If you were a fan of the first Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine game, this long-awaited sequel is certain to give you everything you’d expect: blood, guts, and glory in absolute fistfuls. The game’s graphics seat it very nicely within the general aesthetic of the Warhammer 40,000 universe without necessarily focusing on hyperreal notice-every-blade-of-grass visuals – which makes the action incredibly fun.
What’s more, the fact that the storyline was written in collaboration with the Warhammer Studios is very cool. For fear of giving any spoilers, we’ll give broad strokes here: we again play as Lieutenant Demetrian Titus smashing his way through a metric shipload of enemies.
Within a few weeks of release, the game has racked up rave reviews almost across the board, with praise heaped on for its all-frills hack and slash fun (as well as its refreshing lack of in-game monetisation).
The core campaign isn’t hugely long, but running it as different classes and at different difficulties is great fun – not to mention that multiplayer mode offers a ton of end-user satisfaction. Being able to selectively level up weapons and ability trees means that the game’s not a simple single run-through. You can, of course, run through it as a certain class, complete it once, and be done – but where’s the fun in that?
If you’re looking for blood and guts, then by all means jump in at this point, but the game follows some deep lore, so it’s worth getting a refresher on the events of Space Marine 1.
So let’s look at what the game is like as well as some key tips for getting the most out of it.
Classes: What You Need to Know
Like with many class-based shooters or hack-and-slashers, the game’s playthrough can vary quite dramatically based on which class you choose. And while game devs usually try to make classes as balanced against each other as possible, this isn’t necessarily always achieved – especially when it comes to specific ability differences at the earlier parts of the game. So not all classes are made equal, but they are all still great fun.
Tactical
Tactical is sort of like the middle-of-the-road “Soldier” class from other games. It’s the most all-round class because you have a huge range of weapons to choose from – at least in terms of primary weapons (including three varieties of the iconic bolt rifle). This makes it perfect for taking on a massive variety of situations.
The downside here is that you only get one sidearm and one melee weapon to choose from. But the bolt pistol is a great cross-class weapon to get levelling up (more on this later) and your melee weapon is the chainsword (which is, frankly, the most badass option). To top it off, you also start with the highest amount of armour compared to other Tier 1 classes.
Assault
Assault class is basically your big bruiser all-attack class. You don’t have an option of a primary weapon but get huge perks for your sidearm and melee weapons. The bolt pistol, for example, can do a lot of damage once you’ve levelled it up. The Assault class is all about getting toyour enemies as fast as possible and tearing them apart at close quarters.
This class can be difficult for those not familiar with playing melee-style classes but can be really thrilling if you love getting stuck into the fights. However, it’s crucial to pace your health & armour and, because you’re the one largely running headlong into any sign of a fight, you’re going to need a lot of support from your team in the way of health, reviving, and range damage – especially as you start to get to higher levels and start fighting bosses that you can’t physically get to for a clobbering.
Vanguard
Vanguard is the lighter version of the Tactical class – it’s the light infantry, the “scout” class with a bit more oomph than you usually get. You get less armour but get to move a lot faster and take more of a varied approach to combat than something like the Assault class. Being able to choose between a combat knife or chainsword also gives you the option to get involved with much faster close combat but at the cost of area damage with a melee weapon (which you can do a lot more of with the chainsword or thunder hammer).
Go for Vanguard if you like fast action – being able to duck in and out while also being able to take a bit of a beating at times.
Bulwark
The Bulwark is the class closest to the “chaplain”, “paladin”, or “medic”-type classes in other games. It comes with a range of team-focused benefits like being able to restore all squad member armour within a certain area.
Similarly to Assault, you’re only given secondary and melee weapons, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do some damage. You get to choose from a chainsword, a power fist, or a power sword as your melee weapon and, like assault, are able to opt for some melee-focused perks. The Bulwark class is great for players who love playing as part of teams, helping to keep reserves topped up while doing damage from mid range.
Sniper
If you’ve played any team-based shooters or real-time RPGs, the Sniper class acts in many of the same ways that Sniper or Archer classes act elsewhere. You’re the long range, low armour, high damage badass of the group. The Sniper tends to be a harder class to begin with because so much of the class’s mechanics revolve around dealing lots of damage to small numbers of enemies, but it can be really rewarding once you’ve levelled up enough.
If you’ve got a Soldier or a Heavy in your team, then they can take the bulk of the damage and keep the hordes occupied while you pick off the higher-rank enemies. So Snipers work great in the classic Heavy-Sniper-Healer team combo familiar to players of dungeon-style games, for the precise reason that the Heavy or Soldier is able to keep enemy waves occupied while the range class can pick them off (with the healer/team class offering supporting fire while keeping the team healthy). Just be mindful that the Sniper class is not a good option for trigger-happy players. If your sniper ammo runs out then you’re likely to find yourself in trouble if a big enemy turns up.
Heavy
If you are a trigger-happy player, then the Heavy is likely the class for you. It gives you heaps of armour and tons of ammo capacity for weapons like heavy bolters (a carried gatling-gun style weapon) or multi-meltas (which are shotgun-like weapons) – the downside is that you don’t get a melee weapon. And, while you can use your primary one as a sort of melee weapon, it’s not terrifically effective.
Now for some tips for playing through the game.
Weapons: What to use in your class
Unlike many class-based games that feature weapon and skill levelling systems, levelled-up weapons in Space Marine 2 are usable across classes (so long as that other class is actually able to use the weapon).
This, in turn, means that you’ll be able to have an easier time when re-running the game as a different class because you’ll have immediate access to much more high-powered weapons relative to your enemies. For example, the bolt pistol is used a lot across classes – so if you max out your bolt pistol then you’ll be able to do a lot more damage in earlier tiers as other classes.
Combat Tactics
Whether you’re new to the Warhammer 40,000 universe or a returning veteran, here’s a rundown of the key combat tactics that’ll pay dividends in your kill score.
Go for the big guys
It really helps (especially if you’re new to the Warhammer 40,000 universe) to understand that Tyrranids are a hive mind species. Unlike, say, the detached and orderly bureaucracy of the T’au Empire, Tyranids focus on swarming, swarming, and more swarming – but the elites directly control lesser units through something called “Synapse” (this is a connection tothe hive mind).
So killing elites means that the lower-tier enemies lose connection to that hive mind, which makes them either go feral & purposeless or sometimes just die on the spot. It’s therefore crucial to kill the elites before you get swarmed by the smaller enemies because the waves here are huge – and while the smaller enemies don’t tend to cause the most trouble, they can quickly overwhelm you and drain your armour (leaving you quite open to a high-damage attack from an elite).
Levelling up classes makes multiplayer more fun
You might think that levelling up multiple classes sounds boring and, for some players, it can be. But the main point of doing so is that you’ll have a greater variety of high level classes to choose from when playing multiplayer modes (either campaign multiplayer or PvP). Just as having a good choice of weapons makes you more adaptable, having a good choice of classes means you can take on a wider variety of game modes and missions.
Dodge, parry, and gun strike
A core combat mechanic throughout the game is a somewhat familiar one where enemies attacking you can have their attack turned against them using a few moves.
Enemies leaping at you will signal their attack with a blue halo – if you’re fast enough, you can dodge that attack and deal a bunch of damage using a “gunstrike”. For lower level enemies, this will usually kill them.
But you can also “parry” enemies that are in the process of attacking you. These attacks aren’t signalled but, if you time it right, you can get a critical gun strike regardless. What’s more, these gun strikes also replenish your armour – so they’re crucial for staying alive.
An important note is that unlocking different melee weapons changes how well they can perform a “perfect parry”. In fact, some can only block but can never perform a perfect parry, so it’s worth being aware of which weapons have better parry windows.
Get familiar with the melee combos
You can access the button combos using start
on your controller (or escape on your keyboard if you’re playing on a computer). These are different for each class and act like move combos in traditional platform fighting games but getting familiar with the combos means that you can deal much more effective damage against a wider range of enemies.
Be sparing with Requisition
“Requisition” is Space Marine 2’s credit system. It’s not especially forthcoming so you need to be sparing with it – but you can also get it by doing “trials” and on the multiplayer modes. The trials are crucial, then, because you can do three trials for every single class that can bag you up to 75 requisition per class (that you’re free to spend on other classes).
We’d highly recommend you spend these on functional upgrades before you start to invest in aesthetic upgrades – it’s great to have a snazzy different armour set, but it’s better to be able to smash through Tyranids with higher level weapons.
Enjoy the aesthetic unlocks
If you are or have ever been an avid tabletop Warhammer 40,000 fan, so much of the fun of it revolves around diving into the lore, getting stuck into factions and, perhaps especially with the Space Marines, getting really deep into the history of the Chapters. Then, of course, comes painting them!
The armour sets you unlock are the physical pieces of armour (for example, a helmet with a laurel wreath or a particular set of cool pauldrons) – the chapters are essentially the colour schemes you want to apply to that armour set.
What’s really fun is that, just like with painting the models, you can create custom armour set colour schemes (the paint jobs) so you can make it completely your own.
Show off your Warhammer love
If you’re keen to show your friends how much you love the Emperor (or perhaps any other faction in the universe), invest in a robust, official metal poster of Warhammer Space Marines being badasses.
