Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II (2024)

I want to like this game more than I do, but similar to the first game, I felt like something was off about the combat. Now compared to the first game which I could only get like 45 minutes through, this was definitely better, I completed the campaign and tried out the PVP multiplayer a little bit. I ended up not trying any of the extra PVE content.

To start with the good, the spectacle of everything going on and some of the environmetns and areas was pretty cool, was really enjoyable experiencing those moments. The comabt was hit or miss with it feeling right or not, but when it hit, you really did feel like a badass, especially with the really cool and pretty large amount of glory kills.

The story was very ehhhhhh. I watched a summary afterwards, but I feel like there should have been a bit more explanation for someone not caught up with the 40k universe.

Now for the main part of the game, the combat. The shooting felt pretty decent, but a lot of the guns felt samey and looked pretty boring. I also think it fell into the issue where nothing had much impact, shooting the small mobs didn't feel that good because they auto die and felt basically fake, and shooting the big mobs didn't feel great because they were bullet sponges. That then goes to the melee combat, which just felt really off. The parry mechanic felt very weird and didn't feel super enjoyable in the fights where it was tons of minions everywhere, it honestly felt the best during the couple of boss fights that were in the game. The melee overall felt pretty clunky, I did like the lightning hammer that was given in the very last fight.

Those combat gripes are why I ended up not doing any of the extra PVE missions, I felt like nothing about the comabt except for the cool glory kills was actually that fun or impactful.

Overall, I think this was a fine game, and if the third one ends up on Gamepass as well, I'll try it out, but nothing super special to me. High 6/10.

Honestly very fun and well made. I do think there's something about these games that keeps me from really loving them, idk if it's the slowness to it or something else, but they are very fun nonetheless. I love the design of everything too it all just really looks gorgeous and like it's within another timeline of humanity (idk warhammer enough to state whether it's accurate or not). The story's also really good, I had a lot of goosebump/omfg moments that kept me hooked while playing. The gameplay is definitely better than its predecessor but still feels limited in some ways. The 3 player change was cool imo, and added to the story/concepts.

Spent some fun time in the operations mode too though that doesn't really factor to my review.

Dipped my toes in Space Marine 2. I can see how it could get repetitive but the world is brand new to me. I'm enjoying it so far but I feel the itch to try other things like Avowed and/or Silent Hill 2. I'm so fickle.

I don't know much about this universe, but the idea of us proceeding down a single-minded track of absolute warfare is a scary one. I have a lot of questions. War is religion, religion is war - it's made very clear from the outset that this is what's going on. How does a society survive and maintain cohesion? What does culture look like, or is it entirely married to war? What's the system of governance? Sounds like a warfare church hierarchy of sorts. Pretty cool. I'll probably watch some lore videos tonight as I try to fall asleep.

Might hold off on this one until my friend picks it up, if he does.

New to the 40k universe I have played the first Space Marine game and this one. This is a nice followup to the first game, keeping what works and streamlining it a little bit. The online Operations to get the stories of the side characters were interesting but did run into the issue of it mostly being full of players who've completed them 400 times already sprinting through at full speed which made them a little hard to stop and enjoy at times. I'm guessing that wasn't a problem at launch though.

I played the game solo and never felt like I was lacking anything gameplay-wise but this does seem like the type of game that would be especially fun to play with friends.

3.5 / 5

11 hour playthrough

After my son had played this to bits, when I was in a mood for some shooty stuff, I installed and played this, having some vague and bland memories from the previous game in the series.

While graphically quite nice, I got stuck in this corridor shooter and failed the third mission repeatedly, with the game not giving any hints to what I was doing wrong (trying to defend an antenna from Tyranids) and not allowing to change difficulty without restarting the whole mission (perhaps 30 minutes of play to repeat).

After my third failure, I decided it wasn't interesting or fun enough to try again.

A slightly different design from the first game this TPS is a fully-fledged squad-shooter with multiplayer/Co-Op chiefly designed in mind... It somewhat reminds of the Warhammer 40K Deathwing attempt, in that it is a gory squad based shooter where you are fighting ze bugs, and you really tend to get into the thicket of it. This game however, is more functional and probably plays like more conventional hack & slash games. I really suck at this game but managed to get through the single player campaign on easy. (the QTEs to parries to get an instead stun-lock or K/O are just something I couldn't get the knack for, maybe 1 in every 7 or so tries at best, and it really really helps!)

Game has great cutscenes, voice acting and lore, all of which are better than average. Environments look dcent enough with enough detail. There are quite a bit of weapons in this all sorts of patterns of bolters and other things for you to pick from and you can change your gear on the go at certain weapon drop pods so you can experiment as you clear a level.

While the campaign is good the multiplayer consisting of Co-Op matches is probably what most players will like the most. The spawns seem random (meaning there are mini-bosses like a proper dungeon crawler, which are actually a lot of fun to fight if you are prepared, and a lot of pain if you are not!) and you can choose from different classes, and even level up your efficiency with weapons by using them more... Seems to be cut from the same design-cloth as your usual modern bro-shooters. There are also hidden weapons such as arfificer bolters and such in the maps but I couldn't ever find them.

Overall not a bad sequel.

I mean, Space Marine 2 is fine... The combat is shallow and everything's kinda boring when you play alone, but it's a nice co-op game for 3 people.

Some nice epic moments (especially towards the end) and interesting lore if you care to dig into it (the story is serviceable but pretty generic).

I wish the game looked better, but I understand the limitations of having so many space bugs on screen at once - which is way cooler than slightly more polished textures.

Overall, solid, if a bit repetitive shooter. I do like the chainsaw sword, though; chainsaw swords are always a plus.

I came into this without playing the first one and knowing nothing about Warhammer 40,000, so I never could get into the story. I don't know much about what was going on. It's a fun game to play without digging into any of that, so it doesn't matter. It looked like a cool riff on Gears of War, and that's what got me to play it.

It's not as good as Gears sadly, but it's still pretty good. It differentiates itself by not being a cover shooter, beefing up the melee, and adding a jetpack. I was disappointed with the lack of jetpack as I figured it would be a major mechanic, but instead it was only available in two levels. It's not a cover shooter, but I still have to awkwardly hide behind cover anyways. It tries to make gameplay more active by incorporating ideas from Doom by having executions recover health and shields. Space marines move too slow to make that feel as good as doom, so this makes gameplay feel a bit awkward. The executions are cool though. It's approach to melee might be the strongest new idea it has. There are combos for different situations and parrying. It feels good to be shooting some enemies, see the blue flash warning an enemy is about attack, and hitting the parry button at the right time to snatch a pouncing enemy out of the air and slam it to the ground.

It's not the next Gears of War, but it's still an enjoyable third person shooter.

Substantially improved game design and pacing when compared to the first game. With a blend of high octane action with calmer moments full of cinematic set pieces and a sense of scale. While most of the scale this game shows is actually just set dressing (hordes of gargoyles flocking in the sky, battles exploding in the background ect.) it still accomplishes creating the scale even if you can't directly interact with it. The game world is small and very linear but effectively creates an illusion of immensity.

They will include brief animations in the battle barge to breath more life into the NPCs. I do wish they took these moments a bit further. Such as a captain giving a bold speech before kneeling space marines, but when his speech ends he just stands there gesticulating the same way he did while giving the impassioned speech. It becomes a bit silly where they could have had the crowd dismissed to make it feel more alive. Another example is after the mission with the mechanicus factory and discovering evidence of chaos, you walk to your ship and another thunderhawk is landing with one of it's engines on fire. It lands shakily and troops gather around the crafts door, but then nothing happens. Would have been really cool to see wounded soldiers lumber out of the dilapidated craft and then be tended to by medics ect. What is still neat about this moment is how it foreshadows the next mission where a similar thing happens to you almost immediately. To be fair, most people who play this game are certainly not as interested in environmental storytelling and lore as I am.

Combat is brutal and engaging. Blending melee and ranged combat seamlessly like the original. But adding more weight and variety through the larger arsenal and more fluid controls. Melta gun is awesome and I found myself preferring it with a plasma pistol. In fact, I basically beat the whole game with that loadout and used it in the multiplayer too. Really allowed me to steamroll most tough enemies. Sucks the jumper pak is also limited to set levels because the improved controls for it are legit really fun. To be fair this would break many levels, but that's part of the fun from a power fantasy game like this one. The PVE scenarios do allow you to use the jump pak for all missions which is nice.

While there isn't really much to talk about plot-wise, I do like how the game incorporates the lore and world building of Warhammer. Spacemarines combines together mysticism with sci-fi tech, which makes for an interesting and unique game world that the game effectively leverages. Both in its set pieces but also in the art direction. It's both silly and kind of awesome watching Titus light incense candles for a prayer in order to get a hi-tech computer to respond to him. My main issue with the plot is how seriously it takes itself. Spacemarines are evil and a clear reference to Fascism. The writers of Warhammer are hyper aware of this and lean hard into satire which works for me. The first game accomplished this mostly due to the fact that Space Orks are hilarious and inherently campy. Tyranids are fun to fight against but lack the same campy personality of Space Orks. That said, so did the bugs in Starship Troopers, but Paul Verhoven compensated for this by making the Marines and their propaganda gleefully satirical. That said, I don't think the game's writing is bad. But certainly firmly saber rattling. I think the game is still enjoyable but it would have been elevated for me if it was self aware. Still, it delivers in the set pieces and engaging gameplay.

I also felt the use of Chaos Marines was substantially improved over the first game. My main gripe with the first game is how the Chaos Marines felt so dissonant from the established game play loop. You went from a brutal 3rd person hack n' slash game to a cover shooter without cover shooter basic mechanics. If you didn't awkwardly hide behind pillars and objects, you died immediately. Making the last 3rd of the first game a slog to get through. Here Chaos marines feel significantly better to fight against. There is a downside though... Tyranids and Chaos Marines feel too similar to fight. They both have very similar AI and fighting habits with a combination of melee and ranged fighting styles. This does result in enemy variety feeling a bit stale. Fortunately the campaign doesn't overstay it's welcome but I'm not going to lie, I missed Space Orks. Maybe we will get lucky with a DLC?

I did enjoy the PVE content. Matchmaking does kinda suck though. On one hand it's nice to have matchmaking happen while you wait in the Battle Barge. Which I do really like as a hub. On the other hand, the game does a poor job of communicating matchmaking status and the time it takes to get matched varies significantly. Once you get in though, the game is quite fun. Still incorporating set pieces and it was genuinely clever to have these scenarios run parallel with the main campaign. The AI companions are brain dead though... which is a bummer because of the co-op focus of the game. I do plan to re-play all content at some point with a buddy. It was still enjoyable solo, but the PVE content feels best with players. I had fun with random people I queued with, just annoying how finicky matchmaking itself is.

The co-op is firmly what this game is about and I do like the variety of classes for the PVE scenarios. The Vanguard in particular is a blast featuring a grappling hook. When paired with the Melta Rifle makes you a total wrecking ball. Certainly a lot to play around with, but I don't like how grindy the game is. You need to play through the scenarios an egregious amount of times to max out a class... I don't like this CoD endorphin manipulating gameplay loops. But to each their own. Still enjoyable even if you don't plan to max out a character and fully explore the multiplayer.

Overall performance was good, though I had the game crash/freeze multiple times while trying to close the game. Which honestly isn't an issue since I was done playing anyways.

If you like 3rd person action games or shooters this is an easy recommend. You don't need to like Warhammer to appreciate it, but if you like Warhammer this will definitely be a game you will enjoy. Curious what they will release with DLC and future content patches.

So far, this game has met all my expectations and then some. I may write up a more detailed review once I've spent more time in all of the game modes (I've been sinking all my time into the campaign / PvE and haven't tried the PvP mode yet) but for now my initial impressions are very positive.

The story for the campaign has been pretty enjoyable, and the missions have all been fun to play through. The set pieces and map design are phenomenal, and there have been a few times where I honestly felt surprised that it was possible for my PC to properly display everything that was on screen.

The handling of your character is spot on. It's clear that a ton of time and attention was put into hammering home that "space marine" feel. Everything from moving and shooting to the handling of the jump pack aligns perfectly with what you'd expect from an eight+ foot tall slab of muscle wearing a giant suit of power armor.

And yet, as much as I can gush about the set building and the immersive controls, it still pales in comparison to the actual combat itself. All the different weapons and abilities are a blast to use, and the game lets you blend them together seamlessly. Transitioning between shooting and melee feels buttery smooth and flows like nothing I've played since Doom Eternal with its glory kills. Sometimes there are even more cinematic "on-rails" experiences that happen mid-fight. The parry system feels like its was pulled right out of arkham, and you have moves (such as a charged melee with a powersword, or a perfectly timed dodge) that allow you to follow up with a bolter shot that locks onto the target and has an AoE effect. The game flows beautifully, and I can't get enough of it. Being swarmed by tyranids, cutting waves of them down with a heavy bolter until they close in and then hacking away with a chainsword, blasting into the air with a jump pack once the swarm gets too thick and coming crashing down onto a group of termagaunts that were harassing you with gunfire, then blasting away with a plasma pistol at the nearby tyranid warrior that is rushing to attack you with a bonesword...it's an incredible loop with a deceptive amount of difficulty on harder settings. It still hasn't gotten boring, and I honestly wonder if it ever will. That's not even mentioning the bigger, badder Tyranid monsters which I'll refrain from discussing due to potential spoilers.

I have a few issues, but most of them boil down to either me not being adjusted to the controls or to the AI allies in the campaign being a bit awkward at times. Really nothing major.

TL;DR: Play Space Marine 2.