Don't mind me. I have nerd rage. Carry on, nothing to see here.
I'm getting really tired of seeing Space Marine being compared to Gears of War. There's throw-away comments every-damn-where but it's the main thrust of this article/op-ed piece/badly researched piece of garbage with an apology/clarification that's longer than the actual piece.
Before I commence this rant, I'd like to make it clear that I'm not ragging on Gears of War. I've heard nothing but good things about it and I think this kind of lazy journalism is insulting to both franchises.
I don't get it. I just don't. If you want to make comparisons (which I think is silly anyway because FPS games are ten a fucking penny these days, they're all derivative) it should really be the other way around because Warhammer 40K's been going in its various forms since 1987 where the first Gears of War game came out in 2006. Spending less than a minute on Google would tell you that.
Oh but since they've ventured into FPS territory, maybe they are ripping-off another, well established-franchise's game mechanics and aesthetics? Well, no.
For a start, Gears of War is cover-based combat. Granted, Space Marine was originally going to be cover-based but at some point during the development the designers said, "You know what? Let's get rid of cover, these are seven-foot-tall, genetically engineered, surgically enhanced human tanks. They don't need cover, they'd laugh at people who use cover." In a standard FPS these days, health is restored by your character taking cover and letting the health restore over time, whereas in Space Marine health is restored by killing enemies in the most spectacular way you can. The game mechanic actively encourages you to charge headlong into the fray like the combat-obsessed religious fanatic you are. The game gives you an incentive to get stuck in there, rather than hiding behind a low wall and sucking your thumb.
Oh but in Gears of War you have a chainsaw bayonet, you have a chainsword in Space Marine. Suck it, chainswords came first and let me tell you, if I, as a long-standing fan of this universe were denied the opportunity to rip into Orkz with a chainsword, I'd be one pissed off little gamer.
They both have power armour? Again, SPACE MARINES CAME BEFORE GEARS OF WAR and again, power armour is hardly unusual in gaming and sci-fi these days so if you pick on it for that, I'm sorry but you're reaching.
At the end of the day, the Space Marine is well-established in this franchise, their look hasn't changed much since the 80's, there are reams of canon explaining where they come from, why they look the way they do, why they think the way they do. If they'd got rid of the elements it had in common with Gears of War, like the power armour, the chainswords and the ridiculously ripped men with no necks, it wouldn't be Space Marine anymore, it wouldn't be Warhammer anymore, which would defeat the point of the entire exercise.
What about aesthetics? Again, I'm just not seeing it. Granted, I haven't played Gears of War but I've seen trailers, read reviews and seen screengrabs (which is ten times more research than that douche-canoe above did) and the colour scheme seems to be grey, green, brown, green-brown, grey-brown and browny-brown. The colour scheme in Warhammer 40K is ALL THE COLOURS OF THE GOD-DAMN RAINBOW. All the Space Marine chapters have their own sigils and colours to differentiate themselves, which is another example of them sticking two meaty fingers up to typical combat conventions. While other troops might use camouflage, a Space Marine will go into battle lit up like a Christmas tree yelling, "I'M OVER HERE, COME AT ME BRO!" Camouflage is for wimps. Orcs are the brightest of bright green, gore flies around in a particularly pleasing shade of crimson and don't get me started on the followers of Slaanesh; they look like they just stepped out of the Notting Hill carnival. The two franchises look completely different but again, like I said above, you couldn't change the look of Space Marine and have it still be Space Marine. There are the game models, the previous video games, reams and reams of official art and textual descriptions from fluff and novels. Anyone with only a passing acquaintance with this universe knows what a Space Marine is supposed to look like. You couldn't change that without completely alienating the fandom.
So, they both have armoured marines who are armed to the proverbial teeth with BFGs and blades with extra chainsaw? They both have combat reticules? That's it? That's not ripping off, that's just following pretty standard tropes for the FPS genre.
I'm not saying Warhammer 40K is completely, 100% original. Warhammer is basically a slightly darker version of a Tolkienesque fantasy world and Warhammer 40K is that universe IN SPAAAAACE! Even the Tyranids which came later owe a lot to the Alien universe but it's still a rich setting, there's all these extra ingredients and layers they've added which make it crunchy and delicous. I haven't played the table-top game since dinosaurs roamed the earth but I've kept up with the fluff and it's so detailed and complex, so to accuse it of being unoriginal strikes me as deeply unfair.
I mean, how many games have you played where the plot-exposition is provided by a floating skull, and the characters see this as perfectly normal? How can you not love that?