A true bloodbath

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was developed by Saber Interactive Studios and published by Focus Entertainment and was released on September 9, 2024, available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X.

It is a game focused on campaign and cooperative mode, with one of its main objectives being to eliminate practically infinite hordes of enemies, using a vast arsenal of weapons and methods to eliminate them, as well as featuring a linear development that delivers a very frenetic and even quite immersive experience.

Maintaining the essence

The story of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is very interesting in various points. In an introductory context, we control Titus, a warrior sent on a suicidal mission in compliance with a sanction of heresy, a mission in which he loses his teammates to the Tyranids, an invading alien race, and at the end of the introductory scenario he also dies, but is rescued and revived to become an Ultramarine in service of the emperor.

With that said, the story unfolds from this point, in a linear way, as we advance through scenarios that have a morbid beauty, usually abandoned and surrounded by death and destruction, always pursuing the objective of eliminating the Tyranids together with his battle brothers.

With this context, we have a purpose for our gameplay, resulting in a very intense campaign that provides considerable hours of entertainment and immersion.
 

Intense and brutal combat

As I mentioned, the game is a hack-n-slash, also considered a shooter, however, mere definitions do not translate the intensity of the combat here, the system of hordes of enemies, with bosses and mini-bosses constantly appearing, makes it clear that the game makes a point of demonstrating the power of our adversaries, in addition to constantly causing a sense of an infinity of enemies, as they appear completely clustered, with large swarms of insects, which is not only excellent for the development of combat, which is obviously very frenetic, but also a strategy to demonstrate the graphic power that this game possesses.

In addition to the campaign, which has six major missions, we have a game mode called Operations Mode, which is an exclusively cooperative mode, bringing together up to 3 players to complete secondary missions, completed by supplementary teams that work in parallel with the main mission and Titus' team.

It is important to note that the game difficulty is relative. Before starting our journey, we can choose, among several options, the difficulty of the game, so for each option chosen, the experience can be different.

For this review, we chose the normal difficulty, an option that the game indicates for being played as a standard experience, and although it is not a very high difficulty, the challenges and especially the combat are interesting.

The Warhammer 40,000 series has been well-established in the market for a long time, and all projects involving it have a lot of personality. This specific title was a release that, in my understanding, is a more mainstream proposal, seeking a wider audience for the franchise without losing any detail of the vastness and depth of the universe.  
 

A good hack-n-slash is always welcome

Playing Space Marine 2 was an experience in line with the concept of "next generation." The game has fantastic art direction, very cinematic scenes, and you can feel the weight of the setting. It's not like a horror game, for example, but the clustered enemies, big explosions, shouting, and stunning scenarios stand out here.

At times, I couldn't help but draw a general parallel between Space Marines 2 and Helldivers 2, another release that addresses a very similar theme and has similar gameplay in certain aspects, which is extremely positive.

The game, in general, is easy to play, especially in terms of mechanics. Tutorials are frequent, and the didactics used and the gameplay itself are sufficient for you to understand everything you can do, which is an excellent characteristic, since due to its fast-paced, frenetic gameplay, and filled with visual effects, the ease of controlling the character and his actions is an extremely positive point.

The game is localized in several languages, has great voice acting overall, although it does not have any in Brazilian Portuguese, only texts, but the voices match the characters, and the text translations were well done.

The game's performance is quite satisfactory. It is undeniably a modern game, with demanding graphics, and it requires a mid-range computer to achieve a good balance of image quality with good frame rates.
 

For the Emperor!

My experience with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was excellent. All the game's features, the setting, and especially the gameplay brought me good hours of playtime, with the combat standing out as its most positive aspect in my opinion.

The key mapping is very intuitive, on the keyboard and mouse, and the experience using a controller felt more natural to me, but I believe it's all a matter of player preference. Also, the game's setting mixing constructions, cities, and bases, all destroyed and abandoned, brings a very good immersion, and overall, it's a game that I would recommend to fans of the series in particular, but also to the general public who want to delve a little deeper into this vast universe.

The game offers a good quality of life, with a complete and minimalist interface, as well as good settings and customization options for controls, graphics, and audio.
 

For this review, the game was experienced on PC, using the Steam platform. I thank Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment for providing the access key.