Games Workshop's Warhammer universe hasn't really gotten the respect over the years in the video game realm that it's deserved. Blizzard liberally borrowed from the line for both its StarCraft and WarCraft universes, and those have obviously been quite successful among the mouse-and-keyboard crowd. And even on consoles, the concept of a "space marine" is almost cliched at this point; almost every major developer has churned out a third-person shooter featuring a big bad dude with a bunch of big, bad guns.

But Warhammer (and this, its sci-fi, year 40,000 variant) really is the grandfather of genre, the prototype for all of those gruff space warriors and the green-skinned and slimy hordes they battle against. Marcus Fenix and his ilk may have grabbed some headlines and sold some games, but it's about time the Ultramarines got some credit for being the original huge-shoulderplated killing machines.

And thanks to the talented designers at Relic Entertainment and their pitch-perfect use of the Warhammer universe in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, they deserve to get it.