Review: Space Marine

written by Blain Newport on Monday, 5 August 2013

 Space Marine (3 of 5)

Space Marine was a bad purchase.  I knew because of the demo that I wasn't going to be getting anything with the same feel as Gears, but I wanted it anyway.  Overall it's a very pretty game, but the combat is closer to God of War than Gears of War, but even less sophisticated.  It's a simple game, design-wise.  But it did give me a chance to put some thought into one my favorite subjects, why Republic Commando's Delta Squad are the best. :)

Here I am cutting my way through a group beside one of the two AI companions.  The AIs will occasionally kill a minor enemy for show, but you basically have to kill over 95% of the enemies yourself, which makes them feel like window dressing more than companions.  Actually that's not fair.  Here's a situation where they're useful.

That's a lot of orcs including a ranged attacker who will prevent your shields from regenerating and a minor armored boss.  But because the AIs are incapable of going into a "downed" state and don't follow the player immediately, I was able to simply back around the corner and deal with the trickle of enemies that weren't wasting time attacking the AI.  But at this point I'm gaming a ridiculous system, hiding behind my battle brothers, instead of living the fiction the game is trying to put me into.