A Space Marine Is You: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:doom.jpg|link=Doom (series)|frame|[[Trope Maker|The grandfather]] of Video Game Space Marines.]]
{{quote|''"''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' introduced the grizzled space marine to the gaming world 15 years ago, dreamed into existence by someone at id Software, probably just minutes after watching ''[[Aliens]]''. The grizzled space marine character so captivated the imagination of first-person shooter fans that they decided to have him star in [[Follow the Leader|every single FPS game since.]]"''|[http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey.html The Seven Commandments All Video Games Should Obey]}}
A form of [[Cliché Storm]] for video games.
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* The endgame consists of the player going into [[Storming the Castle|the core of the enemy base]] to kill the [[Load-Bearing Boss]].
* After the boss fight there will usually be some kind of [[Timed Mission|timed escape]] run to get away from a time bomb or self destruct sequence activated by killing the [[Load-Bearing Boss]].
* [[Bald of Awesome|The character is bald]] and/or [[Perma
** [[The Faceless|And that's if you ever even see his face.]]
** Often the character has the classic [[Action Genre Hero Guy]] look.
* Your character wears [[Powered Armor]].
* [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom|He can't shoot the locks off doors]].
* Your primary weapon will be some form of assault rifle. You will probably have a nearly useless pistol in case the rifle runs out of ammunition. Over the course of the game, you will have access to [[Standard FPS Guns|a heavier machine gun, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, and a sniper rifle]]. You will probably also have access to some sort of advanced energy weapon (with a high chance of being BFG), and a powered melee weapon, such as a [[Chainsaw Good]] or "vibro" sword.
Much of the above comes from the tendency to <s>rip-off</s> take inspiration from ''[[Alien (franchise)|Aliens]]'' and ''[[Doom]]'' (which, in turn, are heavily inspired by ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'') along with sheer [[They Fight Crime]]-level parallel evolution. Just remember that this [[Tropes Are Tools|isn't necessarily bad or good, though]], and that the cliches can be excused if the various [[Rule of Index|rules]] are applied, especially [[Rule of Cool|Sci-Fi Awesomeness]], and just Plain Old [[Rule of Fun|Fun]]. However, when worse comes to worst, there is also one of the ultimate rules: ''[[MST3K Mantra|It's just a game]]''.
{{examples}}
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** ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' plays it mostly straight, but protagonist Noble Six is a Naval Lieutenant.
** The Arbiter from ''[[Halo 2]]'' is a disgraced [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Elite]] [[Asskicking Equals Authority|Supreme Commander]], who in the first game and ''Reach'' was the guy commanding the very same aliens attempting to kill you.
* The 2005 version of ''Area51'' (with David Duchovny). Although the player is a 'mission specialist' rather than a new grunt the difference is almost purely semantic and the rest of the trope fits like a glove.
* ''[[Quake]]'' 2 and 4. Both games hit every single bullet point above with a straight face. (bar a loaded boss for Quake 4)
* ''[[Haze]]'' was an attempt at a [[Deconstruction]] of this trope.
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* ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' fits the bill fairly well (technically, the player takes the role of a security officer rather then a marine, but he's often called "The Marine" by fans anyway.)
* ''[[Gunman Chronicles]]'' flirts with this trope, but ultimately manages to have its own style by having all the characters dress like 19th century Civil War soldiers.
* ''[[Unreal II: The Awakening|Unreal II the Awakening]]'' was like this, which resulted in numerous complaints by fans of the original game who felt the developers had traded in the unique atmosphere of the first ''[[Unreal]]'' for a generic Space Marine storyline. Granted, Dalton and crew were given great characterisation that was a total aversion of the usual cliches, but the rest of the storyline and game design were pretty much 100%
** ''[[Unreal Tournament 2004|Unreal Tournament 2003]]'' also took some flak for for generic-looking Space Marine character designs.
** ''[[Unreal Tournament 3|Unreal Tournament III]]'' took everything from this trope and stuffed it right in. (With a handwave to explain why an eerily straight
* The 2008 reboot of ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]'', to such a degree that ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' spent the entire review ripping the game for it.
** Also, ''Armorines'' another comic-licensed Acclaim FPS using the engine.
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== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
* ''[[
* The campaign for ''[[Warhammer
** Of course, it doesn't precisely mean the same thing as this trope. Here, the term 'Space Marine' means '[[Church Militant|Jihading Space Nazi]] [[Super Soldier]]'.
** None of the [[Dawn of War]] games are this trope at all, as this is a trope which encompasses (in part) a gameplay style. Nor do all the thematic elements fit. In none of these games are you a grunt or new meat, or a [[Silent Protagonist]], etc. Just being an RTS with a [[Space Marine]] faction in it doesn't cut it. Additionally, all but two of the games allow you to have the Space Marines as ''enemies.''
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* The entire point of ''[[Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard]]'' is becoming the [[Deconstructor Fleet]] for such games, the main character being a parody of shooter protagonists.
* ''[[Gears of War]]'' and ''[[Gears of War|Gears of War 2]]'': you are veteran marine Marcus Fenix, a guy with little personality and no emotions. He wears trademark bulky armor, isn't afraid of anything, and most of his lines consist of less than five words. [[Cluster F-Bomb|Those words are usually swears.]]. Parodied in [[Awesome Series]].
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' shares many of these elements, despite actually being a lot more of a [[Role
** Though male Shepard does have a five-o'-clock shadow in the default face.
* The Silencer from the ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' series of games is a textbook example, right down to the zero personality. However, in the intro for the original ''Crusader: No Remorse'', we see the two other members of The Silencer's original squad - right before they're [[Sole Survivor|gunned down]] by their [[Bad Boss]] - and they've definitely got personality, arguing loudly about the morality of their recent refusal to gun down unarmed civilians on orders. The Silencer, however, didn't participate in the argument, remaining voiceless even then, so his bland personality might well be a [[The Stoic|character trait]].
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** {{spoiler|Ironically, a group of [[Space Marines]] ''do'' show up late in the game, but are almost immediately all utterly pwnt by the Necromorphs, possibly due to their "Rambo-ing out" mentality. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Or because the plot says so]].}}
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]'' puts it [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|right there in the title]].
** The game zig-zags just how straight it plays the trope. The player character is not a zero-initiative macho grunt soldier but a soft-spoken, [[Father to His Men]], [[Authority Equals Asskicking]] Captain, all of your [[The Squad|squadmates]] survive the initial landing, and the gameplay works hard to avoid [[Real Is Brown]] and [[Take Cover]]. On the other hand, the story itself has been deemed cliche even by the [[Warhammer
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
[[Category:A Troper Is You]]
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Space Marine Is You, A}}
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