I have a mixed relationship with Warhammer 40K. I’m a huge fan of the setting but also went for about ten years without reading much material of it. I think I just fell out of the fandom due to other things preoccupying me. Still, I have a great affection for the grimdark future and could recommend many series to people hoping to get into it. Also, I’ve played plenty of the games.
Space Marine: Master Crafted Edition is a remaster of the classic chainsword and bolt gun game that has since gotten its sequel in the extremely popular Space Marine II. Space Marine: Master Crafted Edition includes all the DLC, brings it up to 4K resolution, runs at 60 fps, better lighting, better audio, and has high fidelity upscaled graphics. In other words, it’s just a re-release with fixes for modern consoles. A warning for those poor Playstation 5 players, even though it’s been out for a year, it remains exclusive to Xbox Series X|S and PC. I played the original game in 2011 and was eager to give this one a try.
Space Marine: Master Crafted Edition is set in the grim dark future of Warhammer 40,000. All the usual tropes are present with the galaxy’s Imperium of Mankind under siege by malevolent forces (be they Orks or Chaos) and the only advantage humanity having be the (almost) invincible super soldiers, the Space Marines. This time, you play Captain Titus (Mark Strong), who is a member of the Ultramarines chapter.
The story is simple: an Imperial Forgeworld has come under attack by Orks and is too valuable to simply scour all life from orbit. That this is even considered, let alone the first idea anyone proposes, is something that tells you just about everything you need to know about Warhammer 40K. The Ultramarines are dispatched and given the job of liberating the planet’s incredibly important mecha and, if they have time, save some of its people. What follows is a surprisingly well-acted and written story from beginning to end.
The gameplay of Space Marine: Master Crafted Edition is direct but functional. Titus wanders through various arenas and battles the endless hordes of Orks or Chaos forces. You can use one of four sci-fi guns or your melee weapon (the iconic chain sword or a power axe). You often have two backup Space Marine NPCs to provide cover fire but are just as often alone. If you suffer from injuries, you can stun an enemy and regenerate your health by slaughtering them in a particularly graphic execution.
Mark Strong does a fantastic job acting as Titus, successfully capturing the attitude of a guy who has absolute confidence in his abilities but not necessarily the same from his subordinates. The enemy variety is okay with a dozen or so variants on Orks as well as similar numbers for the Chaos forces. The environment is almost entirely industrial ruins, factories, and sewers but they are all extremely well rendered. Even so, the campaign is not something that is going to impress anyone with its originality and didn’t even in 2011.
Roughly, the biggest problem of Space Marine: Master Crafted Edition is that it is very much standard feeling its gameplay. Even what it innovates like adding a jumper (rocket pack) is removed almost immediately after you get to briefly play with it. The game does what it does extremely well, though. If it gets a bit repetitive, the game is broken into neat little sections and gives you the option of repeating the ones you enjoyed at any point. The multiplayer DLC is included but is certainly fine.
In conclusion, Space Marine: Master Crafted Edition is a pretty good investment at forty dollars but not something I would recommend if it was any higher priced. Even then, I got it on sale. The gameplay is serviceable and the story is fun, especially for Warhammer 40K fans. However, the level design doesn’t blow me away and it can get repetitive after a few hours. So, this is a game best probably handled in spurts.
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