Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 Review

Warhammer has become a juggernaut in the gaming industry over the last 15 years. There have been many releases from the IP, across multiple genres and by different developers. Despite its popularity, my encounters with it have been incidental and underwhelming. The retro-shooter Boltgun was fun enough, but both Hired Gun and Chaosbane were poor. And the first Space Marine from over 10 years ago bestowed me with a divine sense of apathy. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 does not change the status quo, and that might be a good thing if you are a devoted fan. Unfortunately its campaign features repetitive encounters against endless hordes, a boring story, and generic mission design. Co-operative play is not much better, with a lot of grinding to unlock gear, and the competitive action is not really worth trying. When it comes to Space Marine 2, there is a lot on screen but not all of it is good.

Titus is back and this time Tyranids are on the menu

The sequel once again stars Demetrian Titus, who has been serving in the Deathwatch for a hundred years, as penance for suspected heresy at the end of the first game. In the opening tutorial mission, Titus saves the day and is reinstated, then given command of two Ultramarines. The three of them are sent to help stop a Tyranid invasion and investigate an allied superweapon that was meant to remain a secret. Titus is also now a mega grump. His fellow marines press him about his past, but Titus either ignores them or tells them to shut up. This makes them cranky and they stop talking to him. So the narrative consists of three macho men not talking to each other, which makes for a great story.

The rest of the campaign focuses on objectives and is simple to follow. Players must restore gun emplacements, defend a generator from attack, and rescue key personnel. Later in the campaign, forces of Chaos get involved and feast their eyes on that superweapon while teleporting around. In between each mission, players visit the Battle Barge (a spaceship) to hear from their leader and optionally swap gear. There is more story on the Barge, as you can listen to the Chaplain talk about how Titus is forever tainted by his heretical actions. When you are ready, a dropship will take your squad to the fight.

Campaign levels are long and fairly linear, featuring regular groups of near-identical attackers and side rooms containing bland audio logs or supplies. Initially the action against the vicious Tyranids is fun, but it fades quickly due to repetition. Even the simple mission design resembles mediocre shooters from decades ago. Some objectives require players to hold an area, before they move over to a door, press a button, and do it all over again. While there are shades of Gears of War, variety is extremely limited across the nine hours. Despite the appearance of allied tanks and hulking combat walkers, players remain as a standard Ultramarine from start to finish. There are only three sections where you use the jump pack to dive bomb enemies from the air, but these are cut woefully short to prevent players from having too much fun.

Many people will want to jump straight into battle

The third-person combat is a mix of shooting and melee, with counter-based action prompts (QTEs) and a different health system from the previous game. In the campaign, players have three pips of armor that recharge after not taking damage for some time. Lose all of that armor and health will be next on the chopping block. While some health can be recovered by performing a counter quickly after armor is depleted, it will often be gained by using found medical stims or deploying a recharging ability that heals through melee attacks.

Since most battles throw dozens of enemies at the player, including pesky ranged attackers, armor quickly evaporates. Pings and screen indicators allow players to dodge or parry, although not all attacks create notifications, and counters are inconsistent. Missing a prompt will knock you down and leave you vulnerable. Likewise, when an enemy takes enough damage, they become staggered and can be executed to regenerate armor. Counters and executions make you temporarily impervious, which provides some relief, as enemies kindly wait for you to finish killing their friend. But it also takes a few seconds, allowing more danger to approach. In a roundabout way, the action is like Doom Eternal, where you are frequently using executions to stay in a prolonged fight. In tough situations, you might end up dodge-rolling like a Dark Souls player, waiting for a QTE to gain some ascendency.

There will be blood

Shooting does not always feel good, with many bullet sponge enemies that shrug off an entire clip. Some even have shields, blocking damage and encouraging melee attacks or counters. There is a powerful Melta rifle that acts like a flame shotgun and stuns as well, but its clip is small and range limited. So you will eventually get surrounded, and while some might like the intimate chaos, the action becomes a mess. It is hard to see what is going on when fodder enemies congregate at your feet. It is not fun to shoot armored foes from point blank and clunky to swing melee weapons that clip through enemies while you continue to take damage, so you might hope for divine intervention.

Help might come from the two AI companions, but don’t count on it. The AI soldiers do okay against smaller mobs and rather graciously leave staggered enemies so you can regularly bolster armor. But they sometimes get stuck and typically forget to shoot bosses. This may be why most tough foes devote every ounce of energy to the player, who must dodge and slowly chip away at their health while the AI companions stand and stare. Fortunately they are not bad enough to prevent completion of the campaign on normal, but prepare for hell at higher difficulties.

The campaign can be played co-operatively with two others (invite only) or you can matchmake into operations mode. The six operations are wholly new missions that run in tandem with the campaign and are integrated into the narrative, which is nice. Operation objectives are similar to the campaign and fairly standard for the genre. You search for items, defend on elevators, plant bombs, and press many buttons. One fiery boss has you running around activating matching sigils, and another operation required transferring a train on rotating tracks. Random swarms, slightly altered routes, different mini-bosses, and shifting supply boxes do add diversity, but it all plays much the same. Operations are also shorter than the campaign missions, taking around 20-30 minutes each.

Some people just want to watch the world burn

Unlike the campaign, where Titus is free to mix-n-match weapons, operations require players to pick from six classes, with limited arsenals—most only have one pistol. Each class does have a special ability not seen in the campaign, including a temporary ping to make enemies vulnerable and a banner that recharges armor, so there is some teamwork. Co-op groups of three cannot have two of the same class, so you may be stuck playing with a setup that is less than ideal and this is not great when weapons lack oomph anyway. The Heavy class has a chaingun that can fire continuously, and while this is fantastic, it can chew through the entire ammo reserve in one large wave. Sniper weapons do okay damage with headshots, but their clip size is pathetic. So for many classes, there is a lot of time spent looking for dark green ammo crates in dark grey environments.

Each class has their own perk tree and leveling system, and it is slow to unlock things. Perks might restore armor quicker, boost health, or enhance team defense. Leveling up weapons also unlocks buffs to make them slightly more accurate or increase clip size. Annoyingly, to access rarer guns that do significantly more damage, you must find unique items hidden in obscure corners of levels, and some are locked behind the hardest difficulty modes. You also need to use weapons a lot to access their next tier, so if you like the idea of grinding missions over and over, this game has you covered.

There are moments in co-op that almost make it worth the grind. It is satisfying when three players manage to hold a small area from a huge converging wave without losing health. In overwhelming scenarios, players near each other might be marching to their own QTE beat, which creates a glorious mosh pit of blood and viscera. Given the action intensity and propensity for player proximity, it is a good thing there is no friendly fire because my teammates would be full of holes.

Death comes quickly online and class abilities change the status quo

If shooting other players is what you crave, there is a competitive Eternal War mode that features 6 players per side, but it is the third wheel of the package. It only offers three maps, which are all generic open-air battle arenas, and three standard game modes. You play as a class from the co-op (two allowed per team) but there are thankfully no rare weapons or character-level perks. With some rock-paper-scissors balancing, all classes have their moment to shine. Armor and health regenerate fast, and armor strength varies based on class mobility and role. The recharging class abilities create abrupt shifts in power, and it can be smart to disengage momentarily. With or without abilities, it is usually quicker to kill a player compared to the medium sized mobs in the campaign. However, a few abilities, like Vanguard’s cheap grapple-stun, seemed detrimental to a shooting experience that felt punchier than co-op. Networking issues stand out more, sadly, with jittery movement and inconsistency for basic actions like melee, despite low pings. Overall, Eternal War is too barebones and it is hard to see it remaining popular.

At least the game is ordained with outstanding visuals. Textures are detailed and the environments look awesome, from the initial jungle areas, to the cavernous manufacturing facilities, and the city zones in various stages of destruction. The Ultramarines look super badass with their chunky armor, and you can customize armor color and heraldry in multiplayer. Graphically it is super crisp and the cool pre-rendered cutscenes are almost on Blizzard’s level. Thanks to the Swarm engine (World War Z) the game is able to showcase a lot of enemies on screen, and only occasionally did the framerate dip on ultra setting. Unfortunately the load times are incredibly long on an SSD. They take nearly a minute, including when navigating back to the Battle Barge or when the squad leader changes, which leads to a ridiculous amount of waiting across all modes. And that is if it even loads; many times it would disconnect or throw co-op squads into an empty Barge shell, unable to do anything except move and pray that it would eventually load.

Pray for shorter load times

Space Marine 2 is visually blessed but fails to impress. While the hectic combat can be fun, it often falls into the realm of obnoxious chaos. Dodging and parrying, mixed with frequent executions, becomes almost as tiring as the dreadfully repetitive and boring mission design. While the co-operative action has some natural appeal, playing with others does not accentuate the positives enough and it all feels like a crazy grind across just six short missions. Even the third-wheel competitive mode is shallow and not really worth playing. So despite featuring a great theatre of war packed with loads of foes, Space Marine 2’s limited defenses crumble in battle.