The best parts of Space Marine 2 come right before the swarm is upon you. Raining shells down on an undulating tide of teeth and tentacles as it surges over the colossal factories of an equally uncaring and murderous galactic empire, it’s these moments that Warhammer is all about. It’s just a shame that crashing your own hulking tower of ceramite-coated muscle into the fray is more frustrating than glorious.
But let’s back up for a moment, a tactical withdrawal if you will. Way back in distant 2011, Relic Entertainment took a break from making Sci-Fi RTS games to release Space Marine, a action game well regarded for selling the power fantasy of Warhammer‘s inhuman poster boys. There were wonderously gory executions, a good spread of chunky, impactful weapons and a decent multiplayer mode that let you dress up your space men in your favorite colors. The story was mostly a macguffin hunt, but even that managed a few moments memorable enough to become memes or references still used in the fanbase today.
Flash forward to 2024 and Saber Interactive’s Space Marine 2, which replicates all the original’s strengths and weaknesses on an impressive new scale. That same punchy combat returns complete with visceral executions but instead of mobs of Orks you face swarms of the insectoid Tyranids, at least before the forces of Chaos inevitably show up. The roster of weapons has expanded to include things like heavy plasma guns and something like 8 variants of bolter, and instead of a contextless horde mode there are now PvE missions threaded into the narrative (a horde mode is planned for later).
First off, the environments deserve a special mention. It felt like every level in Space Marine 2 I was stopping to gawk at some awe-inspiring sight or another, from haunting war-machines the size of cities towering over a long dead world to the remains of a brutalist factory complex stricken by organic artillery. Meanwhile the skies are literally filled with foes that school like dangerous, airborne fish, enabled by Saber’s touted Swarm Engine. And afterwards I would load in to the Battle Barge, the spaceship that serves as your hub area, and pore over the vehicles and armor on display. It’s a treat.
But back to the action. Space Marine 2‘s third-person combat is immediately familiar if you’ve played the first game: blast chaff enemies apart with the satisfying ka-chunk of your Bolter, then wade into melee with an electric sword, a chainsaw-sword, or just a really big knife. Executing enemies replenishes armor, while dealing damage lets you steal back some of your recently lost health, á la Bloodborne. The stun system is gone, however, replaced with a parry-and-counter button that is at once the most satisfying and infuriating part of combat.
As enemies launch certain attacks, you will see a red marker if you need to dodge or a blue one if you’re able to counter. Slam the button at the right time to execute it, with counters slaying smaller enemies outright or stunning larger ones ready for a follow-up pistol shot. I ended up enjoying these far more than the executions, in part due to them just being snappier, but they also felt more rewarding than just beating an enemy until they glowed red. The full executions were satisfying at first, but quickly become tiresome with how many elite enemies you have to deal with, and a ranged execute option would have been nice too. They do at least shield you from damage during the animation, which was a pet peeve Space Marine 2 thankfully doesn’t bring back from the first game.
But the real frustration comes from just how fragile you are. Even basic ‘gaunts can shred through your ceramite armor like tissue paper if they land a hit, and they aren’t all polite enough to broadcast their attacks with colored markers. You can (and in fact, need to,) block and dodge these attacks but it’s incredibly hard to do so in a large group or while focusing on a larger foe. Space Marine 2 makes you feel like you should be able to wade into a swarm and keep yourself alive through parries and counters, with the rythmn and heft of the Arkham Batman games, but instead you have to dance around packs of enemies until they’re thinned out enough to pick off. It’s here the game loses a lot of that super-soldier fantasy it was otherwise doing so well at building.
This parry system does feel like an improvement on the first game’s stun mechanic, but it fails to solve the problem the system had where you could be overwhelmed without a satisfying counter-play. It’s at this point I began feeling like Space Marine 2 was becoming a bit too faithful of a sequel, as the same issues with combat came back despite the games being over a decade apart. The narrative also fell in to the same trap of revolving around an uninteresting macguffin, despite it feeling most compelling as a more traditional war story. I was more invested in fighting alongside Major Sarkaana and her battallion in the first level, the human soldiers cartoonishly small compared to Titus and pals, than chasing after the nebulous Project Aurora in the final missions.
That’s not to say the story was completely flat, there are some juicy hooks floating around. A now-demoted officer returning to his force to find them modernized and re-equipped, put in command of a squad who don’t know him and can’t be told his history, and a captain having enough trouble facing insurmountable odds without having to take on a troublemaking veteran several times his age and experience. There’s potential there and it even simmers well for bit as your companions discuss you, thinking you’re out of earshot. But it just doesn’t meaningfully pay off.
Then there’s the inclusion of the Chaos faction, the traitor space marines of the Thousand Sons. We knew they would be present from the trailers, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t let the mystery simmer a bit. And for a while it felt like it was going to, as overheard conversations on the battle barge talk about strange malfunctions and unexplained occurrences. But then you just find a load of magic runes scrawled about a ritual site and the jig is up. From then on they’re just another enemy that shows up some times, and while the more ranged focus is a nice reprieve from the ‘Nids they don’t provide anything especially new, or even narratively justify their presence. I’m not even sure they explain who the Thousand Sons legion are, why their armor is empty, or where the weird goat-demons come from.
A lot of chatter online has been suggesting that Space Marine 2 is only worth it for fans of the franchise, and while there’s lots of greebly detail to obsess over I think it’s actually the opposite. The game excels at selling the surface details, the heft of your marines and the scale of setting, but falls short of delivering really juicy combat or interesting narrative. There’s clearly a lot of intended replayability through PvE and PvP modes the developers have said they intend to build on, but I just don’t know if I’m going to be engaged enough by the combat to keep coming back. When it shines, Space Marine 2 can be really good but there’s just a few too many irritating flaws to recommend it as much as I want to.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Embody the superhuman skill and brutality of a Space Marine. Unleash deadly abilities and devastating weaponry to obliterate the relentless Tyranid swarms. Defend the Imperium in spectacular third-person action in solo or multiplayer modes.
Gorgeous visuals and loving attention detail make Space Marine 2 an immersive treat, but a few irritating flaws make the combat more frustrating than empowering.
- Dear Developers, Give me a Salamanders cosmetic pack and all will be forgiven.
- I spent entirely too much time just walking over barrels and other physics objects just to watch them bounce around.
- Someone mentioned a survival-horror where you play a guardsman, and I can't help think about what other genres you could fit into the setting. F-Zero with Eldar Jetbikes? Lemmings with Tyranids?
Published: Sep 18, 2024 03:00 pm