“The atmosphere and staging are insane”

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The new co-op shooter Space Marine 2 is actually only just being released for PC, PS5 and Xbox. But Maximilian “HandOfBlood” Knabe was able to play it beforehand and is showing his session on Twitch – and he is absolutely thrilled. Only his AI teammates are driving him to despair.

This is Space Marine 2:

  • In Space Marine 2 you play the genetically modified super soldier Lieutenant Titus in the dystopian sci-fi world of Warhammer 40,000.
  • Space Marine 2 is primarily an action-packed horde shooter with a campaign in which you complete various missions. There is also a PvP mode and co-op gameplay for up to three players.
  • Initial tests praise Space Marine 2 and say it has “what it takes to become the best Warhammer 40k game.” HandOfBlood also celebrates the shooter. He even drags himself into Ultramarine armor for the stream.

    • Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 shows you the Tyranids

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    This is how HandOfBlood celebrates the pre-release: HandOfBlood, like several other influencers and journalists, has already received early access to Space Marine 2.

    That’s why he came up with something special for his stream on Friday, September 6th. At gamescom 2024, the streamer met a cosplayer in power armor.

    The cosplayer then drove an impressive 600 kilometers to Spandau to lend HandOfBlood the armor (incidentally, a cosplay of Titus himself). The streamer then played for over an hour in full gear.

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    “This is just awesome”

    HandOfBlood is already excited by the first few minutes of Space Marine 2. He had already watched gameplay before, but had to stop after two seconds when he saw a Tyranid being cut in half with a chainsword while jumping.

    “I have to see that for myself,” says HandOfBlood. Already in the tutorial and later in the gameplay, you can see him raving about the combat animations and especially the executions. There, his Space Marine “carves up” the enemies, as the streamer nicely describes it.

    Later, HandOfBlood plays with fellow streamer krokoboss and compares Space Marine 2 with the 2022 co-op shooter Darktide:

    In the meantime, I’ve checked out the multiplayer PvE mode. You can choose different classes, different weapons, and you have a tech tree for everything. You can earn weapon XP and then unlock better and better versions of them. It’s just awesome. […]

    [Darktide] is similar, but from first person. That’s also awesome, but the meta progression isn’t that great.

    HandOfBlood in the stream, around 07:37:18

    The two also talk about the massive lore of Warhammer 40k and get information from their viewers about the hundreds of books, wikis and web series about the story. One viewer says to krokoboss: “If you take the stories of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Star Trek times two, you only have part of the Warhammer lore.”

    You can find the entire stream here on Twitch. A warning to the lore nerds among you: HandOfBlood is not very well versed in history and with his knowledge he would probably have been burned as a heretic in the 41st millennium. But he also says himself: Warhammer Fantasy is more his thing.

    Only the bots are “over-useless”

    According to HandOfBlood, the biggest criticism of Space Marine 2 is the AI. He had to complete several missions without human teammates and was unable to complete them because the bots simply ignored the tasks in the end.

    My mates do nothing […] The bots are really a bit weird. They completely ignore the objectives, so you have to do everything yourself. […] They really are useless. Extremely useless. […] They don’t even have my back, that’s so cheeky.

    HandOfBlood in the stream, from about 03:25:00

    Nevertheless, HandOfBlood wants to continue playing Space Marine 2 over the next few days, preferably in co-op with colleagues. You can play the game yourself from September 9th. You can find all the information here: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2: Everything about the release, early access, crossplay and preload

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