Yesterday, I completed a playthrough of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 with my friend Shadey. Developed by Saber Interactive, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was released in September 2024 and continues the story of Titus, a Space Marine in the grimdark Warhammer 40,000 universe, where there is only war.
Whether or not you are a Warhammer 40,000 fan doesn’t really matter when it comes to Space Marine 2. It stands on its own as an excellent third-person shooter and hack-and-slash hybrid. It’s incredibly satisfying to cut through hordes of alien Tyranids while enjoying the game’s impressive visuals and atmospheric environments. The story is fairly linear, but upon completing the campaign, additional replayable PvE and PvP content becomes available. Most notable are the Operations missions, which follow a second squad of Space Marines carrying out objectives alongside the events of the main story. In addition to completing the campaign on Normal difficulty, my friend and I finished all 13 Operations on the Average threat difficulty, so I think I can safely add Space Marine 2 to my list of completed games.
By completing Operations and various other challenges, players earn experience and currency that can be used to make their Space Marine more powerful and unlock cosmetic items. I chose to play as a Space Marine from the Salamanders Chapter, purely because they are sometimes a little nicer than the average Space Marine. This is what my Tactical Marine ended up looking like.
Warhammer 40,000 is a hobby that I have always respected but never really got into myself. As a teenager, some of my classmates would bring in miniatures for an after-school tabletop gaming club, which I thought looked fascinating. I was particularly impressed by the effort and skill that went into painting the models. However, at that age I was more interested in video games, collectible card games, and music, so there wasn’t much time or money left for another hobby. As a gamer however, I played Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior on the PlayStation 2 back in 2003, which I still think is a good game and one that remains in my collection today. I also spent some time with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War while searching for an alternative real-time strategy game to StarCraft, although unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it quite as much.
While there is still plenty of replayable content in Space Marine 2, such as tackling Operations on higher difficulties, experimenting with different classes, and unlocking every weapon and cosmetic upgrade, I think it’s time to take off my power armour for now. That said, I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for future content updates, and I’ll be hoping that Space Marine 3 eventually becomes a reality.
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