I know so many players who the moment this was announced were already ready to throw money at the screen. Maybe too many as I honestly expected to be playing just about nothing else for months between everyone I know who wants to play. But at the same time, my only real concern was being trapped in a single game for far longer then I would like as I do love my variety. The game itself already looked great. In fact my only real delay was that as a rule I wait a month to play anything with a major publisher behind it. (Don't blame me, blame how many games release as broken messes.) However, once I decided the game had enough time to bake I was in.... and for once, the AAA world made something I shouldn't have even waited that long on.
BROTHERS! TO BATTLE!
Story: It is the 41st millennia in the grim dark far-flung future, and mankind's vast empire is entrenched on all sides with vile enemies. From the green wave of orks who live to fight, to the unreadable blank faces of the metal hoard known as the Necron, there are xeno threats across the galaxy that would like nothing more then to take a contender for galaxy master out of the running. And that says nothing of the threats from within. Where faith in the God Emperor who lights the way for mankind wains, there is room for other gods to fill man's hearts... dark vile gods who's will would destroy all the material world.
In such vast hostilities, those pure of soul rely on the Emperor for protection, and his sword of justice across the stars are the giant god-like warriors clad in armor, the Space Marines. One legion in particular is heralded as the standard-bearer of the Emperor's wrath and fierce vengence: the indominable Ultra Marines.
Still, for as elite and perfected these beings are, they are still of human stock and can fall to the same weaknesses of their lesser man, a fate usually met with death as a penalty. But some are lucky, and the process is caught early. Like a disease, it needs to be cured, and the medicine to do so is penance. For the once proud Captain Titus, this penance is service in the Deathwatch, a unique gathering of marines serving directly under the watchful eye of the Inquisition itself. It is here we rejoin him some time after his adventure in the first Space Marine title (which I HIGHLY recommend you play). At this time, Titus is part of a small kill team responding to a distress call from a top secret base being overrun by one of those xeno forces known as the Tyranid: a bug-like race who's hive fleets are known for devouring everything in their way. And I mean everything. They invade planets and leave dead rocks behind without anything organic left on the surface.
Unfortunately for our repentant hero, his transport was taken down on it's way in and his squad separated from him. With the unending swarm at their heals, it doesn't take long till he is the only survivor, leaving him to take on these impossible odds alone. Still, he succeeded in their mission to virus-bomb the planet in retaliation, but was mortally wounded in the process. Death was not for him, however as he was rescued by his old legion and brought aboard the Resilient: a battle barge from their fleet that was already in the system. Here his life was saved in a risky set of operations to convert to a more powerful and perfected form of space marine: a Primaris. Restored to his old rank and sworn to secrecy about his past, he now rejoins in the efforts to stem the xeno tide and to protect Project Auroras, a critical experiment which, should it succeed, will grand exceptional strategic advantages against the enemies of the Imperium.
While you will play Titus' doomed mission, this is used more as a tutorial before the real game begins, an intro to introduce new players to the world, and acquaint/reacquaint players to the Captain as he finishes his last mission before his penance is over. From here, the real story begins... and it's every bit like a summer popcorn flick as you would expect. There are a few twists and nothing is offensively dumb, but most of the story is here to serve the action first and foremost. And if you know Warhammer 40K, you can see a lot of it coming literally at the very first hint (and most of it will be spelled out so no one is left behind, much like those popcorn flicks). Still it all comes together perfectly for the setting and when it is over, you will be satisfied with the ending.
7/10
Graphics: I can say absolutely nothing bad about the graphics of this game: everything you will see is drop-dead gorgeous, and right from the opening cutscene, it's clear the people who put this together were fans of the universe and wanted to take absolute loving care of every detail they possibly could.
And if you think that's just because it's a pre-rendered cutscene, you are absolutely wrong: the game itself holds this detail amazingly as well. At this point, you will play from a 3rd person perspective through jungles, imperial buildings, and just about everything the planet you will be waging war across can offer. The level of detail the game manages to push is frankly phenomenal as every landscape is just about photorealistic. This can lead to lush jungles, abandoned vehicles destroyed in battle, or even the ominously oppressive fortresses the Imperium of Man resurrected in all their gothic glory and even more, but.. let's not give too much away.
But the stars here are the cast who reside in this war-torn future in the stars, starting with your marine. Whether you are playing as Titus or via operations mode, your own custom member of the Adaptus Astartes, you are an armor clad killing machine with all the heft and savagery that entails. Every stomp as you run into battle, every swing of your blade, and every blast of your bolter is deliberate, bad-ass and looks absolutely fantastic. (As will your friends, but we will also get into that later.)
Nor are you and your battle brothers all that will populate the world and look great doing it. Immediately you will be facing off with Tyranid, a bug-like species who exist to eat and eat to exist. They come in swarms and will absolutely live up to that as you mow down hoards on a scale few games can hope to achieve, all of them looking straight out of the table-top game and filling the battle field just as effectively without so much as missing a frame while playing. There will be times the game will absolutely floor you with just how much it both throws at you at once and the swarms running out in the distance as you watch the writhing masses of xeno forms literally carpet the world before you. It is absolutely breathtaking to behold, in all it's grotesque glory.
Suffice it to say, this game is a real stunner and you are about to feast on the 40K universe like we never could before.
9/10
Sound: Matching the visuals this game will offer is the audio side, as the same love and care to recreate the universe was fueled into this side as well. Every thunk of your bolter-fire, pew of your laser weapon, or energetic crackle of your power sword sounds EXACTLY as they should. An between this and the roars and screeches of the monstrosities you are here to destroy, the battles that make up most of this game sounds meaty, visceral, and absolutely perfect.
Not that the voices in this game sound any less brilliant. In a word, they are perfect, depicting the dedication of the legion to their cause or the Tech Priests have to knowledge and their machine-god brilliantly, and there are a lot of them... not just your squad and their commanding officers. As you play, you will talk to regular soldiers (the Imperial Guard) as well as stumble across many many side-conversations, from idle chitchat between battle brothers on downtime, to religious sermons and speeches to invigorate the troops before mass deployment, there is a LOT here.
If anything is the weak spot here it's the music. It's not bad, and in fact it's every bit as epic and blood pumping as the Warhammer 40K universe should keep it, but... it just doesn't stand out in any significant way and you will likely not remember it long after you stop playing.
8/10
Gameplay: As noted in the graphics section, this is an action game that will have you running around the battle field as a space marine from a third person perspective. You will go in swinging, shooting, and killing hoards of enemies in a very action packed adventure literally leading you through mob after mob of frantic combat. Supporting this action is a solid combat system which will have you fluidly moving between actions including counters and parries without skipping a beat.
However, despite being an engine of destruction, you are not immortal, and while some enemies will literally die if you run through them like a demented football quarterback, many of them are in your league and will attempt to deal the same level of damage to you. Depending on if you are playing the main campaign, skill level, or even your class if you are playing operations or the eternal war, what you have available for health and armor will vary.... but it will never be so much that the battle can't turn ugly. This game would rather remind you how dangerous your opponents are by how quickly you can be chewed up if you are not aware of what you are doing.
You are far from helpless, however. While you can take damage at an alarming rate at times, you will find yourself dealing it just as rapidly striking blow after blow on your opponents. In fact most of these enemies will swarm without tactics of their own, leaving you to cleave your way through walls of enemies. Some tougher ones, however, will prove more tactical, choosing to block, dodge, swing, and shoot back as well, turning the battle almost like a duel in the middle of the maelstrom and offering some additional challenge as you fight your way through everything.
If you do take damage, you will first lose damage from your armor and then your health, and ultimately fall. Armor will be regained either by staying out of battle long enough, executing enemies, or finding an armor upgrade that will not only fill your armor, but give you an extra bar for a limited time. These executions are surprisingly satisfying to pull off and can be both up close melee animations or turning on them up close with your sidearm and blasting the hell out of them in one of the most epic and satisfying kill shots I have ever seen in a game. You will use these along side your ability to dodge, counter, and just straight up pummel your enemies to walk along the line to destroy everything in your path and walk the path between absolute victory and absolute defeat making for very dynamic battles.
Getting past the armor will start eating health, which doesn't come back. You can, however, find medkits to restore your health whenever you need to, and carry up to two of them. Losing all of this, however, will drop you, at which point you are a sitting duck until either a fellow player (or AI) can come get you or all three marines fall and the mission fails.
To keep the game interesting you will find yourself also with a descent selection of weapons you will unlock as you play divided into three categories: main, side-arm, and melee. During the campaign, you will unlock all of them and can experiment with to find your personal favorites, and you will have them, balancing power for speed and range in your melee combat, and power to ammunition in your more ranged choices. Personally I was all about energy weapons (plasma in particular), but you will choose for yourself well before you finish the campaign, and each combination will change the way you want to play with them, adding variety to the picture. Add to this your super ability and you have a very rounded combat system.
And then you get to the other two modes: Operations and Eternal War. Throughout the campaign, you will find while Titus and his squad takes on one mission, there will be a parallel one a small squad of three marines will also take on, and those missions will be yours as those marines when you play operations. When you do this you will select one 5 classes, determining what weapons, armor strength, and super ability you can play with. Each class individually levels as you play, including upgrading weapons abilities, or even your armor's look. You can even walk away from playing playing an Ultra Marine and choose any other loyalist legion or chapter you desire!
Eternal War offers you a lot of the same customization (and even uses the same upgrade paths) but instead of these side missions, you will play 5v5 with other players: Loyalist Space Marines vs Chaos Traitor Legions. I will admit, I did not spend much time here, but I wouldn't... if you like vs gaming you may have fun with it though
But for all this the real charm of this game is that it is NOT a single player game. This is a live service game done right, and outside the intro mission where you play as Titus alone before he is mortally wounded and turned into a Primaris to REALLY start the game, you are online and playing multiplayer. At any time, you can pull another player into your game to play one of the other 2 marines in your team or go join another player the same way in drop in style, so you can always share the fun, however you play and what you do, and it works brilliantly! This is how you play together.
8/10
Bugs: While this game ran great, I can't say it ran perfectly. On rare occasion, my screen while playing would glitch for a split second before returning to normal. This was rare enough in my entire time playing I think I saw it 3 or maybe 4 times. However, this could well be a "me" issue as I believe I saw this in the known issues with the current AMD drivers for my particular GPU while writing. But for all I know, this could just be how it handles some rouge shader the pre-render didn't handle since whenever the game had to redo those (be it due to new content or a driver update), that is when it was most common, completely going away usually before the session is over. Still this should be noted as it can happen.
Digital Rights Management: The only DRM on this game is Steam itself, which, considering the game is a live-service title, makes sense.
Source: PC Gaming Wiki
Score: If you are a fan of Warhammer 40K, you shouldn't have wasted your time reading this. You should have just picked the game up by now and started playing. Seriously between the frantic action the well developed multiplayer, and the absolute love and attention given to the source material, this game was literally made for you and you will not regret getting your hands on it. If anything you will regret how long it took you.
If you are not a fan, this is still a fun co-op action shooter which will offer you a lot to enjoy, assuming you are looking for an action game, and I still recommend it for any action junky to sink their teeth into. Hell, you might find yourself drawn to the world you are seeing, and maybe 40K will have a new fan.
9/10
System Requirements:
- AMD Ryzen 5 2600X/Intel Core i5-8600L
- 8 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 580 or Nvidia GeForce FTX 1060 (6 GB VRAM for either)
- Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) or 11 (64-bit only for either)
- 75 GB Hard Drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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