Admit it, you’ve noticed the plethora of space marines tromping around in your favorite vidya. They are white, bald, gritty and probably don’t wear helmets so as to improve their peripheral vision, lower their wind resistance and generally improve their bad-assery rating. Every once and a while you may get one who is vaguely ethnic, or has some hair, but for the most part, they are all the same. And for a good reason.

Simply put, space marines kick ass.

What’s that you’re saying? You like to play a character with some personality? Too bad. Space Marines are too buff and manly for personalities. If anything, games like Gears of War 2 would be infinitely better if the namby-pamby feelings were ignored. On the flipside of course, if space marines are too bad ass (ala Haze) their dialogue becomes stunted and painful to listen to.

The best space marine games will either have no dialogue or dialogue that borders on satire. The new Matt Hazard game exemplifies this with the hilarious Will Arnett channeling his inner action hero to berate the game that he himself is in. In the silent protagonist category, we have people like Nathan Hale from Resistance 2 or Master Chief from the Halo series. In both cases, the soldiers are subjected to the horrible realities of war and are being attacked on all sides by an unstoppable enemy. Nathan Hale also suffers from a disease that will render him dead before he can even save the planet. Do you hear either of them bitching about it though? No fucking way. Why? They are too busy being badass.

A popular contention is that the silent protagonist allows the player to transport themselves into the game, using the hero as their own avatar. Whether or not we have hero fantasies, we usually have asskicking fantasies. In a society where fighting is largely discouraged, it feels good and masculine to be able to be competitive and make other people feel bad about themselves. Single player campaigns allow us to save the world while an increasing emphasis on multiplayer with indepth scoreboards and stat-tracking systems allow us to display our prowess to any who would look.

Our societies as well tend to value intellect over pure brawn. There was once a time when those with the most physical strength ruled, but those times are long past. Of course, an emphasis on one thing always breeds another, which is undoubtedly what gave rise to the popularity of the UFC, and similarily, sports themed video games. And, lest we forget, you can find plenty of muscly bald white guys in the UFC, WWE, NFL or any other sporting association you can name.

Will we one day be able to get a good story in a First Person Shooter? That depends. Some would contend that Half-life has already achieved this. That being said, that seems forgiving seeing as they use the same cutscenes and set pieces that any other FPS uses. The story in these games comes at a cost. If you use a cut-scene, you put a halt to the action, which is anathema to those who want to rock. It may also force you to develop the character, which you may have no intention to do. Presenting story elements during gameplay makes little logistical sense as you should be focused on asskicking, not the history of some ancient race. One must also imagine being in the shoes of a space marine. What would you want to hear in battle, orders or the cause of the recent malhovian uprising? Needless to say, if someone was yapping my ear off, i would shoot myself in the head (so as to disable the headset, not to kill myself. My health regenerates anyways, no biggy).

Perhaps the only problem with the Space Marine is the continuity across story lines. All space marines have rifles, regenerating shields, com-systems, etc. This effectively serves to make the genre stagnant but paradoxically reliable. Space Marines in this sense are the new World War 2 allies. You fight the same nazi’s with the same garands and the same medics. Is this bad? Perhaps. Will it change? I sure hope so. The time will soon come when being a badass space marine will lose its charm. Until then, keep on buying the same game, and enjoying it.

The game is based around timing.

That’s why the game is so popular amongst everyone, the hardcore and casual crowd alike: the gameplay is unique. It fused the standard run and gun affair with a brand new take: timing, not skill. It requires analysis, practice and endless trial and error before you have a masterful understanding of it. It’s a brilliant game in this sense, and it gets my love for it. I think it deserve more attention payed to its multiplayer aspect, where gameplay reigns supreme, instead of its joke of a story and singlepayer. This is the reason that the game is still the best over-the-shoulder shooting game to date. It knew what it was doing, and its entire gameplay styling was focused and pushed to this angle, whether they knew it or not. Balance issues aside, the mechanics of this game are unique and absolutely spectacular in comparison to the generic rehashing and reusing of die hard, trusted mechanics, that FPS games have suffered from for so long. That’s why people love it, they just don’t realise it yet.

My friends say that I like weird games. And it’s true. But, do you think a 3rd person shooter with football elements is weird? …  Well, I think it is.

S4 League is the “acronym” for Stylish eSper Shooting Sports. Yeah, I don’t really get it either.

About S4 League

Actual In-game Screen

This game is like football (you get the ball and try get it to the goal with the other team trying to stop you) but it has guns, swords and a bat.

The teams are split in two teams of 6 members each (they can be less or even one member): Alpha and Beta.

The rules are the same as football: take the Fumbi (a doll-like item that takes the place of the ball) and place it in the enemy base. The other team must use any weapon or tactic to stop you, get the ball and place it in your base.

Of course, it also has a Deathmatch mode where both teams must kill each other until they reach the set score or get the biggest score before times runs out. This is my favorite mode (even if I die every single time). I can’t get enough of it.

It may look boring, silly or just plain stupid, but with the right people at the right time, the game can become a real war for the Fumbi or to overwhelm the opposing team.

You can also customize your character with different clothing, hair and faces (and apply special features to each piece of clothing you buy) for a set price.

Another feature that S4 has, is that you can add music to each map and the lobby (up to 3 dfferent files). Each file will be played during the game in order or random for as long as the game goes. The files must be in OGG format unfortunately.

The Almost Mandatory Good and Bad List

This game has its good points:

• Different types of weapons: you can choose many handguns or a machine gun and fill the opponent with lead or you can choose a sword or a bat and beat the hell out of them.

• Different skills: You can choose a Shield so you and your teammates can shoot the enemy from a safe position, or Wall to block the path to the touchdown place. Even an Anchor or Wings to cross gaps in no time.

• Different Maps: Every map requires a different strategy and weapons to get the upper hand in a match.

• Promotes Teamwork: One person is not a team. You must trust in your teammates to score a touchdown or to beat the opposing team.

Unfortunately, it also has its bad points:

• Laggers: It’s not that the connection sucks (most of the time it is), but the people that use this flaw to their advantage are a different story. The kind of connection the game uses makes it
  

  Promotional Image from Alaplaya

  easy to become invulnerable to enemy attacks, grab the Fumbi and score with all the team trying in vain to stop them. This is also known as “Torrent Shielding”. Just make sure to download something, and voila! Your own “Torrent Shield”.

• Teammates: It may seem weird, but sometimes the teammates can really be a pain in the ass. Some of them just go around getting killed, even if you already had a plan. But just wait until your team starts losing and they’ll cooperate.

• Just two different modes: There are many people that like to play games with just swords, but there’s always someone with guns who joins in and ruins the fun. This has a workaround so I don’t think it’s really a bad point.

Final Words

Even with all the bad points, it a fun game. Every game is different and even losing a game can be very satisfying. I love shooting every enemy in sight or in way to our base or even get into kamikaze mode and rush into the enemy base and get my ass handed to me. It’s just too fun. It’s even funnier to see how someone can’t kill you because he/she can’t aim and call you lagger.

Currently, Alaplaya has the rights of S4 League outside of Korea and is hosting the game. So, if you have the chance, give it a try. Just remember this: DON’T BUY CLOTHES EARLY IN THE GAME NOR SELL YOUR LICENSE WEAPONS!.

Fenixwing.

“SHOW ME YOUR S4!”