Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is considered a huge success and has thrilled players at all levels. Now, a few months after the release, a fan wants to know what was actually not so great about the game. Lore nerds find plenty of details to criticize.
This is the success of Space Marine 2:
- The second part of the popular Warhammer action game was released on September 9, 2024, and made a big impact. The success has even surprised the creators and licensors.
- Space Marine 2 has 83% positive reviews on Steam (from 123,900 reviews) and delights players mainly with the heavy gameplay, where you can feel like a genetically engineered superhuman mowing down entire hordes of Xenos – completely true to the lore.
- Although Space Marine 2 is not supposed to be a service game, it is continuously receiving updates with new content. Enough reason for joy among players, but there are still some complaints.
So why the complaints? On Reddit, a user wants to know what players find bothersome about Space Marine 2. Specifically: which lore has not been accurately represented.
The world of Warhammer 40,000 is vast and complex, with many facets and, above all, fans who know everything in detail. It is nearly impossible to know everything about Warhammer by heart, even if you spend all day reading books.
Actually, Space Marine 2 places great emphasis on being “historically” accurate and has even taken a long time perfecting the armor. Still, there seem to be some minor things that particularly annoy the hardcore Warhammer experts.
“No idea why Space Marines are depicted as slow”
The biggest criticism is directed at the poster boys of Warhammer and Space Marine 2: the titular Space Marines. In particular, two points are being criticized by lore experts:
- Armor regenerates, but hit points do not
- Space Marines move very sluggishly in the game
Sure, these are gameplay-relevant aspects that are meant to ensure balance and game feel. Playing as a two-and-a-half-meter-tall super soldier feels more impressive when you move slowly and “powerfully”.
In lore, Space Marines are literally genetically engineered superhumans and can “move faster than the human eye can perceive” – which particularly means striking faster, not necessarily running. However, weapons like energy hammers are incredibly slow in the game.
In addition, Space Marines can easily recover, making wounds and even fatal injuries virtually irrelevant. The fact that hit points do not regenerate while armor does, is a strange decision.
Overall, important units of the Space Marines are missing: not a single Tech Marine and no Apothecary can be seen on the entire battleship, which is unimaginable for a ship of this size. But not only the Marines are receiving criticism, their weapons – and enemies – are as well:
- Bolters actually fire explosive rounds, of which there is none to be seen in the game. Enemies should more often literally explode into clouds of blood.
- Tyranids, the foes in Space Marine 2, are a hive mind with a psychic connection to smaller “hosts”. Instead of dying or going wild after the synaptic connection is severed, they simply disappear in the game.
- And the cultists of Tzeentch, the God of Magic, Planning, and Deception, who are literally blessed by the Deceiver, are quite bad at setting ambushes.
In a very specific critique, it even revolves around a shield that the Bastion class can carry in co-op. There is a skeleton on the shield – which is normal, as fallen brothers are often honored even in death .
What does not fit, however, is that while the skeleton is Space Marine-sized, it otherwise looks like that of a human. Space Marines would have fused (and significantly thicker) rib cages.
However, the whole fuss is not meant to disparage the game. In the thread, some Warhammer fans are just gathering to exchange ideas about lore details. Space Marine 2 remains one of the best games in the franchise: The 7 best games to enter the world of Warhammer
