The year 2024 has seen two strong co-op shooters: Helldivers 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. But which of the two games is better? MeinMMO editor Dariusz has played both titles and draws a conclusion.
Both Helldivers 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 are really good co-op shooters that you can have a lot of fun with. If you have the financial means to play both titles, you can do so without much thought. If you like this type of game, you will have fun both as a servant of the Emperor and as a loyal warrior of Over-Earth.
However, if you can only play one of the two games, I want to give you a few points here that will help you decide which game is better for you. At the end there will be a short conclusion as to which of the two games is the better co-op shooter in my opinion.
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Helldivers 2 has less content but more variation
If we compare the playable content of the two co-op shooters, Warhammer seems to be clearly ahead at first glance. Space Marine 2 comes with a campaign that is really well implemented. The story of Lieutenant Titus is particularly impressive in terms of graphics and atmosphere and is cinematically impressive. There are also 6 linear co-op missions with different levels of difficulty and 3 PvP game modes.
Helldivers 2 is more slender. There is no coherent story campaign that follows a real protagonist. Instead, we experience the story of the ongoing galactic war exclusively through the news from Above-Earth and the general orders. There is also no PvP. Nevertheless, Helldivers 2 has more to offer as a co-op shooter. You will probably only play through the Space Marine 2 campaign once. After that, the focus is on the co-op missions. However, since there are only 6 of them, this can quickly become repetitive – even if you play on high difficulty levels.
Helldivers 2 has more variety and therefore becomes less repetitive. There are now 7 missions that occur regardless of the faction. In addition, there are 17 further missions that can only be played against robots or only against beetles. However, since these missions do not differ much from one another and you have to destroy breeding sites (nests or factories) for both factions, for example, the comparison of the missions can be considered a draw – with a slight bias towards Helldivers.
The tendency towards Helldivers 2 is due to the fact that the individual rounds can play out differently despite the same missions. This is due, among other things, to the 2 types of enemies, the robots and the beetles. Depending on which enemy you are playing against, the gameplay changes significantly. You have to adapt your approach and, if necessary, take on different weapons and equipment.
The selection of weapons in Helldivers 2 is also noticeably larger and will continue to grow with each war bond. You are also completely free to use the equipment, whereas Space Marine 2 ties you to predefined classes that can only be selected once per squad.
Helldivers is a real shooter, but Warhammer has the chainsword
In Helldivers 2, the focus is much more on the shooter gameplay. You have countless firearms at your disposal, which you can supplement with support weapons and tactical equipment. Once you arrive on a planet, it’s just me and my gun.
In Helldivers, you know full well that you are useless without your rifle. As soon as you run out of ammunition, death awaits you. That’s why weapons with an unlimited number of rounds are particularly popular in Helldivers 2. The Terminids will tear you apart mercilessly with their bare fists.
In Space Marine 2, gunplay is much less important. If you run out of ammo, you can always use your chainsword to slash through bugs. You also have to use your melee weapons to parry attacks. Sure, the melta rifle is currently dominating the meta and shows that Space Marine 2 is still a shooter, but the importance of firearms and good aim is much lower compared to Helldivers 2.
Nevertheless, it should be said: In both Helldivers 2 and Space Marine 2, a really tough challenge awaits you on the highest difficulty levels, for which you need a lot of skill and ideally a good team.
Availability and requirements
This is a clear victory for Warhammer. You can play Space Marine 2 on the usual platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC – although on the latter, the Epic Games Store opens every time you start the game, even if you bought the game on Steam.
Helldivers 2 is only playable on PS5 and Steam. In addition, you need a PlayStation account to play, which caused heavy criticism a few months ago. What is particularly critical here is that PlayStation services are not available in some countries. These players cannot play Helldivers 2 because they cannot create a PlayStation account.
Summary of the differences
Helldivers 2 and Space Marine 2 differ in many aspects. Before we come to my conclusion as to which shooter is more fun to smash bugs in, I will summarize the various differences between the games and compare them in a table.
Conclusion: Where is beetle plätten more fun?
It all depends on what kind of game you’re looking for. Personally, I see this as a comparison of co-op shooters and think that Helldivers 2 is the better representative. Since there are more weapons and the gameplay is more focused on gunplay, I had more fun fighting swarms of insects and felt more at home as a shooter player.
Space Marine 2, on the other hand, feels like the more complete game. You only have 6 linear co-op missions and 6 different classes, but you have a full campaign with well-staged cutscenes and even PvP. If you value staging, you might find fighting bugs in Space Marine 2 more fun.
It is much more difficult to judge which of the two games has the higher replay value. I find Helldivers 2 less repetitive – also because the activated friendly fire means that some nonsense is constantly happening that groups of friends can laugh about. However, MeinMMO colleague Benedict Grothaus had the feeling with Helldivers 2 that he was only repeating a handful of missions in different variations. He found the gameplay very monotonous, which was made even more so by the lack of any storytelling within the mission.
If you want to know more about the lore of Warhammer: 40,000 and Space Marine 2, Benedict is the right person to talk to. Here, for example, he explains what the “Deathwatch” is all about: Warhammer 40,000: Everyone in Space Marine 2 respects the “Deathwatch” – and there’s a good reason for that