There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who live and breathe Warhammer, and those who have never really ventured into the sprawling fictional world. My good friend and Gamereactor UK writer Alex Hopley falls into the former category, while I’ve always leaned more towards the latter. Still, at this year’s Gamescom, I found myself spending a fair amount of time at Focus Entertainment’s booth, where I got to play Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II first-hand.
Just because I’m not a great Warhammer guy doesn’t mean I’m inexperienced in this world. I’ve played Vermintide 2, Dark Tide, Chaos, and a few others, but that’s just how interested I am in Warhammer. However, I will say that of all the times and places that have existed in the Warhammer universe, the age of futurism and sci-fi has always piqued my interest. Being put in the shoes of a 10-foot-tall, one-ton man and being asked to single-handedly make his way through hordes of aliens always resonated with me, and probably a good chunk of other lads as well. So, despite not being a huge Warhammer fan, Space Marine 2 seemed like the perfect game for me.
Coming from Saber Interactive, the very same developers who gave us World War Z and its fantastic horde mechanic (which is obviously useful in this game), Space Marine 2 is a little better than the previous Space Marine title, no doubt due to its age Someone has a chance to play. This sequel puts players back in the shoes of Space Marine Titus as he returns to the battlefield to help humanity fend off the evil and seemingly endless hordes of tyrants who are taking over the galaxy.
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This game has a very important and clear story at its core, which was felt throughout the demo I played. Titus travels around helping humanity where he is needed, all with his two ultramarine brothers Chair and Gadriel, admittedly the demo doesn’t do much to emphasize the narrative, but it’s clear that the story looks to cover Some key elements will include Titus’ parentage and how that sets him apart from his comrades.
To be honest, when I sat down to play the demo, it wasn’t a narrative I was excited to experience. I’m more interested in looking at the gameplay, and how Saber maintains a balance of difficulty and being a bio-tank as a bio-tank to build and breed to kill. From my testing, it looks like Saber is on the path to making this game a serious challenge. Even on the lowest difficulty level, I often found myself overwhelmed by the tyrant, desperate for healing items. Although Titus is protected by bulky and tough armor and has chainsaw swords and far-end weapons to protect himself, Tyranids are tough opponents, if you are too happy or give in to bloodthirsty and no caution sneak in as hard as they can and they’ll put you at a disadvantage.
The action is intense and relentless. At the end of the opening movie, you’ll be locked into combat until you reach the end of a level, and the only respite for sawing and blasting thousands of tyrants comes in the form of brief areas in which you can Stock up on ammo, or switch weapons. Then it’s back to the action of killing, or more likely, fighting for your life.
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As I mentioned before, Saber’s experience creating enemy hordes in World War Z came to the fore instantly. Your screen will be flooded with tyrants that flow like body parts, and the process of cutting them down isn’t so much about skill and accuracy as about managing their attacks and strategically blasting them as they climb walls. to defeat the Horde and so on. Just judging by how many enemies can be onscreen at once, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Space Marine 2 will end up being a pretty demanding game in a performance sense, especially since the graphics are so impressive.
But just because Saber has nailed what it’s like to be a Space Marine, and also seems to crack how to make the action relentless and a little stressful, doesn’t mean I found Space Marine 2 to be a home run. In fact, it seems to me that the game lives and dies by its Space Marine fantasy. If you’re tired of just swiping and shooting arguably the same enemy types, then suddenly Space Marine 2 loses a lot of its charm. I wish the full version would have been different, but the demo was severely lacking in weapon options, featured an almost entirely linear level, and suggested that the control scheme and available mechanics were a bit like one-trick ponies. If you strip out the visual effects and clan system that screams modern technology by allowing hundreds of enemies to render onscreen at once, Space Marine 2 often feels like a game stuck in the mid-2010s.
I really wish the demo I played was a scaled-down version of the game, because there’s a lot of potential between Saber’s Horde feature and the thrilling Warhammer Space Marine era. The allure of putting on Space Marine’s combat boots is like nothing else and that alone will undoubtedly bring a lot of fans to this game, but for it to really stick to the ground and stand out in the action genre, I think Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II needs a few extras to boost it. Hopefully Saber has been preparing for this.