The chainsword is one in all my favorite weapons in all of science fiction. It has the shape issue of a medieval longsword, however the blade is made up of dozens of chainsaw tooth that rip and tear by means of flesh. In a single strike it captures each the gothic aesthetic and violent extra of Warhammer 40,000. And this weapon is the brutal, snarling coronary heart of the long-awaited Space Marine 2.
I lately performed an hour of the sequel to what many take into account the very best Warhammer 40k motion recreation ever made. And from what I’ve seen it seems new developer Saber Interactive undoubtedly understands what made the 2011 unique, created by Relic Entertainment, work so effectively. Space Marine 2 is a shooter/melee hybrid that falls someplace between Gears of War and Doom; a linear third-person marketing campaign stuffed with intense, gory monster battles. And like its predecessor, it seems to be unapologetically simple in its pursuit of more and more bloody encounters towards overwhelming odds.
The mission I performed, aptly named Invasion, had me carve a path of corpses by means of jungle swamps and concrete bunkers in the course of the early levels of an alien assault. The invading Tyranids (assume Starship Troopers’ bugs as designed by HR Giger) arrive in swarms, courtesy of Saber’s spectacular World War Z engine which may render a thousand enemies on display screen. A tidal wave of raptor-like Hormagaunts, supported by handfuls of imposing Warriors, crash towards barricades and buildings. They even clamber over one another to type writhing towers that scale shear partitions. While at vary your weapons will simply tear these crowds aside, there’s merely not sufficient ammunition within the galaxy to hose all of them down earlier than they break by means of your line of fireplace. That’s the place Space Marine 2 switches into melee mode, and the satisfying strikes of its chainsword come into play.
Shooting feels sturdy and highly effective, nevertheless it’s in the course of blood-soaked brawls that Space Marine 2 actually comes alive. Saber has put collectively a well-judged melee system that has depth due to combos, parries, and dodges, however continues to be easy sufficient so that you can largely revel within the slaughter. The smaller Hormagaunts are primarily powerless towards your strikes; those who attempt to leap at your face will be caught mid-air and slammed into the bottom for an on the spot kill. But the sheer variety of them means they’ll gnaw away at your armour. Should they break by means of, they’ll have the ability to injury your treasured well being bar, which is primarily replenished with hardly ever discovered medical kits. Staying alive within the midst of those hordes, then, isn’t fairly as simple because it first appears in your eight feet-tall, armour-clad Ultramarine.
Executions are gloriously gory, with the chainsword slicing its manner by means of flesh and bone in a twig of blood.
This is the place Space Marine 2’s executions come into play. They’re a bit like Doom’s Glory Kills – in case you can carry out a brutal execution transfer on an enemy, a part of your four-segment armour bar is replenished. The larger and nastier the enemy, the extra armour you regain. And so when fights in my demo started, I immediately sought out the larger Warriors. They’re a way more imposing problem. With arms fabricated from swords, they make for a correct duel. Parries are important, as is watching out for unblockable assaults that you’ll want to dodge. Performing counter or a stun combo opens them as much as a point-blank pistol shot to the face. Do sufficient injury, and you’ll finally set off an execution finisher. These are gloriously gory, with the chainsword slicing its manner by means of flesh and bone in a twig of blood that repaints your blue Marine purple. It’s a reward in itself, however the actual prize is the replenished armour that retains you within the struggle.
And so seems the move of Space Marine 2. With so few medic packs within the demo mission, I desperately wanted to maintain my armour topped up. In the latter half of my hands-on I had only a smidge of well being left, and so my survival utterly hinged on my skill to maintain these executions coming. It altered how I approached every encounter; I’d skinny out a crowd with bursts of gunfire and grenades, however guarantee loads of targets remained alive so I might cost into melee and carry out these executions. It made the whole second half of the mission a tense battle for survival; my Ultramarine’s life fairly actually relied on tearing the center out of disgusting Tyranids.
What I’d prefer to see subsequent is how that melee system scales and evolves with completely different enemy varieties. This demo was pulled from the marketing campaign’s second mission, and featured simply two foremost Tyranid varieties plus some exploding poison bugs. But Games Workshop, the corporate behind the Warhammer 40,000 universe, sells over 25 completely different Tyranid creatures for the tabletop recreation, and there’s much more within the lore. While I like the horde results created by the Hormagaunts and the melee duels with the Warriors, they’re probably not sufficient to maintain a complete marketing campaign. My hope is that the story ceaselessly affords new challenges by way of larger and stranger Tyranids, such because the towering Hive Tyrants and flying Gargoyles (the latter of which might be seen within the skies of the demo, however didn’t but pose a menace). If every kind of Tyranid builds on the melee and taking pictures fundamentals in several methods, then I feel Space Marine 2 will keep away from exhausting itself inside a couple of missions and show an actual blast.
While the ranged-to-melee fight cycle saved me engaged all through the demo, the fixed love for the 40k universe had me delighted. Saber clearly is aware of its stuff; your protagonist, Lieutenant Titus, wears lore-accurate Primaris armour. He fights alongside a regiment of Cadian guardsmen outfitted with Lasguns and Basilisk cannons pulled straight from the tabletop. The Tyranids are a hivemind, and so killing the extra senior Warriors stuns surrounding enemies as their synaptic connections are severed. And throughout only one mission I used virtually each kind of contemporary Boltgun, from the essential rifle to the tactical carbine and turret-like Heavy Bolter. Each has a special firing sample and efficient vary, which made them distinct regardless of every utilizing the identical explosive ammunition. For extra devastating outcomes I had a mess around with a Meltagun, which evaporated dozens of Tyranids in a single set off pull. It made me excited to see what number of different wild weapons from the setting are included within the full marketing campaign (fingers crossed for a Neo-Volkite pistol).
The uncomplicated spirit of late 2000s campaigns is loud and clear.
Best of all, each weapon I picked up was , old school shooter gun; no stats, no mods, no energy ranges. You choose ’em up, pull the set off, and the alien splatters throughout the bottom. This is certainly a contemporary iteration of Space Marine due to the melee fight, however – on this mission, at the least – the uncomplicated spirit of late 2000s campaigns is loud and clear.
I’ve been ready for Space Marine 2 for over a decade. For 40k followers, it’s a fairly large deal. It’s an enormous deal for Games Workshop, too; the newest version of tabletop Warhammer 40,000 can also be targeted on the conflict between the Space Marines and Tyranids. This recreation is on the very centre of the universe. But I feel that religion could also be rewarded. I actually like what I’ve seen up to now; a strong stability between the easy linear shooters of yesteryear and the advanced melee fighters of right this moment. An complete marketing campaign of what I performed within the demo dangers turning into repetitive, however there’s a complete universe of weapons, enemies, and ideas to construct a assorted set of missions round. I hope that’s what Saber has achieved. Because, as my Primaris Lieutenant stomped up a ramp fabricated from a thousand Tyranid corpses, it was clear that Space Marine 2 has on the very least absolutely captured the grimdark spirit of the fearless Adeptus Astartes.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
