Welcome to Gaia! ::

Someone within easy reach. blaugh

Then do it. You don't need our approval. Take the initiative! Be the guild member that you wish to see in our world!

Hmmm this thread is pretty old LOL. Well these were my thoughts anyway:

Gameplay: (6/10) Your basic hack 'n slash with some shooter elements. The typical modern day "Halo regenerating shield" will be your primary source of survival (especially once you get the iron halo). The lack of squad interaction and a cover system coupled with limited ranged combat mechanics is quite atypical of Ultramarines (charging headlong into combat with Orks with nothing more than a knife and bolt pistol?), but ranged combat has its uses nonetheless. Melee is still highly favored though from the time you first start with a knife to the time you pick up your first thunder hammer+jump pack allowing you to recover HP for "execution" kills.

Graphics: (8/10) Graphics are pretty nice, but I felt they had a lot of room for tweaking. The detail given to the power armor and wargear was much appreciated but the little things like blood effects, limited environmental scarring, and the lack of any real customization.

Story: (7/10) The story itself (at least to me) was actually quite predictable. To avoid spoilers, after the initial Ork invasion, everything seemed to fall into play very similarly to the way DoW1 played out (minus Eldar). The episode with Inquisitor Drogan, from the moment he mentioned the power source conducted warp energies, could be seen a mile away IMO. There were some interesting moments that occurred throughout the game that, IMO, don't seem to coincide well with 40K lore. I suppose they will be answered in SM2 (assuming THQ doesn't go under before then). All in all though, I feel they did what a lot of 40K fans would have wanted them to do. It just feels that, at times, they were trying too hard to cater to the whim of the fans without adding too much of their own innovation to the storyline.

Sound: (7/10) While the voice acting for the Imperial and Chaos forces were impressive, the voicework of the grunts (especially the Orks who sounded too much like humans and not enough like Orks) were somewhat mediocre. The soundtrack was good but nothing too memorable. Sound effects were largely borrowed from DoW2 as far as I could see.

Replay Value: (4/10) This is what kills it for me. Aside from the servor skulls, there is really no reason to go back and play the game a second time through. Style of gameplay is very linear and simplistic with no secondary objectives or mini-games around to distract you from the main story. Once you've played through it once, it wouldn't be much different if you played through it a million times.

Overall, it's a good game for those who have been fans of the 40K universe for a while, but it just doesn't strike home as a game in itself. A relatively shallow story, simplistic and linear gameplay, lack of replay value, and the available use of only one character make this game one that I don't think was worth the $50.

Finally got started on this a couple weeks back, It's got surprisingly difficult gameplay IMHO, I have a lot of trouble surviving, as the enemies always seem to have good LOS to you, so you can't really charge your shields. Seems like the b*****d child of Gears of War and God of War, but without a cover system (as mentioned by others).

I'm not very good at using overdrive-style charge bars, I always forget about them until after the best time to use them has passed. =X The hordes are a little intense.