Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2: The Kotaku Review

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a sequel I never expected. The original Space Marine, developed by Relic and released in 2011, was a fun, action-focused shooter, with just enough story and good ideas to keep you around until the credits rolled. A sequel seemed like a long shot, even if I and other players wanted one. Now, in 2024, we have Space Marine 2, which includes a similar, linear campaign as found in the first game, as well as a more robust multiplayer mode that might be the real reason to play this belated sequel.

Space Marine 2, like the first, is a third-person sci-fi shooter set in the expansive (and expensive) Warhammer 40K tabletop universe. And like the last game, you play as Titus, an Ultramarine who, since the events of Space Marine, has been charged with heresy, imprisoned for a century (Space Marines live a long time), and eventually released. He was offered the chance to return to his Ultramarine brothers, but instead punished himself for his mistakes in the first game and joined the Deathwatch. Eventually, he’s forced back into the Ultramarines at the start of Space Marine 2. Here he’s put in charge of two new characters as their squad leader and helps the Imperium of Man push back a deadly alien threat known as the Tyrannids. All the while, Titus’ squad is suspicious of his past, his motives, and his tendency to question leadership.

The main plot of Space Marine 2’s campaign, which will take most players about 10 to 12 hours, is focused on how Titus, his squad, and the Imperium will win the war against the alien invaders and another, worse threat that emerges in the second half of the game. And this aspect of the story is totally serviceable and fine enough. I was curious how things would wrap up and how the heroes would save the day or fail. And if you love Warhammer 40K, there’s probably some neat lore to be found in the campaign, which can be played solo or with two other players.

But rather than all that high-stakes interstellar conflict, it’s actually the story of Titus and his squadmates slowly starting to trust each other and learn from one another that’s the more compelling narrative hook of Space Marine 2. The end of the game, which I won’t spoil, definitely left me wanting more adventures with Titus and his squad and hopefully, we’ll get to play those adventures in the future.

Difficulty problems and awesome guns

Between the cutscenes and dialogue is a whole lot of combat and action, which is Space Marine 2’s meat and potatoes. And the good news is Space Marine 2 is a joy to play. Like the original game and unlike most modern shooters, Space Marine 2 rewards players for being aggressive.

If an enemy damages you, the easiest way to recover is to quickly attack enemies to re-up your health. Wait too long, though, and you’ll have to heal using a medpack. Likewise, you have armor that can be replenished by executing aliens who are staggered or by counter-attacking an enemy. This system rewards you for being aggressive and deadly, which means you’ll quickly start acting like a Space Marine. Well, you might.

My biggest problem with Space Marine 2’s campaign (and the rest of the game) is that some ranged enemies on higher difficulties can become incredibly annoying. These few baddies can single-handedly melt your entire shields away and kill you in a matter of seconds on the game’s Veteran difficulty, which it implies is the best way to play. When I eventually got annoyed by a single, random alien dropping me from halfway across a battlefield, I dropped the difficulty down to normal. And sadly, this sometimes led to fights being too easy.

It’s frustrating that a few enemy types can disrupt Space Marine 2’s difficulty and super warrior fantasy so much. I hope a future patch either gives you a bit more health on Veteran or nerfs some of the ranged attacks so players can actually feel they are a big, hard-to-kill, and aggressive man-tank. For now, I’d recommend playing on normal or hiding behind walls during large fights to avoid alien snipers.

Thankfully, as the game progresses, these ranged enemies become easier to manage as new, less annoying enemies replace them in most fights and you gain access to better weapons. And there are a lot of guns to find and use in Space Marine 2, from fully automatic SMG-like bolt guns to slow and heavy-hitting snipers and even plasma guns, too. Each of these guns feels powerful but different, and offers its own advantages and disadvantages. I appreciated that while playing the campaign, I never felt like Space Marine 2 was forcing me to use a specific weapon. (Outside of one intense sequence involving flamethrowers…)

Oh, and you don’t even have to use guns. Space Marine 2 includes a basic but functional melee combat system that lets you block, parry, dodge, and strike enemies either one-on-one or while facing a massive group of baddies. In Space Marine 2, any weapon can get the job done if you use it correctly, so you can choose whichever one you want. It really comes down to your preference. Are you more of a chainsword guy or a melter gun dude? All that matters is you help your fellow soldiers kill thousands of aliens.

So many aliens, so little time

And yes, there are thousands of aliens to kill. Thousands. Saber Interactive developed Space Marine 2 and is using its Swarm Engine—first seen in World War Z—to power the W40K sequel. And this engine is really, really good at tossing hundreds of enemies at you at the same time.

Not every single combat encounter in Space Marine 2 is a last stand against thousands of insect-like Tyrannid aliens, but there are plenty of these moments and I didn’t mind at all. Mowing down hundreds of aliens climbing up walls and cliffs with a giant automatic bolt gun never gets old.

Later on, when the game’s story shifts and introduces a new enemy to deal with, these large crowd moments become a bit less common and are replaced with more standard third-person shooting action against tanky soldiers. It’s a shame that what might be the most unique quality of Space Marine 2, its massive crowds of deadly aliens, is partially left behind in the second half of the campaign and replaced with more generic shooter combat. Thankfully, the alien crowds made up of hundreds of individual Terrannids trying to rip your face off are a big part of the game’s Operations mode.

The real reason to play Space Marine 2

When I wrapped the main campaign of Space Marine 2 I found myself disappointed by how little progression there was as I completed missions. You can choose which weapons you start the next level with, but that’s it. No skills trees, no upgrades, and no perks. None of that. Don’t worry, though, because all of that stuff and more is in Operations, which is basically a separate game attached to Space Marine 2. In fact, I’d argue the best part of Space Marine 2 is not its heavily advertised campaign but instead this great multiplayer mode.

The Operations mode is connected to the main story of Space Marine 2, letting you see how some missions were completed while Titus and his squad were off doing something else. And like the campaign, Operations is an action-packed third-person shooter built around completely linear levels, which you play either alone or with two other players.

However, in Operations, you pick a class of Space Marine—each with their own unique abilities—and create loadouts that you can swap between at certain points in missions. These loadouts are made up of weapons that you can upgrade over time, making them deal more damage, fire faster, or hold more ammo. Eventually, you can even unlock weapon variants that look cooler and have their own special stats. Similarly, as you complete missions and earn XP, you level up your Space Marine and get access to new skills and perks via a skill tree as well as the ability to fully customize your soldier.

Screenshot: Saber Interactive

If you are someone who loves painting actual Warhammer 40K figurines, then the customization options in Space Marine 2 are going to make you drool and you’ll likely grind away in the various missions just to earn resources to unlock more paint jobs and patterns.

There’s a lot to Operations and after playing for a few hours I came away impressed. My only concern is that this mode lives or dies based on how much new content is added to it over time. Sure, for now, the eight missions you can play and replay are fun enough, but three months from now will I still want to play the same levels over and over again? Saber Interactive has already promised new missions, weapons, and enemies are coming to Operations over the next 12 months, so hopefully this already content-stuffed mode will only grow more. If that’s the case, it’s likely that a year or two from now I’ll still be playing Space Marine 2’s Ops mode either alone or with random players via matchmaking.

There’s also a PvP mode in Space Marine 2, which I didn’t get much time with but also didn’t seem like the thing I’d care about in this kind of game. It works and maybe you’ll dig it, but to me the moment everyone is a big Space Marine, the combat stops feeling special and starts playing more like a so-so Gears of War knockoff. I’m far more interested in co-op action and fighting off massive waves of enemies, so I’m more excited for the already-announced horde mode to be added in 2025.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a surprisingly big game. It features a robust and well-made blockbuster campaign that is only held back by some difficulty balancing issues, a really awesome and in-depth co-op PvE mode that offers a lot of replayability, and a PvP mode that is fine and might be fun for some. The complete package is very enticing and I think that, even with some of its flaws and some minor performance issues on console, Space Marine 2 is probably the best Warhammer 40K game ever made.

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