Oh, that sentimental longing for the past, where days were carefree and everything was “better” than what we have now. Such is the era of nostalgia that pervades all of our culture these days. You see it in movies. You see it on TV. And you absolutely see it in games.
“The good old days” can really be a double-edged sword with our current consumption of games. Live too hard in the past, and you forgo enjoying the way games have advanced these days. At the same time, our past can really inform us if what we are currently getting is measuring up to the highs we know we have lived before.
Bouncing back between these two feelings is what’s been the most fascinating thing about experiencing a game like Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 over the past month.
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 is, for all intents and purposes, a pretty good game. This sequel to the 2011 PS3/360 era cult hit certainly delivers on the same thrills and frills that defined its bloody predecessor on that crowded release calendar. But what’s so interesting about playing Space Marine 2 in 2024 is both how unchanged its approach really is, and how borderline refreshing said approach feels in the context of where gaming is nowadays, especially the shooter scene. It may not be the best game to come out this year, but it certainly spotlights some of the ways the old method has value to offer.
Not Your Sad Dad Simulation
If there is something that certainly has permeated a lot of high-end budgeted games nowadays, it’s this endless pursuit of “prestige gaming.” Suddenly, for gaming to be taken seriously by the masses or to be shown respect by the current batch of critics and influencers that vote on banal things like “The Game Awards,” you have to make sure your game is laden with pensive, introspective storytelling trying to ape an HBO show. You have to have a character wax poetic about the nature of life and their dark past and “blah, blah, blah.” In capable hands, it works. In incapable hands, it just comes off ponderous and pretentious.
Playing Space Marine 2, especially on the heels of seeing how a game like Helldivers 2 earlier this year was so well received too, really underlines the fact most of gaming really lost itself in a sea of pretentiousness, and many gamers just want something that is utterly unpretentious about what it is. Just like Helldivers 2 was an unpretentious parody of fascistic democracies as soldiers gunned down aliens and robotic dynasties, Space Marine 2 doesn’t waste time waxing poetic themes in the middle of its endless eternal war. Main character Captain Demetrian Titus ain’t talking shit about life philosophies and such. He goes on a mission he’s the only survivor of, and he works his way through the campaign to regain the favor of the Adeptus Mechanicus as he sticks it back to the enemy in a bloody romp.
Even as the game dangles the immense Warhammer 40k lore (which I tell you, is nutty) in front of you, it doesn’t get in the way of just letting you go and have visceral, bloody fun in its 8-10 hour campaign. And boy, is it BLOODY. It really is so borderline refreshing seeing a game not have it both ways and just be visceral in its blood explosions without the game working hard to make you FEEL. It’s war. An endless war. Shit happens, and there will be non-stop wanton violence with these hulking Space Marines as they chainsaw and sledgehammer their way in the name of their emperor. While I’m not saying you shouldn’t do your more philosophical games, this is a reminder there can be a balance and a place that’s not mired by sad pretentiousness.
Presenting The Complete Package
The live service game that packages everything together seamlessly has been the norm in many shooters these days. The days of you logging into a game and choosing between a campaign mode, a co-op mode, or its multiplayer is something you really only see from the annual Call of Duty games or the once-in-a-blue-moon appearance of a Gears of War game (where we are, as of right now, 5 years removed from its last release) or a Halo game that has to take 2 years to patch it all in. There is this perception that shooters are foregoing the complete package in order to go all in on one way of playing to hook you in for an ongoing live service. Weirdly enough, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 manages to have it both ways.
Unlike many of its contemporaries, Space Marine 2 definitely presents a three-prong approach of gameplay where a “complete package” is definitely what you get out of the box. However, it is also presented seamlessly within its world where it also has the trappings of a hub from something like Destiny, where all three ways of play exist together and separately. The campaign that can be played with two other players is presented as one thing that can be started and completed, no problem, and it’s a total blast (while losing some steam near the end but aided by the fact it knows when to end before dragging further. How novel). Then, there are the 6 co-op “Operation” missions, completely separate from the campaign co-op with unique character classes and mechanics that harken to other Warhammer 40k spinoffs, like Vermintide. This exists separately from the PVP mode, called “Eternal War,” with a small number of modes that consist of your team deathmatch variant and capture the flag.
Why I say Space Marine 2 manages to have it both ways is due to how its presentation and access to all this makes it seem like a live service game, but it was definitely not sold to us as one. It manages to make itself feel fully featured in spite of its presentation and the fact that they also published a “Year One” roadmap. Instead, Space Marine 2 makes itself known as a game that sold itself as the game, and a road map second. Whereas so many live service games like launching themselves on the promise of what’s to come instead of what’s there now, it makes a lot of difference, especially with so many barebones launches with roadmaps that don’t even see the light of day after they are shut down 11 days after launch…
Perfectly Balanced, As It Should Be
You may feel a lot of the praise of Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 written here is also a direct attack on prestige gaming pieces like The Last of Us and games of its ilk, but, rest assured, it’s not meant as a slight to what those kinds of games have achieved on their own. It just serves to point out how out of balance the pendulum has been with modern gaming where a lot of games try to pursue this prestige clout at the expense of something that can just be fun. With the immense success of something like Helldivers 2 earlier this year, and the rapid sales success Space Marine 2 saw in its first month, it’s clear there is an audience that is just hungry to go back to the good old days of unpretentious fun when games could just be, instead of striving for a message. And on the other side of the coin, as we continue to see many shooters pursue the live service bag, it’s also interesting seeing a game like Space Marine 2 that clearly has at least a full year of support ahead of it planned and announced. And it’s not being sold on that promise but on what you can do in it now, which makes the idea of a “complete shooter package” at launch, like it used to be, feel weirdly novel in lieu of many barebones launches we see in the market.
There are plenty of things to criticize about Space Marine 2. It’s far from a perfect game. But it clearly shows that the old way of doing things may still have a place in the market. In this case, “the good old days” certainly were proven correct here.