According to its director, the Warhammer 40K shooter will be a unique experience and not a rip-off of other games.
Relic Entertainment is aware that people are comparing its upcoming third person shooter, Warhammer 40K: Space Marines, to the Gears of War games, but says that it isn’t losing any sleep over it. Relic has previously worked on the Dawn of War games – also set in the Warhammer 40K universe – and the Company of Heroes series.
Raphael van Lierop, the game’s director, said that the team was flattered by the comparisons to Epic’s shooter series, and that it had set the bar very high for Relic. Van Lierop said that the comparisons weren’t really warranted however, as Relic was trying to make a unique experience with Space Marine, rather than emulate an already successful game. He said that Relic always pushed itself to innovate with its games, and added that the studio had already received a lot of positive feedback from play testers and the press about Space Marine. He hadn’t let himself become overconfident, however, saying that he was well aware that the third person shooter market was incredibly competitive, and that the team would really have to work hard for the game to be successful.
It’s not hard to see why people might compare the two games: both feature burly space marines shooting at aliens with enormous guns, with the occasional improbable, chainsaw-esque melee weapon popping up from time to time. The 40K universe has a supernatural element that the Gears of War games lack however, complete with demons and space elves. That seems a pretty good way of differentiating the two games, from both a story and a gameplay point of view.
Source: CVG
