I used to be midway by way of the opening degree of Warhammer 40,000: House Marine 2’s marketing campaign, unloading bolt rifle rounds alongside my two squadmates, when I discovered myself smiling at simply how good it feels to be again on this futuristic grimdark fray. It’s been over a decade for the reason that unique, however House Marine 2 reinvigorates the squad-based shooter collection with seeming ease. The environments are different and breathtaking, the running-and-gunning feels nice, and the sense of comradeship whereas preventing together with your workforce, be they bots or mates, will be exhilarating. It might not break a lot new floor in its style, nevertheless it didn’t have to for me to have a blast enjoying by way of its dozen-hour marketing campaign.
Let’s get this out of the best way early: The unique House Marine clearly took inspiration from Gears of Struggle, and this sequel follows swimsuit. It’s a squad-based shooter starring closely armored dudes who growl their dialog whereas both capturing weapons or revving Chainswords to keep at bay invading aliens. The similarities don’t hassle me a bit (particularly when one might make the case that Gears borrowed from Warhammer first). It’s been years since I’ve performed a sport that scratched that exact itch, and House Marine 2 makes use of the wealthy lore of Warhammer 40k to carve out its personal id. That’s true in each the meaty marketing campaign that may be performed solo or co-op, in addition to two further modes that allow you to improve your weapons and customise your armor between rounds, which are supposed to preserve you coming again after the credit roll.
The marketing campaign drops you again into the appreciable boots of Demetrian Titus, the hero of the primary installment. It picks up over 100 years later, and does a great job of explaining every part you want to know, whether or not you performed the unique or not. Regardless of the century-long hole, not a lot has modified for our dour hero since we final noticed him. He’s nonetheless a gravelly-voiced, seasoned soldier who doesn’t seem to have aged in any respect because of his genetically-engineered longevity. He’s spent the final century serving within the House Marines’ Deathwatch chapter, which fits on essentially the most harmful of missions. After an intense opening degree that has you deploying a “Virus Bomb,” you’re rewarded in your bravery and dedication by being introduced again into the fold as a blue-armored Ultramarine.
The story is greater than serviceable, and it strikes at a quick clip, sending your squad to attention-grabbing places throughout a number of planets. It has just a few twists and turns that deliver it to shocking locations, and there’s even some intriguing inter-squad battle to spice issues up. That stated, the entire thing is fairly one-note: it’s all very critical. I get that there’s a struggle happening and lives are on the road, however only a sprint of humor – even the gallows humor many different 40k video games use – would have added a welcome further dimension.
You are accompanied in your missions by two squadmates who’re bots by default, however you possibly can invite mates to take their place. The bots are serviceable comrades, able to doing their half to fend off enemies and revive you once you fall in battle. However as with most video games like this, it’s extra enjoyable to play with mates, which you’ll be able to coordinate from your house base, known as the Battle Barge.
Gone are the Orks from the primary House Marine, and of their place is humanity’s newest intergalactic enemy: the Tyranids. These alien monstrosities are available many varieties, from hulking Carnifex beasts to hordes of smaller creatures that appear like xenomorphs or velociraptors. Some can fly, whereas others swarm throughout the bottom, piling on prime of one another to scale cliffs in an effort to assault you and the remainder of the Imperial Guard’s forces. You’ll encounter different enemy varieties as you progress by way of the marketing campaign as properly, which gives sufficient selection that I not often obtained bored of blasting them to the shreds with an array of Imperial and alien weaponry.
It’s a great factor the weapons and melee weapons really feel nice to make use of, as a result of that’s the way you’ll spend the majority of your time in House Marine 2. You possibly can customise your loadout between missions, selecting a major weapon, sidearm, and close-combat accent to start out out with. You additionally discover loads of weapon caches scattered all through the degrees, letting you swap in flamethrowers, plasma blasters, sniper rifles, energy swords, and all method of explosives, from sticky bombs to shock grenades that deploy an electrical area-of-effect. There’s a weapon for each type of encounter – although you normally don’t know what’s forward when you need to select. Checkpoints are frequent, although, so in the event you get wiped you can also make a extra knowledgeable alternative the following time.
Hitting an enemy with any of these weapons produces a satisfying splatter of blood. Bigger enemies on the point of demise flash pink, indicating you possibly can execute them with a grotesque ending transfer. Performing executions recharges your shields, which is useful, and you may choose up Medicae Stimms to heal, or allow Titus’s Righteous Fury particular skill, which boosts your well being bar as you slice by way of enemies together with your melee weapon. I all the time respect it when recovering well being in a shooter is tied to placing the harm in your enemies.
Actually, simply transferring round feels nice in House Marine 2. You’re a hulking, closely armored soldier, and strolling feels appropriately chunky – however your character can also be extra nimble than he was within the earlier outing, in order that weight is rarely aggravating. It feels good.
One of many principal drawbacks of the unique House Marine was its drab brown-and-gray colour palette – an ill-advised pattern of the period it got here out in. Fortunately, that’s gone in favor of rather more colourful and vigorous environments within the sequel. Some ranges have you ever tromping by way of alien worlds which are inexperienced and purple and luxurious with extra-terrestrial flora. Others are set in towering city areas filled with gothic buildings with stained-glass home windows. Wherever your squad is deployed, the artwork design is uniformly beautiful, attractive sufficient to justify leaving the earlier era of consoles behind.
Most areas are energetic struggle zones, with human troopers preventing hordes of enemies each within the foreground and the background. Typically you’re following a tank by way of the ruins of a metropolis, backing up squads of Astra Militarum troopers. Different occasions you’ll see flying Tyranids swarm by way of the sky like a murmuration of starlings whereas platoons of troopers blast projectiles at them. Greater than most army video games, House Marine 2 makes it really feel like there actually is a struggle happening, and also you’re just one a part of the trouble. I’m normally not susceptible to taking screenshots, however right here I discovered myself switching to photograph mode in nearly each degree so I might seize the sweetness.
The marketing campaign is a nice sufficient chunk of sport by itself, however that’s not all you get in House Marine 2. Along with Titus’s saga, you possibly can play two different modes that aren’t so linear, every related to the opposite: Operations and Everlasting Struggle.
Everlasting Struggle is a PvP mode, however sadly the pre-launch inhabitants was so low that I wasn’t in a position to check it out for this overview – I’ll add an replace later with my impressions. I used to be in a position to spend time with Operations, nevertheless, which helps you to play aspect missions which are immediately referenced in the principle story however are carried out by different groups whereas Titus does his factor.
In each Operations and Everlasting Struggle, you get to select from six courses of House Marine, every with completely different loadout choices and particular talents. There’s Tactical, which might use an Auspex Scan to focus on and weaken enemies; Sniper has a limited-use camo cloak; Bulwark crops a banner flag that restores the shields of any close by squad mates; Vanguard has a grapnel launcher to drag himself into the motion for shut fight; Assault has the Soar Pack that Titus makes use of sometimes within the marketing campaign; and Heavy get a bubble protect. The entire talents are helpful and enjoyable to make use of in fight.
Enjoying these modes additionally earns you numerous currencies you possibly can spend to improve your weapons and customise your armor with cosmetics, which seems to be nice enjoyable. You possibly can unlock a ton of neat emblems and charms for every bit of your armor, in addition to new colours that signify the completely different House Marine chapters. Just about the entire colours look cool as hell, and the decoration choices allow you to adorn your dude with chains, skulls, and different particulars that wouldn’t be misplaced on the duvet of a heavy steel album.
The Operations ranges themselves aren’t all that completely different from those within the marketing campaign, even going down in the identical environments, which does make them slightly bit much less thrilling. There are presently six missions, and whereas enjoying by way of them as soon as was enjoyable – particularly with a workforce of co-op companions – I don’t actually really feel compelled to replay them, even to earn foreign money to improve my weapons and customise my armor. I’m nonetheless desirous to check out the Everlasting Struggle PvP mode, in addition to the extra modes promised in developer Saber Interactive’s post-launch roadmap, however at the least at launch the PvE choices are extra a quick however amusing distraction slightly than a mode I’ll preserve returning to.