Tearing Through the Tyranid Threat in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II (2024)

Warhammer is a massive and sweeping franchise that has produced so much media over the last forty years it’s difficult to catalog it all. One area that it has thrived in is the video game scene, with various types of games being produced by numerous studios. The 2011 release of Space Marines really made us want more Gears of War-style games from the franchise, which is exactly what Focus Entertainment is giving us. The sequel has been given to Saber Interactive, best known for their work fourteen years ago on TimeShift, but more recently have been lending support to games such as the Halo remasters.

With Space Marines II, we are moving away from Orks and onto the nasty Tyranids, which will be a massive tonal shift for the series. We were able to go hands on with the upcoming shooter and couldn’t have been more thrilled to step back into the shoes of Demetrian Titus.

Campaign and PvE

We were able to get our hands on one main quest from the core campaign, along with two PvE missions. The difference is that the main missions follow familiar Space Marine Titus and his two companions, while the PvE missions take place in-between his campaign and sometimes deal with events in the world that happen in the background of the story.

You play as Demetrian Titus who, in this portion of the campaign, is constantly badgered by his fellow Space Marines for his past transgressions. They are on a planet overrun and under attack by the Tyranid swarm and need to make a dent in their overwhelming presence. This portion of the build was fairly short, with us taking down swarms of enemies as other space marines were completing other objectives in the background.

Oddly enough, the PvE has way more potential than the main campaign. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy coming back to Titus, but the PvE mode is similar to something like Darktide, where we pick between six different Space Marine classes and go to war with the Tyranid with two others. It's a little more linear in its mission and environmental design as you’re still playing through a story, but the core concept is similar.

The two PvE missions send us on the objective of slaying the Tyranid Tyrant and detonating a warhead in the Hive City, decimating a good chunk of the enemy. The structure of PvE missions is not too dissimilar to games like Darktide, where the core path is the same, but enemy placement and even some of the location of objectives will change slightly. Such as where you need to plant explosives in the room. These are minor adjustments that try to keep the missions a little fresh and players on their toes.

Combat

In terms of the actual gameplay, this is very much a traditional shooter, but with added variety. For example, counterattacks are heavily focused on. Enemies will jump at you with either red or blue indicators and timing this correctly with a dodge or melee counter will break their guard and allow for a well-placed blast to the face. It’s immensely satisfying, especially when a Tyranid is available for execution, which has the Space Marine rip them apart by various means depending on what melee weapon they have equipped.

Outside of this, this is very much a cooperative game as you are able to get knocked down twice, with your teammates being able to revive you at half health, and on the third time, it will simply kill you. In the main campaign, this will just simply knock you back to the last checkpoint, but in PvE missions, it will give you a one-minute cooldown before you’re able to respawn, but if everyone is down, or you’re playing with bots, the mission will be lost entirely, sending you back to base.

Classes

There are six different classes to choose from: Tactical, Assault, Vanguard, Bulwark, Sniper and Heavy. Each one of these classes utilizes a different perk, along with being able to carry around specific weaponry and different types of armor types, which is mostly for aesthetic purposes.

Tactical

Tactical would be the everyman of the classes as his perk is primarily just throwing a scanner grenade to help pinpoint weaknesses. He's able to carry almost every type of primary weapon outside the snipers. This includes the Bolt Rifle and its Auto, Heavy and Stalker variants, along with a Bolt Carbine, Plasma Incinerator and the Melta Rifle. Because of the variety in primary weapons, it can unfortunately only carry a Bolt Pistol as a sidearm and a Chainsword as its melee option.

Assault

Assault is the melee Space Marine. It doesn’t come with a primary arm, but instead offers three powerful melee options: Chainsword, Thunder Hammer and the Power Fist. Assault is the only one able to wield the Thunder Hammer, making him a sought after ally if the mission is centered more on swarms and enemies rather than one boss. He only has two options for a sidearm: a Bolt Pistol and a Heavy Bolt Pistol, but his Jetpack perk more than makes up for it as it becomes more compelling than initially thought. Equipped with the hammer, you can take to the sky and then slam right into the middle of a group of enemies, sending them flying and knocking them off balance. It’s a surprisingly enjoyable feeling.

Vanguard

Vanguard is the more mobile Space Marine as his skill allows him to grapple onto an enemy and propel himself at it, dealing a stunning blow. His arsenal is made up of the three-round burst Instigator Bolt Carbine, the rapid fire Occulus Bolt Carbine and the thermal Melta Rifle. He only has a Bolt Pistol as a firearm, but he is the first class to wield the Combat Knife, a fast-paced and surprisingly strong weapon. He's able to take on the Chainsword, but really, we preferred the Combat Knife for him given his skill set. With that said, Vanguard is one of the squishier classes as he only comes with two armor classes instead of the standard three.

Bulwark

Bulwark is the tank of the group as he doesn’t have a primary weapon but instead has a giant shield to protect his allies in battle. Better yet, his perk puts up a rallying banner that will consistently restore yours and your teammate’s shields so long as they’re inside of it. He's the definition of a support class, although he’s not without his own weaponry. He comes with the standard Bolt Pistol, but can also carry a Plasma Pistol as well. On top of that, while he can’t have the Thunder Hammer, he can instead wield the Power Fist and a Power Sword, alongside the standard issue Chainsword. The speed and sweeping potential of the Power Sword offers a nice balance with the shield.

Sniper

Sniper is one of the more unique classes among the group as two of his primary weapons are entirely exclusive to him. The Las Fusil and Bolt Sniper Rifle are powerful rifles that can tear through Tyranid, with the former needing to be charged to fire. You can swap these out for a Stalker Bolt Rifle or a Bolt Carbine, but if you’re picking a Sniper, you’re going all the way. He doesn’t come with many options in the melee department, just the Combat Knife, but his skill should make up for it. The sniper’s perk will let him turn invisible for a certain amount of time, allowing you to get out and in of combat with ease. When there are multiple, bigger Tyranid around, this becomes very handy.

Heavy

Finally, we have the Heavy. Similar to the Sniper, the Heavy comes with its own primary weapons: The Heavy Bolter, the Heavy Plasma Incinerator and the Multi-Melta. Each one of these feels so right for this bulky class, especially because it doesn’t come with its own melee option. As for sidearm, it has the Bolt Pistol and Plasma Pistol, but it’s the perk that makes it appealing. Heavy has the ability to put up his own mobile Iron Halo shield, blocking any projectiles coming your way. This comes in handy in very specific situations, but similar to the Bulwark, it doesn’t help against big melee-focused bosses.

We loved the amount of variety among the different classes in Space Marine 2, having a good mix of slower, heavier options such as the Bulwark, and some more nimble, such as the Vanguard. Even the armor sets and perk trees are drastically different from one another when you begin leveling them up, giving you a lot of options to choose from.

Weapons

Each of the weapons needs to be leveled up and then they can be upgraded into more powerful tools of war. This will not only change the look, slowly progressing it towards more of a golden, royalty design, but the trait tree will help increase various aspects, such as simply increasing your magazine, the amount of damage you do with counterattacks and even adding a bit of a vampiric touch to it, as every time you kill an enemy, you will regen shields. Each weapon has its own trees that can go down, making it a highly-customizable means of warfare.

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is a massive franchise that has spawned numerous games from all genres. Whether it’s first-person shooters like Darktide or a real-time strategy game such as Dawn of War, there’s a massive catalog of titles to get through. One of the better ones happened to be the 2011 release of Space Marine, featuring high octane combat that wasn’t too dissimilar to something like Gears of War. The visuals are gorgeous, and the sound department nailed the impactful sound effects of each weapon. The only thing we wish was improved upon was the music, as it’s mostly just ambient noise that doesn’t really get your blood pumping.

The emphasis on variety is felt, with the six different character classes having drastically different skill sets and arsenals to bring to a firefight. While we were only able to get our hands on essentially three missions, we were left wanting more as Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II will be available September 9 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X.