightest in the spirit of the license. This needs a thousand space marines fighting by your side with a million Orks charging at you on an ash covered Hive world with Titans stamping on things and causing mini-apocalypses every time they fire their guns.
05/09/2008 at 16:12 Lord_Mordja says:
Stabbing someone with a chainsword is just silly.
Also: OH GOD! So many retarded buzzwords!
I’ll wait and see; given that it’s early footage there’s lots of room for improvement.
The outside environment is beautiful if…empty.
05/09/2008 at 16:13 Nick says:
Totally agree on the point about the bolter being useless – since when have space marines been about melee combat only?
05/09/2008 at 16:14 Diogo Ribeiro says:
So… 300 machismo (minus 299 soldiers) meets Gears of War with QTEs in yet another action title with awesome scenarios which you’ll only be able to run through and gawk at with the camera.
Hey, at least it sounds better than FireWarrior.
05/09/2008 at 16:27 Del Boy says:
Doh!
I’ve just pressed the Enter key when the ‘Press Start screen appeared!
Force of habit…
05/09/2008 at 16:34 Fumarole says:
I want to orchestrate a Ballet of Death!
05/09/2008 at 16:51 mister k says:
I certainly agree that it’d be a shame if you were a lone warrior- some kind of star wars battlefront rip off would rock if done well- I like my marines tough, but for your guy to survive that much combat (especially against traitor marines) seems unlikely.
05/09/2008 at 16:51 Sum0 says:
The intro videos to the Dawn of War games always send tingles up my spine. Is it so difficult to do a shooter with hundreds of teammates fighting hundreds of enemies on a huge battlefield? Hitman: Blood Money did fantastic crowds. Just give them guns and make them run at each other on a giant, cratered battlefield. That’s how I see WH40K.
Having said that, it does look at least marginally cool. I do wish the WH40K games would model the bolters as more than just bog-standard machine guns, though. These are giant, nasty pieces of work, they require power armour to even carry, and they shoot 20mm artillery shells with built-in rocket propulsion which penetrate flesh and then explode. It should be like a grenade launcher going off every second. And that’s just the pistol.
05/09/2008 at 16:52 Jonas says:
Just makes me anticipate DoW2 more to be honest.
And his stupid PR words got on my nerves. “Cinemaction moments”? Finishing moves, then. “The parrying system”? It’s parrying swords with your arm, how is that a system? “A whole different experience”? No, just another animation sequence. You call this orchestrated WHAT of death!? I call it a bunch of melee combat.
05/09/2008 at 16:52 danarchist says:
Well from a 40k nerd: the player seems to be a squad sergeant so the use of the chainsword fits the flavor, they are supposed to lead from the front, power fist to fang, with any alien or heretic scum they see. I didn’t catch it but did he say this was a mmo or just a single player game? If its multi player that may fix the issue of only one marine running around alone. But your right marines very rarely work alone, actually in over a decade I don’t think I have read one book where they did.
I am dying for something other than swords and sorcerery or fps crap to play. I can only replay deus ex so many times. Here’s to hoping the industry is finally over its elf fetish!
05/09/2008 at 16:58 Jochen Scheisse says:
When I go to the crapper, it shall henceforth be known as “orchestrating a Water Ballet of Excrement”.
05/09/2008 at 17:00 Bursar says:
Brothers of the Snake by Dan Abnett featured Marines working alone. The idea being that 1 marine was often all that was required in certain situations.
Pretty good book all told.
05/09/2008 at 17:03 monkeymonster says:
@Sum0 – exactly, the bolter is an evil piece of work, not a mere semi-auto.
It does appear to need a lock on of some sort… Running around aimlessly being battered merely because you can’t strafe does seem a bit ‘tarded – though given its a 1st build perhaps its not been tagged on yet.
for 100′s of cinemoments – upgrade weapons, different ones? Powerfists, energyswords etc…
Plus since when is a chaos space marine the equal of a “normal” one.
05/09/2008 at 17:04 mujadaddy says:
It reminds me of the Tekken Brawl mode or whatever it was called.
monkeymonster: “since when is a chaos space marine the equal of a “normal” one”
Chaos marines are far superior to the weak-minded shepherds that tend the Dead Emperor’s flock. Skulls for the Skull Throne!
05/09/2008 at 17:20 Tom says:
Anyone remember Spartan: Total Warrior. Sadly it only ever came out for the xbox and I never did play it, but that featured mass battles, where you were fighting alongside many in what seemed like huge battles. (From videos I saw)
At current this game however resembles Gladiator: Sword of vengeance, which was bloody, had finishing moves and a weird story. Sofar, the only difference here is the W40K license.
Oh well, time will tell…
05/09/2008 at 17:38 Biggles says:
Yeah, bolter should be insta-hit with explosions and a bit slower, say a cool 2-4 shots per second and some nice kick back, with probably some emphasis on taking cover or parrying bullets and rockets with your arms/shoulders to hide the exposed head. Also, team mates, obviously, or even better, co-op ala left 4 dead.
05/09/2008 at 17:39 Aubrey says:
Less cinemaction please! It’s already annoying. Especially the amount of time taken to get back to the idle pose.
05/09/2008 at 17:47 Heliocentric says:
what a waste. Of effort and of a license, i never really felt the dow represented the world of 40k, but it represented the board games depth (not too little not too much). Couldn’t they at least make you an imperial assassin, any would do. They could even be a game start class choice. Sniper, stealth melee etc. Hell.. Even stick you in a dredy. Infact a dred would make a great console game due to limited turning speeds being justifiable. But if nids are in the game all is forgiven.
05/09/2008 at 17:50 Lu-Tze says:
Genuine constructive criticism:
- Cinemaction too frequent
- Animations are very unpolished
- Pumelling previs looks AWFUL
Stupid geek criticism:
- Bolter fires too fast
- Chainsword goes through Power Armor like butter
- “Chaos Marines are you equal on the opposite side. Now watch me kill 6 of them”. This game is going to end with a Space Marine tearing down huge vehicles single handedly.
In general the “Gears of Warhammer 40k” should make me go “ooo”, but I can’t help feeling more than a little disappointed by this video. Sometimes there’s good reason to keep your cards close to your chest, regardless of how much the fanboys are gibbering.
05/09/2008 at 18:02 ack says:
Environments: Yes.
Gameplay: No.
Any developer that uses that many buzzwords have spent waaaay to much time in a meeting room with suits trying to defend why they should let him keep the licence.
05/09/2008 at 18:03 Steelfist says:
I see a WH40k marine shooter more similar to CoD4 – where you fight as a member of a squad, battle raging all around you. Not as a slasher ;/
Exactly…
There is a lot of 40k art of huge battles, treading on mountains of bodies and stuff. I don’t want to spend the whole damn game chainsawing people…
And the stun system is an awful idea. It really breaks the immersion, having an enemy just standing there looking dazed. Its so obviously shoehorned in.
So far, not impressed at all. Looks like some knock off GoW clone.
05/09/2008 at 18:09 Radiant says:
This looks fun as hell.
CINEMACTIONS!
INTIMATE BRUTALITY!
Sounds like the devs are having a lot of fun.
Nice environments too.
05/09/2008 at 18:10 David says:
Continuing on what Lu-Tze said.
The bolt-pistol needs to be a BOLT PISTOL, not a heavy autogun. Which means mini-rockets of doom instead of bullets. If you need a torch, use an auspex.
How come the Space Marine never gets hit, when people fire at him? Seeing shots ‘ding’ off his armor would really sell how awesome Power Armor is. And I agree that Chainswords shouldn’t cut through them so easily.
And, I agree that as the game progresses, “Cinemaction” kills should happen less and less, unless they’re new. They will get old, and they will get old fast. It’s good to have them, just don’t depend on them.
I liked the idea of pummeling an opponent, but in the middle of a firefight that doesn’t really seem plausible. What do you get out of doing that, anyway?
05/09/2008 at 18:22 Alex says:
This looks like Blood Rayne in Power Armour. Why don´t these devs never have a complete 40k geek amongst them… for, lets call it, quality assurance. I´d like to see a game from that franchise that fits it already! 40k is so neatly laid out in dozens of books, tabletop- and pen and paper games… and still noone of these publishers will ever bring out a proper 40k game. Not even DOW is close to be really from the 40k universe. Not even close… sigh.
05/09/2008 at 18:31 Anonymous says:
On the bolter, it should be doing more damage. However, the firing speed is debatable – they do apparently fire quite quickly depending on type. Personally I’d slow it down and make it meatier-sounding, but eh. It just didn’t sound angry enough.
On the chainsword, it’s a slashing weapon you gits, not stabbing. Also, I’ll refuse to play in rage if you can’t get either a thunderhammer or an Angry Marine’s power wrench at some point in the game.
On the outdoors bit, it was great the first time a vulture gunship swooped overhead, but a bit later a… marauder? I dunno, whatever it was it flew past, following the same path. Twice. Although I’m sure that repetitiveness is an early build issue… and it was cool to see a vulture.
Other comments… if there’s a multiplayer mode, a vortex grenade would be hilarious, especially if it stuck around and drifted.
Edit: In the spirit of Goto, there should be an unlockable/easter egg marine-portable multilaser somewhere in the game.
05/09/2008 at 18:32 David says:
Alex, FireWarrior did a good job of keeping to the fiction, if I recall correctly. Not that it prevented it from being a Halo mod.
05/09/2008 at 18:36 Lake says:
In the future, doorknobs will be obsolete and everyone will shoot doors to open them.
@Jochen Scheisse – My BMs could be called Intimate Brutality.
05/09/2008 at 18:43 phuzz says:
As Tom says, it reminded me of Spartan Total Warrior, although although that game was fun, it was a bit, how to put it, dumb?
But what it did have was loads of guys running around with you, and some fun, flowing combat, although this early demo is obviously far from finished.
Something closer to Halo in terms of more ranged combat would be my preferred balance, but it sounds like they’ve already made up their minds about the direction which is a shame.
05/09/2008 at 18:44 Alex says:
David… maybe. I must admit I never played it. And thinking about it again… Space Hulk did a nice job, thus limited technically even in its own aera. That epic battle game did it, as well… and Chaos Gate was good. So blame me for being over anxious when I watched that shity vid.
05/09/2008 at 18:55 Hypocee says:
Spartan came out on PS2 as well – that’s where I played it – and it’s a real buried gem. The box art just screams that it’s some kind of dull action-RPG, so I kept pasing it by for over a year.
What it actually is is some alternate-world version of Koei’s Warriors games. In my experience this one’s less about building up combos and more about movement and manoeuvre – where you’re usually surrounded and fighting in circles in Warriors, in Spartan you’re usually judging your movement relative to some strong enemy while trying not to get surrounded by mooks. The rest of the time you’re usually trying to fight your way through them to a time-limited objective or boss. There’s lots of dodging and shield-bashing to get people where you want them, and some scrums feel a bit like a precursor to AssCreed’s crowd pushing engine. It’s a terribly un-special-looking game, but extremely interesting to play.
05/09/2008 at 20:00 Taxman says:
Looks pretty decent to me for an action title.
To those complaining about the bolter the videos narrator says it is not meant to be powerful the game is intentionally a melee close combat title.
05/09/2008 at 21:21 Okami says:
Is intimate brutality some new form of domestic violence?
05/09/2008 at 21:37 Diogo Ribeiro says:
@Okami: more on par with consented rape.
05/09/2008 at 22:14 Gerfervonbob says:
So much negativity! It is early in development and it was just a small segment of a level, they may have battle segments. Instead of a liner melee corridor shooter I see an opportunity for an really kick ass War40k game. Call me an optimist.
05/09/2008 at 22:26 JonFitt says:
Shouldn’t he have to be 2″ or less from his nearest buddy?
Lone Space marines roaming around just strikes me as completely wrong.
Also as many other have said, the chainsword (as preposterous as they always were), can only ever have been a slashing/sawing weapon, the most dangerous part is the front edge, not the tip.
If you want to treat it more like a sword, then use a powersword.
Also, the “cinemactions” really broke up the flow, with him standing there like a lemon and returning slowly to idle as people are shooting at him.
The best game I can think of would be Battlefield: 40k. With all the vehicles and maybe even done single player with more progressive levels, rather than a Battlefield map.
But definitely large scale, with many friendlies, and heavy support.
I know there a mod out there, but this needs to be done for real from the ground up.
05/09/2008 at 22:29 JonFitt says:
@Taxman “narrator says it is not meant to be powerful, the game is intentionally a melee close combat title.”
Doesn’t that strike you then as missing the point of 40k Space Marines? Completely?
05/09/2008 at 22:29 Noc says:
I’m normally optimistic about these sorts of things, too. But I hate “cinimaction.” It’s hugely immersion breaking, and moderately disorienting. What I’d LIKE to see is the same concepts applied more subtly; the camera swinging around slightly to catch a better view of the action, blood spatter, projectiles whizzing closer to the screen . . . subtle things that help make the whole experience look more dramatic.
I’m not one to object to things on principle. Hell, I’ve argued for QTE’s before. But I’m seeing more and more of these micro-cutscenes in games, and it’s not something I like. The whole thing smacks as being half a concept: “Make the game look more like a movie,” good, but “Cut around to show movie in a slow-motion, awkwardly framed shot that would provoke forehead-slapping from most filmmakers” isn’t a good start.
A good start would be a more intelligent camera, and maybe slipping in a few artificial “tweaks” to the combat timing to make it look and feel more visceral. For all the buzzwords, they didn’t really talk about any of that in the clip.
05/09/2008 at 23:05 ReturnToNull says:
Looks awesome, most of the mechanics seem solid, but the presentation is currently crap. The animations are really wooden, and awful looking in places. The run/walk is particularly awful and grating on me. I’d love some sort of short rampup/cooldown after a charge so the animation transition isn’t all jerky.
Also the AI looks awful, seriously. I would -love- to have them in on this so called ‘Ballet of Death’. If I’m engaging three guys in close combat it should -look- like a 3 on 1 with everyone involved, not a series of 1 on 1 fights while the so called allies sit back and watch as I beat the hell out of their comrades.
Otherwise, a very tempting buy cause I’m a 40k junkie.
05/09/2008 at 23:06 MeestaNob! says:
Too early to really judge, but based on what they showed us there it’s gonna be shit. Frankly. It doesn’t seem to even remotely capture the whole Warhammer vibe, as has been mentioned ad nauseum already. The weapons are wrong, the feel is wrong, the setting is wrong, the cocking everything is amiss. GoW 40K indeed. Remembering GoW was wank, mind.
Pooh.
Hopefully things will improve dramatically, but I doubt it.
05/09/2008 at 23:32 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Annoying buzzwords, QTE silliness, and jerkiness of the animations aside…
Definitely have to agree with the general 40K geek sentiment here. While I can put off my distaste for over-the-top violence, and my dislike of the Space Marines in general, I find it difficult to fathom how apparently difficult it must be for 40K game devs to “get” the message that the Bolter is supposed to be a–how do you say?–ah, yes, BFG.
Every time you ask a 40K fan about what the Bolter is, they’ll tell you. It’s basically a grenade launcher that fires its rounds as quickly as an M60, whose projectiles function like really, really big, mean bullets. THQ didn’t quite “get” that in Fire Warrior, and here it seems like they didn’t quite “get” that here.
The rest of what they’ve shown captures the feel of 40K really well, so I guess this is a case of geek-lore’s Uncanny Valley. It’s so close to what it should be, the mistakes glare at you even more.
I guess they sacrificed canon authenticity for the design philosophy, which is about as melee-based as you’d expect a game focusing on a guy with a chainsword to be. But they could at least make the bolter feel meatier, and retain the same level of, er, non-effectiveness as the current build seems to imply.
They could at least reduce the fire rate and increase the volume of the bolter’s sound effects.
But hey, it’s kind of moot because, frankly, I don’t actually care for the Space Marines. They always got all the setting love, when I thought there were more interesting things afoot across the rest of the Imperium. Honestly, who’d have thought a Commissar could be a hero of a series of comedies?
06/09/2008 at 00:21 neoanderthal says:
argh. to throw my hat in the ring as well:
it is very pretty looking.
what chapter is our brother-marine from? From the colours, it would appear he’s a Blue-Boy from the Ultramarines, but the shoulder badges don’t bear this out. The same for the Chaos Space Marines – at first I thought they were World-Eaters, but I’m not so sure upon further inspection.
Parroting the comments of others, the “cinemaction” takes away from the game. Breaks in the flow of combat like that are detractors from the game, not stunning additions. Reminds me of that rather horrible “Demon Stone” for the PS2 (and later PC) that was done a while back.
Just some friendly tips to the developers of this game, on the off-chance they’re going to read the comments:
Warhammer:40K fans care about things like Space Marine chapters, whether bolters fire mass-reactive bolts or just appears to be a glorified machine pistol, and how chainswords are meant to be used
I personally would like to add that while the “cinemaction” cutscenes look nice, I’d be punching my screen when I lost control of my on-screen character while pulling one of these “finishing moves”, and then taking damage from one of the baddies hanging out around me who basically gets a free attack against me while I’m occupied with my “Ballet of Death”.
06/09/2008 at 00:49 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
From the looks of it, baddies seem considerate enough to stand back while you finish the one-on-one cinematic. Like movie ninjas, but with more power armor.
06/09/2008 at 01:03 Erlam says:
“But I do agree, I’d say that an FPS would perhaps match the ethos more (though Fire Warrior disagrees with me)”
I’d say the opposite, really. At least the way FPS’ are done — you’d need to be one small soldier in a massive battle of thousands.
If I recall correctly, about the bolters (from the TT game), the popular quote/joke is “How do you use a bolter? You turn it around, and hit the guy with it.” Run-and-gun works, but only in terms of making the game more fun. Run, stop, fire, run, stop, fire is only fun for so long.
That said, if this is a first playable video, that’s fucking good.
06/09/2008 at 02:14 Ghostunit says:
Why the hell would you spend ages playing a mini game to kill the guy on the ground (who seems to be fighting back?) – especially when it seems you also have the option to kill him with one button?
06/09/2008 at 03:36 Ging says:
Ghostunit: It’s not available all the time (he explains that you earn “overkills” as you play) – so you’d want to save it for particular situations I’d guess.
Of course, as with all such things, speculation at this early point is a bit of a fools game.
06/09/2008 at 03:57 Aftershock says:
I laughed when i saw the grenade “explosion”. I know its a very early build, but a big yellow circle still makes me laugh.
Melee focused? SINCE WHEN?! these are supposed to be space marines, a squad based, tactical team. Hell, the Gears four act more like space marines than this guy does.
And if a Chaos marine is a Space marines “equal” then how come against 3 Chaos marines and 3 traitor guard he STILL wins? The traitor guard aren’t even using lasguns, which would normally render them useless!
And yeah, the Bolt pistol everyone is talking about is actually a bolter that he is one-handeding. Sigh. The things he’s being shot with are more like bolt pistols. Only they need to explode.
But yeah, meatier bolters, less chainsword stabbing,
06/09/2008 at 04:04 hart says:
Agree with most of the geek criticism here. Doesn’t seem to fit the feel of 40k.
Isn’t there part of the 40K lore that actually supports this kind of behaviour – lone infiltrator/stranded soldier, armed to the teeth? Something that isn’t the friggin’ Space Marines would work much better in this kind of scenario.
06/09/2008 at 04:27 Aftershock says:
So there i was, thinking of what would make a kickass 40k game, and this came to mind.
Black Crusade. Legions of Chaos marines and beats swarming out of the Eye of Terror, overwhelming Cadia and taking many planets before the Imperium can mount a defense and make planetfall on a continent currently being contested. All the other continents have either sunk into chaos entirely, or have been orbitally striked, and thus split into little bits.
The civilian population are being herded onto ships, and jungle around the city shudders. Hundreds of Daemons charge out, and are almost to the city walls when the autocannons and heavy bolters open fire. The first ranks are cut down instantly.
Inside the city, the Space Marine chapter mobilises. The imperial guard are left to keep the population under control, and the dropships are leaving as fast as is possible.
In the skies, the chaos fleet rounds the planet and opens up into the Imperial Fleet in orbit above the city. Plasma flies between the two fleets as fighers fly from the Chaos fleet to stop the civilian dropships, and fighters from the imperial fleet attempt to intercept them.
Back on the planet, the daemons have taken the outer walls, and have been held back by the heavy weapons teams and marines in the trenches behind them. The wall suddenly explodes, and a Dreadnought roars into view. The daemons are all but vanquished, and the dreadnought storms over the trenches, crushing marines, and burning IG. Drop pods land around it, and terminators come out. The dreadnought readies for combat, when it is shredded by lascannons. The Marine’s armour is here. The assualt appears to have lightened up, and the terminators walk onto the wall. They see a dark ritual in progress, and charge right into the middle of it. They are sucked into the vortex, and consumed as sacrifices.
The the dropship line is slowing, due to the battle raging above them, and the civilians are growing restless, and some try and flee. They are gunned down by the guard.
The newly born daemon prince rushes towards the terminators, their thunderhammers crackling with anticipation. His sword swings through several of them, only blocked by the librarian. He glows with bright light, and the daemon reels. The light is suddenly extinguised, as bolts of dark energy rain down from the city walls, summoned by the Sorcerer there. As the inner walls are assailed by the daemon prince and his sorcerer, the sky is ablaze with the retro thrusters of Chaos drop pods.
Part 2 coming later, if i feel like it.
06/09/2008 at 04:28 Ging says:
Aftershock: I laughed when i saw the grenade “explosion”. I know its a very early build, but a big yellow circle still makes me laugh.
It’s a previs, so that probably wasn’t even done in engine – uses the same assets (ie, the early stuff they’ve got atm) but not in game, hence the dodgy grenade explosion.
hart: You’ve got the assassins or possibly a scout unit but then you’d lose the sort of visceral combat they’re “gunning” for here as it’d be a much more stealthy “please don’t shoot me” sort of game.
(edit mundo!)
Where’s the game though Aftershock?
06/09/2008 at 07:20 zuddy says:
Piping in with the rest of the 40k geeks. Not much of a Smarine fan, Orks are better. Waaaagh! Everyone is pretty much spot on, the bolter as it is now is a bit of a weedy piece of kit, seriously… did this guy decide to be nice and load up some rubber bullets? And it is a two handed rifle, not a pistol like this guy seems to be using it as. At least use a bolt pistol if you’re going hand to hand.
The chainsword… well I like chainswords, but it’s used way too much here. If you really want to have an in your face close combat game, use an assault marine. Or better yet for the whole lone warrior thing, how about an Inquisitor? They get access to crap loads of ass kicking weapons.
If this game is going to feature new weapons you can pick up, how is the ‘intimate brutality’ going to work when you get a heavy bolter and have to put away the sword?
Now to defend the video just a bit, he’s alone because he seems to be the last one standing from his squad. He did wake up from being unconcious. Maybe he needs to rejoin the battle brothers? And for a first build, this looks sweet. Will be waiting to see more.
If they get it right hell yeah I’ll get it, even if they don’t, I’ll still get it. Can’t turn down any 40k stuff…
Please no cinemaction, the first was fun to watch, everything after was painful.
06/09/2008 at 08:37 Sucram says:
The dev saying how well this captures the fiction and how players have never seen 40K up close like this before, seems to be his way of saying ‘We have never played FireWarrior or Space Hulk and don’t really know what Warhammer is, but generic man in power armour, we can make a generic game out of that’
06/09/2008 at 10:20 Okami says:
If they really need to make a WH40K Hack&Slash, they should just take the “Obvious Tactics” comics and turn that into a game. Three Marines fighting against a whole planet of Nurgle cultists. There’s a lot of purging and cleansing and deeds of heroic idiocy and in the end, they blow up the whole goddman planet.
So you got three main characters, can switch between them at will and at some points you have to use a specific one.
Also: Cinemaction sounds incredibly stupid.
Also: A Gaunt’s Ghosts tactical shooter would be awesome. Just saying…
06/09/2008 at 10:32 N says:
I kinda like the design of the Tau honestly, the yellow armors and helmets are pretty damn cool. In Fire Warrior (which I played almost to the very end) the bolter was way closer to the original concepts, although the fire-rate was a bit lower due to the fps mechanics of the game (it was a slower firing yet powerful weapon type). I really liked the katana too, you could melee with it at any time basically. And the beginning levels are pretty effing cool, with the trench warfare and everything…
06/09/2008 at 10:40 Optimaximal says:
I’m giving this the benefit of the doubt, for now… If things don’t improve 2-3 vids down the line, then i’ll join the colour-me-unimpressed crowd.
Canon & gameplay aside, the guy makes repeated reference to the fact this is the first time the game has even approached playable, let alone had its storyline etc. set in stone.
As zuddy points out, the marine is clearly recovering from being knocked unconscious at the start of the vid, assuming this section even makes it into the final game.
06/09/2008 at 11:45 Echo says:
I giggled every time he said “This is what we call SILLY BUZZWORD”.
06/09/2008 at 12:03 Rakysh says:
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t he an assault marine?
06/09/2008 at 12:11 Kalain says:
I love the way he was saying ‘Run and Gun gameplay’ as if it was something new. I thought PC FPS and Third Person shooters were already using this since, I dunno, the last 10-15 years?
So far, it looks like an unimpressive shooter in the same vane as every other console shooter. If it does come out for the PC, then I hope they polish it up and improve on it, but I have a strange feeling we might just get a port like we always do.
06/09/2008 at 13:09 Anonymous says:
40K is all about melee. Even for space marines – they can, and do, shoot things, but they’re expected to get into close combat, and they’re good at it.
Usually space marines operate in groups, but not always – if the others die they’ll be alone, for instance, but even without that they sometimes operate alone. The Iron Snakes not only occasionally send single marines to do missions, they sometimes send single marines who’ve just barely been promoted to full space marines to protect a world from a ship full of dark eldar raiders. Solo marines happen.
I dunno about chapter – the brief glimpse I got of his shoulders made me think fists, so perhaps he’s a Crimson Fist? They’re blue and they’re a classic chapter.
06/09/2008 at 13:52 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Sure, but it’d still be nice if the Bolter at least sounded meatier. It hits as hard as a Marine can punch. And considering how ludicrously hard a Space Marine can punch, that’s impressive.
As far as the solo marines bit goes, we can easily write it off as “fluff marines.” They’re written to be a lot more impressive in text than they are in actual play. Same for other supplemental media. No biggie.
Also, clearly saw a Skull With Halo on his soupbowl at around 7:38.
06/09/2008 at 16:41 Andrew Kirkman says:
Now I love 40K, Iwas one of thos 40K nerds at school and I play all of the games…but this looks a bit pants tbh, I look forward to seeing more footage but it kinda looks like a scifi version of Assasins Creed with all of the quick kills which very very quickly made a good game idea very boring
06/09/2008 at 18:29 Anonymous says:
“all of the games” makes me think back through the long list of 40K games, and makes me desperately want a Deff Skwadron/Bommerz Over Da Sulpha River flight sim.
But it will never happen :(
06/09/2008 at 18:36 Shawn says:
I’m really loving what I see but I hope they make the keyboard and mouse controls properly. A game like this should do well on PC with all the 40k fans. Between this and DoW2, and the upcoming 40k MMO, it’s nice to see the franchise flourishing. I know a lot of people are going to say this is a Gears rip on the console side, but the chainsword(is that what it’s technically called?) has been done in the 40k universe long before Gears. The finishing moves are very sweet as well, nice and gruesome.
Art style looks amazing too, would love to see a high res video of this though, and more videos.
06/09/2008 at 19:19 Anonymous says:
Yeah, it’s called a chainsword. Also available in chainaxe and eviscerator, the latter being a more traditional chainsaw shape… only 6′ or so long and with a bonus flamethrower.
It’s popular with the type of people who the insane religious extremists consider to be insane religious extremists.
07/09/2008 at 01:51 Frito says:
I’d prefer to play as a lone Imperial Guardsman. It would be a very short game.
07/09/2008 at 02:43 zuddy says:
Rakysh: Could be, but most assault marine have jump packs and bolt pistol/chainsword combos not bolters. Right now he could be anything. Without squad markings, he’s just a generic smurf.
This is still an awesome first step. Hope there are plans for more than just Chaos marines and guard to kill.
Anyone have an idea who might be making this?
07/09/2008 at 04:58 Nimdok says:
I’ve actually been waiting for something like this for a long time, kinda Rogue Trooper with SMarines.
07/09/2008 at 05:01 Real Horrorshow says:
The more time passes, the more angry I become that the title of this entry isn’t Company of Heroes 2: Red Army, first footage.
I’d even settle for an alternate reality with Homeworld 3. Anything but Warhammer 40k, shit’s just boring to me.
:(
*edit*
Gah! I totally mistook this for a DoW2 post. Someone bring out the dunce cap.
07/09/2008 at 07:30 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
I always felt Chaos was among the more boring of the Imperium’s enemies. They’re the “evil twin,” and basically look like their loyalist counterparts, save for extra spikiness. You can’t get much more boring than that.
I’d rather see the Emperor’s Muppets fight the Tyranids, or perhaps the Eldar. Those’re some interesting, and very different, enemies to send the Soupbowls and Flashlights after. And I suspect, ten or so years ago, Blizzard felt the same way.
And Real Horrorshow, I have to say… game-mixup aside, I would be thankful for the lack of WW2 in this post, not mournful. Even though Company of Heroes is a great game, WW2′s one heck of a dead horse at this point. There are probably more WW2 games for the PC than there are bones in the human body.
Homeworld 3, however, is something that needs to happen. Badly.
07/09/2008 at 10:03 Half Broken Glass says:
Just take Gears of War and make it 40k. Nothing else needs to be done.
07/09/2008 at 10:44 phuzz says:
If they want up close and personal violence, how about an Orky warboss? Now there’s a character who’d rather run right up to an enemy, pull off their head and stuff a stik bomb down the hole just for kicks :)
(and instead of overkills you get WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZ obviously)
07/09/2008 at 23:37 Pew says:
I want to love this, but to me it looks like X-Com Enforcer was to X-Com…
Also more buzzwords than there was actual buzz-sawing.
08/09/2008 at 03:57 Janto says:
Eversor… I hated those skull faced monkeys, they could take out a whole squad of ‘stealers if they got lucky.
08/09/2008 at 05:51 grishnak boss says:
Game looks really good – hope they take advantage of actual PC’s power.
08/09/2008 at 09:52 Lu-Tze says:
To continue my groove of “angry internet man thinks he can make games better”..
The theme of my version of “Gears of Warhammer” runs throughout with the phrase “Customisation” and “Teamplay”.
I’ll start with Multiplayer because that feeds into the Single Player… Insignia designer and Unit painter like Halo 3. Make your own Chapter basically, with good support for playing with your mates/as a clan.
Design a unit as per Call of Duty 4. Do you want Scout Armor or Terminator Armor? That’s going to determine what kind of weapons you can kit out, as well as your speed. Make a boxing Terminator if you want, with a Power Fist on each arm and ambush people with lethal uppercuts. Or have a flamer. Or kit out a scout with a Chain Sword. If you want to keep the weapons with their canonical availablility to different ranks, tie that into online levelling up.
And as well as the standard team modes, give the players some fun co-op online stuff like GTAIV did. Defend a base against continually increasing waves of enemies and see how well you and your mates can do in the online scoreboards. Try to complete an objective as fast as possible, whatever.
Then take that, and put it into the Single Player campaign. You can’t just go around picking up other people’s Bolters, so how you kit yourself out is important. Work together, specialise and diversify, and play the Campaign with your Chapter. Cut Scenes don’t need to refer to the chapter name or your units name, just call him by his rank. And if you are playing through solo at least populate a few non-essential friendly AIs (so basically, use Imperial Guard in place of the Marines in Halo 3) around the place.
Now you’ve got a game i’ll buy, and something that has unique selling points that are supported by the licence.
Disclaimer : WH40K knowledge may be inaccurate in places.
08/09/2008 at 12:58 xate says:
omg i luv w40k, i read a lot of books and I still wait for a good fps game to come out one day… this sadly doesnt seem like one!
the sp part of a w40k game could be so awesome in ways of customization and evolving your character (like deus ex or stuff, fps with rpg elements) you start as a human on a rough world and fight your way through some manhood trials… next you meat a captain from a chapter and with other lads from your village are transformed to a space marine, you go through a few training cycles and than the first real mission… etc etc. so much story and background to go with!
each mission can be as epic as a whole game, like mass effect or stuff like that! (nice writing there aftershock!)
of course the game itself should be more teamplay and less meele! some sword action is nice, but i want to feel my controls vibrating from the pure force of the bolter in my chracters hands! (of course the roaring chain sword, or power fists would do the same) the low humming in the background of the power armor hydraulics and not to mention some shrieking and squeaking while your running in full throttle
ahhh I got all excited now! :/
08/09/2008 at 14:52 Chris says:
The Chapter thing is odd – I can’t work out the insignia. To me, it looks like a skull on one side and an upwards-pointing arrow on the other. Not a Chapter I’m aware of, but then I haven’t really been following 40k for the last 15 years or so.
Well, apart from DoW obviously.
08/09/2008 at 17:42 Drew says:
I agree, it seems kinda stiff right now. The bolter needs to be worked on ALOT, because I think chainsword kills will get old…..even if they are beautifully done.
09/09/2008 at 00:02 anon says:
I hope they make the bolter more realistic. It needs to blow people apart. That way when they use the heavy bolter it will kill everything in 0.2 seconds and then if you get a lascannon it kills the world.
09/09/2008 at 01:52 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
They said they wanted this to be a mostly melee-oriented game, so it’s alright that the bolter is weaker than it should be. But the problem is, it doesn’t take much effort at all to read a single blurb in a random Google search hit describing what a bolter is.
The buzzwords are annoying because they’re just marketing the age-old concepts of finishing moves and QTEs in bigger, sillier compound words. But the sentiment of “representing 40K the way it was meant to be seen” comes off as a bit disingenuous when a minor, but well-known and easy-to-bump-into detail like this is overlooked.
Hell, before I ever became a Warhammer player I knew what a bolter was. The IP kind of makes Space Marines a big deal, and within the text the Space Marines make a big deal of their bolters.
09/09/2008 at 03:20 Greyface says:
So, I’m a girl, and FPS + Warhammer 40k is essentially my wet dream chance to take out my penis envy on all the big-dicked but poorly armed men in the world.
For me, FPS gaming is about the following: I kill with extreme perverse prejudice (read: God of War fan-girl) because, god damn it, I want slipping in blood to be a tactical concern. I do bad things and giggle (but not into my mic, ffs) to anyone and anything dumb enough to get into the way of my sword/staff/rock at the end of a club/lightsaber/chainsword/bolter. Storyline is intestine frosting on my bloody meat cake. Graphics are wasted if they’re not used for interesting spatters of blood.
It’s cathartic, it’s dirty pleasure, it gives us the ability to take our nerd-person rage out on a world filled with…. other nerd-people… whatever.
That said, I have both a minor and major issue with the above clip. Minor issue: No fucking -way- are blood-gasming scenes worth having bitches stab -my- Space Marine ass (what chapter, god damn it!) while I stare at myself doing all the dirty fun things even boyfriends won’t try. Major issue: Seriously… which of us won’t feel like a poof playing this game knowing we’re engaging in cinemaction and ballets of death? Bull.fucking.shit. I don’t play games like this because of crap ass market-speak phrases like that. Can you imagine calling -anything- Master Chief or Duke Nuke’em does a ‘ballet of death?’ Serious Sam would put a chainsaw through your eye for that shit.
Ballet of death… cinemaction… go play Kirby, bitch.
09/09/2008 at 16:49 Harlequin says:
As a Space Marine fan, I have to say that I’m pretty non-plussed with everything I saw. Many posters have already gone into the reasons as to why this game looks lackluster, but I still felt compelled to express my disappointment.
The whole thing just looks horribly cheesed out and if they’re even attempting to get a Gears of War feel, they’re failing quite miserably. I understand it’s a first build, but the whole “feel” that they claim they’re trying to project just seems wrong. Their “interpretation” of 40K seems to go against the grain of what a lot of people (on this site anyway) feel about the franchise.
The whole melee-centric combat just seems off, especially in a world that is rife with high-tech firearms capable of doing all sorts of nasty things…even to Marines in powered armor. I’d excuse this pretentious display of the “swords rule all” mentality if the melee’ combat actually seemed engaging. My problem is that it doesn’t. It just seems utterly boring and serves only as a means to show the uber-cool “cinemaction” that the devs seem so enamored with.
I’m hardly some Gears of War fanboy, but give me that style of true “run and gun” gameplay with some melee mixed in for spice and you have my money.
From the piss-poor excuse of a Bolter to the scripted action sequences and finally the concept of a lone Marine taking on an army of Chaos…well…it just doesn’t seem very promising or in the spirit of 40K.
That said, the environments look utterly fantastic. I will give them that.
Here’s to DoW 2.
12/09/2008 at 02:22 Hmm-hmm. says:
The graphics were pretty okay, especially for such an early build, but I fear for the gameplay. As said, an FPS (squad-based!) would be preferable. Even poured into a mold like this I have the feeling that, what with the ‘cinemaction’ nonsense (which looks good but interrupts the gameplay) and especially the whack-a-mole sequence at the end it’ll be a really dumbed down action-packed God of War wannabe.
17/09/2008 at 14:09 ihateyou... says:
Please just stop. You need to take everything except the graphics back to formula. No more cinemaction, no more orchestrating, and no being one man fighting an army. Every warhammer game that is ruined by bad ideas gives a bad name to 40K.
The fans have been waiting, but not for this…
10/10/2008 at 22:59 Paul says:
It would be better if the prymary weapon would be a bolter(and other ranged weapons from a normal upgrade)and the secondary from the knife to the daemonhammer.Also why are the chaos space marines melee units.the cultist should be so,not the space marines.Did that grenade just stunned them,it should have killed the cultists and the other to thorw him at least.Also it would be nice if you could throw your enemyes down,if this game stand pround with the envoyerment.And a nice thing it would be if you would say:,,For the Emperor“ and the chaos to say their ,,taunts“.Also bring the other races into discussion.And ranged units to try to take distance when you get near them,and when they see its usless to attack you.
10/10/2008 at 23:03 Paul says:
phuzz i like yyour idea.In the campain you should be able to chose from multiple characters and unlock others.(Ex:You play with big Mek and you unlock Warboss Gorgutzes campain)
20/10/2008 at 16:54 L!L'JOKER says:
Well the environment and your cinema stuff looks good but dats where it all hits da brakes after dat its just a dev not knowing any thing bout the genre trying to appeal to the wronge crowd and in the end getting noone.
Yes i know its early in the making so hopefully he reads all dis criticism and gets it right but dat would mean changing out the whole thing which sadly i doubt dey will do but heres an idea. Change it to fit. The gameplay they are trying to throw on us sounds more like the melee blood bath loving orks that cant shoot straight in the first place not the fine tuned super human marine with a gun that spits death.
I just think the developers need to grab them a 40k novel and do some research cause appealing to the fans will appeal to everyone i believe and probly drag new people to the genre.
24/10/2008 at 18:46 Will says:
This would be good if you, like, started out as a Scout, then as it progresses, you upgrade. So like:
Scout, Scout sniper, Space Marine, Space Marine seargent, Space Marine Devastator, Space Marine Veteran, Captain, Master.
27/10/2008 at 03:22 llMonstersll says:
I think a bit of objective gamepay will need to be introduced to make this game plausible. Yes it’s alpha, but I’m gonna go ahead and suggest away.
1. You can call your combat system whatever silly thing you want, that’s fine. Just don’t let the all the trendy titles inhibit potential gameplay possibilities. If the game does want to emphasize melee, it needs to provide an objective to use it and rewards for treating each threat in the proper manner. So lets adds some things :)
1. Make the bolter destroy cannon fodder enemies, and add more enemies :)
2. Having multiple enemy types that require different manners of dispatching will add variance and a reason to use your bolter/melee weapon. Weak enemies=your choice.
Strong ranged and armor=get close fast and melee. Strong melee=blow his face off from range as much as possible. Give grenades that do knockdowns on tough targets so you stall one group of enemies while you get started on another. OR have a few npc allies you can order to engage a group for you, but will ultimately just hold them till you get there. (Make them Guardsmen, SM allies in this role wouldn’t fit since they are so strong.)
Throw these different enemy types at you in rapid succession and viola! You’ve gone from slash/slash/slash gameplay to “Kill the guy the right way and he dies fast, or putz around and get swamped and die.”
Space Marines should be efficient, and I’m not adding anything groundbreaking or complex. I just think they should consider adding a rewards system for gameplay that includes the bolter as a viable option for certain situations, but still has moments where you can stick to your buzzword happy melee theme that someone obviously payed you a lot of money for.
And yes, go hire a lore geek to make this stuff fit right, you owe it to those who might potentially pay you to play this game.
25/11/2008 at 01:18 DAN!!!!! says:
LMAO what a fucking joke….
1. the boltgun is a fucking joke…
2.the story is at best a funny joke…
3.any background you might have been given you have destroyed and guess what? its a joke…
4.stop destroying a once proud company… you probably play LOTR dont you? your a fucking joke…
5.Read even one book by an author who sells his work to G.W (pref: dan abnett, james swallow… not c.s gotto or the prick who wrote the blood drinkers) and actually make a game that you have some vauge idea about background, storyline, history and anything else i havent metioned….
stop making/or improve this game before you turn more decent wargamers away from a loss making company thats pricing itsself out of its own market (if you still buy stuff from the shop you a fool cos its cheaper online) people are only willing to learn so many lessons before they go somewhere else guys… just like me! BRING BACK WEIGHT ORDERS FOR STAFF YOU SELFISH G.W BASTARDS!!!!!
25/11/2008 at 01:23 Saflo says:
Warhammer 40k: We’re All About Jokes™
25/11/2008 at 01:31 DAN!!!!! says:
one more…. considering my last comment was made only after the first few seconds outside….. THIS GAME IS TRYING TO SELL YOU….
1.cityfight terrain
2.forge world valkerie
3.forge world cultists
4. forge world khorne upgrade sprue
5 forge world thunderhawk gunship
6.im sure there will be a white dwarf somewhere in it too…. lol
14/12/2008 at 11:06 Advokate says:
My post? It’s too long, and you won’t read it.
I know I’ll be the one dissenter in this stumbling mob (with matching witty pitchforks, albeit metaphorical, in all their sizzling glory) of angry fanboys, but this is just irritating me. Also a few months late. Who cares? I’m not doing this for anyone but myself.
First of all, it’s alpha footage. It’s the skeleton. It’s the unfinished painting all you well-qualified art critics are trying your best to dismantle. It’s not even in the ballpark of even close to ‘done.’ But then I wouldn’t expect you to cut it some slack, or be excited, or whatever. Fluff above all, right? If that Bolter doesn’t sound ‘meatier’, I won’t play the game.
Are you kidding me?
The buzzwords? Yeah, I get it. It’s annoying. But chances are – he made this presentation for people that aren’t going to play the game. He probably said this in a pitch – because they make it easier for people to attach to, and to nurture, these concepts. It’s an industry, and he’s trying to sell an idea.
Lemme go a little bit more in depth about the boltgun – because it seems to be the subject of a lot of misdirected protectiveness. Developers, directors, whoever – all take their respective liberties when rendering a concept in an unfamiliar media. Jackson did it with Lord of the Rings, and people bitched about everything. Omission. Misrepresentation. Everything. They miss the entire point, just as so many here do.
This is THQ’s take on the Warhammer universe. Everyone has their own ideas about it, because it leads an entirely fictional and subjective existence. They decided to use the Boltgun in a different manner, to achieve a different end. It’s a creative liberty – and one they take for a very important reason that I will now outline:
Video games begin with the mechanic – not the fluff.
The Dev team wants melee to be the focus of the game. Ranged combat most assuredly has its uses, but melee is the ultimate end – At least for this short clip of completely unfinished game that is called the ‘first playable representation.’ More on that in a moment. If melee is the focus, then of course the bolter won’t be shredding limbs, exploding torsos, and annihilating everything – because then there’d be nothing to chop up. Hence – they must weaken the bolter.
Side Note: As a long-time D&D player, I can tell you how many time’s we have realized that the ‘roleplaying’ aspect sometimes needs to be warped in order for the party to work coherently. Sometimes things take a backseat to fun. Sometimes reality (or in this case, an idea in a fantasy universe) must be contorted to achieve the playable ‘game.’
I can hear the rebuttals already. “But the whole idea of melee combat being the only thing important doesn’t fit the spirit of 40k!” Really? And what is the ‘spirit’ of 40k? I doubt we can get a unanimous response, because everyone, as I said, has a different idea of what it should be.
Stop thinking about this game so much in 40k exclusive parameters – that’s where there’s this big disconnect. It’s a game first, and a realization of the Warhammer universe second. You might disagree, but that’s the reality. Because honestly? It’s a franchise before it’s anything else.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they want 40k fans to play this game. But I’m willing to bet they care about all the other potential gamers too. Which is why they’re focusing on attractive game mechanics, gory visuals, and exhilarating melee combat – and not fine tuning every nit-pickable aspect of its entirely subjective approach at the license.
Digressions, digressions. Another point.
“He’s one Space Marine! He can’t fight an army of Chaos!”
“No, man. Lone marines happen all the time.”
This is a first look. This is a freshly-scripted level. Do you really think the game will open with your marine regaining consciousness in a room with one way to go? With no exposition? With no ‘cinemaction-packed’ opening cutscene? Damn.
Considering how early in development they are, it’s entirely likely that these fights and environments will not appear anything like they did in the video. This is, if it is indeed the first playable version, an experiment. A dry run. They may very well have taken the marine, plopped him in a random environment, and slapped some enemies in some rooms for him to show off on. It’s a demonstration. It’s showing you the raw meat of the game – and you’re all picking at it like it’s supposed to be a prepared meal.
Is it within the realm of possibility that this ‘lone marine’ has a whole band of jolly battle-brothers we didn’t see in the video? Huh. Wow. I guess that isn’t too much of a concluding leap considering, that the game, bald and cooing like an infant, just started crawling. But wait! If not – and you are a lone marine? Wow, look. A piece of Warhammer fiction that’s about a single marine performing feats of heroism. It’s happened in books, right? Who cares? Why do they need a precedent in order to justify it? What makes the writers of any of these books more qualified on matters of 40k lore?
And we come to my actual problems with the game.
The cinemaction? Huh. That’s a neat idea. I like context sensitive deaths with all the boner-inspiring violence and gory plethora of animalistic delight I can stomach. It makes the adolescent boy in me tingle. Some of you are right, though. It does happen a bit too often.
I have a theory, however – The action only seems interrupted and clunky because they aren’t working with a full palette of animations. They don’t have the movement fine-tuned. They haven’t worked out exactly how the camera will pan when unfortunates are getting chewed to soggy mulch. The presentation on it (which is essentially central to the idea) isn’t yet polished. I think it a fair bet that THQ will clean these ‘cinemaction’ sequences up a bit, and better blend them with the flow of combat, considering it’s one of the ‘buzzwords’ the demonstration hinged upon. Expect it to get better. Or don’t, and refuse to play the game. Whatever.
Other than that, I think the movement is a bit strange – but again. It will improve.
You know. I’m tired. This is a fruitless effort. I’m going to bed. But if I leave you with anything at all? Please just remember what I said about rendering an idea in another media. You can’t make a book a movie. You can’t do it. The movie isn’t ‘better’ than the book – they’re just different representations, and it’s not fair to compare them. The 40k lore is one thing, the tabletop game another, your individual reservations about things even another, and this game? A culmination of the reservations of many, many others.
Just as so many people here have posited their own personal take on ‘what a 40k game should totally be,’ recognize that’s exactly what’s happening with this one. Oh, also?
Get over the fucking bolter.
16/12/2008 at 20:01 Tom says:
Advokate, I see what you’re saying. And I agree. I just hope that THQ trys it’s hardest to keep to the 40k fluff and not go and change the Space Marines into Orks! I like the Idea of working with a team of SM’s,unlike what was shown in the clip. If you’ve seen Dawn of War II, you know what I mean. Well, anyway, good luck to THQ!
23/12/2008 at 10:06 Correction18 says:
Advokate Says it better than perhaps I ever could, but ill be damned if “Gears Of 40K” doesn’t involve at least one EPIC firefight involving hundreds upon hundreds of marines pitched against some awe-inspiring amount of horrid xenos scum! Very Warhammer 40k Artsy-fartsy, like the drawings you always see in the codex(s) and in the rulebooks! Either way I find myself now doubly excited for the eminent release of DOWII and once I’m bored sick of that I’ll have something else quintessentially Warhammer 40K to salivate over and not-so-patiently wait for, as for keeping with the spirit of the game, I have faith that THQ will do just fine with the franchise- as that it most certainly is…
Although I find myself wondering what if the combat sequences were more like “Too Human” for 360, but perhaps not as difficult to follow along with… is such a thing even possible?
10/01/2009 at 20:03 TopCock says:
To all who posted above. i understand your points.(i know its not even close to being done and this was probly just a thing they threw together for further funding into the game)
1. make the bolter go BOOM BABY!
2. lots more enemies
3. the melee punch thing…wtf? cheesy.
4. make sure the option to turn off “special kill move scenes” ….can only imagine killing how many thousand of enemies and having my “flow of death” interrupted.
5. i know its a game, but if at all possible..hold as true to 40,000k lore as possible! hopefully they will just pick 1 space marine chapter..or hell make their own! so as not to offend all the fan boyz
6. start doing crack, working more hours, taking less vacation time, and get this game out sooner! :P
27/01/2009 at 03:20 Fantoche says:
I completely agree here, the bolter needs a lot more reworking. It’s supposed to fire much slower, and from the codex, these are .998 (look it up!) exploding rounds, it’s not the most accurate weapon but it’s supposed to make horrible wounds
29/01/2009 at 12:48 TooNu says:
That bolter needs to be MUCH more powerfull, 1 shell is enough to open up an Imperial gaurds chest, take the face off of an Ork. Also Marines never miss, hardly ever ever. Maybe 1 bolter round out of 10,000 rounds goes astray, maybe.
Read the books first, then make a game please.
01/03/2009 at 06:20 joker says:
give it more rpg feel…. they should make it like overlord…let say the player is a squad leader and giving order to other space marine but could do range and melee attack as well!!….
n i think it would be fun to have character creation like in mass effect…maybe if the character can progress his rank from sergeant to other rank depanding on his speciality like tactical(range), assault(melee), and devastator(heavy weapon) maybe he could become madic marine, tech marine, libarian, chaplain, force commander, a terminator (leading other terminator to battle like in space hulk!!!) or maybe a dreadnought if he didnt make it on the last battle…hell make it a permanent injury like fable…give it full character costumitation…sorry my english is not so good….
28/10/2009 at 18:46 Bhazor says:
Overlord? No!
Brothers in Arms? Hell yes!
04/03/2009 at 11:12 zai says:
Im impressed with the graphics but not the gameplay. Warhammer 40k is not about TOTALLY about melee combat. That bolter is too weak, imagine the size of a bolter and its ammo and now you cant even kill cultists with your bolter? You cant even kill them with a stab from the chainsword sometimes…but im impressed overall and hope that future builds would be better
14/03/2009 at 04:21 Sarpoc says:
Advokate, nicely put. Joker, I’m so with you on the RPG idea. Let me through out the idea of the squad command interface of Republic Commando, only make it a little less scripted. Developers take your time and do this right, but don’t take too much time. We don’t a Wetworks length wait (Image Comics early 90′s).
22/03/2009 at 13:47 Talnoy says:
I think it’d be epic if you start off as a neophyte and can progress all the way up to the mettle of a tactical marine.
31/03/2009 at 19:45 TAELOS says:
Stay true to the lore, or what is the point OF 40K based games. No more excuses for devs. Alpha template is understandable, but they have to know what else to add or take away. Blogs are dev 40k reference to fluff. About 18 years of set story line and back ground, all devs owe fans and (if they do this right) future fans a better than GoW shooter melee.
THQ will make so much money if they give us most of what we expect a Space Marine to be.
1. Fix the Bolter- an unarmored body should burst if hit!
2. Do not slow down the action. Marines fight pitched battles. (perhaps even faster with a “For the Emperor” power up oath, shout, thing.)
3. Nothing wrong with lone Space Marine, just not the entire game. They do fight in squads unless all others have fallen. If Uriel ventris can do it! Rafen of the Blood Angels!
4. Please let us customize. Color of armor, skin tone, helmet/no helmet/hair, Chapter symbols?
5. Weapon upgrades are surely already in the mix. Again let them to the damage they should.
6. Hack and slash will happen because one man ammo won’t last long.
7. Needs loads more lowly enemies to give the gamers the feel of a space marines might! They should be easy to kill if they are only human and not armored.
8. Bullets, small arms lasbeams, chains of small arms fire impact holes on near by walls and on ground kicking up dust and shrapnel would be awesome!! The idea of visual impacts on marines armor is essential for the feel of a Space Marines toughness and resiliance.
Over all I am excited about this prospect. I think the first step is a good one. Hack and slash is an excellent focal point (especially for the sons of Sanguinius!!!!!) remember devs, that bolt pistols are close combat weapons too!
19/05/2009 at 10:38 Alex says:
This game does look like it will be a lot of fun. But does anyone know when the hell this game is to be released? Ive gone through all these freaking web sites looking for a date and not a single person knows! wtf?
29/05/2009 at 16:29 Greig says:
@ alex. i heard it wasnt coming out this year.
i think it should be more like a cross between spartan: total warrior and quake:territory wars, with the player having a squad following him around the battle trying to do missions, while the AI is also trying to complete missions.
30/05/2009 at 12:57 chickenlegs says:
cmon! this is just a small bit from the game, of course the PR guys gonna show off as many cinemaction sequences as he can, that’s his JOB! and yes, it WILL be a co-op game from what ive sen on IGN, theres a friggin poster with 4 squad members for god sake.
08/11/2009 at 03:10 Nickwojo says:
I hope that you can like customize your own personal space marine as you play the game with weapons and looks and stuff.Like after you beat the game you can play something like nazi zombies or something with your friends and their space marines against waves of orks and just have fun slaughtering them. That would be way cool/