It has been an entire year since the release of “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2”, and a lot has changed. For the game’s one year anniversary, new weapons, modes, armor, enemies and operations have been added as well as additional content before the one year anniversary.
Spoiler warning for the game if you have not played it at any point this year. If interested, you should read the first review of the game that was published last year before coming back to read this follow up review.
New PvE Operations
Since the initial release of “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2”, there have been four new PvE Operation missions. PvE Operations is a mode similar to “side missions”, but you do not follow any of the main or side characters and play missions that coincide with the campaign. These missions are “Termination:”, where you fight a Hierophant Bio-Titan (a tyranid kaiju basically); “Exfiltration:”, this time you fight a Trygon (Tyranid worm monster the size of the original King Kong); “Obelisk:”, where you fight a Thousand Sons Sorcerer during the final battle of the campaign to try and weaken the Chaos Corruption of the battle; and finally, the all new (and personally best) mission of operation mode, “Vortex:”, where you fight a Mutalith Vortex Beast (a Lovecraftian looking creature) in a Elden Ring like style. Again, out of all of these, the most enjoyable mission is “Vortex:”. On the other hand, I find “Obelisk:” very lacking due to the player not actually being able to kill the boss of the game.
The New Siege Mode
Siege Mode is a hoard/enemy wave style of fighting, where you fight countless waves of both Tyrannids and Thousand Sons. Completing waves will get you Siege Mode currency to spend on resources like health boosts, armor boosts, ammo and both Imperial Guard and Space Marine reinforcements. If you save up enough, you are able to purchase a Dreadnought (a mech that’s controlled by an honorable but heavily injured Space Marine) to aid you in fighting hoards of enemies. Fighting in Siege Mode not only boosts your XP, but you also gain rewards like weapon skins and special pieces of armor. Siege Mode is incredible to play either by yourself or with friends.
Champion & Cosmetic Packs
In the game lore, Space Marines are divided into these almost knightly houses known as “Chapters.” “Space Marine 2” has given specific class skins for the founding chapters (the first nine loyalist chapters that aren’t heretical made). Tactical has the Imperial Fist Champion, Assault has the White Scar Champion, Vanguard has the Space Wolf Champion, Bulwark has both the Dark Angel & the Black Templar (the only second founding chapter) Champions, Sniper has the Salamander Champion, and Heavy has the Ultramarine Champion, although this champion came out when the game released. There has also now been a new Imperial Fist cosmetic pack which adds special armor and weapon skins to any class. “Space Marine 2” also plans for more cosmetic packs to come out throughout the year as well.
Enemies
Now throughout these updates, new enemies have also been released, both for the Tyranids and the Thousand Sons. Tyranid-wise, the only enemy that was added (ignoring bosses) is the Biovore. This creature is practically a living turret, being able to shoot spore mines either near or directly at you. Don’t let its shooting distract you though, the Biovore is surprisingly quick and heavy hitting in melee. There are as well two new Thousand Sons enemies, the Enlightened Tzaangor and the brand spankin new Chaos Spawn. The Enlightened Tzaangor flies around on a disc evading players and throwing spears at them as well. This enemy is tricky to hit, but with the new update, I believe the Tzaangors are less agile than before. Chaos Spawn are the newest enemy coming out with the year one anniversary update. Chaos Spawn are beasts that have a similar appearance to a creation of David Cronenburg or the infamous John Carpenter creation “The Thing.” Chaos Spawn are the size of a Space Marine, Tyranid Warrior, or Rubric Marine. These enemy units are easy to kill, but they pack a punch and are difficult to block, their executions as well are not as awesome as other enemies due to it being difficult to know what part of the beast you are actually looking at.
Weapons
Since the official release, there have been six new weapons: the Neo-Vulkite Pistol, the Inferno Pistol, and due to the year one anniversary, there is now the Power Axe, Pyroblaster, the Pyrocannon and the new Xenos-Phaseblade. The Neo-Volkite Pistol shoots a laser beam that weakens or straight up explodes the target. The Neo-Vulkite Pistol also does lasting damage to larger targets as well, having vast amounts of ammo to use before needing a restock. The Inferno Pistol, on the other hand, packs a punch but has only 12 whole shots fully stocked. The Inferno Pistol is just practically a miniature Melta Gun; it has a very short range but does lots of damage to small infantry enemies. The Power Axe is a light melee weapon not too different from the Power Sword. The Power Axe does light damage to enemy units but is great for closing the distance between you and the target. Execution wise, the Power Axe is clean and quick doing bisecting and decapitating. Although some executions do neat details like the axe being stuck in the unit and having the marine rip it out. The Pyroblaster is a rifle made flame thrower, good for short quarters shooting at specific targets. The Pyroblaster isn’t meant to do quick high damaging shots but rather long and milled damage, with a range similar to the Melta. The Pyrocannon is practically a macro scaled Pyroblaster, but instead is meant to damage various targets rather than a single one, with a range similar to the Multi-Melta. Finally, there is the Xenos-Phaseblade, technically just a power sword that has the new weapon grade of Legendary which is now above Relic. Besides this, the Xenos-Phaseblade has the same characteristics of the power sword, same animations and executions but is a great spin of the already great & fun Power Sword.
Conclusion
In the end, “Space Marine 2” still holds up despite it being a year old. Yes, there are some things I don’t particularly like with some of the new content; but those are vastly outweighed by the amount of fun players can have while playing. The enemies may be endless, but with weapons in hand and friends by your side, victory is always in sight. So stand ready, you are the bulwark against the enemies of mankind: prepare for battle.
Final Follow up rating 61/70
