I imagine most of us have played Space Marine. It was great fun to play, how many other games force you to bury a Chainsword in an Orks skull to heal yourself, even if the final battle against Nemeroth was disappointing. Remember when you finished the game though, saw the cliff hanger and sat there thinking “Is that it? What happens to Titus now?” as he’s dragged off by the Inquisition?

Well Raphael van Lierop, the games director, has told The Penny Arcade Report that before its cancellation there was going to be a trilogy of games focused on Titus beginning with him going rogue and ending with him returning as the head of a new chapter built around him.

“I had some big plans for Titus” he explains “The second part of his story was to focus on a ‘Titus Unleashed’ plot—basically there were forces arrayed against him that would see his loyalty to the Adeptus Astartes pushed to its limit, and his reaction would be to kind of ‘go rogue,’ and we'd see a different Titus, not quite as in control as we saw him in Space Marine. He would be kicked out as a consequence—exiled, which would basically be a death sentence for him.”

“He would survive, and come back even stronger in the third game, where other Space Marines still loyal to him would rally around him and he'd return to ‘clean house,’ but as the head of a brand new Chapter that we would build around him,” van Lierop continued.

“Sadly, THQ was already starting to fall apart by then and it became clear that Space Marine II wasn't going to happen. I was pretty heartbroken about that,” he said. “But that's the way the business works. In the end I'm glad things turned out the way they did, because I think if the end hadn't been so hard, I might not have sought out a better way. And Hinterland might not have ever happened.”

That’s a shame as I’d loved to have played as a rogue Titus. At least we know what was planned for him. It does make you wonder though, who could pick up THQ’s legacy of GW games? Well there are quite a few games coming out with GW’s license, Slitherine’s Armageddon, HeroCraft’s Space Wolf, Cyanide’s Blood Bowl II and not forgetting Focus Interactive’s Space Hulk: Deathwing or the upcoming Eternal Crusade MMO.

I think GW are trying various publishers as a way of seeing how potential heirs get on and what their quality of work is like before giving anyone full reins which is good because we should get better games from it. Personally I think Focus are looking like the best candidate, but just because a trailer is pretty doesn’t mean the game will be any good.

Submitted by Daniel Ryan

Would you have played Space Marine II?