Brace yourself: Your eternal service starts now.
In "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2," the latest installment of the video-game installment in the beloved Warhammer franchise, players kill their way through literally thousands upon thousands of enemies. Those enemies include Tyranids, a massive swarm of bugs similar to those in "Starship Troopers" or "Helldivers 2," and the Thousand Sons, an army of mad sorcerers sworn to the service of a daemon.
While the gameplay is fun but derivative and the characters often feel clone-stamped, “Space Marine 2” is actually a surprisingly good look at how fascist armies function and how honorable people who are just trying to do their best function within such organizations.
The Space Marines make quick work of most enemies, so don't worry that killing thousands of foes requires you to clear your schedule for a week: I completed the main story in about nine hours.
In terms of ease of play, the mechanics aren't terribly important in the opening fights. You can brute-force your way through, but that shifts within an hour or so, and the game starts to feel like "Doom" or "Devil May Cry." Yes, your Space Marine is overpowered compared to nearly everything you fight, but you need to pay attention to game mechanics and manage resources to come out on top as the enemy numbers become greater and greater.
The combat in "Space Marine 2" is fun but nothing new. If you've played a hack-and-slash with guns added, everything will feel familiar. And two of the major boss fights felt, to me, almost like re-skins of fights from "Fable," a game that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. But the game offers more cinematic features than most, though, with gruesome finishing moves, often including Space Marines stabbing bugs to death with their own body parts.
For anyone who doesn't already know, Games Workshop states explicitly that the Warhammer universe is the company’s look at "the grimmest and the darkest" possible future for humanity, and the Imperium of Man is overtly and punishingly fascist. One core tenet of fascism is that the state is absolute, and individualism is permissible only where it doesn't conflict with the state. So it makes sense that the bioengineered super soldiers forming the cornerstone of the Imperium's military would all feel similar.
Characters feel repetitive, but that's probably right in a story about the worst version of a human future. Two of the main characters sound like low-rent Idris Elbas, and I often had to check the subtitles to be sure which one was speaking (one amusing feature of this nightmarishly grimdark universe is that nearly everyone has an accent from the British Isles). But despite this, each character has their own motives and acts accordingly -- and as your squad grows together as a unit through the storyline, it does so in a way that feels plausible and rewarding.
Where the “Space Marines 2” really shines and sets itself apart is in its depiction of how an organization built on mistrust and zealotry, especially a religio-fascist military, creates factions and silos of information that weaken the larger structure. Being a World War II nerd, I couldn't help but notice the distrust between the Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Marines and think of the distrust and sabotage that took place between the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy.
Another decent parallel would be the distrust between the German Wehrmacht and Italian Royal Army in North Africa and the blunders in that campaign. The fractures between the Imperium's factions propel the story along, and despite the fact that everyone in the Imperium was trying to do what they thought best, the factions nearly cost them the war. The war has raged for 10,000 years, so losing now would be a huge bummer.
The game has a lot of value beyond the 10 hours or so of first play-through. First, “operations mode” lets you play a different squad during some of the story missions, expanding the storyline and showing you how otherwise hidden events played out. And this mode also features many more customization options than the main storyline, allowing you to make the perfect Space Marine for your play style. Right now, there are six operations, with promises that more will come consistently for at least the next 12 months. There's also a player-vs.-player (PVP) mode where you can go against your battle brothers for as long as you like.
"Space Marine 2" is worth your time if you have some to spare. It's got plenty of fan service for longtime Warhammer fans but is approachable for new players in the series. Just pace yourself if you find yourself getting really into it: The video games lead to the books, which lead to the tabletop game, which leads to you staying up late painting miniatures with magnifying glasses and brushes with about 10 hairs on them.
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