The thing with Warhammer 40k is, it’s absolutely over the top in every way. Mankind is spread over ten thousand worlds. Your only job is to serve the corpse of a God Emperor being kept alive by the sacrifice of 1000 Psykers a day. Worst part, he doesn't even want it. Then there are Space Elves, Orks, weird blue aliens called Tau, millennia old Egyptian Skeleton Robots, Dark Space Elves and not to mention the forces of Chaos all trying to destroy everything you hold dear. You are Titus; a genetically enhanced super soldier made from the gene seed of the Emperor, who also despises humans. So, to say Sabre Interactive nailed the scale of Warhammer is no small feat.
Space Marine 2 picks up 100 years after the end of the original Space Marine after Demetrian Titus has been betrayed by his brother Leandros and taken away by the Inquisition. Titus has spent the past 100 years in the Deathwatch atoning for his sins. I won't get into the story too much, lets just say there are some very hungry bugs who are pretty stubborn about consuming everything in their path.
Ever since seeing the first trailer for Space Marine 2 and discovering the enemy was going to be the Tyranids, I was a little concerned that the proportions were going to be off. The Tyranids numbers are endless but of course the team that bought us World War Z were going to be up to the task. You will see some similarities around how the enemies move and pile on top of each other to get to you, but from the first time realising the horizon is moving towards you realise that its utterly hopeless.
The combat in Space Marine 2 is fantastic. You are a seven-foot tall genetically enhanced super soldier so of course you need weapons to match. You have a bolt gun, which is essentially a fully automatic grenade launching assault rifle, but all it really does is slow the enemies advance, you just don't have enough ammo to do any real damage.
Where Space Marine 2 shines is the melee combat. Armed with a Chainsword (yip exactly what it sounds like: a chainsaw sword) hacking and slashing your way through hundreds of enemies like butter, grabbing little buggies from mid air and just decimating them showering yourself in gallons of blood and guts. There are plenty of weapons to chose from including Thunder Hammers and Melta Rifles, the carnage is glorious.
As you carve your way through the roughly 10 hour story – it took me a lot longer because I am a tourist and I'm stopping every 30 seconds to grab screenshot of the gorgeous scenery. Space Marine 2 is beautiful. I didn't have any really performance issues during the campaign on the Xbox Series X, except some slow rendering every now and again, but I was having so much fun it didn't bother me at all.
The entire campaign is 3 player co-op which is utterly amazing, what's better than carving through endless Xeno scum alone? Carving through endless Xeno scum with 2 friends.
There are currently 6 extra missions called "Operations" with more coming in the future. These missions run parallel to the main story and where you can customise your marine. You can choose from 6 different sub classes each with their own ultimate. Like the Tatical Marine and his Auspex Scan which scans an area and increases damage to enemies in that area or the Sniper which has an Active Cloak. My personal favourite the Assault Marine with a jetpack and Thunder Hammer. You can also customise your chapter colours so you don't have to be the dumb Ultra Marines (I kid, I kid).
Everything is locked behind level progression and coins which are earned during missions. Unfortunately you earn a set amount of XP on mission completion instead of enemies killed, so the first few levels are quickly earned but by level 6 it starts to slow down. My highest subclass is level 10 and I think I have played 14 missions with it. Back in my younger years I used to play 40k and the Blood Angels were my boys, so I have tried to recreate a Death Company Intercessor. All the major chapters are there for you to play with, you can even make your own monstrosity.
I know that Space Marine 2 is having server issues and the main problem I am having is if I am hosting the mission starts and we are bought back to the battle barge and can’t do anything. So I have to do a hard reset which is annoying, and with no dedicated join feature its 50/50 if I'm hosting. I have also been kicked from games a few times.
Unfortunately, all your hard work leveling your Characters in Operations (PVE) doesn't transfer over to Eternal War (PVP) Which pits Space Marines against the Forces of Chaos. I'm super excited because I love the aesthetics of Chaos and can finally join their legions against the False Emperor. Unfortunately, there is no fun cosmetics for Chaos yet. Just a few colour pallets to choose from, hopefully we will get more in the future. Id love to see Chaos bought into the PVE mode.
I didn't spend as much time in PVP as I did with Operations, but what I did play I enjoyed. Its very fast but a little bit janky and weird. It's almost a hero shooter, but with melee. There can only be one subclass per team, so if you want to be an assault marine and there is already one on your team then you just sit there until one of you changes. It's a battle of will before the battle itself. There is also some very over powered weapons and subclasses, I'm not going to get into them but you will figure it out.
Space Marine 2 is an incredible game and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a good old fashion 3rd person shooter.
Death to the Corpse Emperor! Umm I mean for Courage and Honor Brother.
Space Marine 2 was reviewed on the Xbox Series X
Space Marine 2 is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S from September 9th 2024
