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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Review – For The Emperor

Let me begin this Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 review by apologising to the fine folks that hired me on here, as alas, they hired a Warhammer guy. I might not be as knowledgeable as some of you near Theologians out there. I also don’t make £300,000 a year to get into miniature painting. But, I love this setting, and I love the lore.

And I love Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

This game has been the most fun I’ve had playing a game since Elden Ring first came out. It seriously rocks. And here, I’ll tell you why. Please be wary of light spoilers for the Campaign and some of the Operations mode missions going forward.

The Campaign – Titus & The Adeptus Astartes

The campaign for Space Marine 2 follows on from Space Marine 1, albeit it far in the future. Here we take on the role of Titus, an Adeptus Astartes who was serving a self-imposed penance in the Deathwatch.

After a rather unfortunate mission, he is gravely wounded. He finds himself on board a Battle Barge, charged with rejoining his old Chapter as a Lieutenant (albeit it with a somewhat stained personal ledger, and a whole lot of archive redactions). On top of that, they’ve also gone and made him a Primaris. Which, for you non-Warhammer folks out there, is a major deal for a First Born Space Marine.

Brought back from a self-imposed penance, juiced up to the gills with new Gene-Seed organs, and heaped with plenty of deeply unhealthy suspicion from both his new squad, the Captain, and the Chaplain, Titus is tasked with aiding in the fight against the hordes of Tyranids that are attacking the system.

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine II Review, the Battle Barge
Titus on the Battle Barge

And aid you do, in a campaign that is stupid fun, packed full of great lore titbits, and has some very surprising turns in store.

The writing on offer here is also perfectly solid, with plenty of that Warhammer melodrama you’d expect. You talk of honour, suspicions, doubts and tactics with your team members Gadriel and Chiron; who act as both compatriots and occasionally accusers throughout the campaign.

I found the length in which Titus hid things from them to be a little grating at first. However, given context later in the campaign, I believe his reasons for doing so to be fair and reasonable (and entirely the point). The final mission of this game is absolutely nuts. It is magic. It is Warhammer 40,000 turned all the way up to 11, and I loved it.

Room For Improvement?

I’ll be honest, in terms of mission design, there’s really nothing particularly new or exciting on show here. You will kill excessive amounts of Tyranids (and otherwise). There are occasionally boss fights, and area defences, but for the most part you are just killing.

Now don’t get me wrong, I want to kill Tyranids. I want to spend 90% of my time firing a weapon that, if fired by a mere mortal, would likely break every bone in their body. That is exactly what I signed up for, and I got it the whole way through.

I just feel that the campaign could’ve done with a few more ‘special’ moments; something akin to one of the later Operations mode missions comes to mind. Said mission tasks you with fighting a very special boss indeed, but has an interesting mechanic involved to get the boss vulnerable. A few touches of that little extra something in the campaign would’ve gone a long way.

Boltgun weapon
Titus and his Boltgun

If I were to discuss one massively missed opportunity here, it would be one section in particular. At one point in the campaign, Chiron runs off on his own, much to the chagrin of Titus and Gadriel. In game, this presents itself as Titus and Gadriel covering for him, as he fights alone. This moment is great, don’t get me wrong, but alas, it’s also the only time this ever happens. Both me and the friend I played through the campaign with wish each of the core trio had a chance to shine like that at some point.

Regardless of this minor negative, the campaign was brilliant fun from start to finish, with the final mission being a particular standout, and I am genuinely sad that it’s over for me.

The Operations – Me & My Hammer

Operations are, frankly, genius. Often times, games will have a campaign mission in which something really cool happens, but you aren’t the one to do it. Think Chief giving the Covenant back their bomb, or every single major thing that’s ever happened in Elite Dangerous ever. Sometimes, things happen without your input, or without you being there… Space Marine 2 thinks that should be otherwise.

In certain campaign moments, Titus receives additional squads of Space Marines from his Captain. These guys (you) make his mission possible, and they don’t exactly get the easy stuff. Blowing up oil fields? Yup. Knocking down one of the oldest bridges in a hive city? Sure. These missions are serious business, and you get to play each and every one of ’em.

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine II Review, Assault Class
The Assault class on show

One Operation tasks you with taking on a Hive Tyrant. It’s a proper boss fight, with multiple phases and trash mob waves. And it is completly unique to this Operation mission. (And it’s a hell of a fight too, especially on higher difficulties.) That experience is extremely rewarding, as I didn’t feel like some nameless extra on a side gig… I felt like a Space Marine.

Once again, I have to highlight one of the Operations tied to the final mission (and as discussed earlier, had yet another totally one-off boss fight, with a really unique mechanic involved.) This mission was a real test for me as a player, and is one of the harder missions on offer. And I loved it. That challenge, combined with the stakes and the boss fight, made it feel like the final push it was.

Classes in Operations

Operations allow you to use the class system in Space Marine 2, so not only are you doing cool stuff, you’re likely also playing way different to how you’d play the campaign, which when played the way me and my friend did (doing the Operations and then the relevant campaign mission), really mixed things up and prevented anything from feeling stale.

I played the ‘Assault’ class, which stripped me of a primary weapon, but gave me a jump pack and a hammer. A hammer that was so stupid good that it made me giddy enough to make you think it had asked me out.

A Heavy, Vanguard, and Assault

My one complaint about Operations would be the seemingly needless restriction on same class picks, and whilst I understand it’s to ensure you’re never without a ranged option, it feels a little restrictive, especially when the random you get absolutely refuses to change from the class you want to play.

Personally, I’d say remove the restrictions, and if a party of three wants to rock it all melee, then it’s their choice (and problem) to deal with the Neurothropes with nothing but jump packs, hammers, shields, and bad attitudes.

It’s worth noting that Operations are currently publicly matchmade, and as we were only a duo, that meant we got randoms in for each of them. This isn’t a bad thing, mind you, and it was fun to check out what people were doing in the armour painting department, and private PVE mission lobbies will be coming in a future update, as confirmed by the devs.

Gameplay – The Emperor Protects (And So Does My Chainsword)

Gameplay is, by far, the shining jewel of Space Marine 2. Never in my days did I think a game could do a Space Marine quite this well, but here it is. You feel like a mountain. Every step you take makes sparks, every swing of your Chainsword hits and drags as it cleaves through some poor Xeno, and your Boltgun thuds with the bass you’d expect. And absolutely everything hits just as hard as you do.

Combat is absolutely brilliant, with solid gun play, and a genuinely impressive melee combat system, with parries, gun punishers, and enemy unblockable attacks. There’s perfect parries, insta kill parries, perfect dodges, weapon combos and of course executions, and you need to do each and every one of them often in order to survive the onslaught.

A gory battlefield
Titus up against Tyranids

How Does Combat Play with Difficulty?

In Space Marine 2, you get your health bar, and then you get armour charges. Your armour charges drain quickly, especially when you’re swarmed. But, they can be recovered in combat by performing parries against regular mobs, which will have you instantly kill them in some wildly violent way, performing executions on enemies damaged enough to perform them, and by performing gun strikes. This all means that when in combat, especially up close, you absolutely cannot stop fighting, because if you do, you will die.

Titus up against a horde of Tyranids

In addition to this, healing supplies are incredibly scarce, so any health damage taken really has an impact on you, as it should. In the campaign, Titus has an ability which provides a limited self-heal, but it’s slow to recharge and can be wasted just as quickly as it’s used, whilst your companions receive no benefit. I haven’t played the campaign as Gadriel or Chiron, so I can’t speak to their abilities, but my friend was notably jealous of his lack of a self-healing option on more than one occasion.

What About the Weapons?

The equipment you have to play around with is great too, with plenty of primary weapons, a lovely variety of melee weapons, and secondaries that do exactly what you’d expect. Boltguns are unreal, and they feel exactly like they’re meant to, and they turn everything to jelly like they’re meant to.

A Bolt Rifle in the armoury

The heavy weapons you can occasionally pick up are a blast, albeit very scarce, so getting them feels like a real reward. The multi-melta is… hard to describe, but do yourself a favour and take it to a large pack of enemies and just see what happens.

I’d highly suggest playing on one of the higher difficulties. I played on the second hardest, because it really made sure there was never a moment in which I wasn’t totally engaged, and it just made everything that bit more tense. I’m not one of those difficulty fascists, though, so do whatever you enjoy.

Audio & Visuals – The Sights of the Imperium

Space Marine 2 is stunning, and sounds just as good as it looks. Each of the three planets you’ll visit have a distinct visual flair, with swamps, a hive city, and the final planet offering something else entirely. The set pieces on show here are jaw dropping, and you feel like you’re in an active warzone.

Artillery fires near constantly. The distant marks of Lasguns mar the sky, hordes of Tyranids move in swarms just close enough to see the damage they can cause. Whilst plenty of cinematic moments happen within the cinematics themselves, far more of them take place in-game, and you’ll be prompted to take a closer look when they do. In addition to this, the set design is outstanding, with techno-religious iconography all around.

As someone who loves the Adeptus Mechanicus, their areas really stood out to me. Incense, candles, scripture; alongside metal, terminals and blood. You don’t get a mix like that anywhere else, and it made me swoon.

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine II Review, the Astra Militarum
The Astra Militarum in a conflict

The Sounds of War

The sound design only aids this, and there is literally never a quiet moment. Not only do you sound intense, but so does everything else. Tyranids scream and howl, distant battle hums, and destruction booms as buildings collapse under the weight of it all. The voice acting is as bassy and melodramatic as you’d expect. Every Space Marine you meet sounds like the demi-god (or just… god) that they pretty much are.

As mentioned earlier, combat itself is only benefited by the audio design. Boltguns sound as Boltguns should sound, like 0.75 to 1.00 calibre rounds being fired from a piece of steel (that looks vaguely like a gun). The Chainsword revs as you swing, and it revs when it hits something too. Your footsteps sound imposing, because they are.

Everything in the audio department had just as much love and care put in as the visuals. And I couldn’t be happier.

The Technical Stuff – The Machine Spirit

I’m pleased to report that despite my lackluster PC, Space Marine 2 performed really well. It has a full suite of graphical options for you to tinker with to get your experience just right (the launch inclusion of DLSS also really helps here).

In terms of bugs, I was genuinely shocked at how well Space Marine 2 performed. I had one crash in my entire playthrough of both the campaign and the operations, and two minor audio bugs. Both whilst not even in a mission, and they were fixed with a simple return to the title screen.

Whilst the initial delay of this game was disappointing, I now understand just why it had to happen. All too often now do we get games delayed, only to launch in an absolute state. Cyberpunk comes to mind, obviously, and whilst it might’ve won some favour back now, it didn’t go down well then. Here, the polish is a breath of fresh air, and sadly no longer the industry standard.

Killing a bug
Squishing bugs in more ways than one

Verdict

With a solid campaign, great character performances, a real understanding of the source material, and plenty of genuinely great surprises in store, it’s one you can find yourself happily replaying over, and over again.

The Operations mode is a great addition to the campaign. It allows for some real player expression whilst putting huge story moments straight into your hands. These feel incredibly rewarding both spiritually and materially, with loads of classes to level, weapons to master, and of course, armour customisation.

The gameplay is a marvel; gritty and challenging, and yet entirely fair. You either stay on your toes, or you die, which is exactly how a Space Marine should feel. Gunplay, melee combat, and weapon variety are all top class, and will only be improved as updates come out.

Audio and visual design is top notch, and shows a great understanding of the source material. It also takes heavy inspiration from prior games and media. Everything looks and sounds like Warhammer, as it should.

Technically, the game performs well, even on slightly outdated systems. There’s a whole host of graphical options, and a pleasantly shocking lack of notable bugs or issues.

Overall, Space Marine 2 is absolutely outstanding. Is it perfect? No. Did I enjoy every single second I spent playing through it? My God, yes.

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (PC)

£54.99
9

Verdict

9.0/10

Pros

  • A very strong main campaign
  • Brilliant Operations mode
  • Outstanding gameplay
  • Stunning visuals

Cons

  • Missed campaign opportunities
  • A little lack of mission variety