With a war raging among the stars, the supersoldier Demetrian Titus leaps out of his ship and dives toward the surface of a planet below. As he streaks through the sky like a meteor, dodging flotsam and explosions, the near silence of the atmosphere foregrounds his muffled breathing, whose steady pace conveys the calm with which he faces all but impossible odds. The orbital drop is a standout set piece—but far from an outlier—in Saber Interactive’s exceptionally transportive and tactile Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
The insectoid, hive-minded Tyranids have mobilized en masse, and Titus and his two squadmates, Chairon and Gadriel, are tasked with repelling them. The three-man army operates out of a flying barge whose eccentric decor captures the sci-fi medieval, techno-spiritual charm of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, as computer monitors lined with Matrix-green text stand beside ornate stained glass and statues of two-headed birds perched atop skulls.
The fortress is also home to support personnel that the genetically engineered Space Marines tower over, including semi-biotic machine-worshiping priests whose amusing side conversations evoke Warhammer 40,000’s characteristically cheeky commentary on empire, technology, and religion. In a droll highlight outside of the stronghold, a power supply in need of a reboot asks Titus to “please conduct holy maintenance.”
The base provides brief respites from Titus and his crew’s work, which typically sends them crashing into astounding swarms of Tyranids. Given that the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game’s tagline inspired the term “grimdark,” it’s fitting that Space Marine 2 requires you to channel that genre’s brutality and ruthlessness to survive. You mow cannon fodder down from afar with guns and grenades; eviscerate the grunts that close the distance with a suite of dastardly melee weapons in what feels like a more dangerous riff on Dynasty Warriors, because even the lowliest creature here packs a mean bite; and duel elites and bosses in the style of the newest God of War titles, replete with lock on, dodges, parries, and creatively grisly finishers.
Those executions are crucial to success across Space Marine 2’s campaign, as they replenish your armor, which otherwise recharges after you haven’t been hit for a while. The mechanic also illuminates the tactical savvy of Chairon and Gadriel, who rather kindly leave stunned enemies for your capable hands unless you fail to capitalize in time.
Space Marine 2’s macro level design is fairly conservative—missions tend to consist of arenas connected by linear corridors—but the game consistently ups its sense of chaos and spectacle, all but ripping the dial off the amplifier. Titus’s crusade brims with propulsive, electrifying encounters, from a jetpacking clash across cliffs to a feverish brawl in a facility whose lights have gone out. If, in the latter sequence, you have the energy-fueled power sword equipped, Titus whirls through the shadows like a fiend, the blade’s bright blue hue flashing in the darkness. The sensory thrills of encounters, the well-tuned difficulty of combat, and the sheer scale of the alien hordes lead every skirmish to supply the adrenaline boosts of a valiant last stand.
Indeed, among the game’s most formidable achievements is the deftness with which it delivers on the fantasy of stepping into the armor of the titular warriors. In battle and beyond, you move through the world like a demigod: As the ground shudders (and the controller vibrates) beneath your steps, regular humans kneel before you. In a moment that funnily contextualizes the extent of your capabilities, when you approach four normies trying to raise a jammed portcullis, Titus cleans and presses it off the ground with an easy flex of his colossal frame.
Your might proves substantial enough to bend even clichés to your will. When, during a cutscene, a monster in the background looks like it’s about to get the jump on Titus, one of your buddies casually blasts it from out of the frame. The bait and switch feels like a winking admission by Space Marine 2: This is an unabashedly over-the-top ride, but it won’t stoop to boring contrivance. Your strength is too profound, your time too important, to abide that.
This game was reviewed with code provided by Sandbox Strategies.
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