Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine: More than a competitor for Gears 3

For the emperor! Don’t let the Warhammer tag put you off this game, as it is far from the arduously tiring tabletop war game. This take on the Warhammer universe is a fast pace, all action third person shooter.

The game starts on forge world Graia, which is a planet devoted entirely to manufacturing various items of use to the empire, which has been invaded by Orks. Instead of resorting to weapons of mass destruction, an elite group of marines are sent in behind enemy lines to recapture many important strategic points, namely Captain Titus, Sergeant Sidonius and Leandros.

You play as Titus, commander of the group.

The game wastes no time in getting straight to the point as you skydive through the air, dodging obstacles before landing on an ork ship and fighting your way to overpower them. After that you land on the planet itself, and this is where the real fun begins.

You battle to objectives shooting and hacking your way through hordes of Orks, with gruesome and bloody detail.

The destroyed world is shown in great detail, with massive battlefields for you to travel across to reach your goal.

Gameplay is good as well, with Titus able to unleash deadly flurries of melee attacks to hack your way through hundreds of enemies. You can also use up to four guns at once including, but not limited to bolt rifles and plasma weapons.

There is also a bar that fills up gradually as you slay more and more foes, which upon double clicking the thumb sticks, causes you to regain your armour shield and kill almost all enemies in one fell swoop of a blade. This is useful, but at times makes you very hard to kill which in a way reduced the fun of the game as I found myself charging through without having to worry about my character dying.

Overall, a solid effort which manages to be one of the better third person shooters of 2011, which is no small feat when Gears of War 3 is a part of the competition.