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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine multiplayer preview

We kick the tires on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine's class-based competitive multiplayer component, and come away impressed.
Jeff Mattas
34
With its September release approaching like a pack of belligerent Orks, Relic's Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine was shown off again at a closed-door press event last week. It had been a few months since I first previewed a few sections of the game's single-player campaign, but this time out, I got to wade neck-deep into Space Marine's competitive multiplayer component to duke it out in some 8v8 matches with other curious journalists. The game includes two team-based multiplayer modes that pits the IP's iconic Space Marines against corrupted Chaos Marines: Annihilation and Seize Ground. Annihilation is ostensibly a Team Deathmatch mode, and Seize Ground has both teams competing for control of a series of predetermined capture points. At face value, neither mode is particularly innovative; however, the minute to minute experience that Space Marine's multiplayer offers is an intense one. The multiplayer is given serious legs by a choice of three playable classes, multiple levels of unlockables, and class-specific customization options. Using the game's "Customizer," loadouts can be created, weapons and perks can be switched in and out with ease, and individual pieces of armor can be mixed, matched, and painted in, what Relic claims to be 1.8 billion combinations. The Tactical Space Marine class (and its Chaos Space Marine equivalent) is the most balanced of the three available, with weapon loadouts that allow effective attacks at range or in close quarters. Of the three classes, I spent the least time with the Tactical Space Marine, but its balanced nature makes it the easiest class to play right out of the gate. It makes some sense that this class is the only one available to start. The other two classes will need to be unlocked. The Devastator class (or Havoc for the Chaos team), is a ranged specialist who focuses on heavy weapons. I found this class particularly effective at both defending and clearing-out entrenched enemy positions. Equipped with a Heavy Bolter by default--akin to carrying around a heavy turret--I was able to drop to one knee and become a stationary turret, quickly making corpses out of the opposition. The downside of the Devastator class is that it's incredibly weak at close range, with nothing more than a kick as a melee attack. My favorite class proved to be the Assault Marine (or Raptor, on the Chaos side). Though more lightly armored than the Tactical class, they're equipped with jump packs that allow players to quickly traverse the map, or dive straight into a group of foes from the air with a ground-pound attack. Bringing death from above is exhilarating. Coordinating with teammates of other classes, I was often able to boost myself behind enemy lines and go to work with a chainsword, warhammer, or other devastating melee weapon, taking out several foes before they knew what hit them. Very satisfying.

To War!

 While Space Marine's focus is on mid to close-range combat, those predisposed to sniping will find a few unlockable weapon choices they'll like, and each map contains areas conducive to long-range attacks. The game is expected to ship with five multiplayer maps, though Space Marine DLC is already planned for the future. Each map captures the appropriate Gothic-industrial vibe of the 40K universe, filled with multiple routes and wide-open spaces (as well as some clever places for Assault Marines to perch). I'll confess to being surprised at how much fun I had with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine's competitive multiplayer. Relic's choice to forgo a cover mechanic ramps up the action. I often found myself deciding how to best enter a pitched battle as I ran straight toward it--based on the participants and terrain--rather than sticking to predetermined routes. The flow of the matches I played (especially in the Seize Ground mode) encouraged me to regularly switch up my class, perks, and loadouts, depending on whether assault or defense was more important at a given moment. My time with Space Marine's multiplayer kept me on my toes with action-packed combat, class system and perks, and more interesting weapons than I could reasonably check out during the two-hour demo. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is due out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on September 6.
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  • Shacknews legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
    reply
    July 20, 2011 9:00 AM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine multiplayer preview.

    We kick the tires on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine's class-based competitive multiplayer component, and come away impressed.

    • dfay legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 9:04 AM

      EXCITEMENT BUILDING

    • Memphis-Ahn legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 9:36 AM

      GOTY.

    • Johnnsen legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 9:44 AM

      So pumped for this game. Need more Warhammer.

    • [deleted] 1321357377 legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 9:53 AM

      [deleted]

    • MozzerV12 legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 10:09 AM

      I see no mention of Co-op multiplayer, was this confirmed at all?

      • kelbane legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        July 20, 2011 12:20 PM

        It is looking less and less likely :( :( :(

        • exit button legacy 10 years
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          July 20, 2011 12:39 PM

          This would be amazingly disappointing. To compete with Gears I'd imagine they'd need this mode

        • Poor Yurik legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          July 20, 2011 12:47 PM

          They've already confirmed coop several times, and recently.

    • MercFox1 legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 10:11 AM

      Sounds amazing

    • DoPEaMiNE legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 20, 2011 10:24 AM

      Nice to finally be able to talk about this now that details have been released. Keep in mind I am biased because I work on the project:P

      The multiplayer is VERY fun. I'm a quake / quake 3 player, and it's the most fun I've had in a long time, probably because it's closer to that style of game. The assault marine is my favourite class, just because it plays so differently and the kills can be so satisfying. That being said, I've experimented with MOST of the builds, and they are all quite viable. Ultimately it comes down to your playstyle, the type of map, and the composition of opponents you are facing.

      What I've noticed is that from map to map, a lot of people would actually switch up their class and loadouts (myself included), so there is actually quite a bit of variety to be had. It's a good sign that while finaling space marine, we are playing our multiplayer, instead of playing other games.

      When the game gets closer to release and if people are interested, I'll post a guide of what a classes strengths and weaknesses are, and perhaps give an overview of the weapons and perks.

      • morsxcessum legacy 10 years
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        July 20, 2011 10:28 AM

        P R E - O R D E R E D not C A N C E L E D

      • Dschinghis Khan legacy 10 years
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        July 20, 2011 10:29 AM

        Shill!

        Just kidding, if i could buy the game 40,000 times i fucking would. You have no idea how pumped i am for this game.

      • exit button legacy 10 years
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        July 20, 2011 10:30 AM

        Where's the last stand mode!?

        • crummynz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          July 20, 2011 10:39 AM

          ^ this would be pretty fantastic

          • Majuju legacy 10 years
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            July 20, 2011 10:45 AM

            there's some sort of horde mode I thought?

      • duffman03 legacy 10 years
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        July 20, 2011 10:44 AM

        Oh god yes multiplayer. I'm imagining something like TF2, with assault marines jetpacking all over the place sawing people in half, and support guys firing off rockets and devestators and exploding plasma balls everywhere.

      • Nitrium legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        July 20, 2011 12:46 PM

        Ok sir, you conviced me. I'll preorder it. Also because your previous works were absolutely awesome.

      • thetangent legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
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        July 20, 2011 3:14 PM

        How does the Devastator action feel? I want to wrap my gigantic armored hands around an even more massive HEAVY BOLTER.

        • DoPEaMiNE legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          July 20, 2011 3:50 PM

          The heavy bolter is a favourite of many people here at work.

          Devastators / Havocs are a little more cumbersome than the other classes (can't dodge roll as easily, has limited melee options) but have perks to increase their shields and damage resistance. When they are not setup, the heavy bolter fires slowly but can still be effective, when you setup, however, they absolutely MOW things down, the trade off being that they can't move and their rotation is a bit sluggish.

          The plasma cannon is my favourite weapon,its primary fire behaves a lot like an arcing q3 rocket launcher and it's secondary fire is a charged shot that much like the older BFG, moves slowly and has a large blast radius. If it lands close to you, you will die. If you are in the outer edge of it's blast radius, it can still hurt your shields.

          The lascannon is a powerful sniper weapon, it is probably the only weapon I did not use very often because it is a pure sniper / scoped weapon and I am not a huge fan of those types of weapons (just not my playstyle). I personally did not find it as useful as the stalker, but there were people on the team who could use it.

          • DoPEaMiNE legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            July 20, 2011 3:56 PM

            I should clarify that when I say it's primary fire behaves like a q3 rocket launcher, I meant in that it does splash and damages yourself up close, not sure why I used that as a reference when it's not actually that similar:P

            • Poor Yurik legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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              July 20, 2011 5:34 PM

              Any reason why executions aren't going to be included in MP? Seems like a good high risk, high reward action to take in combat if your enemy is low on health and you can close the distance.

              Maybe an icon could pop up over their head, or some sort of indicator could show around their feet or around their name when they are down to 25% hp and no shields to indicate that they are eligible to be grabbed for one.

              I could see like 3 guys cap a point, and one of them executes the last defender, or in TDM, the last man standing getting executed to close out the round.

              • Poor Yurik legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                July 20, 2011 5:35 PM

                PS. Ridiculously psyched for the game regardless, I just think that sort of thing would be another potential contributor to both gameplay and visual epicness.

          • thetangent legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
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            July 20, 2011 5:44 PM

            This sounds HOT!

    • Dschinghis Khan legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 10:28 AM

      Needs to be 24 players so we can have something to play on Thursdays :)

      • MercFox1 legacy 10 years
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        July 20, 2011 10:35 AM

        I'd be down for this on Thursdays

      • dfay legacy 10 years
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        July 20, 2011 10:45 AM

        This is the only thing kinda sad that I've heard about the game. 8v8 will be good but we will need multiple sessions for sure to get everyone playing. It kind of worked for MNC around release time but it was never as good as getting the whole Shackbattle crowd into a single game like we can with CS:S or BC2. We regularly have queues even when the playercount is 24 or 32.

        • Haxim legacy 10 years
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          July 20, 2011 11:04 AM

          It really depends on the game and how it's been designed. There's no way a 24 player MNC server would be remotely fun.

      • hirez moderator legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        July 20, 2011 2:49 PM

        FYI, ShackWest TF2 will be moving to Thursdays in Mid-August.

        • MercFox1 legacy 10 years
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          July 20, 2011 3:00 PM

          We need a summit on Shackbattles. For serious. We've got the tools but we're terribly unorganized and our attendance suffers for it.

        • dfay legacy 10 years
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          July 20, 2011 5:52 PM

          It's your prerogative, but that will be very disruptive. The BC2 Shackbattle is very well attended and many people from ShackWest TF2 play in it. Then Friday is a TF2 Shackbattle on Guntersville. Currently many of the ShackWest crowd plays that one too, but I don't know if people will want to attend two TF2 nights in a row. I'm not sure what the outcome would be, i.e. will the other Shackbattles move to accommodate your change, or will everything stay put and attendance gets split.

        • Dschinghis Khan legacy 10 years
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          July 20, 2011 6:29 PM

          Why would you do this to us? STOP FRAGMENTING THE COMMUNITY!

      • Goncyn legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        July 20, 2011 3:18 PM

        Don't we play BC2 on Thursdays?!

    • The Squeeze legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 20, 2011 11:20 AM

      Gotta really good feeling this game is going to kick a$$ and is going to have some legs to it.

    • alllivestaken legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 12:00 PM

      Looks really good, but just Marine/vs/Marine, no orks is really disipointing :( I'll get it when they are added.

    • VictoriouSecret legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 12:06 PM

      Dang, now which seat can I take? PC or 360? Decisions.

    • Gylis legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 12:32 PM

      Please be good. Please be good. Please be good.

    • pieman legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 20, 2011 12:37 PM

      They ripped off the Gears Of War characters!

    • Godhatesfatpeople legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 12:50 PM

      CUM EVERYWHERE

    • Poor Yurik legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 20, 2011 1:00 PM

      My dick looks like a clown's balloon dog right now, all engorged and knotted up in anticipation.

    • hatchet165 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 20, 2011 2:10 PM

      So excited for this game. CAN NOT WAIT.

    • bolneze legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 2:46 PM

      looks sexy - some of the gallery shots are repeats

    • Godhatesfatpeople legacy 10 years
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      July 20, 2011 2:51 PM

      http://www.gametrailers.com/video/multiplayer-interview-warhammer-40-000/717665

      http://www.gametrailers.com/video/annihilation-multiplayer-warhammer-40-000/717667
      http://www.gametrailers.com/video/seize-ground-warhammer-40-000/717669

    • theWhite legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 20, 2011 3:41 PM

      i'll be in my bunk....

    • PenicillinX57 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 20, 2011 6:05 PM

      Sweet. One step closer to my ultimate dream of a Battlefield-style game in the Warhammer 40K universe. Please don't suck!

    • Mandoca legacy 10 years
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      July 25, 2011 8:32 AM

      WHAT CLASS ARE YOU GUYS PLAYING? (caps intented for thread title)
      i foresee an overpopulation of assaults/raptors... get those melee defense perks ready guys... at least i plan on playing devastator/havoc with some sort of melee defense/enhance perk (assuming there is something like that)...

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