It’s been thirteen long years since what I regard as the greatest Warhammer videogame was released. Thirteen years of hoping for a remaster or remake, but fate had something more interesting in store for this title as it now has a sequel. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 may be a decade late to the party, but Saber Interactive have made it worth wait worth.
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The long-anticipated sequel to the beloved brutal third-person shoot, hack and slasher picks up after the events of that first game. Space Marine 2 follows the now disgraced and demoted Captain Demetrian Titus.
When Space Met Marine Again
In Space Marine 2 Titus has begun to unleash hell on those who stand in front of the emperor’s will. You will be slaying countless Tyranids and a few heretics, in the form of the magic-wielding Thousand Sons.
On the whole, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is well paced and tells an decent. tale. Ultimately, it does feel like a normal Tuesday shift for Titus and the lads. However, it’s how it all unfolds that will keep you engaged.
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From starting out as a member of the Deathwatch kill team. To how your brother doesn’t truly trust you. To how you go about showing how those who question your loyalty that you respectfully disagree. It’s all as as blunt and as subtle as a kick to the head.
However, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 does a solid job of setting up things between the onslaught of carnage.
Warhammered
Gameplay is heavy, weighty and clunky and, honestly amazing. You feel like a true Ultramarine towering over regular humans, brushing aside hordes of enemies with the pull of a trigger.
To get to this God-like stature does take time when not in Titus’s boots, as you forge your own Space Marine for co-op and online, but for a game that is about being a big blue killing machine the game nails it perfectly.
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Weapons fire slowly, but you feel every hit as they rip apart whatever is unlucky enough to be in front of the barrel. Melee combat feels similarly visceral as you rip and tear enemies from limb to limb.
On top of the gritty and satisfying base combat, there are some cool eye-candy moments. For example, if you time a dodge correctly, you can let off a cinematic shot from your pistol. Or if you parry with finesse, you pull off an instant kill move, sometimes kicking your prey off into the distance.
Global Campaign
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2‘s campaign sees you battling through some massive play areas with epic goals to match. Missions can take 40-plus minutes to complete depending on the difficulty.
There’s also a great variety of epic battlegrounds in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. The game drags you over the gamut from the lush and untamed jungle to the shining cities of the Empires and beyond. And better still, you can take two friends along for the ride in a full co-op mode.
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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 uses Swarm Engine that was used in the World War Z game. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of enemies rush you with single-minded ferocity and it’s impressive in motion.
To add to the challenge, hordes often attack your position with more deathly or robust units mixed in. These can open up ground for the cannon fodder and throw some wonderful emergent moments into battle, freshening the whole thing up at random times.
A World at War
Beyond the campaign there are two main modes; co-op and multiplayer. Co-op, delivered through the Operations mode, is easily the slickest implementation of a campaign and co-op mode I have ever seen.
There are six Operations to pick from. Here, your custom Space Marine will do battle in operations occurring around the same time the main campaign. They offer a glimpse into the war away from Titus and co, and are a cool alternate timeline to observe.
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One Operation needs you to kill a hive tyrant, to open up coms and weaken the hive. This could easily have been main campaign goal, but gives the player plenty of reason to try to this as a co-op mission. Better still, you see your efforts on this Operation during the campaign proper.
It’s very cool. The setup genuinely feels like you are all fighting in one epic battle together instead of battles taking place in a vacuum.
Eternal Conflict
‘Eternal War’ has a few of your standard multiplayer modes; like team deathmatch, and capture and hold. Each team has a limited number of marines and marine types with which to claim victory. Teams that have a good balance of types made of players that follow their role will win nine times out of ten.
The multiplayer of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is standard stuff, but standard stuff done very well. It’s not quite a Call of Duty killer, but if you are hungry to see how your marine would face off against others it will scratch that itch.
Post-Fordist Military Industrial Complex
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 features in-depth customisation system. This lets you build your dream marine from the chapter they belong to. Dark Angels, Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Iron Hands and Salamanders, to name but a few. There is also a healthy arsenal of toys from which to create your industrial slaying machine.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 looks dark and grim, and drips in funky looking purple stuff. The game truly captures the world of Warhammer 40k and brings it to life.
The music is decent and does the job at getting you fired up for the next wave. However, the voice acting is top tier across the board from Titus and his men, to the co-op fireteam and the strong cast that all back them up on the journey.
Deliverance
Good things come to those who wait. We’ve been waiting thirteen years and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 delivers what we wanted – a tightly crafted adrenaline-fuelled action fun that’s backed up by a tonne of content to lose yourself in. Recruit some friends and enjoy this ‘GotY’ contender.