Ambitious, grows on you, great game for the fans. Still a good game for the rest. Sets the right path for this genre.
Space Marine tries to set its own type of game and in my opinion rightfully succeeds in doing so. Why?
The blending of close combat and ranged killing is well done and cleverly carried out, making this a rare quality to find in any other game of this genre. The new weapons and upgrades throughout the mission is definitely a plus and keeps you hooked and going. The AI is not bad overall and the variety of weapons at your disposal will make it fun to play in your own style.
The campaign is good but could have been better, the developer tries to put some variety in the action with a couple of jet pack levels and shooting from a flying vehicle, this is welcomed, especially the jet pack one (which result in a whole new way of playing making it more fun..) but doesn't quite nail it in making it memorable.
The campaign story could have been designed with a wider variety of things to kill (maybe put in a squiggoth some more demons and some chaos raptors/terminators, there is no lack of lore or enemies in this universe).
More boss fights would add epic moments, with realization of epic cutscenes the game would have surely gained more attention. There is not much replayability of the campaign, this could have been easily fixed with side quests, or simply a new armor skin (say you get a bad ass terminator outfit at the end of the game, and lets you keep it for replaying the whole campaign, who wouldn't replay it?)
The Multiplayer is good, but the lack of variety of modes could have been further filled, maybe with a simple capture the flag (in this case maybe capture the device) or an evolving objectives type of mode. The choice of the 3 classes is good and the design of the maps is very well done for all 3 of them, something to truly praise for. The game gives you also another rare point of view: the dynamic movement with your flying assault/raptor class makes use of the height of the maps, something not many games do in multiplayer.
Another really good thing is the customization of your avatar, there are so many options that just makes it perfect in my eyes: it creates a stronger bond with your character than any other shooting game ever did.
If we put aside all the awesomeness of the Warhammer40k world and see this game objectively, from the eyes of a new gamer, there is now doubt he will have fun in slashing shooting and executing during the whole game. There is also no doubt it will be fun in multiplayer, and with the promise of a new coop mode the game will be even better.
All in all a good start, the lack of variety in campaign killing and multiplayer modes as well as the lack of split-screen and a coop mode ready from the start will not make this game quite "up there", positioning it JUST below the awesomeness. This is the direction to be taken though and am confident the sequel will fill in where this game lacks.
The Good:
-Perfect hack and slash blending with third person shooter
-Campaign upgrades kept me going
-Very good multiplayer map structure that give reason to play any class anytime
-Multiplayer assault class brings it all to a new level, making use of new ways to play
-Details and artwork superb and extremely faithful to the W40K universe
-Promise of future DLC and COOP mode
The Bad:
-Not enough lore. For a new player, foreign to the world of W40K, this game will not awe.
-Few graphical glitches while performing execution moves (the victim goes out of the map/inside buildings/rocks or whatever) and also in game environment(portion of buildings disappearing) all minor but present nevertheless.
-Not enough Boss fights/variety of enemies.
-Only 2 multiplayer modes and no coop at start
-Low replayability of the campaign