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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.
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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.
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I know where this is. I need one more person and some rope...