Youre an 8-foot tall, walking tank.
That is the central theme, the beating heart ofWarhammer 40K.
Never does it ask you to engage with its satire.
© Gizmodo/Focus Interactive
It reminds me first of a series of video essays from Lindsay Ellis discussing the Michael BayTransformersmovies.
Ellis ends her essay with a quote that can help us understand howSpace Marine 2doesnt doWarhammers satire justice.
Framing and aesthetics supersede the rest of the textalways, always, always.
© Gizmodo/Focus Interactive
I dont hate the game.
In fact I enjoyed my time with it the whole way through.
I enjoyed it as much as I did with the firstSpace Marinewhen I played in high school.
Newcomers might play it and not understand what the setting is truly about.
That would be a shame.
And then with little preamble, youre into it.
Youre hacking your chainsword through waves of hormagaunts and termagants with little time for the whys.
In40K, these are terrifying weapons of mass destruction.
They dont just kill one species of marauding insects, they destroy and dismantle all life on a planet.
Books likeGalaxy in FlamesandTallarnshow the devastation due to those bombs and the life-eater virus.
But inSpace Marine 2, the detonation does nothing to the planet.
It only, supposedly, slows the Tyranids down.
Its a missed opportunity to show the devastation that the Imperium can deploy.
Its too preoccupied with heroic last stands and empty proclamations of brotherhood.
The story ofSpace Marine 2continues directly from the first game released nearly 13 years ago.
In that title, Titus is sent to a different planet stop an invasion of Orks.
He is offered another chance, but those who know his past remain wary.
Its subtle but players can tell our main character is still feeling the sting of betrayal.
Titus can never question the system that hurt him.
He can never voice his complaints about the Inquisition or the chapter that abandoned him.
Instead, the game is too focused on just how much of a good space marine Titus is.
His arc surrounds him learning to trust his brothers once more after being castigated for so long.
Titus is honored and is given a place at Calgars side.
The story ofSpace Marine 2isnt nearly as grand and epic as its arenas, setpieces, and environments.
The framing is heroic.
The aesthetic is badassery.
It doesnt matter the context for the game, even if it were portrayed effectively.
It was buggy and unbalanced.
The RPG allows you to take three separate tracks.
Youre either an imperium sycophant, a chaos worshiper, or an iconoclast.
Its an Owlcat RPG, so of course you have companions you collect throughout the game.
The way to gain his trust is by understanding him and his culture.
Or, as a good member of the Imperium, you could decry him and his anarchistic ways.
Theres a lot of silliness in this game, and thats to its benefit.Warhammeris a silly setting.
It was born out of the 1980s anti-Thatcherism movement.
The satire should bite harder than a Tyranid Hive Tyrant or a ripping chainsword.
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