Set 200 years after the events of the original Space Marine, you return as Demeterian Titus, now a death knight captain, after being accused of heresy in the previous game. After a mission to deploy a weapon to push back Teremid forces you are re-assigned as an Ultramarine. Given command of a new squad and sent on missions to push back the Tyranid forces but uncover a much more powerful foe that threatens to unleash chaos on the imperium. The story is fairly straightforward. It’s very much a story of brotherhood, as new allies will have to learn to trust each other to serve the emperor.
Space Marine 2 does a good job of making me like the squad even during moments of conflict
It’s not the best plot but it kept me engaged from beginning to end, with some amazing cinematics and strong pacing, never lingering for too long before throwing you into another action set-piece. What Space Marine 2 might finally do is get me to look a little deeper into 40,000 lore. All the little references to the separate factions and how the world works is just fascinating. It gives you just enough to be enjoyable while leaving a lot of stuff to uncover on your own. An in-game codex would have been incredibly useful here.
Whilst the story is solid it’s the gameplay where Space Marine 2 truly shines. Much like Saber Interactive’s World War Z, this is very much a horde shooter of a much more epic scale. Played from a third-person perspective, you will be hacking, slashing and shooting through hordes of Tyranid and Chaos forces. The default controls here taking some getting used to, but once you do become second nature.
Titus and the company can seamlessly switch from ranged to close-quarter combat. With melee combos being triggered by either pressing or holding the mouse button, doing these at different times or with a pause can unleash various different attacks that might be useful in certain situations. It’s simple enough to get the hang of it quickly but also complex enough that it doesn’t get boring. Ranged weapons feel appropriately powerful as well, easily able to take down hordes of creatures barrelling down towards you, snipers perched on a cliff or to unload into a giant boss.
Durability is split across Titus’ armour and health and this is where things get interesting. Once enemies break through your shield they’ll start taking chunks out of your health, the latter of which can’t be regenerated. Often you will see an enemy flash blue which means you can counterattack them by pressing the block button. Or if they flash red these are unblockable and if you perfectly time a dodge opens them up to a quick shot to regeneate shield (though keep in mind you aren’t immune to damage from a quick shot). To actually regain health you will need to use medicae stims which are a rarity, especially on higher difficulty.
Space Marine 2 actively discourages you from disengaging from enemy forces as they will just shred you down from a distance, instead forcing you to run into the danger to survive. It surprisingly feels like a combination of Gears of War and Doom Eternal. And that’s about as much praise as you need. I won’t lie: on the Veteran difficulty, I was getting absolutely demolished until something just clicked, and even then some brutal moments really tested my skills. However, it’s also fair with reasonable checkpoint placement and plenty of supplies I never felt stuck. Also, if you are playing solo, the AI companions are surprisingly competent and able to take aggro and revive you easily.
I’m liking these odds.
You will be facing two main factions; the first and biggest faction are the Terimids. If you are unfamiliar think of the Terminids from Helldivers 2. You will be facing these in incredibly overwhelming numbers with hive ships hovering overhead and thousands of these on screen at the same time. Alongside the standard Termagant hordes that take up a bulk of what you will slaying your way through there’s a ton of variety of enemies. The Warriors and Raveners are some of my favourite, forcing you into melee battle with fast moving attacks that really rewards perfect dodging and parrying.
Then we have the second faction in the Chaos Marines. I admittedly don’t know too much about these as the lore is really wacky at this point. Spawning in you see the environment shift and warp, enemies will teleport around the room and can deal some devastating. All of these alongside cultists soldiers which act as the cannon fodder. Both of these factions are incredibly fun to fight but the Tyranids are the absolute highlight. Providing the game’s most spectacular moments on a consistent basis. There’s also just something about the absolute massive hordes that seperates it from other games. This isn’t a mark againstthe Chaos Marines as they provide an equally fun and interesting enemy type whilst injecting more variety to the moment to moment gameplay.
If there’s one criticism I will put towards the campaign is that I simply want more of it. The brief campaign consists of only six missions that took me just a touch longer than an hour to complete each on Veteran difficulty. Just as the plot gets interesting Space Marine 2 pushes to its final chapter. One or two extra story missions would here would have went a really long way to expanding the narrative and a few more boss fights to really push it to the next level.
However, nothing in the campaign is actually bad either. In fact it’s bloody excellent. Even in the games weakest moments which are fairly early on I wasn’t bored. Almost every single moment is full of action-packed set-pieces, epic horde moments. Even when things slow down there’s a purpose behind it. Every mission provides something new. You will also gain access to a variety of incredibly powerful weapons. Melee weapons all have their own combos and exectioins that feel totally different from each other. And firearms are plentiful with alln the iconic 40k weapons. However; I do wish there was a little bit more variety in the firearms, too many firearms you find laying around are simple variations rather than something new.
Thankfully completing the campaign isn’t necessarily the end. With the real star of the show: Operations, which are incredibly fun and highly replayable cooperative-focused missions, taking the same core gameplay and expanding it out even further with multiple classes, skill trees, individual progression systems and bigger hordes. If, like me, you love your big horde shooters like Helldivers 2, Left 4 Dead and the previously mentioned World War Z you will be spending a lot of time here.
Best of all, these missions tie into the overall narrative. Throughout the whole campaign Titus will send a second squad on different missions and you will hear about these with the dialogue and battleground battles you see throughout the game. Operations are these moments you see and hear about. In fact, some of the bigger bosses the story teases are actually part of the operations. It really makes this mode feel like less of an afterthought and more of an integral part of the experience. My go-to class is the Vanguard, equipped with a grappling hook that allows you to close distance to enemies. Some of my favourite moments is seeing a teammate go down; then I’ll be grappling between enemies, performing takedowns and moving at breakneck speeds to get to them in time.
Unfortunately you can’t bring these classes back into the campaign which would be a great way to level them up whilst adding a touch more variety. The operation mission design themselves much like the campaign are mostly excellent as well. With plenty of defensive horde moments and a few great boss fights on top of that. It’s a good thing as well since you will be replaying these levels a lot with an AI Director that dynamically changes the spawns and mini-bosses you will fight throughout giving each run a refreshing twist.
PvP is a basic but fun side addition.
Finally, there’s the PvP mode and arguably the weakest part on display. And that’s not even a problem. In the era of hyper-competitive games like Counter-Strike, Valorant and The Finals, it’s just nice to have a casual fun PvP experience to fall back on. With a straightforward collection of modes to playthrough. It also makes Space Marine 2 feel like a complete package, something from back in the 360 era where PvP was just tacked on in a charming way. Matches are 6v6 with a lock on 2 of each class max per team to stop class spamming from destroying this mode and it works well. Classes in PvE work wonderfully in PvP and surprisingly quite a lot of games can feel like they are getting down to the wire. These are the same classes that are in the PvE modes meaning that you will also be levelling them up at a decent enough pace.
Progression between PvE and PvP is shared as well. With customisation that is mostly just fine, completing modes gives you a currency that unlocks additional armour. The problem is the cosmetics rarely add anything substantial. However; creating different colour schemes for your space marines is where it shines. Post-launch DLC will mostly focus on these cosmetics whilst any gameplay additions will come into the game fore free which is a nice touch. Though It would have been nice to have the ability to go through the dedicated campaign missions as new classes to progress and add a lot more variety to the grind.
As a whole Space Marine 2 is just an absolute blast to play. Even if on paper it is light on content and I would have loved to see more that is my only major complaint. Even with this I’ve put over 30 hours into the game and still planning on going so even though I would have loved more it’s core gameplay is incredibly addicting. Climbing up the difficulty ladder in the operations mode is addictive and the new challenges it throws at you will keep you invested. The core gameplay is just that good.
“This is Eagle 1 unleashing democracy!”.
Another impressive thing in Space Marine 2 is its sense of scale. Even though it’s a fairly linear game, the environments feel absolutely gargantuan with its towering structures. Off in the distance, you will see other battles taking place and huge swarms of Tyranids. It really makes you feel like you are fighting in a bigger war against an unstoppable foe. Mix this in with great character models and stunning effects and you got a great presentation, if one with quite a few rough edges. On a similar note; the sound design is also excellent. Whilst Titus is no longer voiced by Mark Strong, Clive Standos does an excellent job here as well. As well as a soundtrack that whilst not Darktide levels does a great job in the moment to moment gameplay.
Playing on an RTX 4070 with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance. Being able to max out most of the settings. Even during heavier moments, I didn’t see much in terms of a stutter. However; whilst performance is excellent the PC version at launch is missing key features. First of all, Ultrawide was not supported at launch but will be arriving sometime later in the month, however; we haven’t heard about FOV sliders being introduced. It’s a disappointing mark on an otherwise excellent PC release here.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is one of the best games I’ve played in the past few years. A game that calls back to the glory days of Xbox 360 gaming, being nothing more than just an absolute blast to play. Even if it is a little light on content, its core gameplay loop was addicting enough to keep me busy for many hours, never making me ever hope to reach its very end. This is straight-up a must-play and an easy Game of the Year contender. Praise the Omnissiah!
Some slightly rough edges but an incredibly strong presentation all around with some “wow” moments and giant enemy hordes. | Shoot, dodge, slash, execute and repeat. The core gameplay loop is simple yet challenging and addictive. |
Solid voice acting and a great soundtrack combine to help push Space Marine 2 to the next level. | Space Marine 2 is call back to the glory days when games were designed to simply be tons of fun. From beginning to end. I just wish there was more of it. I never wanted it to end. |
Final Verdict: 9.5 | |
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5
Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 32GB RAM. Game installed on an NVMe Drive.
A copy of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was provided by the publisher.
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