Chainswords chewing through chitinous armour, gratuitous gore soaking the war-torn soil, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Space Marine 2 has a story to tell. It seems like a long time since we last met Ultramarine Titus, and it is, with the original game launching on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and even the long-forgotten streaming service OnLive in 2011.
Things haven’t turned out all that well for old Titus in the interim, and as we surmised in our hands-on at last year’s Gamescom, he’s been skulking around in the edges of the Imperium, dishonoured and sent to deal with the universe’s worst threats as a member of the Deathwatch.
Let’s forget about all that for a moment though, and go back to those chainswords. Space Marine 2 is the best representation of Warhammer 40,000’s brutalistic sci-fi world we’ve ever had, and while that might mean cribbing from Microsoft’s own Gears of War, I’m willing to bet that the guys at the Coalition and Epic Games have a few Ultramarines squirrelled away in their drawers.
Everything is circular though, as Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits is clear to point out: “40K has influenced so much. I mean, just look at my history; if you get the original Doom Space Marine, what does that look like? If you look at the Lancer chainsaw and Gears of War, where did that come from? If you look at the power armour in Fallout, what does that look like?”
Tim Willits is a man that knows about explosive gunplay. His CV is a cavalcade of weaponry-heavy classics, with his time at id Software covering iconic franchises like Doom, Quake, and Rage. He clearly loves the format, words tripping over themselves in his excitement to talk about Space Marine 2, and how they’ve pushed its own combat forward, “We looked at the push-forward combat in the original Space Marine, you know, and we discussed that and then we added glory kills in 2016 which looked gorgeous in Space Marine 2. I’m like, ‘that’s f****** awesome, do more of that!’ you know?”
That push forward combat is key to Space Marine 2’s feel. “You want to feel like you’re a Space Marine,” Tim says. “Like you’re indestructible, but you can’t make a video game where you’re indestructible. Yet, with the overwhelming and iconic enemies, and then the different varieties that come in, you’ve got to defend and you’ve got to move. It really is dance of death. I like to think that kind of makes you feel like a better Space Marine.”
One of the things that recurred through my hands on was how often I was absolutely on the edge of death. If you let too many Tyranids get in close, then all that armour, all your health, can very swiftly disappear, but it’s at this point that you’re suddenly more tuned in than ever. You parry, you dodge, you perform executions and suddenly gain back some of your armour. Tim loved this, punching the air as I told him my tale, “Yes! But you made it through right? That’s the exact balance that it needs!” Given how hard my heart was pumping at that point, it feels like he’s right.
Despite this being a sequel, Tim’s clear to point out that this is the perfect starting point for people to jump in, “Even if you haven’t played the original, if you’ve not played Space Marine 1, don’t stress it. It’s not a requisite, you know, because it’s hard to even play now.”
He continues, “I don’t want people to stress about that, because this is a different story. Yes, it’s Titus, but it’s been 200 years and he’s been in the Deathwatch. Then they do the Primaris upgrades, and he has his personal journey. So, now he’s got to adhere to the Codex, but he’s learned to kind of be more flexible, you know, so there’s that personal story that is just a great story.”
That’s one aspect we’ve only been able to get a small taste of during our hands-on time with the game, both this year and at last year’s Gamescom as well. If you’ve played the original, you’ll have a connection to Titus that incoming players won’t, but it feels like the bombastic gunplay, the startlingly vivid 40K world, and the incredible visuals will do just as good a job of drawing you in.
Despite the clarity with which Saber have captured the galaxy of Warhammer 40,000, it hasn’t always been the easiest journey. Given the franchise’s legacy and just how important it is to Games Workshop for things to be accurate, hasn’t always made a video game adaptation the easiest thing to create.
Tim tells us, “Games Workshop are super involved. Everything from the insignia to the expression on Titus’s face, they are hand-in-hand involved. Even, you know, I’ll make this example, our ankle armour was the wrong size and they’re like ‘the ankle armour…’”
He smiles, “45 years ago when they created the first Space Marine [figures], they probably didn’t think that he had to be in a video game 45 years in the future and get him to walk and to fight. That was very challenging, and the team’s been years working on that, but you know, everything’s there now thanks to the team.”
It’s been worth it. If you know Warhammer 40,000, Space Marine 2 is going to blow you away. The level of visual fidelity Saber has been able to bring to bear on this game would easily win the team a Golden Demon award or two. They’ve also taken the opportunity to further improve on the incredible swarm technology we originally saw in World War Z, and if you want to experience terror, just wait until you see a swarm of Tyranids coming over the horizon.
“We’ve created a new evolution of the swarm tech in this game along with the AI director, so we’re now we’re able to create these truly holy s*** moments, every battle.” Tim continues, “When the Tyranid swarm comes at you and finally kind of starts to break apart – in World War Z the zombie kind of broke apart, but they’re just dumb zombies – in Space Marine 2 those Tyranids, they start thinking and they want to f*** you up, and that all goes back to the AI director coordinating these battles.”
It’s clear that Tim is loving his time overseeing Space Marine 2, and it feels as though that’s fed into the wider development team. Those lessons he learned at id Software – “Trust me, you learn best when you make mistakes.” – have meant that Space Marine 2 is an evolution of the old-school shooter, an evolution of the first game, and an evolution of Saber’s already impressive tech. If you’re looking for the action game of the year, you might well have found it.
