Does the Codex Astartes approve of Space Marine 2 or shall it be purged along with the heretic, the mutant and the unclean?
The combined efforts of Focus Entertainment and Saber Interactive (I still think Timeshift was a great game that more people should play) have delivered unto those deemed worthy by the God Emperor of manking Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. By the throne have we been waiting a long time for this, Space Marine 2 is the follow up to Relics Space Marine way back in 2011 and for those who’ve been stuck in the warp, both are hack and slash third person shooters.
Space Marine 2 reunites us with Demetrian Titus, a first born Ultramarine, it’s some 100 years since the events of the first game, without going to much into the plot of the original at the end of the game Titus is taken prisoner of the inquisitions Ordo Malleus and tortured, all the while unaware that his chapter master is petitioning for his release. Eventually cleared of taint Titus is regains his freedom but feels he has no home with his brothers in blue and instead serves the Emperor in the Deathwatch.
This is where Space Marine 2 begins, upon the planet Kadaku currently under invasion by the Tyranid menace. This mission ends with Titus being injured and subsequently crossing the Rubicon and becoming a Primaris space marine. Once the upgrade is complete it’s time to deal with the Xenos menace. As always I will avoid spoiling any of the actual plot but it would be remiss of me, especially as a huge 40k fan to not mention its quality. Every single aspect of the narrative, be that the wider plot, the character development right down to the dialogue between characters was perfect. Us tabletops nerds can be fiercely loyal to our Games Workshop properties (just ask someone if Magnus did anything wrong?). The correct amount of reverence was shown to the IP and thats somewhat of a rarity in the modern gaming space.
Gameplay is a frenzied gory orgy of violence that would surely draw the gaze of the blood god. While purging the foul Xenos foes can be split into 3 groups, bolter fodder, a challenge and bosses. Now is a good time to mention difficult, Space Marine 2 at the time of writing has 4 difficult options, Easy, Normal, Veteran and Angel of Death (with a 5th difficulty of Lethal coming via battle pass), I played the game on Veteran and I’d advise you all to do so. Veteran hits the sweet spot between the trans human power fantasy of becoming a Space Marine and representing the horror the great devour is held up to be in the fluff. Gaunts themselves are nothing, easily pulped by Bolter or rended into fleshy scraps by chainsword. However, letting them overwhelm you or ignoring them to impale a Warrior on it’s own bladed limbs and you’ll soon find yourself in need of the chapters apothecary. Boss fights with the exception of one are all brilliantly balanced as well, the first time you battle a lictor had my adrenaline pumping with righteous hatred.
The only draw back to the Veteran difficulty is ranged enemies be they squads of Termagants or Scarab Occult Terminators will absolutely decimate your health bar. A health bar that is in two parts, first is your Armour, this logically protects your health, once depleted it will regenerate if you stop taking damage for a set amount of time. Once your armour is depleted your heath will start dropping, if you manage to splendidly execute an enemy you’ll regain the health you recently lost.
This is where we run into my first issue with Space Marine 2, once your health is gone, you’ll be downed and have to rely on your squadmates to get you back on your feet. Now, as you can play the entirety of Space Marine 2 in up to three player co-op so your Squad mates will either be actual friends or the AI. Shockingly the AI are brilliantly competent, both in terms of assisting and pulling their weigh in combat. So, whats my issue? Space Marine 2 is clearly build to be played Co-op and it’s jarringly obvious at times.
The are some really odd moments of missed opportunity, one example would be when you need to charge armour to equip jump packs. Rather than getting a cool cutscene with some servitors or conversation about the proper rites not being perform and the necessity of such during current events. The game just fades to black, loads up in a new area and you’re changed. It’s an odd thing to see in a game that everywhere else has paid such glorious reverence for the source material. In fact the transition between every mission felt like I was playing Multiplayer, while this may have been a necessity to full integrate campaign co-op it did make the story feel disjointed. Another small annoyance was that at times the game will switch your load-out between cutscenes, it’s not a huge issue but my power sword being replaced by a chain sword multiple times wasn’t a welcome occurrence.
None of this should put you off playing the campaign and perhaps it’s merely a symptom of what an amazing job Saber Interactive have done that my expectations were so high while playing the game, but I am disappointed that while the core gameplay loop was fantastic the campaign lacked any memorable set pieces.
There is more to Space Marine than the campaign though, as stated you can play the story in Co-op but there are also co-op mission you can undertake called Operations, these are tied into the main campaign, at times Titus will send a squad of battle brothers to achieve certain objectives so to aid in his mission. These missions are what you’ll complete in this mode so avoid them until you’ve completed the main story unless you don’t mind spoilers.
Space Marine 2 also has a PVP mode, 6v6 and 3 game modes which are essentially death match and two objective based game modes. It features the same classes as the operations mode: Tactical, Assault, Vanguard, Bulwark, Sniper and Heavy, I’ll be honest, they don’t feel balanced at all. For instance playing as a heavy is amazingly fun in Operations but in PVP laying down a storm of heavy bolter fire only to collect kill assists is a little frustrating and the Sniper class isn’t well suited to the confines of the arenas. The PVP maps feel more like a packed and cramped Necromunda table than a 40k battlefield. Having said that, a lack of balance doesn’t stop it being fun and again, maybe it’s the fanboy in me but by mere fact that I can run around as a Black Templar (in spite of what Matt Ward did to them) elevates what would be a fairly average PVP experience into something I’ll be playing for a long time to come.
