Fans of the diverse Warhammer branded universes have been spoiled for choice in terms of games over the past few years. From the highly acclaimed sci-fi Dawn of War strategy series, to the high fantasy of Warhammer Online, the Warhammer brand is pretty well covered in the digital realm. One obvious cornerstone of gaming that has remained untouched however, is the third person shooter. This is exactly where Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine slots in.

Relic is showing the game off at this year’s E3 showcase, and so far the game looks rather impressive. 

The action is displayed from a close-up, over the shoulder view, but the camera pulls out a little in combat situations, giving the player a bit of room to go crazy with their chainsword. True to the Warhammer 40K Space Marine legacy, combat consists of both close up melee combat as well as ranged combat. Hallmark Space Marine abilities that Dawn of War players will recognise make an appearance, such as the mighty foot stomp, and shoulder charge. Likewise, the character art, environment, outfits, weapons and so on are all in line with what Relic has already established in the digital extension of Warhammer 40K via Dawn of War. 

One of the key features of Space Marine is that Relic wants players to get stuck into combat. The game is designed to encourage players to take the head-on approach in all combat situations. This is clearly illustrated in numerous design choices, such as the healing system – players heal their character by executing stylish finishing moves on enemies. Likewise, as they do damage they accumulate “Fury”, and when you have enough Fury you can pull off special moves such as the aforementioned foot stomp. In line with this approach, Space Marine does not have any sort of blocking or cover system. 

Although players will fight in squads with other Space Marines, from what has been shown, there is no squad control or tactical coordination, which I suppose is what ultimately separates Space Marine from Dawn of War. 

Our initial impressions of Space Marine were positive, however, it’s hard not to wonder if the balls-to-the-wall action approach adopted by Relic will sustain gamers for any significant length of time. Various weapon options may go a way toward solving this problem. For instance, the Stalker Bolter lets you zoom up close in a first person view and take pot shots at enemies from a distance, and even allows you to slow down time using Rage, making it easier to get those valuable headshots. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the double barrel Storm Bolter, which in the words of a Relic employee “pisses out ammo”. 

Although Space Marine does not really have anything new to show, it’s kind of hard not to get excited about a game which just looks like so much fun. Dawn of War 40,000: Space Marine is due out in September 2011, and will be released on PC, PS3 and 360.