The Warhammer universe has been a big staple of gaming the last decade or so. It feels like every year a new one comes onto the scene. This year we are finally getting a sequel to the beloved Space Marine 13 years later. It’s been a long time coming and I was able to go hands on with Space Marine 2 at this years FanExpo in Toronto. If the rest of the game is anything like I played, were in for a treat.
For those unfamiliar with the Space Marine franchise, it is a part of the wider Warhammer 40K world featuring the Ultramarines Chapter and is a hybrid third person shooter and melee game. When I played the first game on my Xbox 360 back when it released I was blown away. I hadn’t experienced any Warhammer game prior to it and was hungry for more. I didn’t expect the wait to be quite this long but once Space Marine 2 got announced it quickly shot up to the top of my most anticipated list.
Combat As Crisp As You Will Find
During my time with Space Marine 2 – which was just a single mission (I believe the beginning of the game) – it became pretty apparent that what I had in my head about the game going in is likely going to be my actual experience with the full game. The combat was engaging. I don’t usually like comparing games in these write ups but it’s impossible not to for this. It felt very much like Gears Of War but with, pardon the pun, many more hordes of enemies. Every encounter I had felt like my squad could be overrun at any moment with the massive amounts of enemies on screen. I typically would go from shooting as many enemies as I could to quickly switching to melee as the swarm was on top of me.
When it came to the melee Space Marine 2 was as gory and fun as I imagined it would be. For some of the bigger enemies you can do executions once you get them injured enough. I only saw a couple different animations but they all looked super cool. The smaller enemies just get sliced and diced with your chainsword. There was also a very good variety of enemies in just the little slice I played as well. There is one that can burrow underground and attack you. What made it most interesting is I didn’t notice any movement on the ground to indicate where the enemy was before popping up which made it quite hard to avoid their attack. It could have just been I got so distracted with all the other enemies I never paid close enough attention, but I thought it wasn’t noticeable. The bigger enemies can also grab you and do some damage where you are trapped, forced to shake the left stick or press a button to break free.
I got my hands on about 5 different weapons as well to test out during my short time with Space Marine 2. The mini gun was by far the most effective for the large hordes of small enemies, but all guns felt great to handle and could get the job done. Despite there being ammo and health pods around to pick up both, I did find myself low on both quite a lot. I’m thinking that’s because I was rushing a bit more than I normally would to get through and I just missed some pick ups, but it was worth noting.
Finally you can’t talk gameplay without the co-op aspect. While the demo was played single player Space Marine 2 supports 3 player co-op. If you choose to play single player you will have 2 AI team members. It again works a lot like Gears where if you get downed your teammates can come pick you up for a limited time. I personally think co-op is going to take Space Marine 2 to another level as not many games feature co-op and it seemed to fit quite well in this style of game.
Linear Path With Open Battles
From what I played, Space Marine 2 is fairly linear. I wouldn’t outright call it a corridor shooter, but at least this mission was very much move to this spot, fight, follow the path to the next spot, fight and so on. The actual battles themselves felt a bit more open which lent the game a feeling of the massive battles its going for.
Whether the game opens up more the further along you get we will have to wait and see. I personally quite like the more linear path for Space Marine 2 though. Not every game needs to be a big open world experience. Sometimes keeping things simple makes for a much better experience.
Overall my experience with Space Marine 2 so far has been a good one. I have spoken lately about how games need to “start on time” and really set a good tone for the game quickly and Space Marine 2 has accomplished that in a big way throwing you into the hectic fight mere minutes into the game. If the first mission is anything like the rest of the game, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be, Space Marine 2 should definitely be on your radar in a few weeks time.
Warhammer Space Marine 2 launches on September 9th for PC, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5.
