If you had given me, at age 15 or so, a game in which you can fight seemingly hundreds of Tyranid bugs at once with two friends, alternately blasting them with bolt rifles or pulverizing them with a chainsword, then finishing the biggest of them by ripping off one of his claws and shoving it through his head, all of it happening to the sounds of action-movie orchestration and dialogue about stoic duty, would I have had any complaints?
No, I would not. But we’re spoiled for choice now. How much you enjoy Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 (for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation and releasing on September 9) will depend on your ability to tap into the deep basement of your kill-’em-all mentality and fantasy lore engagement. You can enjoy it somewhat ironically, which I did at times, especially when playing co-op with friends who told me that they did not like the game’s aesthetics at all. But strip away the grimdark trappings of zealotry, Chaos Marines, and skulls—so, so many skulls—and you have a competent, sometimes innovative third-person squad shooter. It feels like Gears of War, minus the cover, but with heavier characters, more melee combat, and somehow even fewer women.
Getting the most out of Space Marine 2 means suspending disbelief, feeling heavy metal, and wanting to kill a whole bunch of things with some very big dudes. In roughly a dozen hours of gameplay, I found the core gameplay loop relatively engaging, with enough mix-ups, upgrades, and challenges to keep it feeling more like the fun kind of endless war, not the real kind. It’s pretty enjoyable to team up with friends, too, so long as they’re cool with Warhammer 40K’s vibes and some occasionally repetitive challenges.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 gameplay overview.
Constant lore, varied battles
I do not have deep Warhammer 40K lore knowledge (Boltgun was previously my deepest engagement), so please forgive everything I get wrong in sketching out the game’s story. You, Demetrian Titus, are an Adeptus Astartes, a Space Marine, a bio-engineered huge guy with like three hearts and plugs in your head and an all-encompassing devotion to the Imperium of Man. In the prior Space Marine game, you did so well resisting the lure of Chaos that you were turned into the Inquisition and made to serve on the Deathwatch. Now you’re back and demoted, and something bad happens to you in the training mission. You are saved by the Ultramarines, and you undergo the Rubicon Primaris surgery to make you an even bigger and stronger fundamentalist killing machine.
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My favorite thing in Space Marine 2 is the size and fluidity of the enemy swarms. It’s a real achievement in “always outnumbered, never outgunned.”
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Enemies come at you from above and below, with a mixture of range and bite-your-neck tactics.
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Dudes rocking.
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Sometimes you get jetpacks, which enable both cool slam attacks and the worst thing in shooting games: platform puzzles.
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Is the idea that humanity becomes a culture driven entirely by superstitious faith and war (A) hilarious (B) intriguing (C) tiring or (D) all or none of the above?
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And then you’re off, joined by Brother-Sergeant Gadriel and Brother Chairon, played by either your online friends or the game AI. You have a heavy primary weapon, a pistol-like sidearm, and a melee weapon, usually a chainsword, a big knife, or a huge hammer. Your armor is tough but gets worn down, and only time or pulling off a Doom 2016-style melee finisher on downed enemies will recharge it. You’re not exactly agile, but you can lunge at remarkable speed, like Chris Farley in his SNL prime. And you call your teammates “brother” a lot.
