Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Devotees to the 20-sided dice will be pleased with the level of fan service on offer here, while even those who've never dared step into the Games Workshop will garner some no-thinking-required enjoyment from this fun if basic orc-driller. [Nov 2011, p.98]

It is far from perfect, but it's fun, if the idea of slaughtering orks pleases you.

Fans of the Warhammer universe will love its setting and plot, and the way it plays, although not perfect, is brave and original.

It's both a light and funny action game and a wasted chance to make something more due to an overall unpolished job. Strongly consider it if you love Ultramarines though, since they get a great depiction.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is on the shallow side, but it still serves up plenty of "waaagh!"

With incredible sensitivity to the brand, Space Marine lets you pound thousands and thousands of Orks into the ground, it just doesn't know when to quit.

Space Marine isn't a disappointing game, it's just an uneventful one. As such, fans of the series may find more to salvage here than the average gamer...If the pacing problems could be addressed, the addition of a campaign co-op mode, and more multiplayer maps leave a healthy amount of room for improvement for the future of this series.

There's potential in expanding the Warhammer: 40,000 license beyond the strategy genre – something Relic has done with great success in its Dawn of War series – but there's also clearly a lot of work to be done.

An interesting mix between TPS and Hack'n'Slash. Unfortunately, level design is too linear, resulting in a driven and boring progression.

Combine this lacklustre multiplayer with a solo campaign that only lasts six or so hours, and Space Marine is an experience that's much too small for its impressive looking Powerboots. Only the super diehard need apply here. [November 2011 p74]

A lack of variation and great deal of repetition affects the over all game experience negatively. Though fans of the Warhammer universe will likely enjoy the design.

Warhammer is a game that will appeal to fans of what has already gone before. I'm not sure that there is enough meat in the title to convert newcomers and I would highly recommend a rent first. For those who have loved this series in the past then I can say gladly to pick it up and watch the characters you've known and loved kick some serious butt.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine's story line is repetitive and unappealing - to the point that the game somehow manages to be both extremely short and entirely too long at the same time.

It's just too bad that the online matchmaking is totally broken on the PS3, making the game's fun online multiplayer a total chore to experience.

The one note action might be pitch perfect, but the lack of variety or any real tactical depth soon drowns it out.

For a first shot at making a TPS game respectful of the original Warhammer 40K license, Relic managed to deliver a nice game. The solo campaign still lacks ambition and tends to choose the easy way over the more varied one, with a 100% action centric gameplay, but its fury and playability still brings a lot of fun. It would have been nice, though, to be able to enjoy a little more in that regard. In terms of multiplayer, Relic did a good job as well, even though only one of the couple of modes wields enough tactical elements to last in the long run. So all in all, it's a nice translation of the license in the TPS genre, but not one that would stand on its own without the rich GamesWorkshop universe.

An entertaining game with great design, but not varied enough to earn the better grades.

Overall, when you strip away our automatic affection for the universe, you're left with a simple story full of thin characters and predictable twists, where the combat quickly descends into a repetitive war of attrition, and a small suite of online modes that can't compete with the bigger boys in the genre.

The sort of simple, dumb, licensed game that causes the shelves of your local game shop to buckle under the weight of sheer undesirable mediocrity. [Issue#210, p.94]

The online trouble, coupled with the lack of spice in the campaign, leads to a very average game that drags on for a few hours too long.