Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine First Look

Relic unveils its next Warhammer 40K game with this action RPG stunner.

In the future, there is only war. And that's a very good thing in Relic's upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The developer, best known as a creator of real-time strategy games and, in 40K circles, as the minds behind the two Dawn of War games, is stretching its development muscles with Space Marine, which will be an action role-playing game that aims to give players an immediate and action-soaked look at the Warhammer universe.

Today, behind closed doors, Relic developers showed a four-and-a-half-minute trailer of Space Marine. Although no concrete gameplay was shown, producers made a point of saying that all of the footage shown in the trailer came from in-engine action, which was impressive, considering the visual quality on display.

The high-level story of Space Marine will follow your character as he and his fellow power-suited badasses try to stem the tide of an invasion by the green-skinned Orks on a forge planet (the planetary factories where space marine weaponry is created). Beyond that overview, we don't know much else about the story in the game.But, honestly, when the rest of the trailer was filled with action-packed shots of Space Marines and Orks mixing it up in glorious fashion, who really cares about the story?

Combat will be one of the key factors in Space Marine, and though the specific control mechanics are still under wraps, Relic reps told us that they intend every button to be capable of a violent action. We're not quite certain if means that you'll be able to decapitate your foe with a press of the select button, but we get the point.

One thing we do know is that your space marine will have access to plenty of different weapons at hand, including energy swords, chain blades, and huge, electrical hammers that will be effective for dealing with swarming enemies. There will also be ranged weapons, of course; we saw one marine picking off Orks with a pistol, and another spraying bullets out of a belt-fed machine gun. Choosing which weapons you wield will be only part of the customization options in Space Marine; the footage also showed some leveling aspects, wherein the player will be able to upgrade attributes such as strength, attack, and defense.

So far, only space marines and Orks have been confirmed to be in the game but, given that the game is early in development, there's always the possibility that could change in the future. From the demo, the Orks look to be ferocious (and slightly stupid) enemies, perfectly in keeping with their "chop first, never ask questions" approach to battle. Relic is also being tight-lipped about online options in the game, but hinted that they look to do justice to the Warhammer universe's tradition as a shared experience.

We can't wait to see how Space Marine shapes up, particularly with regard to the customization elements of your space marine, which has always been a 40K hallmark. No release date has even been hinted at yet, but here's hoping the hard-hitting combat that 40K tabletop players have always envisioned in their mind's eye will be brought to life in the game. Stay tuned for more Space Marine coverage in the coming months.

89 Comments

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 7:06 pm PT

    To acepilotmra:

    And yeah, the Sons of Russ are a very inspiring and amusing bunch. Have you, perchance, gotten the new Space Wolves codex, 5th edition? Great new things in there, though some are derivations from the Dwarf Codex of Warhammer fantasy. And there are Fenrisian wolves the size of small tanks.

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 7:05 pm PT

    To acepilotmra:

    My mistake - the Marines in the trailer are Sons of Ultramar. I don't know how I could have been mistaken even after seeing those clear insignias of lyres and the ultramarine color, but I think it was because I had a preconception that Relic would be hell bent on using only Blood Ravens, considering that they jointly developed this Chapter with Games Workshop and thus own most of this joint IP. It would appear that Relic has won some permission to use more than just Blood Ravens when portraying any Astartes chapter.

    But again, this doesn't change the fact that the guy in the trailer referred to the Emperor as a "God", when all loyalist chapters consider him as an exceptional man, but no more than a mortal.

    As for the Blood Ravens, my best conjecture is that they were loyalists of the Luna Wolves, a.k.a. Sons of Horus, later to become the Black Legion after Abaddon shed his emotional attachment to Horus. As for the Thousand Sons assertion, I think that's a misconception borne of the fact that they have many Librarians. I believe it's more of a cultural trait that they have. They are eager to learn their past, and they seek so much knowledge - and have so much in their archives - that the usual 'standard' number of Librarians for a Chapter is just not enough.

  • acepilotmra

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 1:49 pm PT

    @Gelugon_baat: That isn't necessarily a "Blood Raven" in talking in the trailer. If anything it doesn't sound from his tone and perspective to even be a space marine. The Space Marines in the trailer are of the Ultramarine chapter, not Blood Ravens. The Blood Ravens anyway are a splinter chapter to begin with. There are hints they were either once part of the Black Legion Chaos SM chapter or the Thousand Sons Chaos SM chapter.

    BTW - Gimme my Space Wolves!

  • bigZmanship

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 7:18 pm PT

    To the original Space Marines, we salute thee.

    We shall crush our enemies.

    Do want.

  • fonz12

    Posted Oct 4, 2009 9:43 pm PT

    And in the leaked footage there was me favourite race- chaos space marines. Looks like a tougher enemy but less in numbers

  • fonz12

    Posted Oct 4, 2009 9:42 pm PT

    Dang i cant wait to this comes out, seen leaked footage, it's like gears of war with cinemaction moments- pre ordering as soon as possible. And for anyones infomation the 'pistol' is a bolt pistol and the belt fed machine gun is a heavy bolter

  • JediMaster210

    Posted Sep 3, 2009 3:02 am PT

    For goodness sake if it is only on X BOX, then curses to YOU. PC, the original console should not be forgot, in fact, if anything, it should be graced with the awesomeness of Warhammer 40K Space Marine. It had better be on PC.

  • lilpain82

    Posted Aug 8, 2009 10:52 am PT

    Ohweee.... that´s goin to be killa... and for da console.... hope they do some "half-addicting" stuff in there... not only buttonmashing...

  • tommo352

    Posted Aug 2, 2009 4:26 am PT

    Slayer22396 - i do hope that they do bring it out on pc. I have always longed for a game like this and finally its here! but its not for pc! why *sobs*?

  • Slayer22396

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 9:23 pm PT

    This game should be good i am a big fan of all the DoW pc games. With that said i have no doubt that this game will be released for the pc after all pc gaming is what has given 40k games most of the rep they have now. Oh yeah, and about the whole " your nerd if you play 40k thing" thats not true my big brother and i both play the game, play football, and are both pretty popualr at our schools. So, if anyone has anything about the nerd thing strap on a helmet and see how long you last on the field while i'm linebacker.

  • 19560909

    Posted Jul 22, 2009 5:53 pm PT

    (continued)
    Game looks ok but i'm concerned that it will become a boring hack n slash rpg like too human. Saying that, relic are a very good developer and i can't think of anyone else better for the job so it's fingers crossed!

  • 19560909

    Posted Jul 22, 2009 5:51 pm PT

    Reply to all those below who insulted the 40k gamers. (and a dig at them too).
    I think people need to realise that a good majority of people that play 40k are normal people and not nerds or geeks or whatever word you want to use. A lot of phrases seem to be used, things like "get a life", "go get laid" or "go get a Girlfriend". The fact is that many people I know that play the game have girlfriends and wives or husbands and boyfriends because girls play it too, and they are all perfectly normal people. I have 12 years in the hobby, (my wife has 3) but saying that i'm not prepared to have a full blown fit just because the interviewer doesn't know the name for the belt-fed machine gun, you know what he means.
    In my experience, the sort of people who have called me a geek or heckled me from time to time are the sort that seem to know absolutely EVERYTHING about the football team they support and are on first name terms with all the players... which i find a little hypocritical.
    People who brand these 40k gamers as geeks or whatever seriously need to wake up, stop being so damn ignorant, just leave them alone and get on with your own lives. BUT those 40k gamers need to realise that a vast majority of people are not going to know as much as you on the subject and is not worth frothing at the mouth and losing sleep over, live and let live.

  • airsoftmanic

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 6:42 am PT

    by the way, there's a carnifex in the extended video that the GS insiders missed.
    for reference, its being shot by the titan when it shows the shot of the landscape.
    ill get back to you on specifics but its roughly just under the center of the screen and a little to the left.

  • Mandalore_Fett

    Posted Jun 29, 2009 9:35 am PT

    Looks awesome i hope you get to fight Chaos... they weren't in dow2

  • f1tz

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 2:39 pm PT

    I'm genuinely surprised at the amount of posts expressing concern about whether this game will be released on PC or not. Why wouldn't it be? The PC games market is huge, truly massive. There is absolutely no reason to think that 'Space Marine' will be a console only release.

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted Jun 15, 2009 8:28 pm PT

    It is to my belief that Relic had a huge restructuring recently, namely a major change in the direction of the nature of its games. Already, we had signs that Relic is switching over from RTS to RPG in Company of Heroes, then a clear indicator in Dawn of War II and finally we have full-blown evidence in the form of this upcoming WH40K RPG.

    What I am concerned about is the possibility that Relic has turned its back to the PC. There is yet to be any PC version announced for this game. After having had gems like the Homeworld, Company of Heroes (minus the latest Tales of Valor of course) and Dawn of War series for the PC, I find the absence of a PC variant qutie upsetting.

    I am also still piffed that the Blood Raven guy in the trailer referred to the Emperor as the "God Emperor". The new Space Marine codex clearly (and much like its predecessors) states that Space Marines do not see the Emperor as a deity, so it is kind of jarring to know that Relic probably did not do proper research - or that the Blood Ravens are really aberrations of Space Marines, if they actually toe the line of the Ecclesiarchy and venerate the Emperor as a god.

  • holyknight234

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 3:48 pm PT

    "Beyond that overview, we don't know much else about the story in the game.But, honestly, when the rest of the trailer was filled with action-packed shots of Space Marines and Orks mixing it up in glorious fashion, who really cares about the story?"
    ...that's... that's... that's terrible... freaking optimistic interviewers, they'll probably be like "the story sucked, and this game gets bad mark even if the visual is good" in the end.
    This game better have a good story

  • SQUALL20XX

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 2:33 pm PT

    Not sure about this one

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