And it just gripped me. It dragged me in. I'm sure many of you are probably exhausted from me going gushing grannies over the first Space Marine game, which I just played for the first time like five days ago, and now this one.
It's just so good, and I love the universe. Like, again, I knew nothing about this going into it. I was basically a Warhammer Cro-Magnon. And now, after completing the game and seeing the credits roll, I would let the Emperor suck from my fucking tits. Like, it is...
I have become hooked. I've already watched some lore breakdown videos, and I might even get me some of those miniatures. So if you see me begging on the streets with a bunch of scratch marks on my neck, you know what happened to me.
But yeah, I think Space Marine 2 is incredible. It is my second favorite game of the year, just behind Black Myth Wukong. I...
don't know what crack everyone's smoking to say that it's mid or i saw some like six out of tens for it they must have been playing a completely different game like this this is as old school as gaming gets i said this during streams it feels like an xbox 360 game in the golden era like i mean that as the highest compliment it's got a great story it's visually beautiful the gameplay is super fun and i never got bored of it from start to finish hordes of enemies the the cut scenes are immaculate like the final cut scene in particular i was filled with so much testosterone i almost fucked my own ass it is so good like everything about the game i really enjoy including even its pvp multiplayer you Like yeah, it's not the most fleshed out multiplayer ever, but I actually really like that. It's super simple. You play as some ultramarines and you go out there and clap some cheeks in either Domination or TDM. It's really fun.
But anyway, let's start with the campaign. So it's not very long, and this is a critique I've seen quite a few people say that there's not a ton of content in it. And I can understand it to a certain degree.
The campaign took me a little... over seven hours just barely over seven hours i played on veteran which is the second highest there is another difficulty but i think that's probably best reserved for playing with some buddies because even on veteran there was a challenge there and i imagine this will be punishing on the highest difficulty and i also imagine this game is extremely good co-op i played through on solo but i think this would be a really fun co-op game but i personally don't think that the campaign is too short or anything i've said this before i'd prefer like a really well-paced Tight seven hours as opposed to a slog 40 hour experience. By the time I finished that game, like my beard is graying.
Like, I hate that. Where it's just tedious for the sake of tedium. And it's a bunch of chores that you start losing interest in. You just can't wait to be done with it.
And then it becomes like a sunk cost fallacy. Like, well, I've already come this far. Might as well finish it. With Space Marine 2, I was always excited.
Like, it just kept going hard. Like, it was going hog wild ballistic start to finish. So I didn't mind that it was only like seven hours. And there is more content to do after you finish the campaign. There are operations that aren't, they don't feel like they're just some throwaway shit.
Like the operations feel really important because they're actually weaved into the main story. So while you're playing through the campaign, you'll be getting updates from the operations that are running congruent to that narrative. And when you're playing it, you're contributing directly to the main story.
Which is really nice. And I think the story is really... really good. Again, I knew nothing about Warhammer 40k coming into this.
I did play the first game, but I think you could play this without playing the first one. It does a good job of bringing you up to speed with what happened and why Titus, the character you play as, is kind of under suspicion. He's built a little bit different than the other Ultramarines.
It's also just so beautiful. Like I said, visually, I think this game has some of the best art direction of the year. It is stunning.
Absolutely stunning. The game throws hordes of tyranids at you your mission starts with you gotta take care of the tyranid threat here shit's going cattywampus and you gotta solve the problem you and your two ultramarines that you lead and you go out there and you dispense some justice for the glory of the emperor is there any higher honor and it i don't want to get into spoilers but it becomes more than just killing the tyranids it becomes something much bigger than that and it's just Fun. So this has this horde system where during some encounters, during a lot of encounters, this is a very frequent thing.
It's kind of the bread and butter of the gameplay loop. There's going to be hordes of tyranids or down the line some chaos agents and they just send tons of enemies at you and it's your job to swat them like mosquitoes. So kind of like in World War Z if any of you played that game. I didn't really like that game but I think they absolutely crushed it.
this system in this game they'll have like the tyranids crawling over each other and making like a wall of meat to climb up to your position and you need to like manage that wall otherwise you might get overrun by just this swarm of insects that you might not be able to handle then there's of course like some elite enemies mixed in with them some bigger enemies some buff enemies and it just becomes very hectic but in a good way like it never feels unfair or stupid or overwhelming it just feels hype at all times it just feels extremely hype especially because the cut scenes compliment that and just continue to just put their foot on the gas i just actually can't picture someone sitting through this game with a frown on their face going meh trash garbage like i really can't envision that because this is like the essence of a game like it doesn't try and do anything like super crazy it's just happy and content being a really fun Over-the-top action game. Now, I do understand why people might be frowning about the actual combat, because it's pretty simple. It doesn't deliver anything that you haven't already seen a million times before. Also, the enemy variety is kind of lacking.
You end up fighting the same enemies over and over again, which didn't really bother me because it's just fun to kill them. And the combat, to me, was fun. I appreciated the simplicity of it. So... you have two weapons and then you have an ability you have grenades and you have melee that's it there's not a ton of weapons to choose from there is quite a bit of variety but a lot of them play pretty identical to one another and the melee is basically the exact same combos for everything so you have light attacks and you can hold for a heavy attack and it's not the most fleshed out melee combat but i think it's effective You can parry enemies, you can dodge, and there's perfect dodges which you can then punish with like this, you know, headshot.
It'll be like this aimbot headshot if you do a parry or a perfect dodge. And it's nice, you regain your shield. There's also finishers, so if you weaken them enough you can execute them to get shield.
It's fun, but it's not deep. So I do think people are going to be a little put off by that. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
But for me, I really enjoyed it. Oh also there's like a lot of customization as well so you can really put your best foot forward here to dress to impress for the emperor make him clap for you and kick his little feet in his chair with a smile on his face while spitting up. There's just so much to love about this game but it's not perfect by any means there is some real jankiness to it but it's nothing that I think ruins the experience.
I do think that many people are going to find it severely lacking in content compared to a lot of games that have come out recently. I It doesn't bother me because I don't feel that way. I definitely feel like I got my money's worth with just the campaign, let alone the operations that are actually really fun and the PvP.
Now, there isn't many operations. There's only six operations right now, but they're apparently adding more down the line. So it's not like it's going to be six operations forever. But even still, like, to me, I got plenty of content out of the purchase. So I'm very pleased with it.
But I do think for a lot of people, they're going to find it a little lacking in that department. and I don't think they're wrong for feeling that way. But overall, I definitely think Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 is worth picking up. It's the first time in a long time that I really feel like I was playing a passion project from the developers.
It didn't feel like it was some, like, corporate decision where everything was dictated by, like, numbers. Like, how can we get the most juice for the squeeze from our players and fuck them and, you know, maybe we make it open world or something. like oh maybe it needs to be some type of turbo live action experience though i do think this game is like pseudo live action i don't think it's labeled as a sorry a live service i don't think it's labeled as a live service game but they have like a whole roadmap for what they're going to be doing with like operations and more pve content so i guess you could kind of classify it as like a pseudo live service game but it just doesn't feel like all of the live service games we've been fed recently like the dog shit that's been put on our plate from those genres. This one actually just feels like some developers love the property and wanted to make a fun, cool game set in that universe.
Even something as simple as PvP multiplayer honestly just feels straight out of like 2010. Like back when I was playing Gears of War every single day. I know a lot of people compare this to the Gears of War. Like there are some similarities for sure, but it plays very differently than Gears of War.
Like there's no like cover shooting elements to it or anything but like it reminds me of how Gears of War's multiplayer was from what I recall somewhat of an afterthought they just threw it on there and it became an absolute smashing success I'm not saying the pvp in this feels like an afterthought or anything but it feels like it has that same DNA where it's we want to offer this because some people might really enjoy it they're not making the pvp to try and have it become the next big e-sport to compete with call of duty or anything it's just there because hey Some people might have fun just hopping in for maybe like an hour every now and then, just playing whatever class they really like. You know, maybe you enjoy jetpacking and slamming down the hammer, just clobbering with a big AoE thunder hammer, and you want to just ruin a couple people's night by spamming that and having some fun. It's just a game that I really enjoy a lot. Again, it's not without its flaws, but none of the flaws of this game take away...
even a single fucking moment of the enjoyment I've had with it. So yeah, I do recommend it. I think it's fun. That's really about it. See ya.