Everyone loves Space Marines. But is it just a coincidence that so many of our favorite franchises feature heroes in giant power armor? Not so, says Tim Willits, chief creative officer at Saber Interactive (and I assume most people who have seen more than one variant of Space Marines). In an interview with PC Gamer at Gamescom, Willits said that every Master Chief and Doomguy has a healthy dose of Warhammer under all that heavy armor.
When asked how Space Marine 2’s gameplay stands out from other action games, Willits said, “It’s very Doom” in its aggressive, forward-moving combat. But, he continued, Doom – like many other games – owes a lot of its impact to Warhammer 40,000. “The Warhammer 40,000 universe existed 45 years ago,” Willits said. (Minor correction: The first edition of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was released 37 years ago in 1987.) “Many young gamers probably don’t realize the influence it had on their favorite game.”
As an example, Willits cited the very first Doomguy. “He’s a Space Marine,” Willits said. “What did he look like, roughly?” As Willits describes it, Doom and Warhammer 40K have actually been in a cycle of recursive inspiration for years, stretching back to his time at Bethesda as studio head of id.
“When we were working on Doom 2016, we discussed the push-forward combat in the original Space Marine,” said Willits, describing how the 2011 40K game influenced the similarly aggressive dynamic of the Doom reboot. Doom 2016 then in turn influenced Space Marine 2, with Saber taking inspiration from Doom’s glory kills for his own execution mechanic.
Willits traced the 40K DNA present in other games: the Space Marines’ chainsword is reflected in Gears of War’s chainsaw bayonet, the similar profile of Fallout’s power armor. “Even things like Starship Troopers,” Willits said. “These aliens look exactly like Tyranids.”
The comparison with Starship Troopers is interesting, because the Space Marine trope itself is one that was originally cemented from Starship Troopers – not the 1997 Verhoeven film, but the original 1959 novel by Heinlein. While the soldiers in the film aren’t all that different from modern-day infantrymen, the soldiers in the novel laid the foundation for what we now know as the Space Marine archetype: elite shock troops deployed from orbit in powered exoskeletons, with so much firepower that the soldiers in a squad usually have a comfortable half-mile of air between them. If there are any Tyranids in the film, that’s another cycle of inspiration that 40K picks up on.
According to Willits, the 40K DNA that is common throughout the video game gene pool should make Space Marine 2 a big seller. “If you’re a Doom fan, if you’re a Helldivers fan, if you’re an action game fan, this is the game for you,” Willits said.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 will be released on September 9, 2024.
