Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Review. Made in Russia, Made with Soul

A few days ago, the long-awaited game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was released.

This is not just a continuation of the famous shooter, but a real milestone for the modern gaming industry. Created by the Saber Interactive studio, whose offices are located in St. Petersburg and Moscow, it is a large-scale project in the world of Warhammer 40,000. Already at the early access stage, it attracted huge interest: the peak online on Steam reached 134 thousand players.

These figures are just the beginning, as the full release is still ahead, and it will take place on September 9.

We have already played the new product and are eager to share our impressions. Is it worthy of your attention? Spoiler: yes, yes and once again – yes.

Defeat is the most common screen message you will see.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 continues the story of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, introducing players to Lieutenant Titus, one of the most recognizable Ultramarines.

The game takes place 100 years after the events of the first part, and here Titus will once again have to stand for the Imperium against a new threat in the form of an alien swarm of Tyranids. They are biomechanical creatures that seek to absorb all living things in their path.

The game follows the franchise’s tradition of focusing on locations and large-scale warfare. The story is developed through a series of missions that focus on Titus’ region with enemy hordes, revealing his leadership qualities and courage.

And the most important thing here is the scale. On one screen, you have the ability to keep track of your opponents, and you will have to constantly interact with all of them. How? Shoot, crush, destroy, and so on down the list.

The problem is that compared to the first part, everything is much more complicated in terms of battles. You will die ten times due to the abundance of enemies, when different types of enemies attack you from all sides, and you simply will not be able to unleash all sorts of simultaneous actions. The inscription “Defeat” will be haunt you constantlyunless the game is on easy difficulty. Even on normal difficulty there are already serious problems, not to mention the higher levels…

The combat system is the best part of the game

Yes, there is no support for ultra-wide monitors, and that is a minus.

The combat system in the new “Wah” combines constant shootouts and close combat, which creates a combination prepared for the action genre – such a real one is not used anywhere with a conference balance, so that one type of weapons does not prevail. All difficulties always require the player to balance between ranged and close combat, ensuring constant tension and variety of gameplay.

The iconic guns of the Warhammer universe are used here. The Space Marines are armed with boaters, plasma guns, flamers and heavy weapons like rocket launchers and laser cannons. They have a ratio between rate of fire and power, as well as tactile feedback. That is, you really feel each individual gun and its firing characteristics.

The shooting system is intuitive and allows you to quickly switch between weapons for use depending on the situation. For example, when facing Tyranid Chief Scientists, it is best to use a Flamer or Bolter to clear the area, while Plasma Rifles are effective against powerful single enemies.

The game’s melee combat is implemented in the form of knives, chain swords, and power hammers. They literally allow cut one’s way through through crowds of enemies with particular cruelty. There will always be blood on the screen, the main character never stops turning burgundy. This is ultraviolence for ultramarines.

An important mechanic is the finishing system, when after a series of successful attacks the player can receive powerful additional active blows that not only support enemies, but also restore the character’s armor. Yes, now health is not restored from finishing blows, for this you need stimulants, not so many of which are scattered across the maps.

This adds an element of risk as the player must act aggressively and always go for broke in order to survive.

The main feature of the Space Marine series is the ability combine long and short strikes. And I assure you that you will constantly use wallpapers of this type. Otherwise, it simply won’t work. Either there will be little ammo, or there is no time to reload, or, on the contrary, you need to hit enemies at a distance.

Tactical decisions play a major role: in a Tyranid takeover, it is important to consider not only your weapon, but also your positioning on the battlefield. You might think this is some kind of meat shooter, but the tactic of “run far and run” does not always work. In some situations, you just need to step aside and cover two teammates.

The last ones, by the way, in the main game are bots. But I can be with your friends, because there is a cooperative mode. And I strongly recommend playing with friends, because bots do not say that they are very smart. Yes, they perform the main task, they raise you when you fall at death, but they do not press buttons, and they do not quickly switch to more important tasks in combat mode.

And yes, cooperative calculation for three players. It can’t be more, so pay attention to this before buying with friends.

Not only the story missions are important here, but also the additional missions.

While the focus here is primarily on the story, the side missions provide introduction and context to the events surrounding Titus and the global war.

These include a variety of tasks, such as clearing areas of enemies, identifying and destroying key targets, or protecting important installations. Many of these involve supporting other Space Marine units or the Imperium as a whole.

Although the additional missions are optional, they inextricably linked to the main plot. They often reveal details about the origins of enemies, their motives, and the scale of the threats the Space Marines face. Moreover, side missions can be important in maintaining the plot twists that accompany the game’s events.

Sides run parallel to the main campaign and support Titus’ actions. For example, in Inferno, this is described as a Marine team on a counter-maneuver to achieve Titus’s primary objective in the story. In Decapitation, your Marine squad must eliminate key enemies to weaken the enemy’s strength. From Vox Liberatis, vital data must be recovered for the Imperium.

All in all, these aspects have a strong influence on the main army. They are almost not necessary for testing, but they help a lot in ensuring the plan is carried out.

Looks great, but what about optimization?

The character models are meticulously detailed, with every scratch on the Ultramarines’ armor and the fine details of their weapons visible. The planet’s landscapes, where structures unfold, ruined cities develop, bloody battlefields, and massive war machines.

Special attention is paid to the Tyranids, each representative looks like a real threat, and their movements and attacks are made with a high degree of realism. And if you keep in mind that they simultaneously showed hordes at you, then this can affect your nerves.

There are also bosses here that are reminiscent of the timings souls games. It’s even more interesting with them, but I don’t even want to throw a basic spoiler – it needs to be on me in real life.

During battles, the screen literally explodes with fire from explosions, flashes and bloody effects from fatal blows. Every bolter shot and every hammer strike is accompanied by sounds and visual effects, which gives the battles a special atmosphere. The animations of finishing moves and the use of special skills are impressive in their cruelty and spectacle, adding an additional brutal atmosphere of war to the game.

As for optimization, the situation is twofold. I tested the game on PlayStation 5, and there were no problems there. But on PC, a couple of problems periodically arise:

• the voice acting may cut out out of the blue (both Russian and English – something freezes in the dialogues, this is not a problem with the localization itself)
• connection to servers is always required, which is why even local game may lagand this can negatively affect the leading fear (enemies can slow down, your bot partners or friends, etc.)

Otherwise, I haven’t seen any serious bugs. But these two things clearly need polishing.

Ultramarines, forward

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was just great. I’m not a big fan of the Warhammer universe, but even I was able to quickly understand the universe and understand the events that were happening.

The game takes 10-12 hours to complete quite briskly, and this time is enough for the title not to become boring. Spectacular, epic, juicy, bloody – all according to the canons of the genre.

The new product costs 3199 rubles on Steam. Also available on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. Welcome to the avant-garde.