For the Brotherhood…

With a little over 45 hours of experiencing Space Marine 2, I can confidently say it is one of the best action thrill rides I have played in recent years. From slicing apart enemies with your chainsword (a chainsaw and sword in one), to narrowly dodging an enemy attack and pulling out your pistol for a cold final blow, Space Marine 2 can entice anyone to join the brotherhood. Nonetheless, some aggressive server and crossplay issues cause some serious hiccups if you’d like to enjoy the games multiplayer components. Do these problems weigh down space marine, or does the excellent campaign help to overt a mission failure? Let’s find out on Gaber’s Two Cents.

The undeniable winning formula in Space Marine 2 is its action-packed campaign. The combat encounters seem never ending and it makes it very clear that it is a full-on sprint from start to finish to reach the games conclusion. The pace is incredible, and it seems to be largely inspired by action games from previous generations of gaming. Which is not a bad thing at all, not every game has to be the most immersive experience of all time, nor does it have to be a slog to get through. Videogames are supposed to be a “fun” after all, right?

Tedious fetch quests, boring rewards, and filler dialogue that has no impact on the story are nowhere to be found here. Space Marine knows exactly what it is, and wears it on its sleeve. Mission after mission, you’ll be asking yourself why don’t more games take this no nonsense approach and let players just “play” again.

Oh, and one other thing, this game is not easy. Which makes it all the more satisfying after surviving an enemy horde and single-handedly killing hundreds (and I genuinely mean hundreds) of enemies. It’s awesome and really gets your adrenaline pumping when you feel you are nearing a victory. This feels especially jarring as you can’t help but be stunned by the graphical excellence within Space Marines chaos, it is one of the best-looking games of the year, and quite possibly the decade without a doubt. If only the character models and facial features received the same amount of care the setting did.

Now for the cons, multiplayer is always welcome in this day and age of gaming, albeit sometimes forced when added to a single player driven title. Space Marine’s co-op and pvp aspects are very similar to gaming of yesteryear as previously mentioned. The problem is it has to work. In my first two weeks of playing Space Marine, I was only able to play one pvp match and one co-op match, any other attempts to play more and I was booted to the Home Screen with the server error popping up. How this went unfixed for two plus weeks is beyond me and completely unacceptable.

I’m happy to report that Space Marine 2 seems to have found a remedy to the issues that plagued the game at launch. First impressions do matter, though. Hopefully, developer Saber Saint Petersburg continues to iron out the kinks and gain their player bases trust back. Thankfully when Space Marine’s multiplayer is working, it is a really fun time. It just makes you think how much of a home run this game would have been if everything had been working properly at launch. With a $70 price tag, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for fully functioning modes that were promised in the first place.

Overall, it’s Space Marine 2’s combat and hefty campaign that steal the show. the multiplayer modes are fun, but a bad first impression with server issues left a bad taste in my mouth. All this and more are why Space Marine 2 received this particular, Cent Score.

Cent Score: 3 Cents

The pros outweigh the cons, sit back, don’t think too much and you’ll be fine.

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