Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Review - For the Hordes

"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." So goes the infamous Warhammer 40,000 opening screen, but if you want to understand Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2, it's not the far future to which you must journey. Instead, you must travel to the not-so-distant past.

Specifically, you should go back to the seventh console generation, the days of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. That's where Space Marine 2 dwells, which is appropriate enough given it's the sequel to a game from that very era.

Unlike the Tyranids that Demetrian Titus faces, Space Marine 2 seems fairly content not evolving too significantly. It offers the same kind of hack-and-slash-come-shooter thrills you'll find in the original, but there are a few new quirks here that alter the formula, for better and for worse.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Feels Like a Throwback

Pretty much every facet of Space Marine 2 feels like a callback to the era that spawned its progenitor. 

It's got everything you'd expect from an early-2010s third-person shooter: boxy, two-dimensional level design, a Halo-style regenerating armor system, and big manly men in power armor murdering scores upon scores of monstrosities.

I'll try to avoid starting every sentence in this review with "much like the first game", but it'll be difficult, because Space Marine 2 often comes across like more of a remake than a sequel, albeit one with Tyranids in place of the first game's Orks.

If you've played Space Marine, you'll know the drill. You and your two Space Marine buddies must journey to various vast, imposing Imperial facilities to dispatch droves of Tyranids in combat that veers between ranged blasting and up-close-and-personal chainsword speed dating.

You'll have a variety of weapons to choose from, but you can only carry two guns at a time (plus, occasionally, a third heavy weapon), and your objectives are pretty much exclusively "press that button", "fall off that ledge", or "ride that elevator".

I'm on record as a fan of throwback Xbox 360-era shooters, though; I was a big fan of Evil West, and so it's no surprise that Space Marine 2 offered similar comforts. For all its flaws (and it has many), I enjoyed immersing myself in the nostalgia of a bygone era with Saber and Focus' game.

Much like with Evil West, Space Marine 2's lack of modern trappings reads like a refreshing return to basics. You won't find a skill tree (except in the multiplayer mode), and there's no open world to be seen. Instead, it's just you, your enemies, and the holy wargear blessed by the Emperor.

Combat in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is Fun, but Awkward

That's not to say there's nothing new here at all. While the combat closely resembles that of the original Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, Saber has seen fit to throw in a couple of innovations, not least a system that has you dodging and parrying enemies based on colored prompts.

This system is perhaps the biggest change from the original, so I'm sad to report that it never quite felt right to me. 

When a particularly big Tyranid (or Chaos Marine later on) approaches with designs on your gene-seed, they'll throw out attacks that must either be dodged or parried, which generally works fine when you're one-on-one. 

The problem here is that's not really how Space Marine 2's combat works. At any given moment, you'll be facing off against scores upon scores of slavering monsters, and watching for parry or dodge symbols in chaos (no pun intended) like that is difficult.

There's also the issue that in order to lend a sense of weight to proceedings, your Space Marines' attacks are heavy and ponderous, which means you'll often be locked into animations and blindsided by a parry or dodge prompt you've got no way of responding to.

In practice, I found that this system resulted in just waiting for enemies to strike and reacting appropriately, which didn't feel very 'Space Marine'. I'm supposed to be charging in for the glory of the Emperor, not gloomily hoping Lictor-senpai will notice me so I can return its flirtations.

Happily, hacking through hordes of Tyranids or Chaos cultists still feels great. The chainsword still packs a real punch, and the bolters feel exactly as heavy and impactful as they should, which is a big plus in Space Marine 2's favor.

If Space Marine 2 had leant further into its power fantasy strengths and ditched the parry system, I'd be wholeheartedly recommending it. As it stands, though, this system feels to me like a strange, clunky imposition rather than a game-changer.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Has a Great Sense of Place

Between fights in Space Marine 2, you'll mostly be wandering through ruined industrial facilities, religious buildings, and swampy jungles. There's not a lot to do when you're not carving up enemies, but that feels appropriate; these are the Emperor's chosen, after all. They're not administrative assistants.

Developer Saber has done a great job of rendering 40k's oppressive, almost comically brutal world writ large. Interiors have that unique 40k mix of claustrophobia and grandiosity, and when things open up, some of Space Marine 2's vistas are truly jaw-dropping.

The characters, too, look great. Titus and his Ultramarine compatriots feel like walking suits of armor, tech-priests look appropriately alien, and when Chaos Marines join the fray, the alien otherness of the Immaterium feels genuinely intimidating.

If you love the immersive, grimy maps of Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, or even the cold industrial environments of something like Mechanicus, then you'll likely appreciate what Saber and Focus have done with Space Marine 2's worlds.

It's a good thing the environments look so pretty, too, because the story that takes place in them is utterly unremarkable and bog-standard. Titus remains a fairly flat and boring protagonist, and the best Space Marine 2 can manage in terms of character arcs is the old, tired "I have come to trust you as my leader" trope.

To be fair to Saber and Focus, some of that is down to the material. Space Marines aren't exactly the most exciting characters in the 40k setting, after all; they're stoic fascist enforcers, so obviously, they're not going to be cracking wise every few minutes.

Still, I feel like Space Marine 2 is less engaging on this level than its predecessor. That may also be down to the choice of enemies. Tyranids are much less charismatic than Orks, so it's less fun to cut through their ranks.

On that front, there's a very, very cruel tease towards the end of the story that threatens to make things far more interesting, but Space Marine 2 is over before it can go anywhere with said tease. Better wait for Space Marine 3, I suppose...

Try Not to Play Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Alone

Throughout the entirety of Space Marine 2, I got the sense that Saber and Focus really, really didn't want me to play alone.

The campaign offers support for two extra players who take the roles of Titus' squadmates Gadriel and Chairon, and there are also a range of extra missions designed to fill in some of the gaps in Space Marine 2's story (just six at time of writing, but more are promised).

While the campaign can largely be enjoyed solo, those aforementioned missions pretty much carry the prerequisite of playing with others. It's possible to experience them with bots at your side, but they're clearly designed for multiplayer.

Space Marine 2 positions these missions as optional, but given that they feature entire boss encounters that you won't find in the main campaign, I have a sinking suspicion they were cut from the story in order to shore up the multiplayer offering.

The missions themselves are perfectly fine. They offer more of Space Marine 2's indiscriminate xenos murder, and there aren't many cutscenes to interrupt the action either.

The aforementioned unique encounters are also great; they play to Space Marine 2's strengths, although they, too, are better with other players rather than bots.

I'm just not sure how much longevity Space Marine 2 has as a live service-adjacent game.

Focus and Saber have promised it will feature no microtransactions, and a robust roadmap has also been put in place for the next year. Six missions feels a touch paltry, though, and I can see players getting tired of Space Marine 2's straightforward, no-frills action sooner than the two studios might envisage.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Review | Final Thoughts

Never was a game more appropriately named than Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. It feels very much like "another Space Marine game", so if you enjoyed what the first one had to offer, you'll probably get along with this one as well.

That does, however, prompt the question of whether waiting 13 years for something that feels so similar to its predecessor was worth it. I'm a big fan of the first Space Marine, but honestly, I was hoping for a little more movement than this.

Nevertheless, Space Marine 2 has its thrills. At its best, it's uncomplicated, horde-slaying fun, and it offers a fascinatingly well-rendered look at the 40k universe. That may well be enough for you, and if so, you'll find a lot to like here.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was reviewed on PC with a copy provided by the developer over the course of around 14 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.