Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Feeling Blue? Space Marine Dev Diary #2

By Quintin Smith on May 25th, 2011 at 4:25 pm.

He could eat her hair. For fun.

Last month we had Relic talking about the universe of Warhammmer 40,000: Space Marine, putting a positive spin on the fact that Space Marines are basically one-ton fascists who can survive by eating dirt.

This month Relic are talking about combat. What’s the quickest way to regenerate your Marine’s health? By pulling “over the top execution moves”, of course. This builds “fury”, which… ah, I don’t want to give the game away. It’s all waiting for you after the jump.

Let me tell you, I don’t remember seeing half that many orcs when I previewed the game last year. I wonder if they decided to take the game in a more bombastic direction, or if this footage is just of later levels?

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125 Comments »

  1. 25/05/2011 at 16:33 vodka and cookies says:

    Looks great, the footage has scenes with Chaos troops & demons so it must be from later parts of the game. More Orks to kill is good, it’s essentially a beat em up so less enemies is kinda boring.

    VG247 has some high res pics too
    http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/25/new-developer-diary-and-screens-released-for-wh40k-space-marine/

  2. 25/05/2011 at 16:33 MonkeyMonster says:

    Ohhhhhh MY GOD.
    Woooohoooo, can’t f*cking wait! STOMPY EXPLODING GUTS!

  3. 25/05/2011 at 16:33 Teronfel says:

    not bad

  4. 25/05/2011 at 16:34 simoroth says:

    I wish relic would get back to making thoughtful strategy games. :(

    Edit: Wait. When did the Orks get red blood?

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:16 Capon says:

      I take it you don’t read much into Warhammer 40K lore:

      “Orks are green-skinned and red-blooded, a side effect of their symbiotic relationship with fungi”
      http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Ork

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:48 simoroth says:

      Actually I just gave up on GW when they became a soulless shambling corporate presence.. In Rouge trader Ork blood was red. In 2-3 it was said to be green. I guess they changed it again. :p

    • 25/05/2011 at 18:12 .backslash says:

      Well, it is Rouge trader. Everything’s bound to be more or less red-tinted in that.

      (Sorry. Had to.)

    • 25/05/2011 at 18:32 subedii says:

      If you didn’t I was gonna.

    • 25/05/2011 at 20:55 Starky says:

      Ork blood can be any colour depending on what they last ate…

      Aha, found the quote thanks to google:

      “Ork blood is part of their digestive system. It flows around the body beneath the skin, which is too thick to reflect the colour beneath. Most Orks have two hearts, though one of them doubles as a digestive organ. Food is digested and broken down by a series of outer stomachs (which is why Orks can eat so many apparently inedible things). Nutrients pass into the blood in the heart-stomach. The thickness and colour of the blood constantly varies according to what and when the Ork last ate, changing from black, to purple, and dark red. ”

      Waaaagh Orks (original sourcebook) page 5.

    • 25/05/2011 at 23:41 yurusei says:

      Green outside, red inside.

      Watermelons, anyone?

    • 26/05/2011 at 11:10 G_Man_007 says:

      I miss the Squats… :P

  5. 25/05/2011 at 16:36 bleeters says:

    “We even allow the player to use a thunder hammer”

    That’s all you needed to say, really.

  6. 25/05/2011 at 16:39 Greg Wild says:

    Looks pretty fun. Though I hate to see the GLORIOUS ULTRAMARINE cutting through ranks of lowly peasant chaos space marine. I’d put my money on the dudes imbued with the power of chaos and the experience of 10,000 years of combat any day.

    • 25/05/2011 at 16:54 karhax says:

      The Ultramarines have THE GOD EMPEROR OF MANKIND on their side.

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:47 ceriphim says:

      Yeah I was kinda bummed on the Chaos Marines standing around like cannon fodder while your Ultramarine was running up to them… Maybe it’s a little thing, and I’m being too hard on them, but even ONE Chaos Marine should be at least a match for a SM, and they sure as shit wouldn’t all stand around gawking as you ran up and slew them one-by-one…

      Also do the enemies not get blood on them when he cuts them with the chainsword? I see blood flying, but I don’t see blood or damage actually appearing ON the mobs…

    • 25/05/2011 at 18:01 sneetch says:

      Delighted though I am to see Chaos filth being destroyed by the righteous servants of the God-Emperor I have to agree, you should wade through the chaos worshippers yeah but fighting Chaos marines should be damn tough!

    • 26/05/2011 at 08:15 lunarplasma says:

      Think of yourself as a hero character with better stats and therefore, capable of rampaging through ranks of enemy troops. :D

    • 26/05/2011 at 09:46 Ed123 says:

      Going by some of the lore (esp. more recent fluff) Chaos Space Marines tend to replenish their ranks with freaky black magic/weird science cloning techniques, traitors from later foundings, and good old blood matches on barbarian worlds. Real Horus Heresy Veterans would probably all be at least Aspiring Champions. Plus the player character is a captain.

    • 26/05/2011 at 15:23 mouton says:

      Don’t they get resurrected as well, when the Dark Gods feel like it?

  7. 25/05/2011 at 16:40 DainIronfoot says:

    What Relic? – How is anyone meant to tell that’s a woman! She’s wearing exactly the same armour as men! Surely by the rules of game armour design either her midriff, her legs or her cleavage should by unprotected! Or have the breastplate hammered out in strategic locations.

    P.s

    Well done Relic.

  8. 25/05/2011 at 16:43 Mashakosha says:

    Impressive, but a couple complaints if I’m honest. Maybe it was just showing off on a low difficulty, but those Chaos Marines went down FAR too easily to me. Sure, you’re a pretty experienced Marine, but Chaos are supposed to be as tough as you are, if not tougher due to demonic mutations and such.
    On top of this, what I’m assuming was a lascannon, it was FAR too small. And you’d never catch a Space Marine using a lasgun.

    Don’t let that take away from it though, it looks so much fun and I can’t wait!

    • 25/05/2011 at 16:45 heretic says:

      I agree with you regarding the difficulty of offing some chaos space marines, however I’m guessing the game wouldn’t be much fun if you’d just get destroyed rushing into battle against more than one chaos space marine :-/

    • 25/05/2011 at 16:51 Greg Wild says:

      It’d be better if battles with CSMs took form of numerous cultists and imperial guard milling around while you fought with your “equal”, as such.

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:50 Davie says:

      It kind of looked like a lascannon he might have pulled off a Leman Russ, which I think is a perfectly good excuse for a marine to use one. It is too small, though. It must be at least twice as big.

      And yeah, it does bother me the way they always assume the fallen legions make up the bulk of Chaos forces. They never take into account the hordes of cultists. Which would be just as fun to chop into tiny pieces as the orks.

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:59 ceriphim says:

      I said the exact same thing above, sadly =/

    • 26/05/2011 at 01:03 FRIENDLYUNIT says:

      Have you seen the lascannon in Dawn Of War 2: Chaos Rising? When I found it I was set not to bother as yeah, las based weapons are very Marine-y but then the model looked so awesome I couldnt resist (plus it was quite effective).

  9. 25/05/2011 at 16:44 heretic says:

    Actually looks quite fun, I’ve been wanting a game where rushing like a berserker into the middle of a fight is actually the way you’re meant to play it.

    Some games make you think it would be cool to do that but then you get shot so easily ;_;

  10. 25/05/2011 at 16:48 Jacques says:

    Finally, the Space Marine game I’ve been looking for!

  11. 25/05/2011 at 16:48 nayon says:

    The graphics kinda look like DoW II, it looked better in the older vides. Maybe this graphics downscaling is what enabled the extra orks onscreen? I’m cool with it, as long as they don’t attack you one by one. In that case I’d rather have the pretty graphics since the number of enemies is irrelevant anyway.

  12. 25/05/2011 at 16:55 Tiddler says:

    All i can say is its looking spiffing! However my attempts to throw money at them appear to be in vain as I cant find a single shop in the UK who is doing pre-orders for the game, let alone the collectors edition!

    Let me shower you with my money relic !

  13. 25/05/2011 at 16:56 Tom OBedlam says:

    This looks roughly my cup of tea, ‘course i’d prefer to play MegaNob anyday but that’s never going to happen :(

    How many hundreds of people have called it God of Warhammer 40k so far?

    • 25/05/2011 at 19:26 DJ Phantoon says:

      I dunno, playing as the Emperor would be overpowered.

    • 25/05/2011 at 19:34 bleeters says:

      He said “God”, not “husk”.

      Harr harr.

    • 25/05/2011 at 19:41 Temple to Tei says:

      From what I’m reading at the moment (what am I reading at the moment?) I’ve decided that the Emp disappeared up his own ar- I mean into seculsion just before Horus went batshit to create a FAKE corpse of himself to oversee Humankind while he went off on holiday for 10, 000 years.

      That was longer than I intended, but I know something made sense to me at the time.
      Ah, and I’m reading Nemesis.

  14. 25/05/2011 at 16:57 Davie says:

    I certainly hope they’ve made it more bombastic. The issue to virtually every problem in any media relating to Warhammer is “More of it.”

  15. 25/05/2011 at 16:57 Hunam says:

    The animation on that looks pretty amazing. Quite impressed with how the game looks and moves.

  16. 25/05/2011 at 16:58 liq3 says:

    That trailer was really disappointing. Considering Relic’s past games, I’m still fearful of this.

  17. 25/05/2011 at 17:00 Clean3d says:

    “You begin with a ranged weapon and a melee weapon. As the game progresses, you unlock more…”

    Different types of weapons besides ranged and melee? Sounds innovative indeed. I am intrigued. ;)

  18. 25/05/2011 at 17:08 Dachannien says:

    Space Lolcats have a special organ located before their regular stomach that allows them to eat things that has a flavor. It’s called the Preomnomnomnor.

  19. 25/05/2011 at 17:13 The JG Man says:

    Just watched this with a housemate. Shared looks of laughter with some of the ridiculous moves and a take-away sense of “…yeah, we’re getting that.”

  20. 25/05/2011 at 17:14 Sinnorfin says:

    i hope music is in Jeremy Soule’s hands..his music did DOW wonders.

  21. 25/05/2011 at 17:19 Highstorm says:

    The first diary says August 2011 at the end. This one just says “Coming Soon”. I hope that’s not the sign of a delay :(

    • 26/05/2011 at 09:23 phylum sinter says:

      Amazon has it listed as December 31st… Steam has a more optimistic ‘September’, and Gamestop has gotten so bold to say September 21st for all platforms – including those your little brother is wasting his life playing.
      Meanwhile VG247 says September 6th. So basically, toss a dart at the remaining pages of your 2011 calendar and, likely, you will hit an expected release date for this game.
      But start past August.

  22. 25/05/2011 at 17:20 razgon says:

    Am I the only one who hopes for an option to tone down the explosions of gore? I mean, I love space marines like any redblooded boy, but man… Its a bit much, isnt it?

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:51 ceriphim says:

      I’m kinda bummed on the “Rage Grenade” effect, personally. Space Marines are supposed to be stronger and faster than anything else, not spontaneously generate explosions (unless you get to play a Grey Knight, in which case I would pee my pants).

    • 25/05/2011 at 18:44 Jesse L says:

      Yeah, don’t fight orks with your mouth open.

    • 25/05/2011 at 19:51 timmyvos says:

      They fire explosive rockets about the size of a Coke can, and that’s just the normal bolter, so I suppose it really isn’t all that outrageous.

    • 26/05/2011 at 00:33 Stephen Roberts says:

      I think the blood would look better if it was directional. As opposed to every-direction-and-then-some-that-haven’t-been-invented-yet.

    • 26/05/2011 at 09:27 phylum sinter says:

      I was surprised to see all that red mist floating around. It does add to the intensity i suppose, but i’m really impressed at the bolter fire ricochet particle thingies… those are really classy looking and add a nice feeling of near-invincibility when your character gets shot up.

    • 26/05/2011 at 11:05 RegisteredUser says:

      I hope they have an option to TURN IT UP.

      If gore isn’t at 9000 then it isn’t fun.

  23. 25/05/2011 at 17:23 Malibu Stacey says:

    I’d love to see a modern Space Hulk game where you & some friends play co-op as a team of 5 or 6 Terminators sent into a hulk to clear it out for the Adeptus Mechanicus.
    Procedurally generated hulks would make it even more awesome.
    Allowing other players to be the “opposing force” infesting the hulk a la Natural Selection would substantially increase the awesome.

    Why haven’t GW got a developer working on this already?

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:34 Shubb9 says:

      Playing a pure strain genestealer, lurking in a duct and bursting forth to shred hapless Marines would make me all warm and tingly inside

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:49 ceriphim says:

      Because GW *NEVER* wants to give the customer exactly what they want. Your idea sounds like something I would love to play, I’m hoping you get Termie armor maybe in the end-game of SM? Maybe?

      In any case, all I’ve been wanting is a computer version of the tabletop game for YEARS, and we’ve seen the DoW series move further and further away from that… Sad face.

    • 25/05/2011 at 23:58 Jake says:

      Yeah but they probably have some reason for not wanting to make a computer game that could serve as a replacement to their tabletop game empire. Unless they could charge your £20 to deploy a 5-man squad I don’t think they will do it.

      It would be good if they made computer games of their specialist games though – ones that don’t make them money currently but are still remembered fondly, like Bloodbowl. Battlefleet, Necromunda, even Epic could all be great.

    • 26/05/2011 at 11:05 Malibu Stacey says:

      Jake they have licenced Blood Bowl. Unfortunately it’s terrible but that’s the developers (Cyanide) fault for making it so bad & GW’s for not bothering to enforce some level of Quality Control.

      Epic is perfect for a King Arthur/Total War style RTS. Do want.

  24. 25/05/2011 at 17:26 mouton says:

    Don’t forget the story! Please, let it not be retarded!

    Previous Relic W40k games had stories servicable at best, please do not fail here, at least not too much.

  25. 25/05/2011 at 17:31 Flameberge says:

    4min14 – appears to playing as Imperial Guardsmen?

  26. 25/05/2011 at 17:42 Wednesday says:

    I didn’t know there were lady Guardsmen.

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:48 ceriphim says:

      Let me point you to any book in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series.

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:51 Wednesday says:

      I’ll have to take your word on that, I’m not a big Warhammer buff. I suppose the Imperial Guard is “the most diverse organization in history”. I wonder if they have equality quotas?

    • 25/05/2011 at 17:51 Davie says:

      When you’re being constantly attacked by raging orks, hideous daemons, ravening tyranids and Emperor knows what else, there’s probably little time for discrimination against humans.

      Ceriphim: All the Cain books, too. I’m pretty sure they feature even more lady Guardsmen.
      The expanded universe authors are far less misogynistic than the original fluff writers.

    • 25/05/2011 at 18:02 Steven Hutton says:

      Requirements to join the Imperial Guard.
      1: You can hold a rifle. Or can be made to hold a rifle with some limited cybernetics.
      2: That’s it.

    • 25/05/2011 at 18:18 subedii says:

      3. You can stand long enough to be shot by the enemy, thus delaying them for a precious few seconds.

      Or alternately

      3. You can stand long enough to be shot by your resident Commissar for cowardice, thus ensuring the obedience of your fellow Guardsmen.

  27. 25/05/2011 at 18:05 Zombat says:

    Shouldn’t those plasma guns explode firing at that rate?

    What are these smurfs?? Girly girly space elves with their girly non-exploding plasma weapons?

  28. 25/05/2011 at 18:17 Brumisator says:

    Amazingly, it’s this game that made me pore over W40K lore, I’d never read anything about the W40K universe, but I’m getting familiarized with the empire’s history atm, it’s pretty neat stuff.
    …What is amazing about this fact to me is that I’ve played a bit of the RTSs, and they never really got me interested in the “serious” backstory and larger universe, it took this pure-combat, brainless gameplay game to make me use my brains to read up on the lore. Well done, Relic, you may have gotten me interested in it all

  30. 25/05/2011 at 18:21 makute says:

    My two years old son and I, both approve of this video. Well, he mostly shouts *¡¡boom!! ¡¡squash!!* while sitting on my lap, but he seems very approving.

  31. 25/05/2011 at 18:49 Spoon says:

    My dream ending for this game:

    In the last fight with the chaos lord/daemon prince/greater demon/misc big enemy, you suffer a mortal injury. You see that you have indeed won the battle, then pass out. The credits start to roll.

    Throughout the credits, you may hear things or see hazy scenes (all in first person, of course). An apothecary kneeling over you, hands covered in blood. Being loaded onto a thunderhawk while a chaplain recites his litanies. Sounds of loud clanks and welding, briefly seeing techpriests working busily on something large. Then, everything goes dark for a while, and the credits end. There is what appears to be a computer boot-up sequence on the screen, and then all sight and sound returns to you. Yep, you just woke up as a dreadnought. Time for your bonus mission as death incarnate.

  32. 25/05/2011 at 19:16 Kevin says:

    Ah man, why’d it have to be boring ‘ol Ultramarines?

    Now that Itagaki’s working for THQ, maybe Valhalla games can make a companion game to Space Marine once they’re done with Devil’s Third. I’m thinking a Devil May Cry-style game featuring a Harlequin Solitaire.

    Think about it: A super-flexible space elf ninja clown with a fantastic rack who plays the goddess of kinky sex in the Fall should be right up Itagaki’s alle-

    Hold on one minute, need to use the bathroom…

  33. 25/05/2011 at 19:20 DarkFenix says:

    A few things this game needs.

    Terminator armour, complete with assault cannons, storm bolters, lightning claws and all that stuff.
    Playing as a dreadnought, again with all the bells and whistles.
    Playing a a librarian. Give us psyker powers, that’d up the ante, not to mention the gore.

    • 25/05/2011 at 19:39 DJ Phantoon says:

      No no no, fuck that stuff.

      GIMME JUMPPACKS!

    • 25/05/2011 at 21:38 subedii says:

      Jump packs are in. They were shown in the first trailer, and if you check that VG247 link posted above, the first picture they have shows one as well.

      For that matter, Chaos dude in the second shot appears to be wearing Terminator armour with lightning claws.

  34. 25/05/2011 at 19:25 Wookie_Wookstar says:

    Smells alittle console to me. Meh!

    • 25/05/2011 at 19:34 Xocrates says:

      Given that the only reason the PC is getting it at all is due to all the Nerd Riots, your dismissive attitude bothers me.

      Not because I disagree that it “smells console”, but because it feels you’re implying we shouldn’t get it at all, which given how close that came to happen it feels a bit insulting to the PC folk who actually wanted this.

  35. 25/05/2011 at 20:27 Makariel says:

    I approve this message. So does Chuck Norris.

  36. 25/05/2011 at 20:41 Hallgrim says:

    reply ARGARGARGARG.

  37. 25/05/2011 at 21:04 Tei says:

    WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE!, LETS RUSH TO BATTLE!

  38. 25/05/2011 at 22:53 Fitzmogwai says:

    Can’t wait to hear about the Australian version. That will be entertaining.

  39. 25/05/2011 at 23:41 ziusudra says:

    I hate the 40k universe, but boy if they would let play with an eldar aspect warrior. fun fun fun .

  40. 25/05/2011 at 23:59 Jake says:

    What gun is that in the screencap at the top of this article?

  41. 26/05/2011 at 00:02 Xocrates says:

    By the way, the game is apparently now up to pre-order, including on Steam, with the THQ online store giving a release date of September 6.

    Pre-order bonus seem to be Darksiders and in-game loot.

  42. 26/05/2011 at 00:40 Stephen Roberts says:

    It’s just a small, nitpicking, little, pifling thing, but I got really furious with the use of the word ‘orc’ In this article.

    Here’s for hoping the Expandalone different factions for this game never stop coming (Insert race here storyline!). And that this is a tight game. How I hope this game is wound up tight like a pack of muffins.

  43. 26/05/2011 at 01:51 theunshaven says:

    Hahahah…

    It’s available for preorder on Steam today. In the US? $44.99 USD.

    In New Zealand? *89.99* USD. It is TWICE THE PRICE.

    Dear Steam: I have considered your proposition, and feel it best to decline.

  44. 26/05/2011 at 02:23 GT3000 says:

    http://www.onlive.com/go/spacemarine?autoplay=force?ol_campgn_internal=featuredgames_box_art

    Looks like Onlive has that sucker slated for the 23rd of August. Haven, perhaps Onlive is your cup of tea?

  45. 26/05/2011 at 09:53 amishmonster says:

    I’ve learned that some Space Marines can spit acid. Thanks, article link.

    Also they have a “Preomnor”. It goes Pre-om-nom-nom-nom.

  46. 26/05/2011 at 11:02 RegisteredUser says:

    I still demand that this
    http://games.tiscali.cz/preview/odhaleni-warhammer-space-marine-33364
    game be made.

    GOD DAMMIT PEOPLE I NEED TO CHAINSAW STUFF IN HALF!

    And this game looks like a lego miniature version compared to the vision the original developers had.

    *supersadface*

  47. 26/05/2011 at 17:16 Junkdenate says:

    Where is the gameplay of a space marine shiding in a rhino, shooting meltaguns out of the top?

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