Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition

good

Surprised I've never heard of this game. Its feels like a quintessential dude-bro shooter. It reminded me a lot of Gears of War. You are a big borollic soldier fighting hordes of monsters. Except in this game the monsters aren't as scary and you carry the chainsaw in your hand, rather than on your gun. Maybe its just Warhammer lore or something, but the main foe, the orks, are a little hard to take seriously. The main ork boss has like an engine with several exhaust pipes on his back, an ork shaped belt buckle, and like scrap metal covering his jaw. Their ships look like they are made entirely of scrap metal and are painted red with black and white checkers. They have jet pack orks that literally look like they just have a massive firework stick on their back. I played it on hard so I didn't just go Rambo and hammer smash everything. The ranged enemies will chew through your shield really quick. The melee is really fun and performing executions is the main way to get your health back up. There are 4 different melee weapons each with their own execution animations and they look great. There is a move set list for the melee weapons, but its pretty basic. The best missions are where you get the jet pack to do grand slam with a hammer. I would probably say to play it on a lower difficulty so you can enjoy smashing orks more. The ranged enemies are numerous and the rocket enemies just wont stop shooting. If you aren't careful they will melt your shield and health pretty quick if not watching. Additionally enemies will hit you during execution animations. I like the story for what it was. Game is short and sweet. There is a versus mode, but the multiplayer is completely dead. If you have friends I think there is a Co-op horde mode. I also appreciated the collectibles not being super tucked and hidden away. I got 45/48 by the end of the game without looking for guides. Didn't have any technical issues.