Two Warhammer 40,000 games shown off at E3

It’s quite hard not to like the Warhammer 40k universe. Huge armour, big guns and bigger hammers, split between a huge variety of races, filled to bursting point with lore. It is clearly prime material for making videogames that justify an ‘M for mature’ rating.

THQ took E3 to show off two new games based on Warhammer 40k that are already looking deliciously violent, and set to capture the feel of the universe brilliantly. They are also leaps and bounds away from the RTS adventures of the Blood Ravens in Dawn of War 2.

Kicking things off was Relic, developers of the aforementioned strategy series with their new offering of console action RPG, Space Marine. The game sees the player taking the role of an Ultramarine, one of the more well known chapters from the table top game who sport bright blue armour.

The trailer shows plenty of combat against the Orkz, with a lot of shooting and melee combat thrown in to a chaotic looking mixing pot. It looks to have come along nicely since the last footage that was shown at E3 last year.

The second 40k themed game to make its first appearance outside of the written word was the upcoming MMO; Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium Online by Darksiders developer, Vigil Games.

Taking a second stab at a Warhammer MMO, and hopefully due to out perform 2008s Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the trailer makes the game look good, but at the moment it is all the information we have about it.

The trailer shows many races duking it out, and what looks like a bit of Mass Effect over the shoulder style shooting, which suggests that this could be quite an action packed MMO, but we wouldn’t expect anything less, within the dystopian depiction of a grim future where there is only war. The setting also gives a strong indication that their will be plenty of PVP combat, but nothing is confirmed.

The developer has said that vehicles will feature, but it is unclear how much interaction players will be able to have. We can see an Ork flying a rather shaky looking helicopter which might be an indication that vehicles on that scale can be piloted, but it is unclear if the massive stomping titan featured will be controllable. If it is then that will definitely be a challenge to balance.

Two great looking games on the horizon which already have a fleshed out back story in place are early indication that everything is running smoothly at the moment. We get the impression though that both games are still far from being finished, meaning that there is still a fair old slog to go. Both studios have already proven their metal at producing good games however, so it is definitely looking promising for the mean time.