I am not a Warhammer 40K fan. As someone who does play tabletop wargames, I’ve passively looked at it, but the sheer amount of money you have to put into the hobby quickly pulls me away. After my time with Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 and how much I enjoyed the gameplay, universe, and gigantic marines cutting through aliens, I’m glancing at the tabletop hobby and reconsidering my financial choices.
Not only is Space Marine 2 a good Warhammer 40K game, it’s a genuinely fun title that blends tactical, cooperative gameplay with hordes of enemies. It’s brutal. It’s bloody. The gunplay and abilities are delightful. Although I thought the campaign was fine and the narrative partially forgettable, the core gameplay and multiplayer modes kept me glued to the screen. I frequently said “one more mission,” after having said the same thing two rounds before. It’s a great formula that I hope thrives with the cooperative shooter community.
Gunplay first, narrative second
Space Marine 2 does have a campaign, and it’s a solid introduction to the world of Warhammer 40K for those who have never explored it and are learning to play the many classes and weapons. You play as Commander Titus, a member of the Deathwatch service.
When a mission nearly takes his life, he’s reborn into the Ultramarines. He returns to Kadaku, a planet overrun by a massive invasion of aliens known as the Tyranid. It’s up to Titus and his small Ultramarines team to lead the charge forward and beat back the Tyranids in any way they can.
The missions in the campaign are fun, but their core focus is fighting large waves of enemies, completing minor objectives, and moving on with many rinse-and-repeat actions. It’s expected from a linear narrative campaign, as the main focus of Space Marine 2 is the combat. Thankfully, the campaign can be played with friends, increasing the enjoyment.
The narrative of Space Marines 2 is not memorable, but it might stick the landing for hardcore fans. Regardless, I found myself looking up key terms and references while playing the game, and the setpieces were a huge selling point. Seeing these hordes of alien bugs moving on screen was endlessly gratifying, watching them pivot to my tiny squad and squashing them when they got close. It’s fantastic to see Saber Interactive pull off the details of these large hordes and keep the game running smoothly, which sold the background dressing for each mission.
Although the narrative may not have gripped me, Space Marine 2‘s core gameplay and brutality kept me glued to my seat.
Live and die by the Chainsword
The gritty fun of Space Marine 2 is diving into combat against an army of bugs. There’s a gun for every player, regardless of their playstyle, and there’s no wrong choice when picking a weapon. There’s a playstyle for anyone who wants to be on the frontline, smashing bugs with a heavy, gigantic sword or using a heavy pistol to blast holes into them.
The number of ways you can approach combat in Space Marine 2 is good, and how much fun Saber Interactive made them all is excellent. I’ve gone through campaign missions focusing on different weapon choices and approaches to see how they stack together, and they’re all fun. They feel stronger in certain situations based on the objective and gameplay, but I never felt required to be stuck with a particular weapon.
The one critique I do have is for the melee combat. The Ultramarines in Space Marine 2 are gigantic characters who face off against overwhelming odds in every direction. Melee combat is a heavy requirement, and the system feels tedious and clunky. In the thick of combat, it’s easy to miss the parry animations or not properly dodge an unblockable attack. This can become punishing in higher difficulties.
Still, despite my minor gripes with this combat, my favorite class to play was the melee-focused Bulwark. This personal choice speaks to the enjoyable brutality of Space Marine 2 and how much fun it is when these systems work together, even if the melee combat might feel less clean.
Cooperative multiplayer brings Space Marine 2 to life
The actual depth of Space Marine 2 is the cooperative missions and operations available. These activities occur simultaneously with the campaign’s story missions, where players can bring two other friends with them during online operations of varying difficulty, using a customized Ultramarine from one of the six classes on these missions. These are available offline, but grabbing two friends offers far more enjoyment.
Only a handful of operations are available, and you can only alter them by increasing the difficulty, which adds modifiers and challenging foes. Many players likely won’t face off in the higher difficulties until they level up their characters and unlock more robust weapons.
The repetitive nature of these missions may prevent players from immediately grinding out everything to their maximum level. I see Space Marine 2’s coop play becoming a fun Friday night game with a handful of friends in a Discord call before putting it down until the following week.
However, Saber Interactive has already developed a healthy roadmap with plans well into 2025, including adding more missions, enemy types, and weapons for free. This seems like the best way for the company to keep Space Marine 2 fans returning to the game over the next few months and engaged throughout the game’s lifetime.
A war worth fighting
My time with Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 was phenomenal. The game knows exactly what it is by having you fight through hordes of Tyranids, clashing against them with bullets and meaty swords. The gameplay is satisfying, the flow of the missions is fluid, and the cooperative nature of the operations and campaign is enjoyable.
Outside a few minor adjustments that could happen for the melee combat, the forgettable campaign narrative, and the rinse-and-repeat nature of the objectives and missions, Space Marine 2 is fantastic. I’d love to see an entire game dedicated to the PvE operations and gameplay, similar to a Helldivers 2-style, and unleash players against a wartorn galaxy in the 40K universe.
