[Update] Hey guys, glad you have been enjoying the video but I was contacted by THQ this morning and unfortunately had to pull it down 
Okay, did I miss a game announcement or something? Anyone else ever heard of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine? Apparently it’s an upcoming third-person action game THQ has in the works in addition to Dawn of War II and the Warhammer 40K MMO. I’ve searched around and haven’t been able to find one scrap of info or even a site listing it in development, but this here developer walkthrough THQ released from the recent Leipzig Games Convention clearly shows that it exists. The walkthrough shows a good 9+ minutes of very early gameplay footage running on an Xbox 360 (I presume it’s also coming to PS3 and maybe PC, but again, I haven’t been able to find any game info). It’s obviously rough around the edges given its immature state, but the concepts on display look like they could be pretty sweet once all assets are in place and the game is polished up.
Matt Litten is a 27 year old from-the-womb gamer turned video game reviewer/blogger and current editor/owner/operator of VGBlogger.com.
In 2004, Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com, and after a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez Matt turned his attention to making VGBlogger one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Some of Matt's all-time favorite games include ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid, Legend of Zelda, and, well...too many others to list here.
This game looks insane. Can’t wait to play it.
Nice, but the Bolter needs to be more… robust. I can’t find any other real complaints.
don’t understand the boxing part (why), and the bolter is one of the best standard weapons it should be able to kill the cultists like nothing.
Great start guys looking forward to watching more developments in this game.
Make it a killer
Well the first minute is cool. I can’t get it to function after that, I’ve tried refreshing many times and simply waiting for it to stream, neither work for me. It may have something to do with the fact that I’m running the flash player on my Mac, I’m really unsure.
Is there any way you could create this in a Quicktime format, or an additional one to the flash player? If it’s too much to ask then don’t bother, it’ll probably be on YouTube and the other gaming sites soon.
Sorry, Flash is the only format we can stream. I think your troubles getting it to run are due to the high traffic. We’ve got a lot of hits coming in right now to see the video and it’s definitely bogging things down. I just tried it and it loaded all the way through though, so keep trying the refresh game and you should be able to get it going.
I’d like to emphasize the need for powerful bolters. The popgun this marine is currently using is insufficient to put it lightly and is what I might expect from a lasrifle or autogun.
I find everything to be great, but as already mentioned, the bolter needs to be MUCH more powerful. The thing should be able to tear the traitor guardsmen into tiny little pieces at least. Aside from that it looks fantastic already.
This game is absolutely amazing looking. Because repetition is key, I’ll repeat what is getting said quite a lot:
STRONGER BOLTER
If you want to make the game melee focused, make it a bolt PISTOL, and limit ammunition. Seriously though, a boltgun bullet is basically a frag grenade.
You guys really need to upload this to youtube, stat.
Anyways, from what I can actually watch of this vid, it looks excellent! A couple of suggestions from an old Wolf like myself:
1. Bolters do not = M4. The Bolter is a heavy sturdy insanley powerful gun that has massiv recoil and that only a space marine could possibly weild as a normal gun. It’s bolter rounds are the size of coca cola cans, and they have exploding rounds (depending on the ammo)
So yes, MORE POWERFUL BOLTER!!! It’s not a sub-machine gun that you just “spray” people with. It’s an Instrument of the Emperor’s divine wrath, used by his angels of death, and it should be treated as such. Leave your notions of real world physics behind a bit and step into 40k’s a bit more.
2: Please for all that is holy in the Emperor’s name, make DLC skins for the main character so you can play as other space marine chapters. (Space Wolves, hint, hint…..complete with pelts and viking look) Or a character creation mode time permitting.
That is the end of my hint. This ol wolf has to get to bed and dream about those two twin sisters of battle…
Very nice environment, and the level of detail is on-par with any Black Library WH40K paperback cover. Great job.
But… a ‘solo’ Adeptus Astartes? Ordo Hereticus/Malleus/Xeno going ‘solo’ is a bit more plausible.
Option to play as a Traitor? Hope so
Limited to Bolter & Chainsword? Hope not
Melee focused? I rarely ever saw a need to use the melee weapon while playing THQ’s “FIREWARRIOR”
I am truely not knocking yalls efforts, I just hope to see this title exceed where “FIREWARRIOR’ was lacking. { god, thier multiplayer was crud : tight maps, & FPS view of avatar’s arms was whack, your arms were the same no matter the race you played online. }
Oh wait, I just realized this is NOT a FPS, but a 3rd person view. Well for the kiddies on the consoles I’m sure it will satisfy.
I just hope the PC version is at least as immersive as FIREWARRIOR if yall go the FPS route for us adults.
Good Luck, my money will be waiting.
Oh wanted to add:
1. Environments look fantastic! Always wanted to see a Hive City fully realized!
2. The Bolter issue….again. But longer rant I guess:
A: First of all, the Bolter should sound more like someone slamming a door, really f’n hard and loud, and at a high velocity. (Dan Abnett’s description of the sound of a bolter, author for GW)
B: You want to introduce people to the wrold of WH40k, but you’re not only making original fans of the series upset about the bolter, you’ll also gain no new ones from it either. At this current time, the bolter is just a gun. Not a Bolter. Not an instrument of the Emperor’s wrath…just a gameplay utility tool to daze people. People won’t play the game and say “Oh hey, remember how cool the bolter was?” because the way you’re representing it is pretty bland. The Bolter is as much a part of a marines character as is armor, chainsword, or zeal. By not putting as much love and attention into the bolter, you’re doing a great disservice to representing Space Marines. Which is harsh to say, since I LOVE what you guys are making here. Been waiting for something like for years.
But ys, it needs to be more of a Bolter, and less of a “Generic gun”. Make people Care about the bolter as much as the chainsword. I also recommend a color change for it. A nice red for the frame would look really cool.
C: How to deal with a “truer Bolter” being a bit overpowered? Simple: Put more enemies out there as fodder. You’ve got the perfect amount of Chaos Space marines I think, but they need to be backed up by full squads of 10 or more traitor guard, not less than a handful. Make the Bolters vut through traitor guard like butter, but to even it up, make there be tons of traitor guard! Also the game needs more gore. Maybe have bolter shots take some heads or limbs off (same with the chainsword) Another cool idea would be the power of the bolter being so great, it rips limbs off even when it grazes. Now that would be a great sight to see, and watch as the traitor scum quiver in their boots! ha ha!
-Wolf Lord Beowulf, B&C Member No.: 489
Nice but… what the hell, still they can’t understand that the bolters are more like mini-rocket launchers.
i hope they fix this.
OMG i just creamed my pants
It pains me, deeply, but i must agree with my lupinic brother (10 & 12).
The bolter is wrong… even a bolt pistol would put that weapon to shame, but nice to see the use of true grit.
And there simply must be skins/ creation options to play as other Chapters. For example, His Glorious First, the Dark Angels.
I would not debase my geneseed by taking to battle as anything less.
Amazing, gritty look. Bolter needs more ‘pop’. It should be ripping stuff apart. Bolter needs a scope/light too. Make “Horus” the final boss. ;P
After chatting with some fans about the developer video, here is some feedback;
Ideas. Slow the bolter down to a ‘auto-grenade launcher’ speed. Limit the ammo.
Game play concepts;
A miss of a bolt will still have an effect as it will explode as an airburst (using the proximity fuse). This airburst is fatal is very close, but the prime objective is to stun to allow the marine to close. In effect, one bolt = multiple stuns. (this also gives a good learning curve, as those new to first person shooters do not have be that accurate and the damage is hellacious!)
Direct hits cause the target to explode. However this is wasteful on regular humans as there are so many and not much ammo. The direct hit is mainly for taking on chaos marines, but the armour of the chaos marines (and all marines) is so great that it will only stun a chaos marine. The chaos marine stun is very short, so several rounds may be needed to make up the distance. This again allows the marine to close.
(note, a chaps marine bolter will also stun! Regular cultist ammo guns and lasguns will not)
The three round burst is for boss monster, Nids and Ork Warlords. Again the idea is to stun and move in.
A direct bolt hit will kill most, but ammo is limited.
Make Marines super deadly.
Sorry guys, we had to pull this down this morning.
Keep in mind this is just a very early build, hence the crappy explosion.
I’d like see the combat be more squad based, theres no way one marine can take on four chaos marines at once, and traitor guard should fall after one or two blows in close combat, and horribly maimed if shot by a bolter.
Hopefully they will improve the bolter and add more ranged combat.
But I like most of this so far, its already much better than Firewarrior.
I dont know if the developers read the books an fluff but a marine shouldnt be having so much trouble with 3-5 cultist. Marines are so strong that without weapons with bare hands in melee combat 1 marine can easily kill 15 of them. also the bolter explodes heads…..an rips limbs from the body if you dont have power armor. an a chainsword will decapitate cultist in one blow.
i ran out of room but, one traitor marine should be supported by 10-15 cultist.
Well, isn’t that a bummer that I missed this … sounds interesting.
First: people should stop making the bolter more powerful than it is. Yes, it does fire mini-rockets – with the explosion the size of a fist.
Second: It does *not* have massive recoil. It fires the bolts at low velocity from the barrel, after which the bolt’s internal propellant kicks in.
Third: The bolt shells are only 19mm thick, not a coca-cola can.
Fourth: The novels are basically imperial propaganda. If you read a guardsmen novel you’ll find that one marine equals to ten guardsmen, while in a marine novel its one marine equals to a hundred guardsmen.
Fifth: They aren’t machineguns. The firing mechanism simply doesn’t allow them to be as such. The rapid fire rule in tabletop represents them firing a few boltsin short succession, not a full auto burst of an assault rifle. Forget Dawn of War, look at Firewarrior instead for a more accurate bolter representation.
Sixth: The “proximity fuse” bolt is less powerful than a regular bolt and is meant to be fired at a higher rate of fire because it is proximity detonated.
Some people should really study up more on what a bolter is and how it works…
In the marine codex it says that the bolter fires in 4 round burst
A limiter like that would mean you would have to fire accuratly and not spray and pray. It would also mean you could up the power of the weapon to what it should be.
Enough about the bolter.
Make the bolter more powerful and fight tons of cultists! No. The game is obviously going to be about close combat. Every novel I’ve read about Space Marines describes them rushing to close ranks as fast as possible because that’s where a Marine does the most good. This is the perfect way to experience that first hand, and it looks like an amazing concept.
This is just like people complaining about the weak lightsaber damage in Force Unleashed. The point of the game is to use the Force. Sometimes a game has to stray a bit from realism in order to deliver a good fun concept.
Personally, I look forward to seeing more, and I’m glad that they decided to go up close & personal.
Yo, Matt. What the dilly? Anyways, you know me…gotta come on and shit all over the parade:
I watched the video while it was up, and I didn’t know that anyone who bought a license for Unreal Engine 3 automatically got to make Gears of War whenever they wanted to.
cwutididthar?
Frankly, the game looks WAY too close to a Gears clone in almost every way. The cinemaction sequences will get ridiculously annoying ridiculously quick. The enemy A.I. was absolutely retarded (and granted, this isn’t a complete build, so it might not have been in the code…but seriously…when it comes to 40K stuff, I care less about graphics and more about difficulty).
I’m not feeling to damn confident about this game one bit. Sure, it may quench our thirst until Blizzard finally decides to NOT be douchebags and just make StarCraft: Ghost already. Nonetheless, the video left a foul taste in my mouth…almost like Marcus Fenix bricked in it. = /
Everyone keeps comparing it to Gears but I just don’t see it. Yes, stylistically there are similarities, but Gears is a cover-based shooter and this is more of a melee action game. In terms of gameplay I don’t see that this is similar to Gears at all.
As for bitching about the AI- dude, the footage was shot from like a pre-alpha build of the game. It’s basically a tech demo demonstrating the game’s concept.
This should come out on the Wii. Expecially with 1:1 controls now.
actually, to correct Onisuzume, or 23, bolt shells are THAT powerful. theoretically, they are basically mini-rpgs. 4-round limiter, 10-100 round mag depending on the style of mag, and a loud roar, makes it a deadly, DEADLY weapon. problem is, they’re not always accurate. they’re not as fast as normal bullets, so wind resistance can alter the trajectory. like i said, they ARE missiles, and missiles can change direction based on wind, elevation, and distance. if they hit you, of course, you’re screwed, but 1 or 2 rounds out of 5 missing, can cause a bit of a problem. and to correct another, bolters ARE big, but they’re also small enough in some cases that normal men can use them. generals, inquisitors, and even a few rogue traders and criminals can use them. not as good quality as Adeptus models, but they use the same ammo. and i agree with most of you, the bolter needs to be louder, slow burst, and MUCH MORE powerful.
Peepul complaneng about teh bowltar nead 2 shutup.
It’s a large-calibre round with a detonation mechanism based on relative density upon impact. Airbursts would be a terrible idea as the thing would go off if the line of fire took it close to anything.
The engine LOOKS good… but the videos shows that the gameplay will be STUPIDLY boring and poor…
Please do the license justice by NOT making it a Gear of War wannabe (and it looks like it play WORSE than GoW… the AI are dumbarse)
Nevermind the kill animation, that is only a nice to have feature that players would probably hope to have an option to turn it off after awhile…
Please refine the gameplay… make it teambase… not some single superhero … for that kind of game, there are always gaiden, devil may cry etc etc
Just make it a warfield… or maybe spacehulk … watever it is… make it WARHAMMER40K! Make it EPIC!
Sry if I offended any pple in my comment… but I really hate to see another failed FPS for WH40k…
Still, the later “fist fight” is extremely REAL life as this is wat I had experienced myself (not as the victim fortunately)… well done on that one!
ok, I agree the bolter needs to be accurate to the game universe.
If they want melee just get rid of ammo availability… make bolter ammo hard to come by
Also, armor damage needs to be tracked… 1 marine vs 3 CSM = bad day for lone marine unless he’s a champion… you should come out pretty banged up..
also… grenades would be nice
maybe some thunderhawk support fire
there’s alot that can be added… but it looks awesome… I hope they put it together right with 40K fan input and dont release it til it’s perfect
it looks awesome but a bit of a brawler? i hope by the time it comes out its more balanced.
well i’ve been waiting for another shooter from the WH40k world since firewarrior.
in firewarrior you dealt with a race that was purely long range. The tau are an advanced race that in all my readings the most close range i’ve seen from them is a flamer. Finally we can get up close and personal.
As everyone has said the bolter should be like shooting a bb gun at an ant or small scorpion. I do hope this is made better and you have the option to change who you play as. Also i’d like some customization options not only for armor but for weapons. hopefully you will be able to substitute the chainsword for a power sword and maybe the bolt pistol for a plasma pistol. A little variation would add millions.
There is a new trailer… the game was cut but the trailer was made anyway. Has a massive carnifex boss fight.
For the people complaining about the boltgun,
it fires .75 caliber self propelled rounds that have explosive tips. It (generally) would kill traitor guard in 1 solid hit to the torso, but be very ineffective against the Traitor Marines, same with the Chainsword.
It has a relatively slow rate of fire, since each cartridge is large and needs to be extracted.
The “Godwyn” pattern bolter can fire in bursts of 4.
And if the marine is using a Bolter and a Chainsword, it really should be replaced with a Bolt pistol. They fire faster, can be fully automatic, fire weaker rounds, and are designed for close hand to hand combat.
This game cries out for Co-op, weapon switching, and upgrades, maybe even an experience system.
Vehicles should also be more involved than cinematic pieces.
Great tips and reminders as show-goers adjust budgets and schedules in this economically challenged period.
Okay, Obviousely you guys should consider a change as far as the bolter’s fire power goes. But The game really needs to have an army painter-like option, or even just choosing between pre existing chapters would be so much more amazing, although i’m sure 40k fans will buy it regardless, this would just be so much more satisfying.
One personal suggestion is squad based gameplay to add to the epic-ness(yep made that up) of the battles in the game. Like a Brute Force or Star Wars: Republic Commando type of thing. Now that would make for a truly amazing gaming experience.
It doesn’t seem like choosing between chapters would effect the story in any way, just suit people’s preferences. Just some thoughts.