My First Impressions of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
My thoughts on the first few hours of Space Marine 2, from a novice of the franchise.
Despite being a sequel to a game that came out 13 years ago, I never played the first Space Marine title when it dropped back in 2011. Matter of fact, I have zero knowledge of the Warhammer franchise as a whole. The entire multimedia franchise that ranges from a tabletop miniature game, to novels and other video game tie-ins never appealed to me. The entire lore seemed very daunting and it didn’t look like a franchise I could be willing to sink my teeth into.
With that said, why would I suddenly get interested in the sequel Space Marine 2? Firstly, after stumbling upon this gameplay footage over the summer, I was quite surprised with how it looked. The combat was brutal and the visuals were stunning. As more news came out about what else the game would offer, such as PvE/PVP multiplayer, no microtransactions and a dedicated roadmap for content to come over the next few months, I was sold!
I should also mention this is the first game of 2024 that really just caught my eye, as the only other game from this year I played was Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown back in January. This fall is looking to liven things up with other games like Black Ops 6 and Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO. So as the first new video game of the fall season, how does Space Marine 2 hold up? Let’s find out!
The Single Player Campaign
Going into Space Marine 2’s story, I did a little bit of research and watched a few videos recapping the story of its predecessor to prepare. Although the game starts at a point where some context is needed for newcomers, I didn’t feel lost or confused during the game’s opening mission.
From a story perspective, Space Marine 2 sets players up quite well with the initial plot. You take on the role of Captain Titus, a Space Marine serving the Ultramarines chapter in the Warhammer universe who returns from the previous game. Following the events of Space Marine 1, Titus has been reinstated in the Ultramarines, and leads a group of fellow soldiers as they fight on the lush jungle planet of Kadaku. Overrun by a hivemind of aliens known as the Tyranids, Titus and company must fend them off as they rescue a key person of interest, and learn more about a important project being worked on.
So far, I’m only about halfway through the third mission of the main campaign, but I’ve found it’s been pretty straightforward to follow. None of the franchise’s deep lore has been mentioned yet, and I imagine as the story unfolds there will be more factions and such to learn about. Overall though I’m quite intrigued by Warhammer’s story, and the incentive to want to dig deeper is definitely there. I do feel like Space Marine 2 may end up becoming a good starting point for those who do want to learn more about the Warhammer franchise, like a gateway drug into the series’ expansive lore.
My Initial Thoughts on The Gameplay and Overall Performance
Once the game started, I immediately felt a sense of familiarity I haven’t felt in a very long time. That over the shoulder third person camera, my character model taking up a quarter of the screen, and a fairly linear path to follow along. It all harkened back to the 360/PS3 era of single player games that dominated those platforms over a decade ago.
Combat wise, Space Marine 2 is a mix of both third person shooting, and hack and slash gameplay. Players will be expected to switch between both playstyles on the fly and thankfully it’s a seamless experience. The “shooting” aspect of combat is your standard affair if you’ve ever played any third person shooter in the last 15 years. Aiming and movement feels snappy and responsive. Playing on the PS5 you do get the haptic feedback so it’s interesting to feel the different recoil of weapons like the iconic Bolt Rifle.
As far as the melee combat goes, it’s a balance of light/heavy attacks with pretty simple combos and parrying. Melee feels quite weighty, there’s a “heft” to the combat that you can see and feel as Titus swings his Chain Sword over a group of Tyranids. There’s also a function similar to the Glory Kills from the Doom franchise, where players can perform gruesome executions on their foes. The healing system also takes inspiration from Bloodborne with it’s own Rally system. Essentially as you take damage, there’s a brief window where you can regain health when attacking enemies. Health pick ups are scarce so expect to use this system frequently.
When it comes to the performance on the PS5, Space Marine 2 runs quite well on the console. Using the “Speed” setting, the game runs at a fair 60FPS. Rarely did i run into any screen tearing or frame drops, save for the opening cinematic. What surprised me though was how well the game ran during some intense fight sequences, especially when you’re faced with massive hordes of enemies (which happens quite often!). Too many times I thought to myself: “Oh yeah, the game is FOR SURE gonna crash right now” and surprisingly it didn’t! Overall, I was pretty contempt with the gameplay and performance so far.
Multiplayer: Operations and Eternal War
Multiplayer is split into two parts: Operations is your PvE Co-op experience while Eternal War is Space Marine 2’s PvP competitive mode. In both modes, players can choose from one of 6 classes to play as, each with their own perks and special abilities. In typical multiplayer fashion, players can level up and earn new weapons, perks and cosmetics to customize their Space Marines to their heart’s content.
Operations pits you and 2 other players on various side missions that run in tandem with Space Marine 2's main campaign. Currently there are 6 missions players can choose from. I’ve only played the first mission in this mode (as the game strongly advises to play/finish the main campaign before tackling the Operations) so based off that, it seems like your typical horde mode type of thing. Go here, defend objective A, collect item B, you get the gist. Playing as a trio of Space Marines, utilizing your class abilities and working as a team is crucial to completing Operations, and based off my experience with the first mission it’s a blast coordinating with fellow players.
Eternal War on the other hand, has taken up a bulk of my time with Space Marine 2. I found this mode to be incredibly addicting. Playing against other players with Space Marine 2’s style of combat is so much fun and with a low count of 6v6, it doesn’t feel overwhelming one bit. Maps are also fairly sized as well, clearly made for small scale skirmishes instead of expansive conquests like something from the Battlefield series.
Based on Space Marine 2’s roadmap, the developers are planning to add content over the next few months such as more Operation missions, weapon types, new PvP maps and so forth. It’s evident that the lifespan of Space Marine 2 will solely rely on its multiplayer, and I hope that the team over at Saber Interactive stays consistent with their plans.
Some Gripes
Not all is perfect, as I do have some issues with Space Marine 2, most notably with it’s multiplayer (even though I just praised it) and the game’s “always online” mentality, a feature that has made my experience with Space Marine 2 a bit more challenging than it needed to be.
Since launch the process of joining a lobby online (for both PvE and PvP) has been abysmal. Wait times for me ranged anywhere from 5 mins to almost 10/15 mins. Frequently I would get queued up and suddenly get booted out and have to wait again. More often than not I would end up leaving multiplayer and go back to the single player campaign. Even turning off the Crossplay function rarely helped me here.
But when I am able to finally play multiplayer, some faults start to show. Firstly, for both PvE and PvP, there cannot be more than two players playing the same class. While I understand it makes sense for PvP for balancing purposes, for PvE it shouldn’t matter. Secondly, the map selection for Eternal War is quite small, right now there are only 3 maps to select from, and after cycling through the same 3 maps the fun eventually wears off.
This last issue is of greater concern for me: Space Marine 2 is always online. Regardless of what mode you’re playing, you are always connected to the game’s online server. The problem here is that every so often you’ll be met with a “connection lost” message. I find this has been happening every single time I boot the game up, whether I'm on the main menu (or “hub”) or during gameplay. If you lose connection to the server, you end up losing progress which is such a pain especially when playing the main campaign. I’m hoping this issue (and the above ones) do get fixed quickly.
Final Thoughts
Overall, after playing Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 for the last week, I’ve been left with a very solid first impression. The story is fairly easy to get into, especially for newcomers to the franchise like myself. The gameplay is a nice call back to third person shooters from years past, with an engaging combat system that lends itself to experimentation. Lastly the multiplayer portions are well thought out and will hopefully keep players engaged as time moves on.
Although it does have issues, I can’t say they ruined my experience all that much. From what I’ve played so far, Space Marine 2 has been a blast to play, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth further and see what else the game has in store for me. Many have been praising the game and calling it one of the best games of the year. Based off what I’ve played it’s definitely a contender for GOTY for me, will this sentiment hold up as other major releases follow through over the next few months? We’ll have to see for ourselves.