Before last night I couldn’t wait for Gears of War 3, I was gobbling up information for that game like strawberry sherbet. But last night I kicked back with the Space Marine demo. After twenty minutes of goretastic action poor old Marcus and Dom couldn’t be further from my mind. Space Marine is the British tinged Gears of War and you should download the demo immediately.

What do I mean by British? It’s a little difficult to pin down. Let me put it this way. Comics in America and Comics in Britain have this…  difference. Comics in America have much more cleanly drawn lines between the good and bad characters than British, and no matter how grim and gritty a comic gets, in say a Marvel or DC book, there’s always hope, there’s always an undercurrent of optimism. Batman severely beats up murderers and muggers and puts them in jail; but Judge Dredd shoots muggers and murderers and severely beats up people who litter. Maybe it’s the spectre of fascism that was around in the 1940’s, or the conservative Thatcher years in the 80’s, that affect British life even today, but there’s definitely bitterness in the genre culture out of Britain. Well what about comics like Kick Ass and Watchmen you say, they’re American right? The artists for both were American but you can thank British authors Mark Millar (Scottish specifically) and Alan Moore for the words.

Probably not a natural weather occurence

At this stage you’re probably wondering what they hell I’m talking about. Okay, Gears of War and Space Marine are very similar games. Both are third person, over the shoulder titles featuring squads of heavily armoured and armed soldiers battling hordes of monstrous aliens. Gears of War has chainsaw bayonets, Space Marine has chainsaw swords. In fact the only difference is that there’s no cover mechanic in Space Marine; oh and very different colour palettes, Gears infamous grey and brown versus Space Marine’s smorgasbord of primary colours. But despite their similarities Space Marine feels like the more nihilistic, grim game. In Gears, you’re fighting for humanity, for your comrades, who are regularly full of aplomb and bravado, cheering you on as you kill Locusts. The Ultramarine unit in Space Marine, led by Captain Titus (voiced skilfully by Mark Strong of Kick Ass and Rock N Rolla fame) are machines; cold, stoic and bred to kill and serving a despotic, possibly insane Emperor. It gives the mood a rustier edge than Gears has.

As for the gameplay itself Space Marine is a lot more frantic, while you’ll make good use of your four available fire arms on the hordes of Orks (not a typo) that swarm you, you’ll often fall back to melee combat, tearing into enemies with combo moves similar to God of War.

The game doesn't shy away from filling the screen with angry targets

One of my favourite elements of the demo was the fact there are no health packs or regeneration mechanic and you lose health at an alarming rate. To regain health you can activate a ‘rage mode’ after a certain number of kills or you can use an execution move on a stunned enemy. The executions, again like the moves in Gears of War and God of War, are violent animations that see you stomp, dismember or tear the head off of an enemy. They’re the moves you’d want to use anyway for the pure awesome of them, but the fact they’re a necessary mechanic to survive what can be a pretty challenging game is a stroke of genius on the designer’s part. The demo has two levels, one featuring basic gameplay and one using the Space Marine jump packs for short flight.

The temptation to get close and messy with all your enemies is great, but sometimes shooting is the best option

Relic studios cut their teeth with the Warhammer 40,000 universe on the epic Dawn of War titles and seem well prepared to take consoles by storm with Space Marine. I know it’s just a demo that somehow I’ve rambled for 500 words about, but it’s the most mind blowing demo I’ve played this year. I know I’ve been burned before by games that don’t live up to their demos (you broke my heart Just Cause 2), but Space Marine has become an instant pre order for me.

If you’re a fan of Gears of War or God of War… or any other game with war in the title, download Space Marine asap and get chainswording!

Parachute? they're for pussies, Space Marines rocket into the ground