If you're unaware of the 40k universe, you may consider Relic's latest to possess the most generic title imaginable. Calling a sci-fi Space Marine is a bit like calling a fantasy Dragonland, after all.

Your worries wouldn't be assuaged after you clapped eyes on the game itself either. Big, burly blokes in huge armour, running around with guns in third-person, chainsawing space goblins in half? I've seen this before, you may think.

Well you have, to a degree. But while the title and much of the imagery may be familiar, the truth is that Warhammer 40k played a big part in its evolution.Of course, when Games Workshop sat down and created their stratospherically successful tabletop games, they didn't invent the idea of sci-fi warriors and scary space monsters. But they did imagine them in a hugely influential way.

So though it may be visually reminiscent of Gears of War, Space Marine draws on a license that existed before Marcus Fenix was even a twinkle in his Dad's eye. The imagery of Gears may not have existed without it.

Here's the broad strokes: The Space Marines are giant, genetically-enhanced, plummy-voiced British super soldiers. They represent mankind's last hope against the Orks, an animalistic, brutish race taking over the universe.

In the specific case of Space Marine the game, the Orks have taken over the Forge World, an industrial planet where mankind creates huge weapons. Playing as Captain Titus, it's your job to win that planet back, by reducing as many Orks as possible to a bloody, syrupy goop.

Oh, and there will be some nasty looking brutes called Chaos Space Marines too, basically demonic versions of our heroes, but are keeping relatively quiet about them. For now anyway.

So yeah, it looks and plays a bit like Gears of War. But there are some key differences.

In Gears, you are funnelled into an area with some helpfully placed waist-high walls and you pop up and down blasting bad guys from the relative safety of cover. No such faffing about for the Space Marines. They see ten, twenty enemies and surge forward to meet them face-to-face. Or Chainsword to face, as the case may be.

What are attempting to achieve is a seamless integration of ranged and melee combat, one where you swiftly swoop from kerblaming Orks in the head with a Bolter gun, to carving them in half with a Chainsword in one slick movement. That's the idea, anyway.

They're certainly some of the way there. The early pre-alpha build I played hinted at some joyous combat to come, but there's some niggles to work out first. While the gunplay is meaty and responsive, melee feels a little detached and the transition from one form to the other is a bit clunky. Execution animations seem few in number too, I saw a lot of Chainsword throat-cutting, for example.

For when things get a little bit pressured you can draw on a Fury meter that builds up as you kill enemies, offering the chance to slow down time and nail that headshot in a satisfying plume of blood. Not revolutionary, but fun nevertheless.

It is worth restating, however, that this is an incredible early build. So early, in fact, that I fell through the world into a kind of psychedelic 70's disco limbo on more than one occasion. I quite liked that bug.

For the most part you'll be seeing off waves and waves of Orcs. Squillions of them, each dispatched with a gleefully gory explosion of guts. Relic repeat the phrase "visibly violent death," as their mantra. What that basically means is you'll spend a lot of time wading knee-deep in Orc offal.

In fact, such was the demo's relentless, mindless monster mashing that I worried is that battle fatigue may soon set in. But thankfully, we got to engage some different enemies too.

These came in the shape of Bloodletter Daemons, fire drenched, sword-wiedling monsters that quickly teleport small distances in a blurry flash. They're strong, much stronger than Orks. They also seem to spawn indefinitely, screamed into existence by the nasty looking Psykers - physically charged bad guys that teleport over larger distances to avoid your advances. Only by taking out the Psyker can you you stop the Bloodletter Daemons.

The Psyker level also proved to be distinct from the others in its visual style. The Forge World is almost entirely industrial, as such you'll spend a lot of time fighting it out in metallic-looking warehouses and manufacturing yards. It's not particularly visually exciting.

However, the Psyker level offered the narrow, craggy confines of a valley, where Orks attack from ramshackle ambush points beneath a velvety purple sky. It's exactly this kind of variety that will be needed to propel you through the promised 10 -12 hour campaign.

So look past Space Marine's seemingly generic trappings and you'll find a promising shooter, one with just enough unique qualities to make it stand out. This game represents a sizeable transition for developers Relic, the move from the relative niche obscurity of RTSs to full-on, balls-out, multiplatform populism. From what I've seen so far, they're doing a great job.

By Lee Bradley