Space Marine 2 (PC, PS5 & Xbox)

[fishbowlhead]

I’m playing the PS5 version. I have to say I am very confused at the almost universal praise this has received since launch, with only a few sites mentioned its core issues.

As a package it’s good, campaign, operations (coop story missions where you can upgrade your marine) & pvp. Though technically it’s another poor 3rd party release, with poor frames and resolution.

The core gameplay however is just soooooo poor, you play a super fast, super strong, super durable, with super regen space marine, yet this game is the total opposite. Shields only regen when completely out of combat, health doesn’t regen at all, yet your absolutely forced into situations constantly where your going to tank health and shields you can’t get back. You can get minuscule amounts of health & shields back from finishers, but the sheer number’s attacking you at all times makes this utterly pointless. You also can’t take cover to avoid the brawls as there is no mechanic for it. Oh you’re also super slow and have poor reactions and terrible visibility, so that’s cool.

Fundamentally the gameplay itself needs re working, as is its just a complete slog most the time. I wonder if the devs even looked at the material they built a game on from a gameplay perspective? Like at all?

5/10 traitor Fishy’s.

[hudson]

I see your 5/10 and raise you with my 9/10.

Also playing on PS5, mostly playing Operations mode with friends and find ourselves saying "this is awesome". Situations where you look at your current horde surroundings and think "this isn't going to end well", but you come out the other side after a spectacle of chainswording, teammate buffing and amazing executions. It's so much fun. Yeah it's old school, but I'm glad it is.

So far my runner up to current GOTY contender Stella Blade.

[fishbowlhead]

Like I said the gameplay doesn’t fundamentally work on any level, the health bar is always at 30% because of unblock-able attacks either from range, or when your in melee either swinging at adds or locked in an animation for a finisher. The stim packs are outrageously stingy even on low diffs, leaving your group to just barrel into every situation for a quick finish (while still tanking health) just to get it done, zero tactics.

On its base level it’s a PS2 game in all the wrong ways.

Darktide makes you feel 10x tougher and more effective with more options for every scenario vs barrel in and tank health till stuff dead.

This is so far from a 9 it won’t ever get there without a complete overhaul of the gameplay plus the engine, as the framing doesn’t work either for the melee at all.

[hudson]

Spent some time playing the PvP mode over the weekend. It's fun retro team based deathmatch, conquest and King of the Hill. Really good fun when playing with friends and getting tactical.

[Golgo]

Been playing this for a couple of evenings and I think it's terrific. It does play like a rather old-school 3rd person action-combat game, but it nails it. Reminds me of Vanquish and Binary Domain. Probably more Binary Domain, as that felt similarly scrappy and messy whereas Vanquish was much more precise. The echoes of Doom Eternal are well done, in that you have to keep engaging and turning parries into charge shots, and following up on executions, in order to top up health. No stealth or cover mechanics nonsense, which would be dishonourable. Not quite as excessive as Doom Eternal, though, where you were literally carving ammo and shields out of enemies. But the baddies here are great fun for carving up, and the bloody mess you can make is glorious. I know nothing about Warhammer but I'm enjoying the grim world and snippets of lore and the manly-men-of-honour dialogue. Really funny stuff. Playing campaign with the AI companions and they're fine. Also tried one of the coop side missions ('Operations' mode) with randoms and it was great. Cool how it effectively gets you to play the campaign from different angles. The classes offer some distinctiveness in terms of their 'supers' to make it worth learning how best to use them, and the training bits for each class (accessed via Armoury) do a decent job in this. They are quite challenging, can't get more than a C in any I've tried. They're almost like mini situational/combat puzzles. Tried PvP and got my arse handed to me, but will try again when I get a bit more confident with a couple of classes. Also looks and sounds great, and the PS5 controller haptics are well done. Playing on 'Quality' mode, which runs smoothly with excellent amount of detail - good for the rather lumbering pace of movement around the environments. 'Performance' is obviously smoother, but the detail drop off is significant.

Update: tried a bit more PvP and it feels really quite basic in terms of modes and especially the maps, which are small and predominantly symmetrical affairs that look and feel unnatural.

Also: noticed how much loading there is. Lots of lift travel and doors that require button presses to disguise this, but even with those there are long old school load pages as well. Had a long load mid-way through a lift journey yesterday. Not the usual zippy PS5 loading, that's for sure.

[BaronSqwelch]

I was enjoying this. Finished the campaign and had got stuck.into the operations, levelled up my Heavy and unlocked the second rarity of weapons.

Then logged in a few days later to see nearly all my progress had been reset. So I deleted the game. Worst "crime" in gaming is wasting my time.

[fishbowlhead]

I was enjoying this. Finished the campaign and had got stuck.into the operations, levelled up my Heavy and unlocked the second rarity of weapons.

Then logged in a few days later to see nearly all my progress had been reset. So I deleted the game. Worst "crime" in gaming is wasting my time.

I see this cropping up on PC quite often at the moment, apparently a fix is in the works, but that’s not really good enough when all your progress is already deleted.

[fishbowlhead]

Devs have stated PSSR on pro will probably upgrade this to quality mode at 60fps automatically, apparently they’re talking to Sony to make it happen asap.

[Golgo]

(posted thrice)

[Golgo]

(...and again, bizarre!)

[Golgo]

[Apologies for the above, something weird happened when entering comments].

Finished this. It's pretty good but my earlier impressions waned in the long-run. I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Campaign did get repetitive, and this was exposed especially in the last level of the campaign: skirmish, trudge to door or lift, enter same code on same keypad (regardless of whether a friendly or enemy facility), transport to quiet zone for quick ammo/weapon restock, skirmish, ...(repeat). Combat was messy fun but, in going all in for this onrushing style, lacked the precision and impact of Doom Eternal. Melee combat didn't really feel like it connected with anything, despite the plentiful gore and executions. Also, by being so relentlessly mugged by mobs, you can only seem to parry/stun one or two when dozens more are always boiling up around you. Enemy variety was limited, tending to the small - medium - large - very large versions of the same types, with the occasional floating enemy that buffed the rest. Only one boss battle to speak of, recycled and expanded. Weapons: after a while I stopped choosing and just grabbed whatever was around. I guess they're 'canonical' to Warhammer 40K but they are quite dull given the universe they're operating in. Again, no match for Doom Eternal in this regard. That said, I enjoyed the setting and lore, and the hilariously manly honour-bound seriousness of being a cog in this basically fascistic, homoerotic army.

[fishbowlhead]

[Apologies for the above, something weird happened when entering comments].

Finished this. It's pretty good but my earlier impressions waned in the long-run. I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Campaign did get repetitive, and this was exposed especially in the last level of the campaign: skirmish, trudge to door or lift, enter same code on same keypad (regardless of whether a friendly or enemy facility), transport to quiet zone for quick ammo/weapon restock, skirmish, ...(repeat). Combat was messy fun but, in going all in for this onrushing style, lacked the precision and impact of Doom Eternal. Melee combat didn't really feel like it connected with anything, despite the plentiful gore and executions. Also, by being so relentlessly mugged by mobs, you can only seem to parry/stun one or two when dozens more are always boiling up around you. Enemy variety was limited, tending to the small - medium - large - very large versions of the same types, with the occasional floating enemy that buffed the rest. Only one boss battle to speak of, recycled and expanded. Weapons: after a while I stopped choosing and just grabbed whatever was around. I guess they're 'canonical' to Warhammer 40K but they are quite dull given the universe they're operating in. Again, no match for Doom Eternal in this regard. That said, I enjoyed the setting and lore, and the hilariously manly honour-bound seriousness of being a cog in this basically fascistic, homoerotic army.

Pretty much my thoughts after completing it the other day. The game deserved better gameplay, it’s a decent package and fairly polished overall, but the gameplay just lets it down big time, especially not even having a cover system, melee is completely disconnected etc etc.

Im giving it 6/10 fishyb’s.

[hudson]

Unfortunately for solo players out there, this game is way better in co-op. Echoed in many a review too. If you can, get on Operations with some friends.

[fishbowlhead]

PS5 Pro patch up today, updated with PSSR for a much better IQ in performance mode, plus better frame rate closer to 60fps thanks to the boost mode.

Edit. Played a few operations last night, performance mode is now the old resolution mode but at 60fps, or near enough 99% of the time. A good update that does what the Pro should.

[fishbowlhead]

Played a fair bit of operations this week, the Pro upgrade is pretty transformative. This is now looks better than the old resolution mode but at 60fps, awesome stuff.