Hot Dropping into Space Marine II

The first thing I noticed when starting up Space Marine II was a black screen with a loading bar that moved awfully slow, and once I did start the campaign, the first cutscene was bugged — ha — and it froze on a shot of the sky while the audio continued in the background. That is mostly a joke, and it is something I experienced along with others, but underneath the inevitable launch issues that every game faces, there is a meaty action game with a lot of punch.

What captured me immediately was the environments and design of the characters and NPCS. From the towering buildings in the Hive City to the distant battlefields flooded with Tyranids, this game captured the scale of 40k effectively. In one of the campaign missions, ships floated above the clouds below the structure I was standing on, and when I looked up, the building kept going until it was surrounded by clouds. So, I constantly felt like I was just a small part of a larger world, even if the Astartes I played casted shadows over the Cadians I was fighting alongside. Which were also well represented; the character models for every faction looked like they came directly from the tabletop, and I really appreciated that attention to detail. The Guardsmen had their canteens and bedrolls while the Space Marines had their pouches, grenades, and other weaponry in places that they would be on the miniatures. 

The immersion is furthered through the dataslates scattered throughout the missions that provide additional information about what was happening, and the short lines that characters in the background said to each other. One of my favorites was a brief moment between a Guardsman and a Marine that highlighted how much of an honor it was to die alongside each other.

In terms of the gameplay however, I must say that I did find it rather difficult in parts. I found myself asking “How does this game want to be played?” Because it feels like the meat of the combat is in the melee, but on the Ruthless difficulty, it felt like — even if it was just for a moment — I would lose my armor and start taking health damage immediately when I was surrounded. A state that I felt like I was constantly in regardless of how many Nids I killed from range before they got to me. The cooperative game mode Operations addressed some of that difficulty because they added more distinct roles on the battlefield; our Sniper picked off the problematic targets while the Vanguard and Tactical marines would get up front and hold the line. 

I personally didn’t play much PvP, so I’m not sure I can give much input on that front. I do appreciate how you can continue to customize your Marine on that side of things, but I did find it odd that you don’t get to do much of that on the Chaos side, so I’m certain they’ll add more to that in the future. 

Overall, I would wager that the people that aren’t familiar with the 40k universe are not going to stick around after they play through all the missions, but I think if Sabre continues to bring in updates, people that are already immersed in the world will keep coming back and replaying it. Because again, it feels incredibly immersive with all of its attention to detail.