Warhammer 40,000 is a sprawling franchise that’s been on this Earth longer than I have. As such, there are countless rulebooks, tabletop games, figurines, and video games to consume. I had never even so much as dipped a toe into the galactic water of this series before booting up Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a sequel to its 13-year-old predecessor, back in September. Though its PvP offering doesn’t aim for anything beyond satisfactory, its 10-hour campaign and PvE Operations are well worth the price of entry, ultra fan or not. With climactic setpiece moments dosed heavily throughout each mission, endlessly enjoyable third-person gunplay, and impressive swarm tech that pits you against hundreds of enemies at once, little time is wasted on anything that isn’t fun in Space Marine 2.
After Deathwatch leader Titus and his team crash land on a planet, I’m tasked with surviving against a few insect-like Tyranids with just a space sword and a gun. Not long after that, I’m mowing down hordes of these creatures, of all shapes and sizes, in an attempt to escape alive. This introduction to developer Saber Interactive’s swarm tech is claustrophobic, awe-inspiring, and downright awesome. Before finishing the first mission, the fear I had about jumping into this series with this game, with its decades of lore and context, had already dissipated.
Space Marine 2 requires little of the player, instead throwing you right into the action and asking you to do one thing: shoot everything in sight. Later, the campaign devotes a pre-mission and post-mission cutscene to explain Titus’ plight, which revolves around a super weapon and a big bad trying to use it to do something evil. There are a lot of proper nouns thrown around that I’m sure fans of Warhammer 40,000 understand, but I didn’t, but that affected my enjoyment of the campaign very little.
Mission after mission, I was treated to swarm invasions by insects to tear through with swords, grenades, various firearms, and more. It rarely got old, save for the occasional moments where the game pointed to the idea that Space Marine 2 is best played with other real players rather than the decent-at-best A.I. teammates I trucked along with. The game’s scale continued to escalate too, with beautiful and chaotic vistas, fun boss fights, and additional options for my loadout. All this extends to the game’s Operations, which smartly uses a PvE multiplayer format to show what other marines do during the campaign outside of Titus’ efforts.
While I preferred the campaign, Operations are still worth playing through in the Space Marine 2 package. It offers even more customization, more exciting objectives to complete, and a more chaotic feel to the action seen in the main story. I can’t say the same for the PvP Eternal War slice of the game, however. It’s not bad by any means, but it’s bog standard multiplayer at best, like the pack-in modes from games of yesteryear. Still, if you’re craving more Space Marine 2 action, Eternal Wars’ multiple modes will deliver some of that.
Space Marine 2 is a simple, succinct, and well-paced package. It’s not asking you to stick around for dozens of hours, grind for the next meta weapon (although there are certainly things to spend time chasing, like Armory data, if you’d like), and reach a temporary level cap until it’s raised. It consists of a fun, action-packed campaign, equally fun Operations to give you a second helping of what Space Marine 2 does best, and, if that’s not enough, a decent PvP experience to kill time in. It’s an admirable shooter in a genre often tied down by live-service elements, and unlike its contemporaries, it asks one simple question: Can you please mow down hordes of enemies with big guns?
This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.
