Fans of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 were upset because the game made the same mistakes as Helldivers 2. Now a new update is supposed to bring improvements.
What happened to the fun in Space Marine 2?
- Space Marine 2 received a new update on October 17 that added a new PvE mission and a new difficulty level, for example.
- The update also brought some balancing changes like nerfs for the Auspex scans and the Melta Charge.
- Additionally, they made the “Merciless” difficulty harder by, among other things, reducing player armor.
However, the nerfs and the increase in difficulty were not well received by the community, leading to much criticism from players. Many players of Space Marine 2 even compared the changes to Helldivers 2. The co-op shooter also received much criticism for nerfs.
Space Marine 2 reacts to fan anger
How did the developers react? The developers of Space Marine 2 seem to have taken the criticism of the update to heart and are reversing some changes completely or partially, as Game Director Dmitriy Grigorenko explains in a blog post (via focus-entmt.com).
Grigorenko says they received feedback after the release of Update 3.0 that the game had become too easy – even on the highest difficulty setting. Therefore, they wanted to change the spawn rate of enemies. However, this also affected lower difficulty levels, leading to player feedback that the game had become more intense and stressful.
However, the changes to the “Merciless” difficulty will only be partially reversed. According to Grigorenko, they are now trying to find a middle ground. The level should be harder than it was after Patch 3.0, but not as hard as after the recent update (Patch 4.0).
What is changing now? With Patch 4.1, some of the criticized changes will be reversed – at least partially. In addition, the patch brings some buffs, for example for your AI companions and the bolter weapons.
This is what Patch 4.1 brings:
- Minimal, Moderate, and Significant: The spawn rate of Extremis enemies has been reduced to the level prior to Patch 4.0.
- Merciless: Significantly reduced spawn rate of Extremis enemies.
- Merciless: Player armor increased by 10%.
- Deadly: The “Tight Formation” system has been removed.
- Auto Bolt Rifle: Damage increased by 20%.
- Bolt Rifle: Damage increased by 10%.
- Heavy Bolter: Damage increased by 15%.
- Stalker Bolt Rifle: Damage increased by 10%.
- Marksman Bolt Carbine: Damage increased by 10%.
- Instigator Bolt Carbine: Damage increased by 10%.
- Bolt Sniper Rifle: Damage increased by 12.5%.
- Bolter Carbine: Damage increased by 15%.
- Occulus Bolt Carbine: Damage increased by 15%.
- Heavy Bolter: Damage increased by 5%.
- Bots deal 30% more damage to bosses.
- Zoanthropes: The cooldown for shield exchange with another paired Zoanthrope has been increased by 10%.
Not only Space Marine 2 reacted to player criticism. Helldivers 2 has also recognized that many players did not appreciate the numerous nerfs and have brought a huge amount of buffs with several updates: Helldivers 2 aimed to repair the game in 60 days, now the final update is here – Patch Notes for 01.001.104
