Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition

This is a great game despite its age. I ended up going for this version rather than Master Crafted based on reviews of MC highlighting bugs and crashes, whilst Anniversary Edition doesn't look as good but runs well. It was also only ~5 USD on a sale. Warhammer 40k is extremely lore heavy and this game does a good job of giving you a taster of the grimdark setting. Also, the Orks are such great antagonists in WH40k. The story is serviceable rather than inspired, but it's a shooter not an RPG. The environments look great, but the character models do show their age. Not a big issue for me. There isn't a huge selection of weapons, but they all have a purpose and they are satisfying to use. The game also does a fantastic job of making you feel like a huge, cumbersome, powerful Space Marine. The combat is equally split between melee and ranged, with healing being granted on execution melee moves and via the Fury mode. It works quite well and you need to do it often as Titus is surprisingly squishy after the first few chapters. The controls are mostly fluid but I did find the execution moves to be a little clunky at times. The biggest fun is with the jetpack and the OP ground pounding move that goes with it. Enemies start off very weak, but significantly increase their threat to you when they get decent ranged weapons. Switching off for a few seconds or going into a situation recklessly will see your armour and health quickly evaporate. Late game enemies, even trash mobs, will end you very quickly if you allow them to focus fire you down. Overall, level design is great. There are options to use the environment to your advantage at all times. There is one slightly crappy section when you have to deal with a bunch of automated turrets; it's not particularly difficult, just not as fun as the rest of the game. I felt the game was very well balanced for the average player (like me!) on Normal difficulty. An easy game to recommend. The only big downsides to consider are a short SP campaign and difficulties in finding players for MP if you're into that.