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.
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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?
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.
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,
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.
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.
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?
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.
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’
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…
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…
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.
I giggled every time he said “This is what we call SILLY BUZZWORD”.
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t he an assault marine?
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.
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.
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.
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
“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 :(
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.
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.
I’d prefer to play as a lone Imperial Guardsman. It would be a very short game.
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?
I’ve actually been waiting for something like this for a long time, kinda Rogue Trooper with SMarines.
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.
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.
Just take Gears of War and make it 40k. Nothing else needs to be done.
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)
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.
Eversor… I hated those skull faced monkeys, they could take out a whole squad of ’stealers if they got lucky.
Game looks really good – hope they take advantage of actual PC’s power.
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.
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! :/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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!!!!!
Warhammer 40k: We’re All About Jokes™
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
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.
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!