SPACED OUT

After a strong first impression, WARHAMMER 40K: SPACE MARINE 2 runs out of steam

- Robin Valentine

Over the course of its roughly eight-hour story campaign, Space Marine 2 presents the Warhammer 40,000 setting at a whole new level of spectacle. It feels huge, authentic, and visually sumptuous—the kind of proper, grown-up, bigbudget experience fans of the tabletop game have been dreaming of for years. But the sad truth is that I was tired of actually playing it before those eight hours were even up.

It’s disappointing, because the game does make a fantastic first impression. As Space Marine warrior Lieutenant Titus, returning from the first game, you’re dropped straight into a war against the insectile tyranids, and it’s simply awe-inspiring looking out at the horizon and seeing their forces crawling over an entire mega-city. Saber Interactive’s swarm tech, already perfected in otherwise limp co-op shooter World War Z, is used to wonderful effect to sell the vast scale of the war.

Hyper-gothic architecture towers over you, and as a geneticallymodified, power-armored supersoldier, you tower over the normal humans who scurry around your feet. Like the first game, Space Marine 2 understands that the warriors of the Imperium need to feel massive, weighty, and powerful, far beyond your usual bulky sci-fi protagonist.