Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 Review (PS5)

Thirteen years and a whole console generation after Space Marine 1 graced our screens with buckets of Ork blood and chain swords, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 once again puts the player into the power-armored boots of the Ultramarines. Space Marine 2 has been a long time coming, and now that the market is flooded with Warhammer games, does old Captain Titus and the rest of the big blue poster boys of 40K have what it takes to stand out?

Story

The story, especially the opening, might confuse newcomers to the series. If you haven’t played Space Marine 1 or are unfamiliar with the 40K universe, you will be left bewildered as to why characters act the way they do and why you should even care. A basic summary of the first game is that the main character, Captain Titus, stopped a space Ork invasion of a factory planet, but used a forbidden artifact to do it. While the artifact was destroyed, he was taken into custody by an organization known as the Inquisition and has been presumed dead for 100 years. Now that Titus has returned and has reunited with the Ultramarines, the central conflict in Space Marine 2 focuses on his new younger squadmates’ mistrust regarding his mysterious past and the struggles of fighting off an invasion of giant man-eating space bugs.

I am very familiar with the 40K universe, and I know that despite its grimdark aesthetics, the best Warhammer stories are rich in emotional depth and strive to show the Space Marines as more than just stoic killing machines. Unfortunately, Space Marine 2 falls short, presenting a narrative with bland characters and dialogue. Exciting concepts like the Tyranid hive mind and the alien’s ever-adapting biology are glossed over as the story hurries the player along as fast as possible.

There is no room for the characters to breathe and talk until the campaign’s closing hours; by then, all the game has left to gain the player’s interest is a spectacle. The campaign was a letdown for me, and I can’t remember a single line from any of the main cast. On the other hand, the best lines in the game come from unnamed background characters. I may not remember a single line from my squadmates, but I’ll remember the human captain’s speech on top of a Baneblade till my dying days.

Gameplay

Space Marine 2 has three playable game modes: the campaign, which is co-op with up to three players; Operations, which are replayable three-player co-op missions; and a 6v6 multiplayer mod called Eternal War… Space Marine 2 also has the best third person combat I have ever played. 

The fantasy of being a power armor-clad super soldier has been fully realized. Snatch a jumping Tyranid out of the air and smash them! Bisect a Tyranid warrior with a chain sword! Gun down hundreds of hormagaunts as they charge you and your brothers before wading into them with your melee weapons, soaking yourself in their blood! All of this is a part of the minute-to-minute gameplay loop of Space Marine 2, with a combat system that forces you to be intelligent and aggressive.

You have at least one ranged weapon and one melee weapon at all times, meaning you can always deal damage. Your armor is refiled by performing executions on enemies you heal with health packs scattered around the level. Melee attacks can be charged, and enemy attacks can be parried or dodged to open up high-damage Gun Strike. You need to master these mechanics if you want to survive on the higher difficulties because it’s not uncommon to have over 100 enemies on screen at once, with kill counts routinely going into the triple digits per squadmate at the end of a mission.

An essential technique the player must understand if they want to stand a chance is that Tyranids are linked to the greater hive mind in orbit. Larger, more dangerous enemies act as receivers for the greater Tyranid intelligence. In practice, this means that if you kill the big bug, all the little ones die off. This design keeps the swarms of Tyranids threatening throughout the game while not overwhelming the player if they understand how the enemies work. The design leads to gameplay that looks like senseless slashing but, in reality, is very deliberate.

My only real gripe is that I wish the Tyranid enemies had more time to shine and that more unique variants were shown off. While the much-touted Swarm Tech is impressive, there are only three or four times where the game flexes its muscles before the Tyranids are replaced by a different enemy that is less interesting to fight.

Art style

Space Marine 2 represents the Warhammer universe with a level of fidelity that boggles the mind. Even in performance mode, the game is like a playable high-budget movie with extra attention given to the Space Marine’s animations, letting you see loose armor jump and purity seals flap in the wind as you run. The environments are equally impressive, with alien foliage breaking around you as you trek through the jungle and the gothic industrialized aesthetics of 40K shining in the latter half of the game’s hive city levels.

As I said before, the details in the background shine in Space Marine 2, with evidence of failed last stands and the Tyranid’s brutality splattered about the floors and walls as you make your way through a level. You can even see individual duels play in these massive fights. If you can look closely enough, the detail is truly mindblowing.

Performance

Space Marine 2 launches with two graphics modes where you can prioritize fidelity or frame rate with the speed setting, letting the game run at a steady 60fps. In contrast, the quality mode gives you marginally better graphics at the cost of a lower 30fps frame rate. Unfortunately, the servers for Space Marine 2 are having issues with infinite loading screens and connection losses happening every other mission. I hope these issues will be fixed soon, as they are the most significant problem in the game. The server issues don’t affect the campaign in solo play, but bad connections and load times severely handicap the PvP and co-op.

Summary

Space Marine 2 is everything a 40K fan would want in a game, with intense combat and detailed customization. While an unremarkable story and server issues hold the game back from true greatness, the experience on offer is well worth the $70 price tag with a plethora of content that calls back to the games of the early 2010s with a main story, PvP, and co-op mode to ensure you’ll happily spend hours slaying Xenos.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.