When you boil it down, the very first question most people have about any Warhammer 40K outing is usually just: “Does it deliver enough Warhammer 40K?” This setting is the kind where the name itself tells you what many fans want to step into—everything should feel bleak, relentlessly grim, loaded with plenty of violence and gore, and packed with both familiar touches and subtle callbacks that stay true to our “Core Brand Values.” And, well, it probably wouldn’t hurt if there were a video game thrown into the mix, too.
Don’t worry, fellow fan-Inquisitors—when I played Space Marine 2, I managed to catch almost the entire spread of 40K flavor within the opening minutes alone, and I genuinely think that’s a strong achievement. Your group of Space Marines argues over treachery and trades accusations about supposed betrayals against the Empire before they even finish exiting their transport into a sprawling, under-siege gothic fortress. Imperial Guardsmen groups shake, regroup, and at times meet execution by a Commissar for cowardice, all while servitor cherubs flutter overhead. A deep, full-bodied choir rises in the background. Then you grab a weapon and a sidearm, decide whether you want a knife, power sword, or chainsword—and the choice is obvious almost immediately. After that, you march through more gothic corridors with a heavy gate shutting behind you, and, in a thoroughly classic 40K scene, you’re instantly surrounded by a Tyrannid swarm before you even see a “press B to crouch” prompt.
There’s also another piece of authenticity that quickly fixes the situation: in Space Marine 2, you feel gloriously overpowered, at least during the mid-game story mission I played (and on the default difficulty I used). You can lean into a messier style of chaotic button-pressing when it helps, or shift into more deliberate parry-and-combo play depending on what’s happening around you—and you’ll still do well. That’s exactly the point. You’re the Emperor’s will given form. And using your bare hands to smash through Tyrannid skulls by the dozen is absolutely the kind of thing you should be doing.
When the stakes rise—higher difficulties and more intense sections—you’ll want to engage with Space Marine 2’s mechanics more deliberately. At a basic level, you’ve got a dodge to slip past unblockable melee attacks, flagged by the familiar red ring that signals danger, or you can react to sniper fire that’s heavily telegraphed. As noted earlier, your melee weapon can also parry incoming melee strikes, or serve as a guard if you hold the button down. You can choose between several grenade varieties, and you also have an ultimate ability. For this campaign, it returns as Lieutenant Demetrian Titus from the original Space Marine, functioning as a kind of rallying war cry that boosts your damage and brings you back to full health, with a hefty cooldown—just over two minutes.
One thing that becomes a bit more compelling is how much timing, target choice, and chaining moves matter. Mixing quick taps with heavier held attacks can raise the pace in a straightforward way, but landing a perfectly timed parry creates a short opening where you can hit the correct input for a special headshot animation—one that exposes tougher foes so you can finish them. When you wrap up those enemies, one of your shield gauges tops up, resulting in a Doom-like rhythm where aggressive actions double as defense. Suddenly, being low on health pushes you to hunt down heavies to eliminate, because they’re simpler to set up for the finisher.
These are modern systems built on top of what still feels like a firmly, and frankly affectionately, old-fashioned video game. The campaign stays fully linear based on what I played, with occasional side detours that contain destructible crates offering temporary shield boosts, ammo, and health packs. You’ll labor from one rally point to the next with your squad, swapping weapons you find around you—very much like Halo—whenever the moment calls for it, all while mowing down nearly unbelievable numbers of xeno filth as you push forward. In the busiest stretches, the combat can become almost impossible to follow, yet somehow that never ends up as a downside; it actually enhances the experience. Close your eyes and let your chainsword do the navigating through flesh when necessary, just like a proper Space Marine ought to.
The online Operations mode delivers standalone missions separate from the main campaign (which can also be tackled with co-op).
The campaign portion wrapped up with more unmistakable 40K spectacle: assaults on heresy, warped minds, and, naturally, Chaos. Next comes a fairly standard but still enjoyable boss encounter—an airborne foe that attacks at range, uses area-of-effect abilities, and cycles between moments of vulnerability and immunity, while a group of minions crowds the area below.
This is where I should warn you that I started running into some meaningful technical difficulties. Early on, I hit an audio bug where the character mouths lagged by about two seconds after dialogue started. Later, during sequences like the beginning of this boss fight, the game would slow down into a stuttering freeze. Most likely, this is the notorious shader compilation stutter issue that affects PC play. Basic fixes—like moving the game over to my quickest NVMe SSD—didn’t make a difference, and it showed up most clearly when multiple first-time effects appeared at once. That said, I’m not a technical specialist, and things can certainly shift as the launch approaches.
Interestingly, these problems weren’t nearly as common in the online PvE sections of Space Marine 2 that I got to experience. The campaign
You can tackle this solo, or team up with friends—dropping into a “guest” role as Titus, complete with his finger-wagging.
Alongside co-op sessions with squaddies Chairon and Gadriel for up to three players, the game also includes dedicated online missions under a mode called Operations. These missions can be launched from a terminal in a hub area and can be automatically grouped with other players. You can also choose to jump in as your own customized Marine.
This is another part of the modernization being added to what otherwise feels like traditional gameplay. In essence, Operations seems to be Saber Interactive’s take on Fatshark’s Warhammer 40K: Darktide, which launched in late 2022. For each mission, you set the challenge level (higher tiers are a bad idea without the right meta-progression for your character), form your squad, and then jump into linear runs packed with large, multi-stage swarms surrounding key objectives. At first glance, these missions don’t quite match the standout atmospheric richness Darktide delivers in its tighter hive-city settings. Space Marine 2’s combat also feels a bit more exaggerated—especially on the lower levels I played as an unranked character. In those conditions, the missions largely came down to holding your ground on a ledge while hundreds of Tyranids hauled themselves up toward you, then leaning heavily on melee.
On the other hand, character growth feels more structured and is less dependent on loot. You’ll find plenty of skill trees for both active and passive upgrades, several classes that differ slightly in how they handle combat, and—most notably—an in-depth cosmetics system that lets you paint your own Marine. A large share of those customization options are available at no cost simply by moving through the game.
As for the classes, I went with Vanguard. It leans into close-range fighting with a heavy meltagun, plus a special grapple hook that has a short cooldown—one that drags you toward enemies in a way that calls to mind Doom Eternal’s Meat Hook. That setup lets you fall into a rhythm: make precise shots, focus on the biggest threats, launch at them, knock them down, then push onward to the next target while teammates handle the larger waves. The differences between classes don’t feel as stark as they do in Darktide. Even so, while it isn’t exactly a deeply strategic shooter on its own, there is still meaningful variety between a heavily armored Ogryn and a more delicate Psyker who’s built for blasting heads. There’s also room to look forward to further development. For example, the Sniper can use camouflage to disappear and take out tougher units from range. The Assault class is geared entirely toward melee attacks and pistols, backed up by a jetpack. Meanwhile, the Bulwark can step into the role of the tough shield-bearer. Naturally, I’d need a lot more time with each one to fully understand how they evolve.
Still, in some ways, that isn’t a huge problem for Space Marine 2. The series—just like the franchise it comes from—centers on mindless fanaticism. On a technical level, it does examine the unsettling routes that such zeal can push someone toward, but that isn’t really the point. What you get instead is the joy of charging straight into battle, enjoying the sight of blood and alien body parts spilling across the screen while, somewhere in the chaos, you’re stabbing enemies with their own limbs. It’s about pounding the emote key to announce some grand proclamation of glory to the Emperor, and surrendering to that simple part of your brain that loves nothing more than shooting a steady tide of soft-bodied aliens. All of it plays out on a long, narrow bridge. Honestly, it’s one of the most entertaining features in gaming. It’s a double-A release wearing triple-A clothes—often just pure enjoyment, occasionally sprinkled with a few quirks, all wrapped in a layer of dark, gothic presentation. Bliss.