A third person action game based upon to Warhammer 40,000 franchise by Games Workshop, you play as the Ultramarines as they try to stop the mass invasion of Orks on the planet Graia. Can the Ultramarines overcome the Orks and take back planet Graia or do they get over run by green skins? 

You are the Ultramarine Captain Titus, as an Ultramarine, you are stronger, faster, smarter and bigger than normal humans. You were born to serve the emprorer and are an elite soldier only sent into battle at the most critical situations. You and your comrades Sidonus and Leandros fight to help take the planet Graia back. From here you’ll meet with an inquisitor to try and use an ultra weapon that will hopefully take out all of the Orks with a single attack.

The story from here takes a few twist and turns but is never really unpredictable. You know what will come up and how the story will progress, but will enjoy the ride. The ending of the game is left on a thread and has you question what happens next, but unlike some games now, at least finishes the story for Space Marine. There is no doubt about it though, the game certainly implies there’ll be a Space Marine 2.

Space Marine can be compared to the likes of God of War in terms of melee combat. You’ve got your standard attack and a stun attack. Once you’ve worn the enemy down you can stun them. Once the enema is stunned you can finish them off with an awesome looking and gruesome execution move! Unfortunately, whilst they look awesome, and have the added bonus of helping you regain your health, they unfortunately leave you vulnerable to attack making it kind of useless.

As you progress through the game you’ll get more high powered melee weapons, but the combat will stay the same as most of the melee weapons handle similarly. If you get yourself in a rut though, click in the two analogue sticks and you’ll go into dry mode which will provide make you an all round better melee fighter with regenerative health for a brief few moments, allowing you to smash heads in with consummate ease. The melee combat is weighty and enjoyable.

Don’t think its all about melee combat though, you’ll have a selection of guns at your disposal swell, ranging from pistols, plasmagun, melta type shotgun weapons as well as your usual machine guns, sniper rifles etc. The guns are all enjoyable to use and pack a punch. You’ll definitely find you’ll have your favourites though as all the guns handle differently and some are better against some enemies than others.

Combat can be enjoyable, although the game is essentially very linear with very little variety. You’ll fight through wave upon wave of bad guys…only to be hit by, you guessed it, more bad guys.

Online is enjoyable and will have you coming back for more although it does rehash the same game types which you’d expect from almost every other shooter, including the level up system. Its far from bad, by all means, its quite good as the gameplay, similar to that of the single player is very solid, it just feels like a missed opportunity to do something special with this franchise.

Relic Entertainment have done a great job creating the world that this game resides in. It perfectly captures the vibe of Warhammer 40,000, but some levels can be a little but drab and boring, although it picks up a little at the end of the game with multi-tiered levels and cooler environments.

7/10