Have You Played... Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

I suspect but I don't know that Relic's stompy-squishy-shooty Only War third-person action game Space Marine is one that has aged rather well over the years. I base this on two things: one, occasional enthusiastic chatter on Twitter. Two: a regular, strong urge to revisit it.

I liked but didn't love it at the time. Good Ork-slaughter, repetitive structure, routine story. Increasingly, I suspect that a certain disappointment that it wasn't quite the Dream 40K game I'd had in my head for long years got in the way of enjoying it for what it is, which is a well-observed and extremely crunchy combat game. Man, I really want to replay it.

The reason I don't is that the images of it in my memory grow increasingly magnificent. It would be a terrible shame to undermine them. And yet, the shuddering roar of the Chainsword, the satisfying thud of the Bolter - for how much longer can I possibly resist?