Image: Focus Entertainment
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a pulse-pounding, gory slugfest and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
A sequel to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine has been on many a gamer’s wishlist since its release in 2011. This year, developer Saber Interactive is finally making that dream come true with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a sequel that allows players to team up in co-op multiplayer to take down hordes upon hordes of Tyranids as superpowered Ultramarines. It also brings back Titus, the previous game’s protagonist, albeit without Mark Strong reprising his role.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 almost fully delivers on its very specific power fantasy: controlling juiced-up supersoldiers who wield weapons of mass destruction on an interstellar battlefield, all in the hopes of ending an unending war. While its controls are as frustrating as its squadmate AI when played solo, the game’s chunky gore, powerful weapons and dazzling environments cement it as a quintessential Warhammer experience.
What is this game about again?
Few shooter campaigns are as spectacular as Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2’s. This game puts players in the Power Armour of Captain Demetrian Titus, gamely portrayed by Viking’s Clive Standen, who replaces Mark Strong in the role. When we last saw the Ultramarine, he had volunteered for service in the Deathwatch following his imprisonment over suspected heresy. He remains in a Deathwatch squad for almost a century after the events of the first game, but a disastrous mission leaves him its sole survivor. He undergoes a process called Rubicon Primaris to save his life and essentially Hulks out into an even stronger version of his former self.
The rest of the campaign sees Titus placed in charge of a squad of Ultramarines and sent on a mission to halt the Tyranid invasion of a planet called Kadaku. Titus’ chequered past brings its own set of complications to his new role as a Lieutenant Primaris Marine, however. His catty squadmates frequently cast doubt on his leadership abilities as they learn more about him, leading to some potentially interesting drama between the trio - but this plotline is discarded as quickly as it is introduced, leaving its very inclusion desultory at best.
Where Space Marine 2's campaign gets bogged down by haphazard plotting and forgettable characters, it also excels at creating eye-popping large set pieces and painting them with vivid imagery of a bloody interstellar war. You might forget the names of nearly every character in this game who isn’t Titus, but you will not forget charging into battle with your fellow Ultramarines for one last stand, or following a lumbering Dreadnought mech as it tears buildings and monsters apart in sheer indignance. Rooms are populated with misshapen corpses, statues explode to smithereens in the midst of war, and tanks come rolling down the hills to blow the hell out of whatever Tyranids the Ultramarines have seen fit to leave alive.
The power fantasy of curb-stomping thousands of Tyranids to death per hour is compelling stuff in gameplay, and this game executes it so well. Guns are huge, chunky and powerful enough to lay waste to battlefields of monsters in the blink of an eye. I’m partial to the shotgun-like Melta, which makes fighting Tyranids feel like playing whack-a-mole with a sledgehammer. Plenty of weapon variety also ensures that you have plenty of ways to bring these monsters down, though switching between them can be a frustrating experience. Pressing the down button to switch between primary and secondary weapons doesn't feel intuitive in the heat of battle, and one also has to juggle executions, melee attacks and abilities to stay alive.
Space Marine 2 is a true visual spectacle on top of how meaty and satisfying its combat is, with expansive levels that often had me wishing I could just pause all the fighting to take in the view. Some indoor levels emulate a meat grinder, with hordes of Tyranids piling on top of one another in narrow spaces like ducks in a barrel. Outdoor levels are somehow more frantic, with monsters of all shapes and sizes coming at players from multiple angles. On higher difficulties, learning the way maps flow and memorising the locations of ammo caches and weapons is key to survival.
The downside to the fast-paced structure of this campaign is that anyone who was hoping to use Space Marine 2 as a springboard to jump into this franchise will be left overwhelmed and confused. The campaign does next to nothing to bring players up to speed on not only the basics of its overarching lore, but the events that led to Titus being brought back from the dead, only to remain a controversial figure among his peers. I would recommend playing the first game before this one, but belay that homework if you’re just here to run around and shoot some Tyranids in the face. No amount of lore is needed to enjoy how satisfying that feels here.
Time to smash Tyranid skulls
Here’s the thing: not everyone is going to be happy about the way Space Marine 2 handles its Tyranid-busting Ultramarine power fantasy, and that’s okay. In the months leading up to this game’s release, players have pointed out how weak certain weapons - like the Plasma Pistol and Bolter - feel in-game, but I view this game’s approach to canon the way I view Baldur’s Gate 3. Is it wholly faithful to all the story material and lore that came before it? Perhaps not. Is it faithful enough? I think so.
Space Marine 2 hails from the developer of World War Z, and it’s easy to tell from the get-go. Saber Interactive has taken World War Z's impressive horde AI and used it to create massive swarms of hivelike Tyranid hordes. They even clamber on top of one another to scale walls, just like the zombies from World War Z, Saber Interactive's other title that featured hordes of enemies. However, this game also inherits a common issue many had with World War Z: poor NPC AI.
Players who take on the campaign in co-op multiplayer likely won’t face this problem, but anyone who goes at it solo will have a hard time with higher difficulties. If an objective calls for more complicated tactics than run-and-gun shooting, which marks the extent of your AI teammates’ capabilities, then you can safely assume the Tyranids have the advantage. Defending objectives from harm isn’t in their nature, so it’s up to you to shoulder the work of three people.
Space Marine 2 has two performance modes on PlayStation 5: a Visual Mode that favours higher resolution at 30fps, and an oddly-named Speed Mode that targets 60fps with a lower resolution. Thankfully, both modes were perfectly adequate here, with no annoying framerate drops in either mode or noticeable visual tradeoffs in the 60fps mode. It really can’t be understated just how impressive that is in a game that appears to be this technically demanding, in terms of the sheer level of detail contained within some of its larger levels and the density of its Tyranid hordes.
However, I did notice a few audio issues throughout my playthrough - namely missing sound effects or poor mixing, like massive doors that would fall to the floor with all the crushing weight of a dropped Oreo. Weapons look and sound excellent however, from the massive explosions doled out by a Melta to the devastating force of the Thunder Hammer when it meets the skulls of unfortunate Tyranids.
A note on Space Marine 2's multiplayer modes
Space Marine 2 has an impressive suite of multiplayer modes at launch. You can (and should) take on the campaign in co-op multiplayer, try the three-player PvE Operations mode or take on your fellow battle brothers in the 6v6 PvP mode Eternal War. For the sake of transparency, I was not able to play Eternal War for this review, as the game couldn’t populate a match with enough players each time I tried to access it. One should note that a 6v6 multiplayer beta for Space Marine 2 was canned shortly before launch, meaning that this mode is now going out completely untested by the general public.
I did get to test out the three-player Operations mode with other players at least, but this experience was a little shaky. Space Marine 2 replaces missing players on your Operations team with bots, and that can greatly impact the flow of its matches. While I did manage to get real players on my team most of the time, I also had to deal with a few bumbling bot squadmates along the way. I also experienced really bad ping in this mode, causing technical issues during gameplay like objectives taking a while to pop up and enemies stuttering across the map before getting blasted away by unseen forces.
All of this means that I can’t speak for the game’s technical performance in its multiplayer modes, which could end up making or breaking the game over the next few months. If everything goes right and these multiplayer modes launch flawlessly - and its character classes are well-balanced in PvP, which I doubt - then this will go down as not just one of the best games of the year, but one of the best Warhammer experiences available. As it stands, this is still a fantastic Warhammer game, but one that hinges on its multiplayer modes for replayability.
I will say that Operations mode is a ton of fun, especially when played with others. Here, you get to play as a separate team of Ultramarines working in the background to pave the way for the success of Titus' missions. Getting to choose between six character classes and building different weapons and cosmetic loadouts makes PvE missions thoroughly satisfying to master. There are multiple Ultramarine playstyles available here via classes ranging from Heavy to Tactical, with each class also having a perk system to progress through. This gives the Operations mode more replayability than its meagre number of levels would afford, and pushes players towards PvP to test their kits out.
Verdict
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 boasts a spectacular campaign with huge battles, dizzyingly ambitious setpieces and a palpable love for the sprawling universe it draws inspiration from. Its story comes off rudderless at times, its characters appear stiff and unchanging, and the ending of the campaign borders on anticlimactic, but sending hordes of Tyranids packing in tightly-designed levels against gorgeous sci-fi backdrops never gets old. Additional modes like Operations and Eternal War (the latter of which we didn’t have the opportunity to test) can only add replayability to an already immensely satisfying package.
The Emperor would be proud.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 launches on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC on September 9, 2024. We received a copy of the game for this review. The above review score is based on this game's campaign, as we did not get to properly test out its multiplayer modes before launch.