Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2’s Dreaded ‘Joining Server’ Bug Makes Co-Op Play Much Harder Than It Should Be

ign.com:

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is the most-played Warhammer 40,000 game ever on Steam and has seen over two million players since launch, but there’s one issue that gives players the fear: the dreaded 'joining server' bug.

Space Marine 2 inexplicably launched without private PvE lobbies, which forces players who are engaged with the endgame co-op Operations mode to brave its frustrating matchmaking.

It is possible to join a group of two other randoms as a solo player in this three-player co-op mode, and doing so seems to work well enough. Similarly, if you can get together with two friends to create a full three-player group, you’re fine… mostly.

Things break down, though, when you’re trying to play with one other friend, and need another random to fill in the group. My experience doing this has been littered with wasted time and matchmaking woes, with Space Marine 2 stubbornly refusing to add another human player to our group. Instead, we get a random class bot to fill in the role.

Playing Operations mode on the harder difficulties, which you need to do to obtain the rewards that unlock the higher-tier weapons and perks, is almost impossible without three human players of the appropriate level all tearing through the mission. Space Marine 2 can be a brutally difficult game that throws loads of rock hard enemies at you. There’s no room for poor AI here.

Me when joining my friend's server on Space Marines 2: pic.twitter.com/s2ObHkBOv1

My friend and I came up with an awkward solution to this problem this week: have one of us matchmake into a group of randoms and then vote to kick one of the other players. Once that player was kicked, it was a race to join the group and fill the spot before another random was brought in, brute forcing my friend and I into a three-person group. Not ideal, really, but it worked.

Even with this method in hand, there remains a constant fear that the ‘joining server’ bug will ruin all your hard work as victorious Space Marines load back into the