Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was one of our favourite 2024 releases, but we can't help but feel for developer Saber Interactive, which, along with publisher Focus Entertainment, appears to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Perhaps too hastily, the two announced Space Marine 3 is in the works, which has now spooked some players concerned the second game will be left to die.
Fear not, Battle Brothers and Sisters, as both firms swear this will not be the case. It's tricky, as Space Marine 2 is not officially a live-service game, but its fans are pretty fanatical in their devotion to it and have been demanding more meaningful content for some time now.
In a blog post (thanks, IGN), Saber and Focus allay fears that Space Marine 2 is already done and dusted: "So let us set the record straight: Space Marine 3 does not mean the end of Space Marine 2's development, far from it. No teams are shifting over, no one is abandoning the game, and our plans to bring more awesome content to Space Marine 2 remain. We are working on much more content and surprises for the months to come, such as a new class, more operations, melee weapons, and more! Trust us, there are surprises even dataminers haven’t found out about."
We'll just reiterate our surprise and confusion regarding what fans seem to think Space Marine 2 is and is not. Declaring it to be the best Warhammer 40,000 game ever made that isn't called Rogue Trader, we played through the campaign, and put a dozen or so hours into its various cooperative and competitive modes for review.
We were happy with that and have popped back to check out the odd update or two. Still, we can't imagine expecting so much from a single game, especially one that delivered on its premise at launch. Saber and Focus have painted themselves into a corner, promising content but failing to deliver it in a timeframe that would satiate its ravenous audience, who are perhaps used to a modern multiplayer cadence.
Are you still booting up Space Marine 2 regularly? Are you foaming at the mouth that Space Marine 3 would be announced before its predecessor has even gotten its anticipated Horde Mode? Pray to the Emperor for salvation in the comments section below.
[source community.focus-entmt.com, via ign.com]
Comments 9
Perfect example of Premature announcement.
I’m happy I just treated this as a one and done after the campaign and moved on. I do hope the next one has way more variety because the campaign wasn’t even that long and i was kind of bored by the halfway point. Also for the love of god come up with a good story and characters and dial back the linearity just a tad
I tried Space Marine 2 recently after getting it in a sale. Not sure I get the hype to be honest the campaign was just ok, nothing spectacular. You could see where it was going to go after the second mission, perceived betrayal, redemption & victory.
The "end game" is grind the same few missions (8 I think?) over & over so you can earn skills to grind the same missions over & over a bit faster with slightly more colourful armour. Yeah, nope!
I would agree with the article that WH40K Rogue Trader is better in every sense at least for me it is. Heck I would say WH40K: Inquisitor - Martyr is better from a content perspective, janky as that game is at times.
I guess if folks are enjoying SM2 that's not a bad thing I just don't understand the appeal is all.
@Oram77 It was pretty unnecessary considering we are going to have to wait 5 years for the next one.
You're being disingenuous. They released the game with a £33 seasons pass(and £95 ultra edition including the season pass) and set out a 4 season roadmap before the game even released. That sets a high expectation for a lot of content, even if only one year is 100% promised.
Content has been kinda thin, although it does roughly match the roadmap I believe, just the roadmap didn't really specify how much content those things would entail. Just a lot of "more x" and "chapter packs" "hero packs".
They then announced the sequel 6 months into the content roadmap for the first game, after setting out a year long content updates(and charged people a lot of money for some of the content remember)
I never expected this to deliver a 'games as a service' type model, and between playing the campaign 3 times (with 2 other friends), and then hopping into the missions with them to level up a few classes, I've had a good time. Some more enemy variety, or a few new additions would help to keep things fresh, but I think it's a solid game to come back to every now and then, and I still havent tried the pvp mode yet.
People are just used to rinsing always online multiplayers, putting in hundreds of hours, and are expecting this to have the same longevity as a live-service title, which it isn't.
Drop Horde mode update ffs
Those special edition aren’t sounding too worth it. Will I get the base right now 35% off I think so
It’s one of the few games I’ve regretted purchasing even on sale (ultimate edition was 95 after tax). With many, myself included, still regularly unable to get past the title screen due to a known bug, the lack of content and long load screens it feels very vacant of substance. I enjoyed playing it at first but dang, talk about a downhill trend.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the big update with horde mode and prestige esque levels supposed to be released this month? The studio apologizes for not communicating well, but then the communication improvements are just more apologies. Underneath it’s a good game but really feels like a studio in over their heads.
After posting this I took a look at the roadmap and the prestige ranks with several other packs were supposed to be winter 2025. So yeah they’re way late on that, and spring runs til the start of May I believe. Whatever is going on, I feel for the devs but still would avoid buying the premium edition until they deliver on content. Delays are fine but missing deadlines and staying silent isn’t.
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