By now you've probably read our WH40k: Space Marine preview. Ok, maybe you skimmed it. Quite possibly you just looked at the pictures. Did you see the one of me with the Chainsword? I'm not going to police your reading habits, but it was pretty boss. While I was up at THQ playing WH40k: Space Marine I got the chance to sit down with Morten Haugaard. That's his real name! How Viking is that? Answer: Very. Morten is the Global Brand Manager on all Warhammer 40k titles at THQ. This includes Space Marine, Dawn of War, and Kill Team. He was gracious enough to answer our* questions. WARNING: Thar be SPOILERS.
CO: 40k is all about customization. While we've seen that Space Marine will feature different appearances and load-outs, will players be able to receive bonuses if they affiliate themselves with one of the iconic Space Marine chapters? For instance, if you look like a Blood Angel, would you have different bonuses than if you appeared as one of the Ultramarines? Or is the appearance of your armor/chapter purely cosmetic?
MH: In single player you play as Capt. Titus of the Ultramarines, so there's no customization there, beyond what you would expect with being able to change weapons. In multiplayer you can customize your appearance, but for balance reasons -obviously adding in different chapter specific powers, you run into issues like, “What if I have the armor colors of the Blood Ravens, but I’m using the insignia of the Black Templars, and then I’ve got the shoulder pauldron of the space wolves?” Once you get into all of those, because we’re letting people customize, we can’t really force them down one particular chapter route. We’ve got tons of customization, but they’re all visual, stylistic, customization options. It’s purely cosmetic until you’re killed by someone who’s wearing purple and pink armor, and then it’s an insult.
Which gave me an idea...
CO: In multiplayer, players will also have the ability to kit themselves out as a Chaos Marine. Will players have powers that correspond to the four gods of chaos? For instance, will players who have Khorne armor have better melee abilities? Will followers of Nurgle have plague powers? Are there mutations?
MH: You’ll be able to play as Chaos (Marines), but you’re not going to get the Chaos gods’ specific powers. Again, it’s a matter of balancing. So how would you go about dealing with someone who’s wearing the colors of the Death Guard, but has a Tzeentch insignia on their shoulder because they like that insignia a bit more than the Death Guard? We want people to be free to customize their character, but maybe after launch we can release additional content in terms of supporting different Chaos powers.
CO: Explain the co-op campaign. How many players will be able to play the campaign together, and will the difficulty ramp up accordingly?
MH: No comment.
CO: How will XP play a role in multiplayer?
MH: As you progress though multiplayer you’re going to get experience points and unlock new perks which will increase your customization options. One of the perks for the Bolter is Kraken Ammo, allowing you to do more damage. Another perk you might unlock is True Grit, so for the Assault Marine this let’s them wield a Bolter as opposed to a Bolt Pistol or a Plasma Pistol in their off hand. So you get the great range combat that a Bolter would give you, along with the awesome melee weapons like a Power Sword or a Power Axe. You’ll be able to customize your Marine, you’ll get new perks which unlock enhanced ability upgrades as you progress through multiplayer.
The multiplayer is much better than I expected.
CO: As you earn perks are they weapon-based or class-based?
MH: There’s a combination of both. There are class-based perks. For the Assault Marine, there's one that let’s you use your Jump-Pack more often, another gives you a longer flight time. For weapon based perks, you have, once again, the Kraken Ammo, or ones that, for some of the melee weapons, allow you to regain health. It’s a mix of class and weapon specific perks.
CO: Does the online multiplayer have any kind of clan support?
MH: Not at launch. We’ve had a couple questions on clan support, so it’s obviously something we’ll look at and consider, but at launch it’s 8v8 multiplayer, unfortunately without clan support.
CO: Are there any iconic 40k characters in the campaign? For instance, will we have a cameo from Gabriel Angelos (leader of the Blood Ravens featured in the Dawn of War series)?
MH: You will see some of the Blood Ravens come into the campaign. I can’t talk too much about them, because they are a little bit of a surprise. Special thanks for all of the people who have played Dawn of War and helped make the Blood Ravens the chapter that they are. You will get to see some of them. We will have some Inquisitors come in, but we can’t really talk too much about the Inquisitors, but we do have some iconic characters in the game.
If I had to guess, the Blood Ravens would look a lot like this.
CO: Why did you choose to have the hero of the single player campaign be a member of the Ultramarines? Blood Ravens and Blood Angels have been standard favorites in 40k games.
MH: The Ultramarines are the iconic Space Marine chapter. You have all the other great chapters like the Space Wolves and the Blood Angels and the Blood Ravens, but the Ultramarines are the guys who wrote the book, the Codex Astartes in terms of how to deal with the alien threats and the demonic threats that face humanity. So we really wanted to tell an Ultramarine story. The do have a sort of stigma attached to them being these Boy Scout do-gooders, as much as that can be in the 40k universe, right? No one’s really good or, necessarily totally evil in the 40k universe. Everyone has shades of gray, and we really wanted to be able to tell an interesting story with the Ultramarines and try to add some extra depth and dimension to them. And hopefully you guys, the fans, will see that there’s a bit more to the Ultramarines than just them being blue and Space Marines.
CO: I get the feeling that the main character, Captain Titus, might not be such a Boy Scout. Does he have a crisis of confidence?
MH: Titus is a... fleshed out character. He’s not a “Boy Scout.” He’s got some things in his past which you’ll find out more about in Space Marine; what drives him forward, and why he can do some of the things in the game that he can do.
CO: He’s not just saying, “For the Emperor” the entire time?
MH: He’s got his own dimensions.
These guys are constantly by your side...
CO: I noticed that Capt. Titus and his two Ultramarine companions, Veteran Sergeant Sidonus, and Veteran Leandros, aren’t wearing helmets. Won’t hardcore fans cry foul, since these Space Marines are missing part of their iconic armor? Was this decision made so that novice players could connect with the characters on a personal level?
MH: It’s a mixture. In the tabletop game itself, if you look at the models that Games Workshop has put out, as you get higher in the ranks, the guys don’t wear helmets. The chapter commanders, they're not wearing helmets, generally. The Primarchs aren’t wearing helmets, the high ranking guys aren’t wearing helmets. They don’t need helmets. They’re such bad-asses that they don’t care. Right? But in a story context it let’s us get more emotion into the characters, you get to see their facial expressions, you get to see how they react. So we can tell more of a story rather than just seeing a helmet with glowing eyes.
CO: How many weapons are in the game?
MH: We’ve got pretty much all the weapons you would expect from the Space Marine Codex. I don’t know the number off the top of my head, but I can list out the weapons. Obviously, we’ve got the iconic Chainsword and Bolter, we’ve also got the Bolt Pistol, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Gun, Storm Bolter, a Stalker Pattern Bolter and a Melta Gun.
We’ve got a new weapon that Relic actually created specifically for the game, it’s one of the weapons that this Forge World is creating. It’s called the Adeptus Mechanicus Vengeance Launcher. It’s a sticky bomb launcher, or grenade launcher. You can fire out multiple timed explosives that you can then detonate. This will be the first chance that any 40k person has had to play with this weapon.
In terms of heavy weaponry we’ve got the Heavy Bolter, Plasma Cannon, and Lascannon, that you’ll be able to wield with the Devastator class in multiplayer. On the melee side of things we’ve got the Power Axe, the Power Sword, and the Thunder Hammer. On the Chaos side you get the Demon Maul and the Chain Axe. We have a pretty robust weapon set for all the 40k fans and shooter fans to use.
For the Emperor.
CO: Will there be stat tracking?
MH: We will have stat tracking. You’ll be able to go online and see how many kills you got with certain weapons, etc.
CO: Are you going to be using music from Dawn of War 2?
MH: Space Marine has it’s own soundtrack. It will be included in the Collector’s Edition. I believe it will also be available later on online in a couple locations. But it’s a brand new soundtrack recorded by Chris Velasco, recorded at Abbey Road Studio. There’s a full orchestra along with some great electronic pieces. It’s a good soundtrack. It really drives the game forward. It’s great atmospheric music, too.
CO: Can you say anything about the co-op at all? Can you say it exists?
MH: It does exist. There will be co-op in the game. It will be available after the game launches. That’s all I can talk about.
CO: Thank you very much!
*Special thanks to the Co-Optimus Staff and Alex Tsotsos for helping provide the questions. Check out his blog, The Way of the Game.net. If you want to see me try and hold my own with a bunch of Warhammer 40k experts, check out this Round Table discussion at Stick Skills.com. (I'm the only person not wearing black.) And thanks again to Mathew Everett, THQ Community Manager, for the invite, Morten Haugaard, THQ Global Brand Manager, for the interview, and the rest of the THQ team. I will not do them the disservice of spelling their names wrong here.
Look for WH40k: Space Marine on September 6th on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. We'll have a Co-Op Review up as soon as possible.
I know where this is. I need one more person and some rope...