During the Warhammer Skulls showcase last month, Sega announced that its classic 2011 action game,Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, would finally get a remaster for modern platforms. This new version of the game, dubbed theMaster Crafted Edition, was said to feature several major improvements over its predecessor. It would have higher fidelity, sharper textures, 4K resolution support, upgraded character models, remastered audio, an all-new UI, and a modernized control scheme. TheMaster Crafted Edition, Sega confirmed, would also include all DLC packs from the originalWarhammer 40K: Space Marineat no extra cost.
TheSpace Marineremaster was launched exclusively on Xbox Series X/S and PC earlier this week, but the reception to it has not been very positive. On Steam, the userreviews for theSpace Marineremasterare currently sitting at a mostly negative score of 27%, making it the lowest-rated release from Sega so far this year. Due to these bad scores,Warhammer 40K: Space Marine- Master Crafted Editionhas failed to attract a large player base on the storefront. The remaster has had an all-time peak of just 128 concurrent players, which is less than the number of people who are currently playing the original version ofWarhammer 40K: Space Marineon Steam.
The Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Remaster Has Gotten Off to a Dismal Start on Steam
The Original Warhammer 40K: Space Marine is a Solid, if Basic, Third-Person Shooter
The poor launch ofWarhammer 40K: Space Marine- Master Crafted Editionhas sullied the name of what is otherwise a perfectly competent game.Space Marineisn’t a genre-defining masterpiece, by any means, but it is still a decentGears of War-like third-person shooter, which isn’t easy to come by in today’s day and age. TheMaster Crafted Editionhasn’t messed with the core of the game, per se, but the changes it’s made aren’t good enough to justify the price tag attached to it.
The Space Marine Remaster Doesn’t Make Enough Improvements to Justify Its Cost
Like most of the user reviews on Steam have pointed out, the graphics of theMaster Crafted Editionare barely any better than those of the originalSpace Marineport that’s currently available on Steam. In fact, in some people’s opinion, the game actually looks slightly worse. That isn’t the only noticeableproblem that theMaster Crafted Editionsuffers from, though. Not only does the remaster lack dedicated server support, its crossplay functionality is disabled by default, and the new UI it has doesn’t look as visually appealing as the original one does.
The Space Marine Remaster Has Failed to Capitalize on the Success of Space Marine 2
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine - Master Crafted Editionisn’t the worst remaster ever made. However, one could say that Sega fumbled the bag with thisSpace Marineremaster at the worst possible time, since it failed to take advantage ofthe success ofWarhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, which was launched late last year. TheMaster Crafted Editionseemed like an easy win for Sega, but because its launch ended in failure, it stalled the momentum that theSpace Marinebrand had started to build. Due to the poor performance of thisSpace Marineremaster, gamers may approach re-releases of otherWarhammer 40Kgames more cautiously in the future, especially those made by Sega.
