Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 Review – A Swarm of Fun

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 Review

I’m not a gambler, but I’d wager that the majority of gamers looking forward to Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 have never played a tabletop Warhammer 40k game, painted a mini or even played the 2011 original Space Marine. Instead, they’ve seen the previews, followed the hype and counted down the days. Nothing wrong with any of that of course. But whether Space Marine 2 builds on the original and authentically lives in the Warhammer 40k universe are still questions to consider. 

The answer to the second question is an enthusiastic and unqualified yes. Space Marine 2 is one of the best representations of the Warhammer 40k world to date. The answer to the first question is a little more nuanced.

Origin Story

Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy began life, as everyone knows, as tabletop games. Warhammer 40k has a vast amount of lore, arcane vocabulary and invented mythology. It takes itself very seriously. Just about everything Warhammer related is operatic and over the top. Ultimately, the game is about humanity trying to survive. But Warhammer 40k does a pretty good job of building in moral and ethical ambiguity. No good guys and bad guys. 

Within the Warhammer 40k world, Space Marines are genetically and biologically enhanced super soldiers.  Beginning in early adolescence they undergo dozens of excruciating surgeries. This allows them to wear massive armor, a Buick’s worth of steel bolted directly onto their bodies. Seen as semi-godlike, Space Marines follow a strict, semi-religious code of ethics and are agents of the Imperium of Man and the Emperor, defending humanity. You play as Demetrian Titus, the main character from the first game. 200 years after being falsely accused of corruption, Demetrian is reinstated as an Ultramarine at a lower rank. His goal is to prove his loyalty to the Imperium and his fellow soldiers.  

Given the vastness of the Warhammer 40k universe, it’s a little disappointing that developer Saber chose to reprise the same character to lead the sequel, albeit voiced by a different actor. I get the fan service and through line, and in the end It probably doesn’t matter much. So much of  the narrative is told through terse, jargon-filled dialogue and military-speak it’s hard for Titus’ — or any of the Marines’ — personality to emerge from his metric ton of armor. As with so many action games, the story is there to funnel the player from mission to mission, but fans of the tabletop games and lore will find them respected. Nothing’s so invented that it feels out of place. 

Bug Hunt

The original Space Marine primarily featured Orks as enemies. Space Marine 2 is focused on the Imperium’s fight against the Tyranids, a race of intergalactic insectoid creatures that attack in vast swarms and communicate psychically with the collective. Tyranids come in many shapes and sizes. They use bioweapon projectiles and razor-sharp claws. To call them unthinking killing machines disregards the power of the hive mind. Perhaps not coincidentally, Space Marines vs Tyranids was the subject of 2023’s Leviathan boxed set for the tabletop game.

Using the Swarm engine — famously used in the World War Z game — allows for impressive, terrifying waves of enemies. Seeing Tyranids pour over a wall or engulf a coms tower for the first time is exciting, fearsome and memorable. Fighting them is bloody, gore-drenched fun. Whether dispatching them in melee combat or at range, success requires no small amount of strategy, teamwork and firepower.

Here’s the problem, though. We’ve all heard the saying “if your only tool is a hammer, you treat every problem like a nail.” As impressive as the Swarm engine can be, Space Marine 2 overuses the effect in its mission design. Those same Tyranid swarms — so unexpected at first — become slightly tedious obstacles after several hours of fighting them every few minutes. This isn’t helped by corridor-style missions with fairly uncreative goals, bookended by down time that’s narratively empty as well.

Gothic Splendor

Over the game’s dozen-or-so hours of its campaign, even the most engaging missions become pretty indistinguishable. However, Space Marine 2’s art design is never less than impressive. Especially in the sprawling military complexes and soaring space-gothic cathedrals, the level of detail and graphical power is light years ahead of the original game. Out in the wilds, the environmental design is less impactful. Most swamps and forests have the copy-paste look of every other. But in the cities? Those environments scream Warhammer 40K at the top of their armor-encased lungs.

Alongside the authentic Warhammer 40K settings, combat definitely elevates the Space Marine 2 experience. The array of familiar ranged weapons — bolt guns, plasma rifles, pistols — is supplemented by fan favorite melee weapons like the saw sword, hammer and combat knife. Every weapon feels great and has a specific use case in which it shines. Additionally, there are consumables, grenades and abilities like the jet pack to mix up tactical approaches to an encounter.

Melee combat in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 takes some cues from other recent action games. Titus can dodge roll, block and parry and use light and heavy attacks. Both unblockable and parry-able enemy attacks are shown by a humungous reticle. That’s annoying enough, but it can actually obscure the enemy the player is supposed to parry. Other games handle the mechanic with more subtlety and precision. Still, combat is the reason the game exists and it’s mostly a ton of fun.

Classy Act

One can’t fault Space Marine 2 for a dearth of content and extended replay value. In addition to the narrative campaign, there is a suite of three-player cooperative missions called Operations, and three PvP modes called Endless War: Annihilation, Seize Ground, and Capture & Control. As in many action games, the campaign basically introduces the player to game’s weapons, enemies and mechanics, and playing the campaign is required to unlock missions in Operations. Both the campaign and Operations mode can be played by a trio of real players or mixed and matched with AI characters.

There are six classes in multiplayer — Tactical, Assault, Vanguard, Bulwark, Sniper and Heavy — and they all do a great job in offering a wide range of playstyles and weapon specialties, plus a deep menu of unlockable perks and special abilities. Speaking of customization, it’s easy to get lost for a very long time changing up a character’s armor styles and colors. Longtime Warhammer 40K model-painters will love it.

Like the main campaign, though, multiplayer missions suffer a bit from the same repetitive structure, objectives and pacing. The difference is that a squad of actual humans can approach combat more creatively than of AI-controlled characters. I played the entire campaign with two AI companions, Chairon and Gadriel. They did an adequate job of saving my ass when needed but struggled when the mission required attending to multiple objectives. Unless I missed it, there was no way to direct them. This became a bigger frustration at anything harder than normal difficulty.

Sound Off

When it comes to performance on the PS5, I had some ongoing issues with sound and music cutting out. Out of the box, the sound is pretty poorly mixed and it took some effort to clean up the balance. Speaking of sound, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 has some excellent weapon effects, but some of the most disappointingly repetitive music I’ve heard from a game in a while. I get it, the action is unrelenting. This translates to a score that is percussion heavy and seriously lacking in variety. I turned it way down, in part because it was grating and in part to actually hear the dialogue.

The game’s default controller assignments are somewhat nonstandard for action games, but happily there are quite a number of options to find just the right layout. I can’t speak to mouse and keyboard implementation. There are relatively few graphical options to play with. I never experienced any crashes but there were some long load times and minor issues with texture pop in.

Worthy Successor

Like many Warhammer 40K fans, I really enjoyed the original Space Marine. Games Workshop has always been, and continues to be, generous to a fault with licensing. The result is an enormous number of Warhammer video games but relatively few that inspire long term attention. The first game was an exception and like the original, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 captures the look, the art and the tone of the franchise. That’s maybe what I appreciated the most.

Thirteen years is a long time in video game history and technology. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 obviously looks and plays much better than the 2011 original. Fans of the first game will appreciate the continuing saga of the main character and the seamless integration of Warhammer lore. Action gamers without a moment of prior Warhammer experience will enjoy it, too. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is operatic, visceral, violent and unrelenting. It can be repetitive, too, but that’s best balanced by the creativity and camaraderie of human players blasting bugs by your side.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher for review***