The Ballad of the Waddling Fridge Men
review for Space Marine (PC, X360, PS3), 1- 12 player action, out now
It's no secret that my relationship with the modern shooter scene isn't so hot. I absolutely loathe "modern warfare" games like Battlefield and Call of Duty, while I'll happily play cover-shooters like Gears of War (see: Deus Ex: Human Revolution), with the Half-Life 2 inspired shooters that continue to roll out (games like Duke Nukem Forever, Metro 2033, Crysis) among some of my favourite games of all time. But it is the old-school spectacle shooters like Serious Sam that truly resonate with me - hilarious, gory, tough-as-nails FPS games that deliver on delivering enough lead-based carnage to make John McClane blush.
So when a game like Space Marine comes out, you'd hardly expect it to be a day one purchase for me. Indeed, I was hotly anticipating Space Marine ever since playing the demo. But it is, admittedly, a game about space marines. It's a game where the top speed of the main character matches a brisk walking pace. It's a gritty, brown-coloured "realistic" science-fiction experience, where main characters growl at each other with all the emotion of a pile of grass clippings, and about half the likability. But stop the presses if Space Marine does just enough different from its peers that it pushes it well over the edge of originality. Space Marine is genuinely refreshing, and it pushes so many right buttons, it's impossible not to enjoy. What has Space Marine done to stand out so? It's combined the shooter and the hack and slash.
So when a game like Space Marine comes out, you'd hardly expect it to be a day one purchase for me. Indeed, I was hotly anticipating Space Marine ever since playing the demo. But it is, admittedly, a game about space marines. It's a game where the top speed of the main character matches a brisk walking pace. It's a gritty, brown-coloured "realistic" science-fiction experience, where main characters growl at each other with all the emotion of a pile of grass clippings, and about half the likability. But stop the presses if Space Marine does just enough different from its peers that it pushes it well over the edge of originality. Space Marine is genuinely refreshing, and it pushes so many right buttons, it's impossible not to enjoy. What has Space Marine done to stand out so? It's combined the shooter and the hack and slash.
