Space Marine 2 – “They are my elite warriors, those who offer themselves to me. From clay I create them, and the furnaces of war will temper them. They will have an iron will and a steely body. Clad in the finest armor, armed with the mightiest weapons, they will be invincible to injury or disease. They fight with sophisticated tactics, marching with war machines that no enemy can defeat. They will be Mankind’s strongest wall against the Chaos. They are my Space Marines, they will never know fear.” – The Emperor of Mankind.

Will the transfer of the brand to Saber Interactive – a not-so-famous developer with only a few “movie-based” brands – ensure the best experience like Relic did?

The answer about quality probably doesn’t need Vietgame.asia to prove anymore, when on the first day of release, there were more than 2 million gamers “participating”
in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 , which is more than enough.

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Despite the extremely difficult development process, and the “playable” version being “leaked” a year before its release date, perhaps Saber Interactive’s promises are not “empty words”, because the experiences that the official version brings will be extremely high quality!

The author himself used to be a huge fan of Relic Entertainment, with a complete collection of all versions of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (strategy game series) and especially the action role-playing version Space Marine (released in 2011), so high expectations for Space Marine 2 are something that can easily make the author “fall to rock bottom” of disappointment if the quality of this version is only at a “mediocre” level.

Space Marine 2 has rejected this doubt, stepping on the “woke trend” that is tainting the gaming industry and bringing players to endless and epic battles to such an insane level that I think only the most emotional words like “epic”, “unimaginable”, “magnificent”, “cinematic”… can fully express the admiration of players throughout the experience of
Space Marine 2 ’s single-player mode. 

This majestic rooftop seems to “grab” the player after only 15 minutes of entering the game, reviving the most heroic emotions of 13 years ago. This is largely thanks to the advanced graphics built on the Swarm Engine, which was used for World War Z.

Swarms of Tyranids numbering up to… tens of thousands of individuals, continuously flooding the battlefield in just one frame with full of earth-shattering explosions, bullets flying and blood splattered all over the player’s armor when they “swing their saws”, it’s truly impressive!

The level of detail in the battle scenes, from small Tyranids to huge bosses that swarm the battlefield in huge numbers, is absolutely astonishing! Even when turning on photo-mode for closer camera angles, it must be affirmed that the graphics of Space Marine 2 are flawless. The shiny armor of the Adeptus Astartes legion is increasingly riddled with bullet holes, to the wrinkles on the experienced face of the main character Titus, further depicting the fierceness of the battlefield!

The best part, perhaps, is the scene where the player participates in the battle on the planet Avarax – the factory of the Human Empire. When arriving here, the author guarantees that readers will be amazed by a magnificent city engulfed in smoke and fire by the Tyranid swarm; it truly leaves the author speechless because it is so beautiful, so tragic and so fierce!

Space Marine 2 presents players with many battlefields spread across three planets, with the grandeur not only not decreasing but becoming more and more crazy, more impressive and also honoring the “iconic” moments of Warhammer 40,000 , such as the flag raising scene to gather troops to defend against countless enemies pouring out from the teleportation gate.

Space Marine 2 presents players with many battlefields spread across three planets, with the grandeur not only not decreasing but becoming more and more crazy and impressive

The commendable thing is that with its extremely high quality graphics, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 operates extremely smoothly without any jerking or frame drops, even lighter than Black Myth: Wukong, which has been “making waves” recently.

With just a mid-range configuration with a 12th -generation Core i5 processor
and a graphics card of Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti or AMD 6700XT or higher, players can “ferry” at high settings at “Full HD” resolution. But if it’s 4K HDR, you may need to upgrade to RTX 4070 or 7800XT.

It should also be added that the plot developments of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 1 & 2 are not “canon”, meaning that they do not take place in the main storyline of the official Warhammer 40,000 world , but are just “fanfiction” versions based on the foundation of the Warhammer 40,000 world. Therefore, the correctness of the setting of
Space Marine 2 does not necessarily follow too closely the lore from Game Workshop.

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The next success that Saber Interactive achieved with Space Marine 2 is the feeling of transforming into a powerful Space Marine, now more realistic than ever. With the help of advanced graphics, the thick armor of the Adeptus Astartes (another name for Space Marine) now has a very clear weight in every step, in every slash or brutal finish.

The uncompromising, unyielding spirit is expressed in each “earth-shattering” Thunder Hammer strike that Titus unleashes on his enemies from the sky, thanks to his famous jet engine; Or the bullets that seem to pierce through space, turning enemies back into nothingness from a Melta are so thrilling that they make you shiver!

That is also the reason why the author recommends that readers should play Space Marine 2 with a controller with a good vibration system, it will bring the most enjoyable action role-playing experience possible!

To maintain the most continuous and intense action flow, the game always encourages players to jump in and “slash” the enemy, because only then can players push the enemy’s elite units into a “gasping” state and deploy the finishing blow. With these finishing blows, players not only recover a significant amount of armor, but also recover a certain amount of “white blood” lost during the fight.

This amount of “white blood” will only drop after about 3 seconds after being hit, both motivating the player to continue fighting to recover health and pushing the battle rhythm to the peak.

In addition, depending on the type of weapon the player is equipped with, from melee (hammer, sword, knife…) to long-range (pistol, rifle, “thumb” gun…), the way the player “sells” to the enemy also becomes more diverse, not necessarily sticking to a certain playing style.

The author is quite satisfied with the balance in the distribution of challenges so that players have to both engage in close combat and draw their guns to “snip” enemies without any forcedness.

Enemies are not just “mobile blood bags” for players to practice slashing, they are very numerous and can bury players with their numbers and chaos during combat.

So if players think that just “spamming” the slash button or simply “unloading bullets” is definitely a bad idea. That’s where key support mechanics like blocking and basic acrobatics come into play.

Enemy attacks will only stop at two types in melee, including normal attacks and critical attacks.

Normal attacks will be indicated by a green icon and can be blocked or countered if timed correctly, while critical attacks require players to continuously tumble and dodge. Don’t underestimate your opponent, because the support mechanism for recovery from teammates is limited and you may have to pay the price for your complacency!

In addition, the role-playing experience of fighting in Space Marine armor will not only be limited to the 10-hour single-player mode, Space Marine 2 also has two other “long-term” game modes to “treat” players: Operations and Eternal War.

With “Operations Mode”, players can “solo” or collaborate with friends at any time without having to complete the campaign mode, similar to the legendary Left 4 Dead. The levels in Operations Mode will be a “plowing ground” for players to further explore the “role-playing” system of Space Marine 2.

You heard right, the game has a relatively simple role-playing system, with a series of equipment upgrades with separate skill trees for each weapon, divided by level, with each level or each upgrade according to different branches will bring a more “sparkling” appearance.

Similar to armor or support equipment such as Jetpack, shield, flag… With armor, although it is mainly for decoration, but with many options ranging from many legions, character classes divided equally for both factions Thousand Sons and Space Marine, it is very satisfying for gamers who love “fashion”. 

What do you think if you were transformed into a super Black Templar in a cool black and white armor with gold accents, with high-level equipment of a Chapter Master and a glowing Relic on your back, holding a Supreme version of the Thunder Hammer with more than 9000 power points in your hand? – These upgrades are not just “for fun”, because with support equipment with stats, it is not just for beauty but really needs to be carefully considered before entering an online arena or PvE.

In this Operations Mode, the number of current levels is only 6, but it is still enough for gamers to “dive” with their brothers with very high challenges, requiring non-stop coordination. Each player will have to choose a certain character class from a total of 6 classes including Tactical, Assualt, Vanguard, Bulwark, Sniper or Heavy. Each character class, as its name suggests, will have its own equipment, its own arsenal, its own special skills and its own completely separate fighting style.

The next success that Saber Interactive achieved with
Space Marine 2 is the feeling of transforming into a fierce Space Marine, now more realistic than ever

The background of the Operations Mode levels is also very interesting, as these levels are actually another area of ​​the same front in campaign mode, taking place simultaneously and you will be the one receiving direct orders from your superior, Titus (or higher command).

In particular, the challenges in these levels are random, meaning that each time you come back, you will have a new experience than the previous time. Great, right? – So the number of 6 levels is not necessarily too small.

If that’s not enough, there’s also the “Eternal War” mode – a 6v6 online arena of Adeptus Astartes from around the world. Eternal War has three basic game modes: Annihilation – simply 2 teams competing for destruction points; Sieze Ground – Occupy mobile points; Capture and Control – Occupy fixed points.

This mode is not too special but enough for fans to freely “grind” and compete while waiting for the upcoming DLCs.

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Space Marine 2 launched to rave reviews, not only from longtime fans but also from players new to the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

However, while there are many positive reviews, the game’s weaknesses are not absent, although they do not greatly affect the overall player experience.

From the writer’s perspective, Space Marine 2 will definitely be much better and more wonderful if in the near future (or in the next versions) Saber Interactive can improve to be more worthy of the potential that this brand can bring.

First of all, the heroic soundtracks are always the highlight to enhance the player’s emotions in classic scenes. Space Marine 2 still has quality soundtracks, but the way the producer utilizes them is a bit “immature”.

The symphonies from the beginning to the middle of the game are… bland, not taking advantage of the grandeur and not playing music at the right time to push the “adrenaline” in the player to a high level. Partly because the sound simulation system in the game feels a bit “muddy”, it is difficult to distinguish clearly the environmental sounds taking place in a very chaotic space, making it even harder for the player to hear the background music echoing in the background.

Whether you use headphones or speakers, the feeling is the same: too much sound focused on the bass range. It may be very pleasing to the ear at first, but it becomes a bit dull later on.

Next is the appearance of “magicians” from unknown “fronts”, but the number is increasing day by day, sooner or later the PvP mode of Space Marine 2 will soon be bored by players, if the publisher does not have measures to prevent it. Not to mention, the majority of players are focusing more on the Annihilation mode to compete than the points capture/hold game modes, so it will be a bit difficult to find matches.

Another weakness that Saber Interactive could “consider” improving is the button arrangement for the controller. Unlike the first version, Space Marine 2 ’s gameplay is now more cautious, with a bit of “Souls” lurking here and there, so rearranging the buttons on the controller similar to these games is understandable, but it is really silly, because it has no unified order.

For example, instead of pressing B to do somersaults, the player has to press A, while B is the grenade throw button; when wanting to change weapons, the player has to press down on the D-pad instead of left or right as on the interface… Although knowing that the vibration effect on the controller brings the most realistic experience in the process of transforming into a Space Marine, the writer has to admit that playing the game with a keyboard and mouse is less confusing and less likely to make mistakes.

Finally, the story. This is not necessarily a weak point, but on the contrary, Warhammer 40,000 fans probably won’t care about this.

The plot of Space Marine 2 is in the form of “fanfic” but only stops at the simple level, even with the appearance of the infamous Thousand Sons army, it does not create many highlights, the conflicts only take place at the personal level, a little suspicious of each other like part one but does not bring a bigger turning point, taking the development in a completely different direction.

The plot of Space Marine 2 is in the form of “fanfic” but only stops at the simple level, even with the appearance of the infamous Thousand Sons army, it does not create many highlights