Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (Will refer to just as Warhammer) is a third person shooter and hack an slash game, developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ on September 6th 2011 in North America and 9th September in Europe. This game is based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe, which is a Science fiction, tabletop miniature wargame. The game follows three "Ultramarines" on a fictional planet named Graia (A planet devoted to military production) , that has been invaded by alien "Orks". However, the game doesn't really reveal anything about the story line until a while into the game and so it will leave you very confused with what you are doing until some way into the game.

The gameplay is deliberately unrealistic as in you are a single commando-type soldier taking on multiple hordes of advancing enemies with limit weapons including the "chain-sword" shown here. The game is very "Hack and slash" which means that you can often forget about your guns and just button mash the melee attacks, which is fun to begin with but it will lead to the game becoming boring more quickly as the levels are very linear, leading you from point A to point B with a horde of Orks in between. The game will however last an average of 8 hours which depending on your own patience can be a good or bad thing.

The graphics on this game are very cartoony, but not all games want to achieve the realism that you see in most shooters. This cartoony style emphasises the Exaggerated models that the Ultramarines have. They are built to be huge human like characters with their heads being a normal proportion but some kind of suit that has all of their features exaggerated to an epic proportion, and i believe that making the graphics more cartoonish rather then ultra realistic proves to be a better way to show off these features.

There isn't much of a focus on the sound throughout the game, but one thing that I can comment on is the volume of the gunfights in comparison to the rest of the game. They seem to be somewhat louder and more focused upon during fight scenes, as if deliberately trying to draw your attention and to focus on the flashing guns fights and explosions that fall before you, which is actually an excellent point as this is what the game prides itself on, however some of the scenery in this game is beautiful and you can miss it very easily in the search for these battles.

The replayability of a game is obviously one of its biggest points and so a game needs a solid reason for some to buy it rather than rent it. In this game they have a multiplayer section which is the driving point of most games. This game uses an 8 vs 8 gamemodes in both of its 2 gametypes. These gametypes are classic team deathmatch and domination game modes. Unfortunately this game won't have much to contend with against such shooter titles as Battlefield or Call of duty but it does have some fun in the game and it can keep you entertained as you can show off your seemingly undefeatable super powered "Ultramarine" with the rest of the world!

The "Fun-factor" of this game is what will draw you into it and keep you interested. The game has no focus on its storyline and to understand it you may need to know a little about the Warhammer universe to know whats going on. But the Hack and slash gamestyle along with the ability to kill hordes of enemies without breaking a sweat is definately a point that many people will find interest in even if they don't have an engaging story to follow along with.

3/5

"Rentable"

I don't believe this game shows much replay value above mindlessly playing the same multiplayer games over and over again. Although the campaign is interesting enough to mean that many people should look into playing it as it can be very enjoyable.