“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”
Every work set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 begins with a standard preamble about how hopeless and brutal life in the Milky Way galaxy has become, and Space Marine 2 is no different. Life in this setting is bleak and hopeless. Games in this setting, however? Well, they’re some of the best!
I’ll get right to the point; Space Marine 2 is, hands down, the most fun I’ve had with a game all year, and I would urge everyone to pick up a copy. I’d happily leave the review there, but you probably want more detail so here we go!
Only in Death Does Duty End
First off, there is a lot of background to the 40K universe, possibly best summarised in this wonderful video here. What you really need to know, though is that this game (as you could probably work out) is a direct sequel to 2011’s Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine. We pick back up with Demetrian Titus, former captain of the Ultramarines 2nd Company (the Ultramarines are a Chapter of 1,000 genetically and cybernetically enhanced Space Marines or “Astartes”). He was sentenced to over 100 years of penance for suspected corruption by the forces of Chaos at the end of his debut but has now been reinstated as Lieutenant by his former Chapter Master (like a General), Marneus Calgar. Serving under Acheran, his new Captain, he takes command of several squads of his brothers in order to repel an incursion of Xenos and Heretics upon the worlds of Kadaku and Avarax.
For the Emperor!
The Xenos in question are the Tyranids. A chittering hive-mind of insectoid horrors who only exist to feed on biomass. They form the bulk of the enemy forces you encounter in the first half of the game and there really was no better foe for the folks at Focus Interactive to choose. Saber interactive had previously developed the World War Z engine in order to render more enemies onscreen at once and it’s used to great effect here. There are literally hundreds of enemies for you to kill at any given time. By the time I had finished the campaign I had racked up over 5,000 kills.
The Tyranids come in literally all shapes and sizes from the tiny skittering Rippers, and the deadly Warrior bioforms to the enormous Carnifexes, and the Hive Tyrant mastermind. The variety of foes to cut down provides ample opportunity to show off everything this game has to offer by way of combat. Whether you prefer raining firepower down on your enemies with mass-reactive Bolter rounds or getting stuck-in with a chainsword or thunder hammer, you really can play however you like in the early missions.
The game cleverly implements several gameplay systems to keep you going even when the fighting gets fierce. Performing brutal executions on enemies will let you recover some of your armour, while the Bloodborne-esque rally system lets you recover some of your lost health by quickly going on the counterattack when you take damage. Of course, you can pick up medicae combat stims to restore your health or special relics that will revive you upon death as well. As you might expect, when playing with your friends they can also pick you up if you fall.
As the game progresses you are truly tasked with putting everything you’ve learned into practice when the Thousand Sons, the sons of Magnus the Red and slaves to the will of Tzeench show up. Since they are also Astartes (accompanied by hundreds of Tzaangor daemons) they take a lot of punishment. A challenge befitting only the finest of the Emperor’s warriors.
This is very much a love letter to the Warhammer 40K franchise with many epic moments for long-time fans. However, it’s accessible to any and all players (though maybe try play/watch a recap of the first game beforehand at least). There were several moments during the campaign that left me stunned, mouth agape in awe. I was a hair’s breadth from screaming “For the Emperor!” while sitting on my couch.
All things being equal though, since this is a narrative-focussed game I would have like if the main story was a little longer. There are only about 9 or 10 missions, each taking in or around an hour to complete. While this is certainly better than many other shooters out there, and the narrative wasn’t really missing anything in particular, a bit more meat to the story would have been nice.
With Me, Brothers!
The campaign mode, while good, is really just the starter course. The real long-term playability here comes in the form of the multiplayer. There’s a variety of different game modes that are sure to please everyone. The campaign itself is open to three-player co-op so you and two squad members can bring judgement to the enemies of the Imperium together.
Alongside the campaign there are also (for the moment) six Operations missions which allow you to specialise in one of six classes each suited to a different playstyle (Tactical, Assault, Vanguard, Bulwark, Sniper, and Heavy). As you progress through this side-campaign you’ll earn the usual XP that you can use to level up your chosen class and your weapons. While weapon upgrades are permanent in Operations, you can’t carry XP across classes so if you’ve levelled up your defence-focussed Bulwark marine you’ll have to start all over again if you want to play as the more aggressive Vanguard class.
The competitive multiplayer, very much in keeping with the Mechanicus’ “innovation is heresy” viewpoint, isn’t anything to write home about. For now are three game modes (though we have confirmation that more are coming soon). Single point capture, multi-point capture, and Team Deathmatch. In each of these you’ll have access to the same six classes, but you’re limited to only having two of any given class on your team. I like this limitation. For one, it means you’ll never have to face down six heavies with Plasma Canons in single point capture. It also encourages players to experiment with different classes, abilities and weapons that they may otherwise not be so keen to use.
Finding a party is easy too. You can either queue up with randoms online, or you can send your friends a unique invite code that will bring them into your squad. This is the same across all three game modes. Unfortunately, while the Eternal War mode is 6v6 matches, the maximum squad size is only three marines. This means that if you want to play with more than two of your friends you might be out of luck. My friends and I have had to try and “game the system” by setting up two squads of three and then each squad leader queueing into a specific game mode. We then pray to the Omnissiah that we end up in the same lobby. This can take up to five minutes which is quite frustrating at times. When you want to chill out and play a few games with your buddies the last thing you need is guesswork and the need to rely on random chance. Personally, I think this is the way the game is run because Space Marine 2 exceeded expectations. By close of launch day on the 9th of September more than 2 million copies had been sold. This is far and away the fastest selling Warhammer game ever and they may be artificially limiting party sizes to give the servers a break while they can be upgraded.
Another frustration is the lack of any crossplay between PC players and console players in PvP. We can play together no problem in the PvE operations, but if you want to purge heretics you’ll have to stick to one ecosystem. I don’t really see much of a reason for this. If the likes of Halo and Call of Duty are happy enough to allow full crossplay (albeit via an opt-in option in the settings) then I don’t see why Space Marine 2 should be any different.
Bask in the Emperor’s Glory
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how this game looks. By the Throne it’s stunning. Not only is it one of the best games I’ve ever laid my eyes on, but it captures the scale and grandeur of the 40K setting expertly. As I was playing, I would routinely spend far longer in particular areas than I was supposed to, purely because I wanted to drink in the atmosphere. There are so many beautiful details to notice as well as stunning, bombastic set pieces that 40K is known for. It’s abundantly clear that a huge amount of love and care went into crafting each and every one of the levels and characters.
Speaking of, there are a range of customisation options for your own Astartes in the PvE and PvP modes. Like a lot of options. There are dozens of paint schemes to choose from, at least five different options for each individual armour piece, and every weapon has a plethora of skins to choose from as well! Half the fun of the Tabletop Warhammer hobby is homebrewing your own Space Marine chapter or Tyranid Hive Fleet and they basically adopted that aspect wholesale for this game. Unfortunately, you can’t really customise your Heretic Astartes too much. You can change the livery colour as you like but as far as armour types are concerned, you’re locked in for now. You’re forced to play as one particular warband depending on your class; Black Legion for Tactical, Night Lords for Assault etc.. These all make sense thematically, like, of course the World Eaters are the battle-hungry Vanguard, but it would be nice to be able to customise your marine a little or even play as an Assault Black Legionnaire.
No Heresy Detected
So, is Space Marine 2 a candidate for Game of the Year this December? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. While it’s a lot of fun and objectively very well made, I think the dearth of multiplayer content at launch and the few server issues that we’ve been experiencing hold it back a bit. I’m happy to wear my bias on my sleeve here. I’ve been a fan of the 40K universe for 20 odd years and I’m writing this article not 10 feet away from my own growing army of Tyranids. I’m more than happy to overlook this games bigger flaws because it means so much to me that something I love is now being enjoyed by so many more people. I don’t think the server issues, or the limited mission variety are a dealbreaker for anyone. This is a live service game, after all, so we can expect constant maintenance and improvements. Focus Entertainment have even published a roadmap for when we can expect more operations and game modes (as well as new cosmetic packs!). Hopefully when they fix these bigger issues, they can work on the real problems. You shouldn’t be able to put a Crux Terminatus on Titus’s armour despite it being standard Mark X (and on the right pauldron, too!). Or they could allow us to change the skin tone and eye colour of our Salamanders marines so they more accurately match those of the people of Nocturne.
Space Marine 2 isn’t perfect but I absolutely adore it, and I think it shows a huge amount of promise for the future. I know it also means a lot to the Warhammer Community at large that Saber and Focus paid tribute to the late John TotalBiscuit Bain, a titan of the online gaming industry and whose First Impresions video of the first Space Marine game I would recommend anyone watch. It’s an exciting time for the franchise and I’m delighted that more and more people are coming along for the ride. I, for one, can’t wait for even more of Titus’s story or maybe a story that follows another Chapter altogether!
Ave Imperator; Gloria in Excelsis Terra.
