Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Review

I’ll openly admit that I never played the original Space Marine 13 years ago back in 2011. It’s hard to think that when this was released it was two generations ago and whilst it did pretty decent in the review scores, many questioned whether we would see a sequel. Several Warhammer-infused games later over the past decade or so and we had an announcement back at the tail end of 2021 at The Game Awards. After a few delays and the cancellation of the Beta in the run-up to launch, I was a little wary that there may be issues but it seems that the dev team were just using resources wisely. I can confirm that we have a bloody good game on our hands with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and it appears that this third person shooter even excels many expectations from fans of the Warhammer universe.

A Ruddy Fantastic Campaign

Being lucky enough to get stuck into the review 2 weeks before release meant that I could focus my attention purely on the game’s campaign mode. For a typical playthrough, you’re looking at 10-12 hours depending on the difficulty selection and your pacing. I opted for Normal mode and found it pretty challenging with plenty of dying along the way. You can choose to play solo or rope two friends into playing online alongside you, if you go it alone then the AI takes the role of the characters you’ll fight alongside. There is a small tutorial at the beginning of the campaign that will introduce you to the mechanics of the game, how to string together combos, block and use powers.

Demetrian Titus from the first game returns and you’ll be tasked with protecting the universe swarmed with Tyranids. When I say swarmed, I mean it as well. If you’re familiar with the World War Z game, then the same team worked on this experience and it is clear to say. The technology has been blended into this adventure and along with the amazing visuals it is incredible to be a part of.  Whilst you do have assistance with your two squad mates Chairon and Gadriel, you’ll need to have your wits about you as you’ll need to hack, slash and shoot your way through hordes of enemies. Blocking and dodging are critical against some of the larger enemies and you’ll want to utilize your health for the boss fights. To avoid spoilers I won’t mention the storyline whatsoever, but it is an engaging affair from start to finish!

Visuals & Audio

I was blown away by how good Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 looks on Xbox Series X. With a solid 60fps in 1080p it still looks outstanding on a decent 4k TV. Nothing is dumbed down when it comes to the backdrops during the campaign and operations levels with incredible attention to detail. Even looking far out into the landscape I didn’t see any dips in quality with the draw distance. I was also expecting some slight dips in performance especially when overwhelmed with enemies but I only saw a few frame drops in one particular area of the game, everything ran so smoothly.

Voice acting and audio overall are also extremely well executed with some brilliant voice acting during the well-illustrated cut scenes. You can see how much effort has been poured into the presentation here versus some of the lower-budget Warhammer-orientated games. There has been no skimping here in every tiny detail of the game.

Operations Mode

If you don’t quite fancy fighting against real-life players in the PvP, then you can buddy up with friends or randoms to go through the operations modes. This gave me Helldivers 2 crossed with Aliens Fireteam Elite vibes, as up to three of you fight across various missions.  Currently there are 6 operations at launch with various objectives to beat. There are more operations promised in future content updates along with a PvE private lobby mode coming soon also which will allow for offline play here with bots. There are rewards and unlockables across the game for diving into this section of the game so it is well worth investing time into.

PvP Multiplayer

One of the reasons for the delay beyond embargo for this review was partially because I wanted to dive into the PvP elements of the game before my final scoring. Being a multiplayer guy through and through I love to compete in shooters. I have seen lots of people from the outside drawing comparisons to the Gears Of War franchise, especially when it comes to the multiplayer. I didn’t feel it played similarly to GoW and that is simply down to how both games handled. Gears takes the route of tactical play and introduces lots of options for cover and diving in and out of spaces.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 doesn’t feel as heavy and clunky to me and handles with a bit more fluidity when it comes to the gunplay and navigating the maps. The maps in PvP are designed similarly to arenas in the Halo games, small and compact areas with not much opportunity to go off the beaten track. This isn’t a bad thing though as it forces consistent conflict between the two teams and options to flank around certain objectives. Levelling up gives you access to currency to purchase cosmetics, weapon skins and more. I did find going through the ranks painfully slow though and even coming top of the leaderboard in a match didn’t make a difference in the amount of experience earned in comparison to coming last.

Final Thoughts

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is near perfect and the greatest game I’ve played in that universe. With a meaty campaign, fantastic horde-based modes and PvP online multiplayer included, there is the potential for hundreds of hours of gameplay here. It is far more exciting playing this co-operatively with friends but I had great joy from reviewing this alone in the weeks leading up to launch. The team at Saber Interactive already has a well-established roadmap for the next 12 months which adds even more in the way of cosmetics, weapons, modes and more.

The future for this title is exciting and whilst it retains an active player base, I believe the team at Saber will keep adding content to the game. For Xbox Series X players though, this is one of the best-looking games I’ve seen on the console to date and for the most part performance is buttery smooth throughout. For die-hard Warhammer fans, this is an absolute must-buy, but for those who just love the shooter genre as a whole then this will be one of the best you’ll see in 2024.