As promised back during Summer Games Fest, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has dropped a girthy Gameplay Overview Trailer to provide a little more explanation and introduction to what to expect from the Emperor’s finest.
Clocking in at a little over six minutes, the video is narrated by Creative Director Oliver Hollis-Leick and dives deep into Space Marine 2’s main story campaign, multiplayer modes, and progression.
We also get a tasty snippet of how the story of Space Marine 2 starts – with mention that the narrative takes place a full century after the events of Space Marine. Given that Space Marines live for a very long time, it explains how main character Titus is looking alright, if a little scarred.
A note is also shared that the story starts with Titus having recently returned to the Ultramarines chapter, and has been greeted with a demotion. From a Warhammer 40k nerd point of view, this is a big deal – if only because Space Marines don’t take vacations, so his time away from his chapter hints at something pretty big having happened. The demotion is also a curious point, because it may suggest that his actions in Space Marine 1 have resulted in punitive measures being taken.
There is also the reveal that the narrative of Space Marine II will not be bound to a single planet, with the worlds of Kadaku, Avarax and Demerium shown as part of a mission selection screen. This does beg the question as to whether there will be a branching story progression within the game, with players choosing where to go next. It’s also just cool to know that environments will be massively different thanks to each planet being a pretty different biome – Space Marine 1 was cool, but got a little same-y after a while.
During this explanation, the onscreen action that frames Oliver’s words also gives us a look at a ton of new enemies and creatures to feel Titus’ wrath throughout the campaign – with an exciting reveal showing the terrifying Lictor enemy from the Tyranid forces. If you know Warhammer 40k, you know that Tyranids are no joke – but the Lictor takes it a step further. Effectively a terrifying hybrid of both the Alien Xenomorph and a Predator, imagine a shocking bug-beast that can turn invisible to hunt it’s prey – then will cut you to ribbons with scything claws the length of a man’s height. It’s very metal, and I can’t wait to punch one in the face.
Beyond the narrative, they also breakdown the Co-op and Multiplayer Versus modes within the game. Operations mode avails you and your mates the option to pick a class and jump into a range of missions to progress and complete objectives, earning experience and resources to level up and customise your Space Marine dude. A glimpse of the interface for this mode showed a variety of missions with unique objectives in each – and a previous mention from the developers that these missions are designed to be “intensely replayable” suggests that there may be some quirks and mutators to change your experience when you revisit them. Really cool stuff.
Then there is Eternal War, a 6v6 Space Marine on Chaos Space Marine versus option that pits your skills and mettle against other hulking Astartes. With a range of modes to choose from, you can embrace the full gamut of crazy weapons and loadouts and see just how tough you are when throwing down against other peeps who are as terrifyingly strong as you are. Call of Duty this aint. You can even choose what flavour of evil Space Marine you want to be.
After showing all this amazing stuff, Oliver then drops the cheeky comment that there is still a lot more surprises to be revealed to players when the game releases in September, so we still haven’t seen it all.
It’s a monumental amount of Warhammer 40k showcased so far, and the fact that there is even more hidden away has me convinced that this will likely be the biggest Warhammer 40k game ever, hitting every amazing note that the original did and blowing the rest wide open. If you are even remotely interested in this game, you may want to painstakingly choose the two battle brothers who will be jumping into the campaign with you now, because I am sure there will be no shortage of volunteers.
What part of the gameplay overview had you the most excited? Tell us all about it in the comments or on social media.
