Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Review

 

"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." Well, war and some of the coolest imagery that I've ever seen. The Warhammer 40k setting is one of the most unique universes that has ever been dreamt up, as far as I'm concerned. It's about humanity, as it exists forty thousand years in the future, and we're locked in eternal conflict with other alien races and empires. But, the major element here that really sets 40k apart from any other science fiction stories is the intense focus on a religious cult that has gripped the human race. The "Emperor of Mankind" was an all-powerful psychic warrior who had a grand vision for humanity as we sought to conquer the stars. The Emperor with his immense, god-like, psychic powers is also protecting mankind from a host of demonic entities and gods that live in a dimension called The Warp, or the Immaterium. 

 

These Chaos gods seek to spread their influence by tainting and poisoning the sentient, warp-sensitive races' minds. Eventually, the Emperor is betrayed by his most trusted soldier, Horus, who has been seduced by Chaos, and a massive schism happens within the Imperium of Man, leading to large swaths of the Emperor's worlds and chapters of Space Marines to fall to the darkness. The more dire consequence of the Horus Heresy, is that it leads to the physical death of the Emperor. He is kept superficially alive by sacrificing countless lives and energy to his corpse, which is affixed to a semi-magical throne that keeps him alive just enough to tap into his all-important psychic abilities. These universe-defining events happened in the past tense in Warhammer 40k. Most of the story takes place in this universe where the Emperor has been dead for ten thousand years already. A cult of hero worship formed in the eons after his death, partially from superstition and fear of the warp daemons and Chaos, but also in reverence for the way that even in death, he is keeping the extinction of humanity at bay. This religion that was birthed from his death has turned the Imperial society into a deeply devout people who invoke the Emperor's name like we would Jesus. Every inch of Imperial society is bedecked in religious iconography and imagery. It looks a lot like a science fiction version of the Roman Catholic Church. It's just a fascinating, incredibly distinct visual aesthetic and fuels a vast majority of the incredible stories that take place in the Warhammer 40k setting.

 

 

 

Space Marine 2 is obviously the sequel to the original Space Marine, which I reviewed last year, and interestingly enough, this game was developed and published by completely different teams from the first game. To be honest, I never expected to get a Space Marine successor after all of these years. I remember watching the livestream with some other friends who are even bigger Warhammer 40k fans than I am, and when Space Marine 2 got revealed, the psychic scream of excitement that escaped from me was so loud and so powerful that I could've killed the Emperor myself. I was such a diehard zealot for the first game and told everyone I knew about it, like St. Paul wandering the ancient world. I just couldn't believe how cool Space Marine was, and we were finally getting a sequel. So, you're probably wondering, does Space Marine 2 hold up to the immense standards that I had for it? Oh yeah. The Emperor would be pleased.

 

 The easiest way to sell you on Space Marine 2 is by just simply stating the thesis: this is a bigger, gorier, grittier, authentic follow-up to the original game. Changing developers and publishers for a sequel can be a real gamble, but Focus and Saber absolutely crushed it. The iconic combat is back in a big way. You can fire your bolter at range, blowing Tyranid heads clean off or culling the swarm of smaller enemies so that you can prepare for the real meat and potatoes of the action - glorious melee carnage. Titus can be equipped with the famous chainsword (one of the coolest sword variants out there, maybe tied with Squall's gunblade) to saw through the monstrous horde of xenos scum. There are also two awesome blade options: a short, but agile combat knife and the sleek, highly lethal Power Sword. Or he can go for the blunt option and just smash them to bits with a Thunder Hammer. You are regularly provided options throughout a mission to swap out your guns and melee weapons to suit whatever tools of destruction that you might be craving. I think the Power Sword felt the most satisfying, and I really enjoy the aesthetic of it, especially when paired with a hulking shield as part of a Bladeguard's arsenal in the lore.

 

Image Credit: Shacknews

 The combat often felt like you were wading into a sea of Tyranid beasts; the waves of teeth and bladed limbs threatening to push you under and not let you back up; your bloodthirsty weapons carving and hewing through them, keeping you above the surface if you're good enough and quick enough to counter when prompted. You can eviscerate small enemies two or three at a time, no problem. But, each time a horde comes at you, there are stronger Tyranids in the mix as well that take considerably more patience, skill and effort to take down. You can parry some attacks, which leave enemies open for a cinematic, close-up killshot with your sidearm. You can also dole out enough damage to them that they're staggered and dazed. At that point, they are highlighted in red and there is an "Execute" prompt, where you can go into a brief cinematic kill animation. These executions never get old. They feel so good, especially if an enemy has been a real nuisance. You also have an ability that you can activate, called Righteous Fury, which boosts your damage output and refills your health with each attack that you land. Righteous Fury saved my life countless times in the thick of a real skirmish.

 

Image Credit: TheGamer

The story picks up at least a century after the events of Space Marine. Titus was tortured by the Inquisition after the events of the first game and was finally freed and offered a return to the Ultramarines. He felt shame about what happened and doesn't want to besmirch the Ultramarine chapter with his controversy, so he takes a position with the Deathwatch as a form of penance. The Deathwatch is comprised of multiple chapters of Astartes who hunt xenos threats. Titus with his Deathwatch squad is sent to Kadaku, a jungle planet that is home to an important Adeptus Mechanicus facility, to answer a distress call. They are attacked by Tyranids while attempting to land and Titus is the only one to survive. He is evacuated and brought up to an Ultramarine ship in orbit and offered again his position back in the chapter, which he accepts this time. He is stationed as the head of a new squad comprised of himself and two other Space Marines: Gadriel and Chairon. 

 

I don't think any of the main cast is particularly rich in characterization or personality. They're not uninteresting, and you could maybe chalk up their reserved nature to the Astartes being appropriately stoic, but you can tell combat was the focus of the game over the writing, which is okay. In the interest of being succinct and not spoiling too much, I'll not go into complete detail on the plot. The squad travels across a few different planets, each incredibly distinct from the last. Their mission is to get an Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priest to safety, so that he can continue to work on the mysterious, highly important "Project Aurora." Naturally, this is harder than it sounds for a team of highly-trained, genetically enhanced, super soldiers and various twists and turns unfold. The Tyranids prove to be a highly formidable enemy and the ever-present danger of Chaos once again rears its ugly head, adding a very considerable threat to the equation.

 

The jungle planet, Kadaku, got old to me pretty quickly. Exploring the Mechanicus facilities was interesting, but the environment felt repetitive, so I was excited to get to the other two planets. Avarax was really cool and a marked difference from anything else we've seen. It's a proper Imperial hive world with sky-high buildings, grand cathedrals, and architecture that you can imagine would be typical for wealthier human worlds. The other planet is Demerium which is an Imperial burial world. This was also a very cool concept. What we see of the planet is a gloomy, appropriately dour, hilly terrain of mausoleums and untold millions of graves. I love the idea of an empire that is so vast and has lost so many people over the thousands of years that you have to essentially convert an entire world into a cemetery. I believe there are tons of burial planets too, Demerium is not the only one. I'd love to see some of these worlds explored further in Warhammer 40k games in the future.

 There are a few different game modes in Space Marine 2. While you are playing the campaign, there is a secondary story running in the background starring another squad of Space Marines. Titus' squad is running the main mission, while this second squad is handling critical side objectives. You can play through the second squad's adventure in the Operations game mode. Similarly to the main campaign, this story can be entirely played through in co-op with two other human players. There is also the Eternal War game mode, which is PVP. In Eternal War, you can heavily customize your Space Marine's class, chapter and design. There's a deep level of personalization that can be done, where you can alter pauldrons, helmets, greaves, armor decals, etc. 

I got my Dark Angel boy up and ready to unleash carnage upon the enemy. The various class options allow for the use of weapons and gear that don't appear in the campaign. Notably, the Storm Shield, which is a hallmark of the tanky, melee-focused Bulwark class. I love this, because as a Dark Angels fan, I'm already into their futuristic "tech-knight" aesthetic, so when I can go all in on that with a sword and shield, I'm really on cloud nine; living out my fantasy in the arena, coming up on foolish heretics and chopping them down or bashing their brains in with my hulking shield. I also can't commend Saber enough for including an old school multiplayer mode like this in the game. No live service, FOMO nonsense where they try to get you spending more money on time-limited skins or keep you glued to the game for hundreds of hours with battle pass missions. There's one Season Pass that you can buy outright to get the cosmetic DLC that they've added to the game, or you can buy the cosmetics separately. I really appreciate the purity of how they went about the multiplayer in this game.

 

Space Marine 2 has been an absolute blast to spend time with. The game is graphically gorgeous, with a staggering amount of detail put into the world. The wild gameplay is like nothing else, truly providing the most fun I've had with a game in years. Everything about Space Marine 2 is the product of a studio who cares about authenticity and crafting a wonderful, action-packed thrill-ride of a game from beginning to end. I'm still pinching myself that this game even exists, and the fact that we're now getting a third one feels like I'm living in a dream.

Special thanks to Saber Interactive for providing me with a free review copy.

VERDICT: Essential