Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is an action spin-off from the makers of the Dawn of War series, studio Relic Entertainment, which in 2011 for the first time put the player directly into the armor of a Space Marine and had them fight from a third-person perspective instead of commanding an army from above. The player takes on the role of Captain Titus of the Ultramarines chapter during the defense of the forge world Graia, a key manufacturing planet, against a massive invasion of Orks and later the forces of Chaos as well.

The combat system combines shooting with a variety of weapons typical of the universe – bolters, plasma guns, or rocket launchers – with brutal melee combat using a chainsword, hammer, or other Space Marine weapons. Both need to be actively alternated, since melee kills replenish ammunition and gradually fill the Fury meter, which temporarily boosts the player significantly and makes it easier to face overwhelming odds. The pace is fast and bombastic, true to the game's promise of bigger and louder battles, and it isn't afraid of large set pieces with dozens of enemies on screen at once, where keeping track of the battlefield becomes just as important as aiming itself.

Alongside a several-hour single-player campaign, Space Marine also offers a competitive multiplayer mode with several soldier classes, its own progression, and various game modes built on the same melee/ranged system as the story portion. The game thus combines elements of a third-person shooter with hack-and-slash combat in a way that was fairly unusual among licensed Warhammer 40,000 titles of the time – most earlier games set in the same universe were built as strategy games viewed from a bird's-eye perspective.

Why play it: An ideal choice for players who want to experience the Warhammer 40,000 universe from the perspective of a single soldier in the middle of the battle, rather than from the bird's-eye view of a commander – the combination of shooting and melee combat makes it one of the most action-packed and accessible games from this universe.