Warhammer 40k: Space Marine to feature 100 minutes worth of cut-scenes

I can’t wait for this. A shame it’s slipped into September, as there really is a dearth of AAA titles in July/August (DE:HR notwithstanding), and I think it could get somewhat swallowed up in the Gears3/BF3/MW3 torrent. Although just writing that last part makes me realise how nice it is to see a non sequel in this year’s line up. I’ve got a severe case of sequelitis at the moment….

100 minutes of non-gameplay. Essentially the same as a movie. That’s just ridiculous.

@Slag in that same respect to sequelitis, that is why I’m also looking forward to RAGE in October. I don’t think WH40K:SM will blow anyone away or anything, but I’m definitely renting it and should be fun to run through.

@DSB Yeah it sounds kind of ridiculous but I guess it’s not that bad considering the game is lets say 8 hours long…it’s only a little over an hour and a half of cutscenes…Gears 3 also has 90 minutes of cut scenes, so seems to be on par with other games in it’s genre…But on the other hand, Bodycount supposedly only has 10 minutes of cutscenes…and something like Dragon Age II only had 103 minutes of cutscenes, but Dragon Age never was a very cutscene filled game, and is much longer than WH40K…While Uncharted 2 has 90 minutes of cutscenes also and Killzone 3 had 70 minutes of cutscenes…I guess it all depends how important the story is and how much of it you tell out of game, and how much crazy set pieces are in the game that are set up by epic cutscenes…I don’t mind it that much but you are correct that it is essentially a movie within a game which is pretty ridiculous…

@3 Good point, I guess I don’t exactly keep count. I just generally think cutscenes should be kept at a minimum. Games writers aren’t exactly TV or movie writers, even if they think they are, and a lot of the time those scenes show it better than anything. Aside from that, you have a medium that allows you to have people interact every step of the way, and that’s what it should be about, in my opinion.

I wonder how many they squeezed into GTA IV and the episodes. Every mission seems to start with the guy getting inundated with boring, inane chatter that you don’t need, because you know you’re driving somewhere to have something to terribly wrong, and descend into a completely unexpected firefight.

I’m just pressing every button I can to make it stop.

I think with new IP, cutscenes can be pretty important. They help with the building of the universe for uninitiated players, move the story along and let the player become familiar with characters/events that enrich the experience.

WH40k is a pretty well constructed universe with reams of it’s own lore etc, so it makes sense that the devs would want to uncover some of that for the player, particularly if they’re looking to make it a long running franchise. Also, this title is particularly action heavy, so cutscenes will be essential so as to give the game a little more depth, rather than just the pure carnage-fest it appears to be.

#2 So that’s like a bonus:pay for a game and you’re getting a movie too .

@6 Sure, but when I buy an apple, it’s because I don’t want a pear

@7 but you also a largely overrated trademark surplus!

Got a hopeful feeling that this will exceed expectations, it is looking like a proper constructed game rather than something that rides on the existing universe. I realise it’s unlikely this will be among the best however.

Also 100 mins of cutscenes is great if they nail all the warfare and such.

Actually, that 103 minutes includes also a playthrough consisting of gameplay. Publishers send ESRB and alike a video consisting of cinematics and gameplay. According to BBFC, there’s “only” 26 minutes of cutscenes (if that does include all of them).

“WARHAMMER 40
000 : SPACE MARINE
01:00:00:00 GAME PLAYTHROUGH
00:17:17:00 AUDIO LOGS
00:26:00:00 CUTSCENES”

Relic don’t fuck about when it comes to quality and they know the licence better than anyone, so I don’t think there’ll be any issue with them upholding the ethos of the IP. The one thing that does concern me is their unfamiliarity with the genre, but that said they did hire extensively from studios that do specialise in this area before production began.

I’ve got really high hopes that they’ll nail the feel of being a ‘Space Marine’. The 40k universe has so much potential for video games. With there being very few ‘new ideas’ in games these days, and it being increasingly risky to throw money behind new IP, you really have the best of both worlds here with an established franchise and fanbase, as well as a universe that hasn’t been milked for all it’s worth and reached saturation point.

Let’s hope they don’t cock it up!