Like a ten,000 12 months outdated tremendous soldier, Warhammer 40,000: House Marine has aged surprisingly properly. The brand new Grasp Crafted Version is a light-weight contact of a remaster, and I feel that was the precise strategy—the issues that earned the sport a everlasting place within the nostalgic hearts of Warhammer followers practically 14 years in the past are simply as endearing at the moment as they had been then.
I went again to the sport final 12 months whereas writing our House Marine 2 overview, and I used to be pleasantly stunned how enjoyable it nonetheless is. It could be heresy to say it, however I really discovered myself preferring the cleaner, pacier fight within the authentic to the sequel’s extra cluttered and sluggish fights.
However the place it actually did not win the comparability was in its fairly dated visuals—it was very a lot a sufferer of an period the place shooters had been competing to see which might have the muddiest, most dull-brown textures. The place Grasp Crafted Version shines most is in the way in which it is pepped up the sport’s look.
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Whereas it nonetheless is not precisely a visible spectacle within the 12 months 2025, upgraded textures make the entire recreation look sharper, and its setpieces extra spectacular. Character fashions are significantly improved—not simply of their extra detailed faces, however in additional delicate parts, resembling hero Titus’ armour trying extra convincingly scuffed and worn. Touches like that make the entire galaxy really feel extra lived in and genuine.
There are some barely odd inventive decisions. Most noticeable is the orks—they’ve all obtained a brand new black and white color scheme for his or her garments and armour, seemingly marking them out as particularly from the tabletop recreation’s Goff clan, the place earlier than they had been only a generic horde.
It is not a nasty tweak, essentially—I can not say I used to be particularly connected to the brown leathers the orks had been earlier than—however it’s simply not clear what the purpose was. Was it a observe from Video games Workshop itself, hoping to tighten up the branding? Regardless, I have not seen any visible tweaks that will diminish the story in any respect or in any other case undermine the marketing campaign expertise, so it is a minor remark.
When it comes to the motion itself, the one huge change is an overhauled management scheme. Significantly when taking part in on a controller, it feels designed to be as intuitive as attainable for a contemporary motion recreation fan—click on within the left follow dash, proper bumper to melee assault, A button to work together, and many others.
At the same time as somebody who performed a good bit with the unique management scheme lower than a 12 months in the past, I discovered myself immediately adapting to and having fun with the brand new one—and a a lot improved and fewer intrusive UI helps additional promote the trendy really feel.
It is improved sufficient to really feel nice to return to regardless of its age.
Should you really need that old-fashioned vibe, nevertheless, it is no hassle in any respect to change again to the unique scheme. So it is the most effective of each worlds.
In singleplayer, all these gentle however good adjustments come collectively to create a noticeably enhanced expertise with out touching an excessive amount of of what made House Marine particular within the first place. It is not elevated to new heights or something—in the end it is nonetheless a lovable slice of dumb, brutal motion, not a masterpiece of recreation design—however it’s improved sufficient to really feel nice to return to regardless of its age.
What I have not been in a position to check out is the multiplayer. Thus far it has been unimaginable to queue right into a single recreation of both the PvP mode or the co-op. That is not essentially shocking—I have been taking part in earlier than the sport is definitely out, so the playerbase is far smaller than it is going to be at launch. Nonetheless, it would not appear to be helped by how siloed on-line play is.
The 5 totally different PvP modes and one co-op mode are all separate choices within the menu. Once I first began taking part in, these had been additional subdivided into totally different map rotations, creating one thing like 18 totally different queues. There was no probability of discovering anybody in all that.
Fortunately that ridiculous state of affairs now appears to have been patched—there’s only one queue per mode now, for six whole. However what’s actually lacking here’s a fast match possibility—one thing that simply throws you collectively into one thing with whoever else is on-line. A remaster of a 13 12 months outdated recreation is at all times going to be a little bit of a distinct segment prospect—dividing the playerbase even simply into six queues looks like a recipe for empty lobbies inside per week.
On the flipside, if you happen to’re something like me, you are actually simply right here to relive eight hours of explosive, gorey, foolish singleplayer marketing campaign, and for that objective, Grasp Crafted Version is good. It appears to be like nice, it feels nice, and it would not attempt to repair something that wasn’t damaged—precisely the sort of remaster you need for a cult basic.
