Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition

Wow, what a surprise - was not expecting such a well polished and fun game. To be fair I went into the game with little to no expectations, but came away genuinely happy about playing through it. I knew very little about Warhammer, but after seeing a trailer of Space Marines 2 I figured I run through the first game before playing it. Pros: - Story was good but nothing ground breaking, but it did hold my interest all the way through with the varies audio logs you find hidden through the chapters, along with the satisfying ending. - The scale of the environments was pretty impressive, along the weather effects. - Combat system was fluid. It's a third person shooter mixed with close quarters hack and slash. Had a blast killing enemies and watching the brutal melee finishes. - Melee and weapon upgrade feature was a nice touch. As you play, your Space Marine becomes more powerful and uses varies short and long range weaponry. - Jetpacks! Enough said. - Playing as a Space Marine! Bolt gun in one hand and a chainsword in another all while wearing power armour has to be the most badass feeling in gaming. I had such a smile from ear to ear and in awe every time I slaughtered a foe using the melee finish. - Versus and Exterminatus Multiplayer modes. Essentially a 8-vs-8 competitive game mode and a 4 player cooperative mode where you fight off waves of enemies. Cons: - No lock on feature was a bit of a let down, but didn't really hinder the overall experience. Most of the time you are surrounded by enemies that you tend not to focus on one anyways and just swing at anyone in your vicinity. - No cover system was also a questionable decision for me. It didn't ruin the gameplay, but I kept thinking to myself how smooth and snappy the experience could have been if we could snap on and off of cover. - The game can get pretty repetitive when it comes to it's environments. Most of the game you are going through similar looking with ruins, industrial buildings and closed corridors. - The biggest issue that I had while playing through the 6-7 hour campaign would have to be the hub (specifically the powerup, health bar meter). They were such a huge distraction and unnecessarily big and made the experience very gammy and less immersive. I personally feel the experience would have felt more immersive if they would have scaled them down and changed there position on the screen. Overall I thought the game was fantastic and would give it an 8/10. I hope going into Space Marine 2 that they fixed the cons I had with the first game and improved on the quality of life features. FOR THE EMPEROR!!