Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has landed at a particularly interesting point in my life. I’ve never really considered myself a huge Warhammer 40,00 fan, and only really dabbled in certain games like the original Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and even the more recent Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, simply because they appealed to me from a gameplay perspective.
Recently, however, I happened to fall into various conversations with friends regarding the broader lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and am simply loving it conceptually. As a result, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has almost topped my list of the most anticipated games of 2024.
We got the chance to check out a preview build of the experience, due next month on the 9th of September, which contained portions of both the campaign and the PvE Opertaions mode which sees you taking on smaller, standalone missions to build and customise your very own Space Marine. While we can’t wait to chew on a bigger slice of this pie, we’re certainly pleased with everything this is shaping up to be thus far.
Defenders of Humanity
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 puts players in the gigantic boots of Captain Demetrian Titus, the protagonist of the first game and now biopic by Clive Standen. Without spoiling too much, Titus is fighting against his past of corruption and punishment at the hands of his superiors, while being called upon once again to fight a threat in the enemy Tyranids he knows only too well.
While I’m sure there are bigger things at play here, including his new surgery and transition to A Primaris Marine (a larger and more powerful breed of Space Marine), we only got a glimpse at the game’s first main story mission.
The first thing you’ll notice about the game in general, both from a gameplay and cinematic perspective, is how big you are compared to everything else. An empowering sense of scale and a feeling of weight continues through the entire experience. These marines are not something you see every day in this universe, and it’s great to see how regular human soldiers around you stop what they’re doing and react to your mere presence.
Moving through crumbling buildings and looking up to see waves of Tyranids across the sky sets the tone so well, and it all looks gorgeous. I played this on PC, with an older 11th-gen Intel i7 CPU and an RTX 3070 GPU, and it ran quite well for the most part, given everything that happens on screen at a given time. Within minutes, you’re taking on swarms of Tyranid waves and blasting hives from existence.
There’s an impressive amount of enemies on screen and a solid variety of smaller and larger Tyranid enemies, some of which attack you head-on, and some that hand back and pick you off with their organic firearms. From a gameplay perspective, it all feels incredibly satisfying. Gunplay feels the best, and I would recommend playing this with a PlayStation DualSense controller for that extra immersion from the thud of your footsteps and the stiff trigger of your Bolter.
Chainsword at the Ready
Combat feels as familiar as something akin to Gears of War without the cover mechanics, but this is countered by the inclusion of melee combat, much like the first Space Marine game. It’s certainly functional and I love the Chainsword, as you combine light attacks by pressing the right bumper button or holding it for heavy attacks.
Enemies will also display various coloured indicators when attacking, as blue indicators mean an enemy is about to lunge towards you and can be grabbed, while red indicators mean an attack has to be dodged entirely.
While the mechanics are fast and fluid, the real weight of combat is lost in translation with the sheer amount of enemies on screen, as you begin to lose that feeling of coordination and instead begin swinging wildly with little to no feedback at what you’re actually killing. It’s only really when you’re absolutely inundated with enemies, but as this can happen often, it gets a little too chaotic for its own good.
That being said, it’s incredibly competent, and the gunplay feels that much more responsible as a result. You can even throw various explosives about for good measure, and even activate certain special abilities, some of which are activated throughout various points in the mission.
For example, I initially could trigger a rage mode which gives your attacks extra damage in combat. But later on in that same mission, it was replaced with the ability to use a jetpack to reach higher areas. It seems like you’ll be using certain abilities that the level demands, although we need to see more in order to confirm this.
Thankfully, at close quarters you can even execute weaker enemies that are highlighted in red, and this is a joy every time, nailing the feeling of being a brute force of anything but nature. When it all comes together, it just feels right, and its moment-to-moment gameplay beckons you to dive in and wreak havoc whenever possible.
Space Marine 2 simply feels familiar in all the best ways, and I can see this becoming an essential game within the Warhammer 40K library thus far, as a result of how satisfying and downright bonkers combat is at every turn.
Slay Together
I spent most of my time with the cooperative “Operations” mode, which see you and two other buddies rampaging through dedicated missions with their own unique objectives. It also gave me a chance to try out six different classes of Marines including the Ultramarine, Assualt or Tactical Marine, and I can see this taking up most of your time in the long run.
You’ll be able to unlock various armour colours and accessories, along with liveries from various Marine Chapters. You’ll be able to level up one of three primary weapons for each class, and if you’ve played Helldivers 2 before, will feel right at home with this more manageable, but seized gameplay loop. While the objectives are relatively straightforward, each of the six missions I played took place on a different planet, each with its own unique environment.
The Warhammer 40K universe might be almost infinitely large at this point, and the variety of locations helps the more simplistic mission structure from feeling repetitive and stale. To top it all off, you can play this mode and even the entire campaign mode in groups of three, which is a nice touch.
I unfortunately never got the chance to play with others and instead relied on the AI. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great either. While they help in combat at times, they’re also subject to standing around at certain points where they could be moving towards your objective with you.
While we didn’t get the chance to unlock or customise much, I can see this mode taking up a huge chunk of time down the track, given there are so many unblockable rewards up for grabs. There is also a 6v6 PvP mode, although we didn’t get the chance to try it as part of this preview build.
Final Thoughts
Through functional and satisfying gameplay and gorgeous visuals, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is shaping up to be not only one of the more exciting action games of the year but one of the best games in this long-running franchise that has spanned tabletop and virtual experiences alike.
The Operations mode will most likely keep fans around for the long run thanks to its various classes, weapons and customisation options, but I certainly want to see Space Marine 2 lock into its cinematic story, as we got an incredible first impression there. While we don’t score our previews, we can safely say, that we’re eagerly waiting for the return of Captain Demetrian Titus.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PC on the 9th of September, 2024. Stay tuned for our review closer to release.
