Just out of curiosity, what games are of the "space marine" genre? Am I just not playing them? The only thing that would lead me to believe that it's over-done is the fact that people tell me it's over-done.
EDIT: Maybe I'm just not thinking it's cliched because every game that focuses around "space marines" that I've played, you can't actually differentiate yourself from normal marines aside from the fact that they always refer to you as "space" marines.
I think in general people consider space marine games to be any that involves space, aliens and/or powersuits (see Gears of War, Resistance, Half-Life etcetera). Though a lot of those are just marines fighting against space aliens.
Of the games I've played where the hero actually goes and/or lives in outerspace and is a marine:
Alien vs Predator 1+2
Halo 1-3
Doom 3 + xp
maybe Pariah (I can't really remember, it's been ages since I played this bargain bin game)
Personally I prefer sci-fi to modern shooters (bleah, Counter-strike) so I'll take space marines anyway. Though the only enthralling game I've played in recent memory was Thief 1+2 which are hardly new and hardly space marines.
Well, I mean, you're definitely a space marine.
No.
THIS is a space marine:
<snip>
Everyone else claiming to be a space marine = pussy
I don't know, if it's a choice between Colonial Marines who go into battle with bare minimum of armour and 40k space marines who go into battle in fully encased powersuits, I'd call the latter the sissies myself. Hey buddy, lose your armour, go up against a pack of genestealers and then you can call yourself a real marine.