Who would have thought that a decade-old hack-and-slash game would finally usher in a new age of gaming in 2024? Absolutely no one, I tell you. But when the first trailer for Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 dropped in December 2021, every 40K fan immediately knew they were in for a treat. From that trailer alone, it was clear that Saber Interactive was going to follow the source material and give us the 40K game fans had been waiting for over a decade.
When I say, “usher in a new age of gaming,” I’m simply expressing my exhaustion with the current state of video games. The situation is so bad that nearly every AAA game now guarantees copy-paste gameplay mechanics, a sloppy story, and an overall experience riddled with microtransactions.
For instance, Star Wars Outlaws, a game which looks bad, plays even worse, and is all but a guaranteed disappointment to every Star Wars fans. Or take Sony’s latest game, Concord, a game that was received so poorly that its servers were shut down just a few weeks after launch.
I really mean this when I say it: Warhammer 40K is the kind of game that’ll make you want to get good at playing it. It’s the type of game you’d build a new gaming PC for. It’s the kind of game that helps you make new friends online. In short, it’s a cure for modern gaming, and here’s why 100,000 active Steam players and I think so.
In Warhammer 40K, the story begins with the War in Heaven, millions of years before humanity. The Necrontyr, jealous of the Old Ones’ mastery over life and the stars, ally with the star gods known as the C’tan, transforming themselves into the immortal Necrons. They wage war against the Old Ones, nearly annihilating them. Eventually, the Necrons turn on the C’tan, shattering them into shards and retreating into stasis to await their rise in the future.
After the War in Heaven, the Eldar (Elves) rise to power, becoming the most dominant race in the galaxy. However, their empire grows decadent and corrupt over millennia. Their unchecked indulgence eventually births the Chaos God Slaanesh, which results in the cataclysmic Fall of the Eldar, wiping out most of their civilisation and creating the Eye of Terror, a massive rift between reality and the Warp.
Amidst this galactic chaos, the Emperor of Mankind is born on Terra (Earth), guiding humanity through the early ages. As an immortal psychic, the Emperor secretly shepherds human development.
During the Dark Age of Technology, humanity reaches its zenith, mastering artificial intelligence and colonising the stars. However, the reliance on AI leads to a rebellion known as the Men of Iron uprising, which, along with Warp storms and the birth of Slaanesh, plunges humanity into the Age of Strife.
The Age of Strife sees the collapse of human civilization. Isolated planets fall into barbarism, and humanity is preyed upon by Psykers and warp-spawned horrors. The Emperor eventually reveals himself, launching the Great Crusade to unite humanity and establish the Imperium.
In the present, the 41st millennium, the galaxy is in a perpetual state of war. Humanity faces threats from alien races like Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons, while the forces of Chaos and traitor legions work to destroy the Imperium from within. The Emperor, trapped in stasis on the Golden Throne, watches over an Imperium crumbling under the weight of endless conflict and internal decay. The future of humanity is bleak, because in the grim darkness of the far future, there’s only war.
Space Marine 2’s campaign doesn’t overstay its welcome, though it easily could have, because the developers nailed the one crucial aspect of making a fun video game: the gameplay loop. It is not simply a hack-and-slash but a shooter game as well. You get to choose from a decently large variety of firearms in two specific categories: your primary weapon and your sidearm.
I played the game using a mouse and keyboard, an Xbox controller, and a PS5 controller. By far, I had the most fun using Sony’s DualSense controller, primarily because of the haptic feedback. Believe me when I say that the haptic feedback and the trigger pull perfectly emulate the feel of using a weapon suited for a 9-foot-tall super soldier. The Dual Sense vibrations are so powerful that you’d feel them throughout the controller, especially when firing the heavy bolter.
Apart from firearm selections, you also get to choose from four different melee weapons: a combat knife, a chain sword, a hammer, and a broadsword. They are differentiated based on their specialities—whether they handle a single enemy very well or multiple enemies. For example, the combat knife is best suited for targeting a single large enemy, while the hammer is best for crowd control. The chain sword and broadsword are effective for both single enemies and crowd control.
The campaign’s story is simple, but it’s the rich and detailed world of Warhammer 40K that gives it much-needed depth. For example (minor spoilers ahead), every time you face a Rubric Marine (a Chaos Marine from the Thousand Sons legion), when you execute him, you won’t see blood, but just magic dust. However, if you execute one of the Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons, you’ll see him spill blood instead. This is because, after the burning of Prospero, the Thousand Sons’ home planet, the Sorcerers of the legion attempted to cure the genetic defect of their legion—the flesh change—through a magic ritual. Instead, they ended up turning almost the entire legion into dust, trapping them in their space marine suits as nothing more than dust. Only the Sorcerers or those who could control magic were unaffected by this.
You play as Lt. Demetrius Titus, who, after the events of the first game, has returned to his original chapter, the Ultramarines. He has been reinstated after over a century of penance by the authority of Space Marine Chapter Master Marneus Calgar. In this game, you’re tasked with fighting off a Tyranid invasion, assisting human armies known as the Astra Militarum, and dealing with anyone who stands in your way, including Chaos forces. Will you succeed in doing so or will you fail, the story of Space Marine 2 revolves around the same question.
The story picks up over a century after the events of the previous game, where we see Titus now serving his penance by joining the Deathwatch. During the tutorial mission, he gets injured and is soon rescued by his former chapter, the Ultramarines. What follows is a straightforward campaign where you and your friends battle hordes of Tyranids and other enemies over a solid 8-10 hours.
Although the campaign’s length is relatively short, it in no way reflects the quality of the experience. As the saying goes, “A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts,” and the same is true here. One of the best aspects of the campaign is that you can pick it up anytime and start playing. Moreover, replaying it with friends is especially fun.
However, as of now, there is no option to replay the campaign without disrupting your overall progress. Starting a new game automatically overwrites your previous save file, which unfortunately locks out all multiplayer co-op missions as well.
Speaking of multiplayer co-op missions, I believe they add tremendous value to the overall campaign experience. First, the co-op missions tie into the storyline of the main campaign, allowing you to feel a sense of progression as you complete each mission. Additionally, these missions let you choose your class and customize your own Space Marine, which is, frankly, a dream come true for millions of Warhammer 40K fans.
Beyond that, there’s also a PvP mode known as Eternal War, where six loyalist Astartes and six heretic Astartes face off in various tournaments. It turned out to be far more fun than I initially imagined. The mode is relatively fast-paced because you’re competing against human-controlled Space Marines who can fully utilize their abilities, making them a real challenge.
To say that Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 is more than just a game might sound like a cliché, but it brings us back to a time when games were less about being walking simulators and more about delivering a full-on power fantasy with non-stop action. So even if it’s a cliché, it really doesn’t matter.
The sheer value the game delivers through its campaign and two multiplayer modes is astounding and speaks volumes about the quality work the team at Saber Interactive has done. The lore-accurate depiction of Space Marines, Tyranids, and other enemies in the game is a clear sign of respect, which every 40K fan, myself included, truly appreciates.
It took more than a decade for Space Marine 2 to launch, and every 40K fan believes the wait was absolutely worth it. I hope that Space Marine 3 won’t be too far behind because gaming has evolved, and while it won’t be the same, only this time it’s for the better.
Developers: Saber Interactive
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
Played on: Microsoft Windows
