Post by Dane on Sept 12, 2011 7:17:23 GMT -5
So I was thinking earlier about doing a review for Space Marine, which I just finished playing. I had an internal conversation that went something like this:
Enthusiastic Dane: Hey, yeah! Let's do a game review. I play games all the times and never share my experiences on the Ledger. I know, I'll review Space Marine.
Pessimistic Dane: Grey corridors. Done.
Enthusiastic Dane: What? No! ...well, yes. But it needs to be wordier! I want write something that paints a canvas for everyone thinking of buying this game. Something that will portray for them an experience. Not just a blurb.
Pessimistic Dane: Grey corridor shooter?
Enthusiastic Dane: ...f*ck you.
Ok, so I won't go into my opinion on Warhammer as a whole (if your skull had room for 6 more organs, it would be shaped like a watermelon). But I have to say I honestly went into this with an open mind and upbeat attitude. No, really. I wanted to learn more about Warhammer. But just saying that brings me into my biggest gripe I had with the game:
If you're not already a well established Warhammer 40K fan, you will not understand what the hell is going on. At no point will they ever explain the terminology they're using or any of the over-arching concepts you have to know to either understand what is going on or emotionally invest in the characters and their situation. As I said, I went into this wanting to learn more about a popular mythos, but I was left really grasping for straws as to what was going on and what my place was within the greater scheme of things. I can't really say I know any more after having played the game for probably 10 hours than I did when I started except I might be able to tell you what kind of weapons a Space Marine has. I don't even know what makes them "Space Marines". I didn't fight anyone in space.
But on to the game.
Gameplay
The gameplay is good, it's pretty well balanced and the weapons and enemies seem quite appropriate, at least at the start. The problem I ran into is every sequence in the game is exactly the same as the last. You will fight pretty much the same difficulty of enemies from start to finish. I don't want to spoil for anyone but you mostly fight Orcs. No I won't write "orc" with a k. That's stupid. After about 75% through the enemies transition to... a won't say what. But the tactics you used to take down Orcs will work exactly the same on these guys.
It's basically corridor transition to open room, transition to corridor, and on and on. That and it's so obvious as soon as you enter a large room that enemies will soon be swarming. It happens every single time, exactly the same way. Same enemies, always spawn straight ahead of you. It's jarring. It's not a complete deal-breaker though, as a lot of shooters are that way but I can't remember ever playing a more linear game. Even games like Halo seem less linear than they really are because they have big, pretty open environments. Not Warhammer 40K. It's all metal corridors all the time. Smashed buildings on occasion to spice things up. Metal buildings. And it's kind of jarring because there isn't even a pretense of choice or open areas. In a strange way it kind of fits because every single character in the game is outrageously rigid and devoid of personality, the game structure seems to align with that perfectly. But don't get me wrong, this game is fun. Jetpacking over some enemies then freefalling into an epic thunder hammer smash that leaves your enemies as red smears is awesome, even if the gimmick is repeated around 4 times. The regular combat is fun and balanced with some arcade-type game mechanics that actually work really well. It's like Gears of War crossed with God of War. The end result is pretty cool.
Story
This basically brings me into a real let down. I was expecting some really deep plot. Instead I was treated to Horrible Catchphrase 40,000. This game has, hands down, the corniest dialogue I have ever heard. And I played Duke Nukem Forever for like 6 entire levels because I slammed Alt + F4. Every line out of a characters mouth is pure horseshit. The story seems kind of cool in a way, but it's really undermined by literally never explaining a single aspect of itself in even vague terms. The game assumes you're an absolute boss in terms of Warhammer knowledge and know exactly what all this jargony bullshit is. I would have to say for a game with a fantastic soundtrack, this game never had any suspense. It was anti-climactic and insanely predictable. There are plot twists but they're really obvious. Even if I don't understand the Universe and all of it's nuances, it was really easy to tell what was going to happen. The ending was really quite a big let down. It seemed to build and build and then it was over really quickly. And then nothing was really solved from the main characters point of view. There are a few key points that, I think if they were done differently in terms of delivery and perhaps dialogue it could have completely changed how the story was experienced for the player and could have taken this from an average game to an exceptional one.
Sound
I would have to say this was a high point. The music and effects were really good. The music especially was high quality but the problem was alignment. The music was so classy and dramatic in places I almost felt like it was intended for a different game. The story wasn't nearly engaging enough to have me that far on the edge of my seat. It felt like it belonged to a game with a fantastic, outrageous plot like Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy 7. It was like DUNDUNDUN and I was sitting there going "...what's going on guise?" like a confused Ukrainian migrant. Not that I have anything against migrants of any nationality, I just want you to read that in your best Ukrainian accent. The sound effects were great though. The guns sound chunky, your heavy ass thuds on the ground when you walk (metal on metal is the most Warhammer-ish concept) and your chainsaw sword thing sounds brutal as you carve up the enemies of man.
Graphics
A huge win. I'm sure the game will have people playing it for the gameplay and graphics alone. The cinematic scenes and just regular action look fantastic. How they got a character to have shoulders of that size without any clipping issues is a career builder for whoever modeled Titus. Really great job. Not much more to say on it except I think the "grey metal" wall texture, while nicely done, probably appears in every single level of the game. It does suffer from Gears of War syndrome where everything is done in one color. I think it's supposed to be gritty and serious but it seems more monochromatic than anything.
Verdict
The game is solid in mechanics and fun to play. But I can see what it tried to do and I'd be lying if I said it fully accomplished it.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
