*SPOILIERS!* Space Marine's campaign ending?

[ZenPaladin]

So I was really pleased with the ending of Space Marine. Just beat it last night and all. I heard one of my friends complaining about it and I was wondering what others thought.

I felt that it was an ending that was perfectly 40K. It was absolutly tragic and very indicative of what is best and worst in humanity. It made Chaos look not so bad and gave an amazing amount of depth to the normaly cardboard cut out Ultra's. That my friends is grim dark. It's almost black comedy.

How do you guys feel about it?

[eldargal]

I agree entirely, it was excellent. Very Grimdark, you do your best, save the world despite being tricked by a posessed Inquisitor and get dragged off on charges of heresy by the Inquisition. Brilliant.

[gcsmith]

TBH i think he is a latent psycher, or that leandros is secretly chaos.
Either way leandros is what i think of a typical ultramarine, Titus, well he should of been a black templar.

[JxKxR]

I liked the ending because I liked the characters in the story. I still want to know what happened to Captain Titus after those douche Black Templars carted him off. (I HATE Black Templars)

Really the only thing I didn't like about the Space Marine Campaign was the very last boss battle with the Chaos Lord. I was expecting a much more epic fight than the hit X, now B, now X again...

[MaltonNecromancer]

I agree entirely. It was notable to me that I bricked myself more at the sight of the Black Templars than I did at the sight of Chaos. My immediate reaction was actually: "These psycho?! Oh cack. Right, meltagun equipped after this cutscene, and hope they're not as hard as those damn Chaos Marines with clubs..."

Not the best storytelling I've seen in a game (for that's either Yume Nikki, Silent Hill 2, Portal 2, or Bioshock), but definitely much better than I was expecting. Certainly a better plot, better script, better characters and better action than the actual "Ultramarines" film.

I must say that I didn't really see the point of Leandros or Squinty McGruffvoice. But then, being a big fan of Rainbow 6: Vegas and Star Wars: Republic Commando, I've never seen the point of companions you can't boss around.I hope any sequels take a leaf out of Republic Commando's book - that was an excellent example of how to do in-game character-based storytelling. I've never been so upset over the loss of the team psychopath so much as in that game; because yeah, Sev was a psycho, but he was a mate too.

Back OT, gotta love Mark Strong's voice acting too. I think that's actually the first time I've seen him play a hero!

[Archon Charybdis]

Thought the ending was entirely suitable and fits with the setting. Also, Leandros being an uptight douche, hidebound by the codex, was unsurprising. Titus on the other hand was loyal, compassionate, humble, determined, and willing to think outside the box. He is the perfect Imperial Fist.

[gcsmith]

The black templar wouldnt of enjoyed it mate, they hate the inquisiton, and the inquisitor seemed hesitant to take him in, I think he knows titus is innocent but has a plan , maybe he know leandros is chaos but needs leandros to think that they think its titus

[The Defenestrator]

Really? Nobody else is going to say it? Alright, fine:

Space Marine II: Deathwatch.

Come on, it makes perfect sense. Ultramarine captain proves himself to be both demonstrably badass AND has latent resistance to psykers gets taken away by a high-ranking Inquisitor who has just seen it all. The inquisitor makes a weird bull**** deal to "save the rest" and only take him, which he would have to be an absolute moron to expect a chaos-tainted marine to accept. I think it's pretty obvious the inquisitor knew Titus wasn't tainted, and just needed a way to get him off-world and into Inquisition hands.

Mark my words, people. And by people I mean Relic, because this is the obvious (and not to mention super badass) direction to take the game.

[Frankio9]

Really? Nobody else is going to say it? Alright, fine:

Space Marine II: Deathwatch.

Come on, it makes perfect sense. Ultramarine captain proves himself to be both demonstrably badass AND has latent resistance to psykers gets taken away by a high-ranking Inquisitor who has just seen it all. The inquisitor makes a weird bull**** deal to "save the rest" and only take him, which he would have to be an absolute moron to expect a chaos-tainted marine to accept. I think it's pretty obvious the inquisitor knew Titus wasn't tainted, and just needed a way to get him off-world and into Inquisition hands.

Mark my words, people. And by people I mean Relic, because this is the obvious (and not to mention super badass) direction to take the game.

I raise you. Space Marine 2: Grey Knight. This guy is resistant to Chaos and Psykers, so probably no Deathwatch.

[Diagnosis Ninja]

I raise you. Space Marine 2: Grey Knight. This guy is resistant to Chaos and Psykers, so probably no Deathwatch.
Except for the bit where they probably wouldn't induct someone in a different chapter a couple of hundred years after he was created.

However, the Deathwatch idea is brilliant. Why the hell didn't that spring to mind? Lets hope it leads on to something involving less orks and chaos, and more Eldar >.> Titus hunting down a Farseer?

Banshees might not be the toughest thing in the game, but when they can probably run around like a Bloodletter and do a couple of pirouettes to boot, it's definitely leading down a good road lol.

[Archon Charybdis]

I raise you. Space Marine 2: Grey Knight. This guy is resistant to Chaos and Psykers, so probably no Deathwatch.

Cause there are no races of highly psychic aliens in 40K.

[Kawauso]

I raise you. Space Marine 2: Grey Knight. This guy is resistant to Chaos and Psykers, so probably no Deathwatch.

Grey Knights recruit from the Black Ships, not other chapters. GK initiates start out as adolescents just like all other Marine recruits.

A fully-trained Marine versed in the customs of their chapter (hell, the dude's a captain, so he's an Ultra through and through) with another chapter's geneseed isn't much use to another chapter if they're looking to recruit them.

Also I like that Titus was able to think outside the codex. Because I think Ultramarines absolutely can do that - they're just much more likely to stick much closer to it than other chapters. And I like that Leandros was there as the codex-bound stick-up-his-butt guy to balance things out.

What I didn't like about the game (and this is all narrative-wise, mind you) is that a captain, a sergeant and a fresh marine (who for some reason isn't a devastator?) jump in to stop an ork invasion themselves with virtually no support from their battle brothers in orbit.

I mean, they almost never requested air support from the thunderhawk(s) or battle barge, and there's no indication that the other marines with them are doing anything throughout the campaign - Titus is the captain, so he should at least be issuing frequent orders to the rest of the strike force if they aren't -there- with him.

I just wish Titus deployed with an actual full squad. Or a combat squad, at least. Being the captain of a company I feel he should have at least had his command squad with him and/or another full squad from the company.

Would have been nice if he could have done more captainy things, too, like order squad mates around, etc...

[Tynskel]

Really? Nobody else is going to say it? Alright, fine:

Space Marine II: Deathwatch.

Come on, it makes perfect sense. Ultramarine captain proves himself to be both demonstrably badass AND has latent resistance to psykers gets taken away by a high-ranking Inquisitor who has just seen it all. The inquisitor makes a weird bull**** deal to "save the rest" and only take him, which he would have to be an absolute moron to expect a chaos-tainted marine to accept. I think it's pretty obvious the inquisitor knew Titus wasn't tainted, and just needed a way to get him off-world and into Inquisition hands.

Mark my words, people. And by people I mean Relic, because this is the obvious (and not to mention super badass) direction to take the game.

The taint of chaos can be deeply rooted. The Inquisitor has every right to think that Titus might be tainted, and must be sure.

However, deathwatch is a good idea--- but stealing Captain Titus is not a normal way for the Inquisition to obtain their militant force. The Deathwatch is made of volunteers of space marines that are darn good at killing Xenos.

[Tynskel]

Grey Knights recruit from the Black Ships, not other chapters. GK initiates start out as adolescents just like all other Marine recruits.

A fully-trained Marine versed in the customs of their chapter (hell, the dude's a captain, so he's an Ultra through and through) with another chapter's geneseed isn't much use to another chapter if they're looking to recruit them.

Also I like that Titus was able to think outside the codex. Because I think Ultramarines absolutely can do that - they're just much more likely to stick much closer to it than other chapters. And I like that Leandros was there as the codex-bound stick-up-his-butt guy to balance things out.

What I didn't like about the game (and this is all narrative-wise, mind you) is that a captain, a sergeant and a fresh marine (who for some reason isn't a devastator?) jump in to stop an ork invasion themselves with virtually no support from their battle brothers in orbit.

I mean, they almost never requested air support from the thunderhawk(s) or battle barge, and there's no indication that the other marines with them are doing anything throughout the campaign - Titus is the captain, so he should at least be issuing frequent orders to the rest of the strike force if they aren't -there- with him.

I just wish Titus deployed with an actual full squad. Or a combat squad, at least. Being the captain of a company I feel he should have at least had his command squad with him and/or another full squad from the company.

Would have been nice if he could have done more captainy things, too, like order squad mates around, etc...

The reason they had to jump was that the orks had Air Superiority. The best they could do was jump. After they shut down the guns, then the chapter arrived, but it was clear that Titus needed to accomplish his personal goals, and left the senior Sgt in charge of operations on Arakis.

[Kawauso]

Doesn't change the fact that they chose to deploy 3 marines in order to take out the orks' aerial advantages.

That's not even a proper combat squad. =/
And why have the captain of the entire company and a veteran sergeant...and a complete newbie just promoted from scout (who, again, should be in a devastator squad - but hey, they did the same things with the Ultramarines movie, too, so who knows where scouts actually wind up when they put on power armour for the first time)?

Would have made more sense as, say, a 5-man combat squad led by a veteran sergeant.

[eldargal]

As has been pointed out, Grey Knights don't recruit from other chapters. Deathwatch do, obviously, but Chapters have been known to send representatives on crusades of redemption themselves. A more interesting start to the sequel, in my opinion, would be Titus being acquitted through the influence of his chapter but there being a cloud hanging over him. So they send ihim off on some quest for redemption. Like BloodQuest, and I think one of the Ultramarine stories had one as well? I forget.

[Kawauso]

Yeah, that happens in the Ultramarines novel series, and it's pretty good, too.

Essentially what happens is the Uriel (the captain in the book series) breaks some pretty important parts of Codex doctrine (essentially doing what happens at the beginning of Space Marine: going off with just a sergeant on a suicide mission - except they have a full Deathwatch squad with them). Even though he manages to save the day (they poison the Norn Queen of the Tyranid fleet, essentially halting the invasion) by doing so, one of the marines in his company reports his violation of Codex tenants, and Uriel and his sergeant buddy (Pasanius?) are sent on a quest/crusade of redemption together.

Made for a pretty good story; the book did a much better job working that out than the game, I think, even though what happens in them is pretty similar, now I think about it.

[Freefall945]

The Ending was pretty cool!

Mmm. That's good Phyrric Victory.

I particularly appreciated it because up until that point I'd felt it was a little too...

Hero-ey?

Titus was a classic hero, flawless and noble, which was coloring the image of the imperium a shade of "hope" which wrinkled my nose. Then the ending happened, and presented me with the comforting iron fist of fascism. Ah. Bliss.

I'd like to see Space Marine 2: Deathwatch. It'd be an awesome chance to explore more about what makes a space marine... inhuman. But honestly, my personal vision for Space Marine's first suppliment is...

"The Saga of Bjorn" - a ripping (and tearing) tale in which you play the first mission as a Fenrisian youth engaged in tribal warfare. At the end of the sequence, you are mortally wounded... and the rest of the game is you fighting for the honor of becoming a battle brother.

[rickyard]

And why haven't you thought about the possibility that, in fact, Titus CAN be corrupted and become a Chaos marine? perhaps the sequel could be: "Space Marine II: Chaos Rising". Perhaps could be used some kind of game system similar to Dawn of War Chaos Rising, depending on your actions, you can finish the game being a devoted marine or a corrupted chaos marine. It was done years ago in Star Wars: Jedi Knight, two different endings, and in Star Wars Force Unleashed, one final decision that changes the ending of the game completely (try to kill the Emperor, light side ending, try to kill darth Vader to be next palpatine apprentice, dark side ending...) In Dawn of war you can even be choosing Chaos weapons or armour and then becoming slightly "dark sided" and even have "redemption". For example, optional goals in missions that give you "chaos" or "redemption" points. Of course enemies couldn't be chaos, but you can fight against tau or Nacrons or Eldar or DE being a marine or a chaos marine.

[laestli]

I really liked the story ending, is has a solid "Space Marine" morality lesson and provides a vague jump off point for the sequel. Delta/epsilon level psyker, resesive pariah gene, tainted by chaos, who knows?

The actual fight though, garbage. Seriously, a karaoke boss-fight finale ... the whole game was ridiculously easy on the hardest setting. Mindless button mashing melee and very forgiving sniper fights.

Storyline was just what I expected, not deep and not out of character, the game play though means I won’t be buying the sequel unless reviews describe it a significantly harder

[eldargal]

Aw, I rather liked the final fight, had a suitably cinematic feel I thought. I was wondering how they would differentiate it from the Ork warboss fight, I think had it been a traditional punch up it would have ended up being a bit too similar.

[laestli]

Aw, I rather liked the final fight, had a suitably cinematic feel I thought. I was wondering how they would differentiate it from the Ork warboss fight, I think had it been a traditional punch up it would have ended up being a bit too similar.

Ah, yes, I should have given credit to the visual look. It was quite excellent visually. Not good enough for me to compansate for the mechanics of it though.

Reminds me of Gears of War 1's final boss fight, and the wtf moment when it was the easist thing in the game to do. Didn't buy GoW2 because of that either.

[ZenPaladin]

I enjoyed the final battle as well. I felt the move Titus made was brilliant and said alot about him as a character. It had been established that Titus couldn't beat Nemeroth. In all the privious encounters the Chaos Lord effortlessly pinned Titus in place. In any sort of straight fight Titus should have been meat. His sacrifice move was excellent.