Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II

2025-08-09
What do you get when you mix a game that breathes pure xeno-pulverizing life into the hulking monstrous forms of Space Marines, set piece after set piece of awe inspiring future machinery, architecture, and demon, a campaign built around co-op, and bad server code. You get a game that you hate because every time you and your friends finish a bit of a level it sends you to a loading screen where the message "JOINING SERVER" appears and sometimes won't disappear. If that happens you then must make your prayers to the Machine God because now the game may or may not revert your entire progress for the level to the start. How does repeating the same hour of exciting, action-packed gameplay sound? Sounds to me like how the side of Gadriel's head looks: fucked. So fucked that me and my friends eventually just gave up on co-op and played the rest of the game singleplayer.

And you know, once the game was rid of the cancer of its own server architecture it truly hums--or rather, thumps with the beat of the Xbox 360 heart in its power-armor-encased chest. The combat is punchy and weighty, with plenty of feedback as your Space Marine shoots, stabs, punches, and tears every enemy in their path. It has a wonderful rhythm of wailing on enemies till they blink red for an execution or blink blue for a counter, so you're always reacting to something. Is there a ton of depth? No but the new weapons, enemies, and environments that are sprinkled in continually combined with the couple eye-wateringly beautiful set pieces in each level staved off my boredom. My favorite is near the end when you get free access to a jump pack with infinite charges and a big ass hammer. You truly feel like an Olympian god smiting down savage mortals.

It's hard to shake the frustration and wasted time I felt trying to get the co-op in Space Marine 2 to work. And it's not like we played a beta or even at release. A full 8 months after release and it's this fucked? But hey, I'll let bygones be bygones because I just love mashing up xenos.