The new cooperative shooter Space Marine 2 is actually set to be released for PC, PS5, and Xbox. However, Maximilian “HandOfBlood” Knabe got to play it early and showcases his session on Twitch – and he is absolutely thrilled. Only his AI teammates drive him to despair.
This is Space Marine 2:
- You play as the genetically modified super soldier Lieutenant Titus in the dystopian sci-fi world of Warhammer 40,000 in Space Marine 2.
- Space Marine 2 is primarily an action-packed horde shooter with a campaign where you complete various missions. There is also a PvP mode and co-op gameplay for up to three players.
- Initial tests praise Space Marine 2, stating it has “the potential to become the best game in Warhammer 40k.” HandOfBlood also celebrates the shooter. He even struggles through wearing an Ultramarine armor for the stream.
This is how HandOfBlood celebrates the pre-release: HandOfBlood, like some other influencers and journalists, has already received early access to Space Marine 2.
For his stream on Friday, September 6th, he planned something special. At gamescom 2024, the streamer met a cosplayer in power armor.
The cosplayer then drove a proud 600 kilometers to Spandau to lend HandOfBlood the armor (by the way, a cosplay of Titus himself). The streamer then plays for over an hour in full gear.
“This is just awesome”
The first minutes of Space Marine 2 excite HandOfBlood. He had previously watched gameplay but had to stop after two seconds when he saw a Tyranid being sliced mid-jump with a chainsword.
“I have to see this for myself,” says HandOfBlood about it. Already in the tutorial and later in the gameplay, you see him repeatedly raving about the combat animations and especially about the executions. There, his Space Marine “butchers” the enemies, as the streamer beautifully describes it.
Later, HandOfBlood plays with streamer colleague krokoboss and compares Space Marine 2 with the cooperative shooter Darktide released in 2022:
I just checked out the multiplayer PvE mode in the meantime. You can choose different classes, different weapons, and you have a tech tree for everything. You can earn weapon XP and then unlock better variants of them. That’s just awesome. […]
[Darktide] is similar but from a first-person perspective. It’s also intense, but the meta-progression isn’t as good.
HandOfBlood on stream, around 07:37:18
The two also discuss the massive lore of Warhammer 40k and receive information from their viewers about the hundreds of books, wikis, and web series concerning the story. One viewer tells krokoboss: “If you take the stories of The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Star Trek and multiply it by two, you have only a part of the Warhammer lore.”
You can find the entire stream here on Twitch. A warning to the lore nerds among you: HandOfBlood isn’t very knowledgeable about the lore and probably would have been burned as a heretic with his knowledge in the 41st millennium. However, he also says: Warhammer Fantasy is more of his thing.
Only the bots are “over-useless”
The biggest criticism of Space Marine 2, according to HandOfBlood, is the AI. He had to complete several missions without human teammates and couldn’t finish them because the bots simply ignored the tasks at the end.
My mates do nothing […] It’s really a bit weird with the bots. They totally ignore the objectives; you have to do everything yourself. […] They are just really useless. Over-useless. […] They don’t even have my back; that’s so cheeky.
HandOfBlood on stream, around 03:25:00
Nevertheless, HandOfBlood wants to continue playing Space Marine 2 in the coming days, preferably in co-op with friends. You can play the game yourself starting September 9th. You can find all the information about it here: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2: Everything about the release, early access, crossplay, and preload
