Space Marine 2 is Gears of War on steroids, and a treat for 40k fans

pcgamesn.com:

Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 is a third-person shooter first, and a Warhammer 40k game second. That’s not to say longtime fans of the universe won’t be rewarded with a follow-up to the story of former Firstborn Captain of the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter Titus, but if like me that means little to you, Space Marine 2 won’t lose you in the weeds of its lore.

After playing an hour of Space Marine 2’s second level and having a chat with Saber Interactive creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick at Gamescom 2023, it became very clear to me that the team is aiming to strike a balance between doing right by longtime fans and people like me when the Space Marine 2 release date rolls around later this year.

Hollis-Leick played Dawn of War 2 when it came out and has read so many Warhammer 40k books and novels that I imagine he has whole shelves dedicated to the series, but that doesn’t mean he’s not thinking about new fans.

“How do we make it feel accessible to someone who’s got no familiarity with [Warhammer 40k] whatsoever?” Hollis-Leick ponders. “We worked with Games Workshop to relax some of the terminology where possible, to use more common terms to make this a little bit easier to understand. Also, I wanted to avoid massive exposition dumps at the start of the game about what Aterian is, what a Rubicon Primaris is, and all that stuff. So it was a combination of simplification and drip-feeding as much visual storytelling as possible.”

That visual storytelling is immediately evident too, with a massive mud-drenched battlefield opening up the second level while soldiers bark orders at one another and fight the Tyranids – Warhammer 40k’s aliens that are reminiscent of the bugs in Starship Troopers – as they come running at