Heavy, Loud, and Purposeful: A Look at Space Marine 2

Space Marine 2 was released back in September 2024

This game is a bit old now, but I’m trying to get into the habit of writing about whatever I’m playing at the time. After finishing Space Marine 2, I had a few thoughts I wanted to get down. Bear in mind, in this review, I'm talking exclusively about the campaign mode, I have not played any of the extra modes...yet. So let's get into it.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 knows exactly what it wants to be, and more importantly, what it doesn’t bother pretending to be. This is a game about weight, violence, and momentum. You are a Space Marine, and for most part, that fantasy is delivered without fuss.

The combat is where the game shines (as you’d hope). Attacks are slow, heavy, and committal. The lack of animation cancelling can trip you up at first, but it quickly teaches restraint. You’re not meant to mash your way out of bad decisions, and it helps sell the fact you’re wearing a suit thats the same weight as a small car. Positioning and weapon choice matter, and when it works, it feels deliberate rather than chaotic and messy. The jump pack and thunder hammer combo is the peak of this design philosophy. Launching yourself into a crowd and flattening everything beneath you feels borderline cruel for your enemies. The game rewards close combat more with the executions, that grant armour, but the animations alone make it worth it, they're destructive, visceral and impactful.

The Jump Pack was a personal highlight

The game is also surprisingly permissive. Ammo is plentiful, so you’re rarely punished for favouring guns over melee or vice versa. Want to wade in and cleave through enemies? Fine. Want to stand back and unload? Also fine. That freedom helps the pacing, especially as new tools are introduced slowly but sensibly and you always have the freedom to switch things up and try out new gear.

Progression itself is fairly light. You get a handful of new weapons and the jump pack, but it’s paced well enough that it never feels withheld. I did find myself sticking with the bolt rifle as it felt like the optimal choice with good ammo and good damage. There is no other systems or RPG elements that grant any extra sense of progression which honestly keeps the game focused and tight, so I wont complain. Although I do wish there were some visual customisation I could make to my marine.

Enemy design is more hit-and-miss. Most foes are satisfying to tear through, but I found sniper and flying enemies leaning more toward irritation than challenge, especially when they're combined with swarms of melee enemies. Boss fights do their job, they're mostly bullet sponges, but the lichtor and final boss encourage a mixture of mechanics, not just dodging and shooting. As long as you don't panic and time your dodges well you’ll be okay.

The final boss fight had epic moments, especially when the daemon made an appearance

Narratively, the game functions more as scaffolding than a driving force. Titus is a stoic protagonist to a fault, and his character arc is minimal. He does eventually choose to trust his squad, but it’s a small shift that doesn’t land with much emotional weight. The repeated tension with Gabriel, punctuated by variations of “If you’ve got something to say, Sergeant,” feels thin and overplayed.

Titus is overly stoic and has the personality of a brick wall

The story’s ending is still a large-scale mission with strong spectacle and some genuinely epic cinematic moments. It delivers on the sense of scale and importance you’d expect. Where it falls short is personal investment. The main antagonist appears in the game relatively late, doesn’t meaningfully affect you or your squad on a personal level, and comes across as evil largely for the sake of it. The conflict feels more functional than emotional.

Even without having played the original, the game provides enough context to follow along. Some references clearly carry extra weight for returning players, but newcomers aren’t left behind.

In the end, Space Marine 2 feels like a focused, confident project. It doesn’t chase emotional depth or systemic complexity. Instead, it delivers a tightly controlled power fantasy about being an armoured juggernaut in a hostile galaxy. Sometimes, that’s more than enough.