My experience with Space Marine 2 so far

hi everybody this is bricky uh this is going to be a mostly audio experience there will be background footage in the back however if this is something you like to listen to in the car at the gym whatever you can go ahead and throw it on and listen to in the background the video footage is simply to enhance any points I make not necessarily to actually be required for the viewing experience so to speak so I was an extremely fortunate person to receive a code for Space Marine 2 a few days ago roughly on August 27th in fact along with a lot of other press I actually don't really get codes for things like this cuz I'm not necessarily a traditional video game reviewer or video game news journalist etc etc and so I normally don't get early codes like this but naturally Space Marine 2 high profile Warhammer game I got one and I grinded it out a pretty substantial deal in fact I am recording this roughly on August 28th the day after uh after maybe 25 or so hours with the game like as in in my library I have played 11 hours total of Space Marine 2 as of recording this uh and I wanted to just regurgitate thoughts on the game I do not have a full review necessarily yet I will be making a big main Channel review in a bit I'm assuming it'll take a little bit of time but for the most part this is coming out September 4th because that is when the Embargo is up and for the most part this is the most amount of space Marine 2 I'm going to be able to play because I am leaving for Pax West and more importantly any other thing I could play doesn't necessarily matter much because you can't play multiplayer right now as the only people currently playing this are most likely journalists and other members of the press that I well can't easily matchmake with obviously but also because I have already completed the entire story campaign and done multiple missions co-op with some friends so well colleagues I suppose so have a bit of a discussion for it a little in first impression review and as far as I'm concerned a stream of Consciousness this is just me talking uh I have lots of opinions I have many things on my mind about this game but I'm just generally throwing it out with a little bit of background footage there will not be any spoilers except for the things shown on the trailers to begin with like the enemies for example you may have realized that there is another enemy in this game that is not the tyranids if you didn't know that then maybe just turn off the video because wow you really are living under a rock but that's basically the most I'll be spoiling so there really isn't any spoilers for this video so the campaign for Space Marine 2 took me about 8 to so hours without doing the side missions the way the campaign is structured is that there is a main story mode that follows you as Titus as well as your two squadmates Gabrielle and S seran Kon Kion Ken I I don't quite remember it's a gab it's Gabriel Gabriel and and Titus and then one other I don't remember their names very well and that'll be obvious uh later on it'll become much more apparent in a bit and then they go out and they do their usual thing at Titus has been demoted to Lieutenant after Space Marine one and he is now going to deal with the Tyran Invasion Fleet on the planet of I forget its name it's a jungle Planet there are three planets that you go to throughout the course of the game I don't remember their names uh but that's not like it really matters it's just three different types of planets that help you adjust the scenery a bit that was one of the uh bigger complaints I have with Space Marine one is that graa was a giant Forge World and therefore it is uh very syy now granted Imperial aesthetic is also very syy it's not like you're doing a big sprawling Adventure but regardless so that is the general gist and uh yeah tyranids are here you're an ultramarine ultramarines need to kill and that's the whole vibe now the way it's structured is that Titus and gang go out and do a whole bunch of missions throughout the course of these three planets and you always play as Titus when you do uh now this I believe can be co-opt as well the story missions that is however uh there is you know obviously Titus is the character so there's Titus Titus has the special ability of just yelling really loudly for Ultramar and getting a little bit stronger and healing and doing all that kind of fun stuff but for the most part he's your bread and butter a third person shooter style Marine there is also side missions you can do and I'm including these as part of the campaign because these are side missions where you play as other squads doing objectives that are parallel to the main story there are six missions and they have different kinds of things like for example there is a mission in which Titus needs to rescue a arch Megos or some fancy Megos uh because he has some but because he won't leave because his data yada yada however the tyranids are fast approaching and therefore your secondary group has to go blow up a prome Promethean Refinery and that'll slow This Ti in its advance to help you save the Megos in the actual game you as Titus go do stuff with the Megos however in the background comms you'll have them say like oh Lieutenant we have completed the mission the promethium is there you know the tyranids have been slowed and then that's about all that happens but then you can go play from their perspective and go do the prometheum mission and those missions serve as your Co-op repeatable missions those are the ones that have all of the XP all of the upgrades the Buffs and the things you do with your friends for the most part that's generally how the campaign works and so I did only about one of the six side missions and beat the campaign in about eight hours I would imagine if you did every side mission as well as the main story campaign it would take you about 11 to 12 hours I'd Garner that being said when I say side missions they aren't like real side missions they're a lot more along the lines of of just seeing a different perspective of stuff going on it's not like you're losing out on the story this doesn't really change the story or anything like that it's not that kind of game now let's talk about the campaign a little bit cuz this is one of those things where what you're looking for in this game is going to vary heavily on whe or let's rephrase that whether or not you like this game is going to vary heavily on what you bought this game to do and that's that's the biggest part is when you go into buying Space Marine 2 what are your expectations are you expecting a game with the same kind of just murder Gore death and destruction that Space Marine 1 brought you uh Space Marine one is not known for its particularly great story or anything of that nature it's generally just generic marine guys killing things and yelling generic Space Marine things it's them being like we must protect the aspects in order to gain a foothold against the Orcs And then the entire game you're yelling die Zeno's filth for the go the Blessed God Emperor will not see your life continue this day and then you just repeat that over and over and over again until the end of the game that's basically Space Marine one now if you were hoping for something a bit more advanced than that if you were wanted a bit more of an expanded story with a bit more in terms of of characterization you know characters squadmates a bit more of like a backstory some some turmoil that kind of stuff then you would be sorely mistaken Space Marine 2 is a 2010's Call of Duty campaign it is a collection of cutscenes that are paced not very well ended too quickly and talk about very boring topics the entire time your teammates the you know Gabrielle and I forget the name basically spend the entire game doing the usual thing of death to the heretic death to the zenos May the god Emperor's light bless me over and over again until the entire game is over occasionally one of them does the Leandro thing where he's like M Titus you're kind of a sussy sussy [ __ ] you vented you're so sus and that's kind of all that happens for the most part uh the campaign's story and characters I would consider not very good straight up mediocre and that is the part I was the most upset about um because on the other hand the game play is pretty darn fun however it's how much of that gameplay are you willing to enjoy with such a Bare Bones characterization and storyline now this isn't the entire campaign in fact I'd argue that the campaign shows some really good promise occasionally very very often the second half of the game is where you get the most promise and it's unfortunate because it feels like a lot of that Intrigue is used and then removed so damn quickly that you just generally think like ah they could have done more with this and that's kind of the feeling I got every time we would occasionally get a really good scene or some kind of much more decent Intrigue and then you'd think it would just end and then you'd think oh God damn it I think I thought they would done more with this and that's over and over until the campaign ends I was hoping for more characterization I was hoping for more story I was hoping for just an upgraded version of that but but no this is a 2010s video game this is Space Marine 1 again Honestly though I'd almost argue that Space Marine 1 had better paced cutscenes and a better characterization than this game uh and that's that's saying a lot because I don't hold Space Marine one as some pillar of writing it's something that I just was not huge on and I I definitely expected more so the question on if you're there because you wanted a really interesting story in characters I'm sorry that's probably a big no there are moments and in fact if I had to Garner any kind of guess I would bet that this game is going to be remembered for its small side characters than its actual characters there's two examples I can actually three the first one and this is what we talked about earlier is that the thousand suns are in the game right they're in the trail they're in the trailers they're in the marketing material the thousand suns are in the game now this is obviously fine there's a thousand suns uh what would you call them chaos Lord exalted sorcerer uh chaos Lord on dis whatever you want to call it uh big villain guy he arrives like halfway through the game 2/3 maybe through the game uh and he's really not that interesting overall he's just a iCal chaos guy but the dude's voice actor owed rent the man is Hamming it up it reminds me a little bit of like Emperor Palpatine not because he's like Palpatine but because every time I see Ian mcder on screen doing his like and the dark side of the he's just such a goober he's so fun to watch cuz he's so funny that this is how that chaos guy goes and if you're a thousand suns fan you're going to be like Clapping Your hands the entire time cuz he just goes on these tie raids about like the false Emperor betrayed us and Nika's a bunch of [ __ ] and you're sitting there like yes yes get them get them you tell those blueberries and it's it's great he himself his voice actor just murders the role even if he as a character is not that interesting at all but God damn as he give her performance um there's also two other characters I can think of one of them is a guy I'm calling Bane blade Bill Bane blade bill is a random Guardsman on a bane blade who is giving a speech to his men like about halfway through the game and it's the coolest speech I've ever heard the guy also clearly owed rent and he's putting together Game of the Year dialogue for this random guy on a bane blade absolutely awesome love this guy to death and lastly is Dave the dreadn uh near the end of the game there's a redemptor dreadn and it does some cool stuff and he like has 5 minutes of screen time and in those 5 minutes he does the most badass [ __ ] I have ever seen and then just like pieces out it's kind of awesome so yeah the the Thousand Suns villain guy Bane blade Bill and Dave the dreadn those are the characters that I feel like people will remember the most because they just have like boa Fett syndrome they're on screen for five minutes max not even they give the coolest performances ever and then they just peace out like what a badass you know like like what a cool bunch of characters but that's the best parts of the campaign in terms of the characterization and it is a little unfortunate so that's why I mentioned earlier how important is this game play because you're going to be doing a lot of it and I want to make the I want to make No Reservations here the game play you are not playing a third person shooter you are playing God of War if you leave with anything leave with that you are not playing a firstperson shooter you are playing God God of War 4 for the PlayStation that actually reminds me if you do play this game do not use mouse and keyboard use Gamepad it is monsterously better however I noticed there's no snap aim which is wild to me I mean you don't have need to have an PVP but I I didn't see a setting for SNAP Aim so you could snap on to like certain enemies I didn't see that I'm a little shocked I I'm a little shocked by that one um maybe it'll be added later or maybe I missed it but just of all the things it was like whoosh it was something else but yeah you're B basically playing God of War you're going to go around shooting a bunch of stuff and doing your guns and all that fun Jazz but then things are going to get close and you're going to beat the ever living [ __ ] out of them you and then when you do they will hit you with attacks that glow blue and when they glow blue you press a button to Parry and then if they glow red you dodge instead of Perry and you get them get them to low enough HP to where then you execute them for health and uh you know to kill them and stuff it's God of War it plays like God of War it feels like God of War there's happens to be third person shooter aspects in it but it's basically just God of War and how much you Vibe with that combat is going to be the true test of whether or not you like Space Marine 2 because you do that combat a lot that combat is all there is and you better like it if you don't like the comment you're going to get bored really fast because unfortunately all of the cool stuff that you see in the game's marketing all of the uh upgrades and perk trees and customization and character upgrades and all that stuff does not happen in the campaign if you are doing the story mode not the side missions the side missions is where you grind but if you're doing the story mode with Titus you do not get any XP and Titus does not have upgrades Titus is a blank slate the entire campaign you don't get upgrades you don't get powers you don't get any Buffs you don't get XP you don't get any of that you just get Titus and that really starts to grow thin after some time it grows very thin actually and it's one of the things that I started to feel later on in the in the game now the game play of Space Marine 2 I actually do Vibe with a decent amount it's a very how you say not not generic it's um you do it a lot it can get repetitive it can certainly get repetitive after some time but I [ __ ] with it and because I do I don't necessarily mind it too much but I think that's one of the issues that I ran into with the campaign is because there's no experience no customization no anything the only customization you get as Titus is primary secondary and melee weapon then because of that it's just doing combat and it almost kind of makes me wish we had more gimmicks that's kind of a strange thing to ask for right I look back at Titanfall 2 one of the best first-person shooter games of all time right one of the best campaigns ever their entire campaign is like four hours long and it's a pretty regular shooty bang bang right but the thing about Titanfall 2's campaign is that every map every Mission had some kind of fun gimmick every level had some weirdness to it it one reminds me of like Resident Evil 4 you know every area you went to had some kind of weird gimmick to it and that kept things fresh gimmicks are annoying when you have tons of upgrades because when you have tons of upgrades you end up having to be stripped of them for your cool gimmick and that's just you know not very fun in a way but with this situation because there are no upgrades I wanted more weird stuff like that this is going to sound insane this is going to sound absolutely crazy I almost wished there was a turret section I which is just I know it's so weird to say out loud in this day and age but I needed something to break up from the monotony there's a couple cool moments there's one where you jump from a ship with a jetpack and you have to like Dodge debris that was one of the coolest parts of the game cuz it was a cool little gimmick a little side bit um there's like a part where you get a py blaster to burn burn some River swarms that overstate its welcome a little bit but it was a fun idea and I liked doing it I needed more of those gimmics to mix up the game play uh and unfortunately I didn't really get it so the game kind of ran a bit thin but playing the game co-op with friends I was like hey uh you know not going to lie maybe this is fine because I'm just enjoying playing this with friends shooting the [ __ ] as we murder everything in sight like a good servant of the emperor should and it's come to the point where after beating the campaign after playing some missions with some friends and then leveling up a little bit and seeing the perk trees I'm realizing Space Marine 2 is going to have the exact same question that dark tide has which is is the game playay Loop and running missions fun enough and not repetitive enough to hold the game up because the campaign alone is a fine six or six and a half out of 10 you know you roll through it you enjoy yourself you get a couple soy Jack moments where you you make a big poging face and you point and you're like whoa It's that thing it's that it's that cool thing from Warhammer that I know whoa It's that character oh my God there's a couple of those and you know if that's like good for you awesome but it's not quite enough to sustain me for the price tag so does the game play with friends and the leveling progression system is that enough to keep the game you know happy in your eyes and maybe it is maybe it isn't that's kind of for you to determine I can't really tell yet because uh it's you know it's been you know campaign and stuff it's been like 12 or so hours of playing Etc but I'm not you know I'm not like 45 hours in or something like that to determine yeah the gameplay Loop is good or bad or the end game needs work work etc etc right higher difficulties so on and so forth and um yeah that's kind of where my head's at right now I don't I think the campaign is a bit of a let down but the in terms of story and stuff but there are some really impressive sequences uh the visuals are incredible there's a part in the Middle where you're going up like a Sky Lift and the Gargoyles are trying to rip apart the chains and that looks super cool the game runs very well it's very well optimized uh it chugs a bit near the end but for me it ran very well on my machine which I was quite happy about you know it might it might chug a bit but hey it that's what happens sometimes it occurs well at least at the end of the game you'll know why when you get to the end of the game holy crap the sound mixing is probably my biggest technical complaint I genuinely think that just the the sound mixing in general is is really really bad uh it's kind of crazy how quickly you're your teammates will be saying something and then gunfire will just drown them all out immediately and you miss out on dialogue um now that the dialogue was really that important to begin with for the most part 95% of the dialogue is just die zenos scum and we are the Servants of the emperor like for example they have those little audio data logs similar to Bioshock and with those data logs you you know when you listen to them in BioShock and games like that they tend to quiet the rest of the game to help you hear them they don't do that in here they just kind of play the d The datal Log which is really funny to me because then like someone starts talking and then you start shooting tyranids and you just can't hear a godamn word you have no idea what's happening and it's uh it's really really funny the sound mixing I think needs a huge up it needs a huge change because it's very rough at the moment and that might come with a day one patch but um that's definitely something I felt the most when it comes to the technical aspects of the video game other than that uh the Warhammer aspect of it for my Warhammer nerds out there people like me who engage in the hobby a lot and collect the Miniatures this game is extremely primaris coded that's something that I found rather interesting firstborn is basically non-existent in this game um you'll find out within the first hour of the game how primaris coded it is and I find it to be fascinating that it is that way because it's it's just interesting to see the lengths they go you know I think I saw one Rhino and one predator in the whole game there is the bolt carbine the classic Bolter but outside of the classic Bolter there is only primaris weapons there's stalker bolt rifle bolt carbine bolt launcher with grenade uh there's heavy bolt rifle there's no plasma gun there's the plasma incinerator there's no melta gun there's the melta rifle I guess there's the heavy Bolter so there is that but you know it's the and I guess the multim Melton stuff but then it's like the bolt pistol the Plasma Pistol and the heavy bolt pistol they're adding a volkite pistol in the future I guess with one of their road maps kind of thing um you see repulsors you see repulser executioners you see redemptor dreadnots but you don't see box dreadnots you see Phobos armor and and blade guard Champions but yeah it's very primaris coded it's almost nothing but primaris which I found to be rather fascinating you know it's not like like I don't really care I'm not one of those kind of like firstborn people who are super into firstborn it is what it is but I I just was a little bit surprised it was that firstborn coded you know other than that I'm sure you're wondering how they do the lore if they actually do a pretty good job at maintaining the 40K aesthetic that's the one thing I think that they did the best it is a very 40K faithful game now there are a lot of things that they have take for Liberty cuz it's a video game like the amount of [ __ ] you kill no no Space Marine lieutenant no no matter how cool you are should be killing 500 tyranid Warriors multiple Zone throes and and more right like it just doesn't happen uh gen in generality but that's kind of like a nitpick it's a video game you know you got to do video game stuff like it's kind of funny when you fight thousand suns you kill a lot of rubric Marines the rubric Marine is basically the tyranid warrior so by the end of it you've killed like 400 of the Thousand Suns which is just hilarious because it's like oh God we've basically wiped out the Sons which is really funny but there are a lot of just really good uses of the 40K IP uh it looks good it looks correct the scaling is incredible and impressive uh you can see kind of how everything operates and how loud it is and how clunky some of the forge worlds and the the locations are just big and loud and just so grandiose and that combination of everything is a factory and then everything else a church and everything is covered in candles and they they do a really good job with the 40K aesthetic also just some small things that are kind of fun like uh if you kill a tyranid warrior all the termagon around it die as well because the the synapse pulse that comes from the tyranid warrior breaks and it kills or like kills or disorients all the teragons which is neat a really cool touch is that when you fight Rubik Marines and you kill them their armor kind of like busts apart almost like Lego pieces and dust just comes out because you know all is dust thanks araman you [ __ ] but if you there's there's a couple um thousand son Sorcerers and when you kill them they bleed because of course they're still flesh and blood so just just some good some good Insight like that right there's a lot of that fun stuff uh it's pretty amazing about until the last hour the last hour really kind of graded on me because when I was playing the last hour I I had I can't spoil but there was a lot of like is that what I think it is and are we where I think we are because if we're where we think we are and that's what I think it is we've gone completely off the rails and now we're not very faithful to the 40K World um because yeah when you get to the end you'll you'll be like how the hell is this happening uh so there's a little bit of that going on you know you when you play the game let me know if you think I'm right or not because that's uh I was playing it I was like what the [ __ ] is going on but other than that other than that uh the 40K aesthetic is nailed pretty pretty perfectly actually it's a they really did a damn good job with that like I said earlier and this is like just me rambling as I mentioned the game really comes down to what you're looking for if you want a beat him up shooter combo with a 40K Co Coda paint that reminds you of like 2008 era Call of Duty campaigns like Modern Warfare 3 Black Ops 2 Cod campaigns where it's not particularly in depth and kind of just just there to make you shoot stuff then I think you'll be perfectly happy I think you'll end up being very very pleased with what you got and you know you'll go and kill a bunch of t tyranids and a bunch of uh thousand sons and you'll have a grand old time uh if you were hoping for a little bit more a bit more in terms of character a bit more in terms of story then unfortunately I I don't think this is the one I think uh I think the that kind of part dropped the ball and the question at the end is going to really come down to whether or not the gameplay Loop is enough for you to keep playing it and want to keep loading in it has the same issue that darktide has is it enough is this enough for me I don't know we'll see we'll see this is like my my general just honest opinions um for those of you who are know me in my Warhammer stuff you know that I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to Warhammer projects and I'm pretty I think I'm pretty harsh on them at times so maybe I may be a little little bit too harsh with this at the moment but maybe not like too harsh but like you know expect me to be harsh cuz that's that's what I'm I'm intentionally being like I I I look at it with a bit more scrutiny than most do well maybe not most do but from my compatriots that I remember so um you know give it a shot yourself you know try it out see if you like it maybe I'm wrong um maybe I'm not wrong but the gameplay is totally enough for you or maybe you know who knows honestly who knows I I think I care most about just making sure that you all get like a an honest opinion on the game and I'm trying to express that the best I can without seeming like to do and understanding that I this is kind of like what I was looking for comparatively and it's like H well this might not be the same you know it all depends on on you more than anything but other than that we'll see how it turns out we'll see how the sales numbers do we'll see how people consider it I give it like a tentative recommendation I give it a recommendation so long as you know what you're getting into and you're not expecting Shakespeare which I mean In fairness you probably weren't to begin with but you know if you were hoping for something with a bit more uh in term of character and stuff than the first Space Marine game I that's not quite the case it is the first Space Marine game just again and um you know that's where it's at so anyway other than that I will be playing the game a decent amount on stream uh after this video comes out you can check me out at twitch.tv bricky or I also stream here on this channel we do like a dual stream so you can check it out and then that's about all I got so thank you very much for listening and I'll see you around