Thursday, September 5, 2024, 09:58
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If you had told Rick Priestley and Andy Chambers in 1987 that their futuristic adaptation of the miniatures game ‘Warhammer Fantasy Battle’ could transcend to the tabletop, they probably wouldn’t have believed you. This franchise appears in all facets of culture: in literature (it has more than sixty novels to its credit); in cinema, with the British film ‘Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie’; or even in music, where we find Death Metal bands influenced by ‘Warhammer 40K’ such as the Anglo-Saxon Bolt Thrower or, more recently, the Spanish Teratoma.
Developed by Saber Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a sequel to the first installment released in September 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. This time we play as Lieutenant Titus of the Ultramarines in a well-developed but unsurprising story, throughout a campaign that will take us about 12 to 14 hours to complete. The game can be played both cooperatively and solo, accompanied by two bots that will come to our aid to prevent us from dying dishonorably.
The plot is set in a crescendo adorned with good cinematics, which, together with a gameplay that is as fun as it is spectacular, rounds out a product that stands out for its epicness and respect for the franchise’s die-hard fans. The graphics are very well done and the artistic direction is outstanding: wherever we look, we see Warhammer 40K in every detail of the scenarios.
The combat system deserves a special section, as it is very accessible: before spending our life bar, the different armor cells must be depleted. And although throughout the title we will find the classic first aid kits, these will not restore it. The people at Saber Interactive have opted for the option of having to ‘soften’ the enemies to finally execute them through different and bloody animations, just by pressing a stick (‘R3’ on PS5). The result is practical and very satisfying. To finish off a huge amount of enemies, we have a vast arsenal, although we will always be limited to carrying a pistol, a medium-long range weapon and the one that, without a doubt, we will use the most: a sword. The most negative aspect is the repetitiveness of the missions: you advance to an area and clear it of enemies; you advance to another and more of the same… With some exceptions in which we will have to take an area, for example. If you’ve played ‘Aliens: Fireteam Elite’ (also distributed by Focus) you’ll notice that the missions are very similar. In this sense, I think the industry is starting to lack originality, or in other words, ideas when it comes to creating cooperative action games, especially shooters.
Once the story is over, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 really begins. In addition to the campaign, there are two modes. The first (PVE) is called ‘Operations’ and houses six missions that complement the events that occurred during the main plot (at the moment it remains to be seen whether more will be added, since the game has a season pass). Thus, we will have to face hordes of Tyranids and complete a series of objectives, while choosing one of the six existing classes: Strategist, Assault, Vanguard, Bastion, Sniper and Heavy. Depending on the choice, we will have some skills or others (I haven’t mentioned it, but during the main story we will use a couple of them). Each class also has its own tree of advantages, which will be unlocked as we level up. If we don’t decide which one to take on at first, we will have a series of tests at our disposal that will serve as training for each class. In this mode we can also customize the appearance of our armor, unlocking items as we gain experience (something that will undoubtedly make us want to keep playing). But what about weapons? Likewise, each weapon will have an upgrade tree, as well as aesthetic customization: we will only have to play and complete the stages with them. The more we use them, the more experience we will gain for that weapon.
The second mode in question (PVP) is ‘Total War’, in which we can face each other in epic battles with up to 12 players (6 versus 6, in the classic ‘Annihilation’, ‘Takeover’ or ‘Capture and Control’ modes). However, the fun offered by this title is more focused on cooperative action.
In short, Space Marine 2 is a great game of unbridled action with art that will undoubtedly delight Warhammer 40K fans. It gains many points thanks to a campaign (excellently dubbed into Spanish) full of fan service, which pays attention to every detail to meet expectations. However, it remains to be seen how development evolves: what additions those responsible for the title implement and how the gaming community reacts. Not in vain, the market is starting to be a little saturated with this type of cooperative proposals, very similar to each other.
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