The Game Awards is shaping up to supplant other events as the go-to gaming show for major announcements, with a slew of trailers and reveals being shown off upstaging the actual, you know, awards. Space Marine 2 shared the limelight with the likes of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and more.
Captain Titus is back in this trailer for the sequel, which once again brings players to the grim future of the 41st century where there is only war. Once again a world of the great Imperium of Man is under siege from vile xenos, only this time around instead of a greenskin WAAAGH! the brave Adeptus Astartes are facing a Tyranid infestation. Decked out in full Primaris armor, Titus and his ultramarines wade into the thick of the battle once again, with brief snippets of actual gameplay peppered in between pre-rendered cinematic footage. It definitely captures the weighty, visceral heft of the combat that made Space Marine such a fantastic game a decade ago, but with flashy new visuals. That cliffhanger that the first game closed on left the fate of Captain Titus up in the air, as his apparent immunity to the ruinous effects of chaos during the latter half of the game raised the suspicion of the Inquisition - not being particularly affected by fighting Chaos Marines could be an early warning of corruption. Luckily, it seems that against the odds of established Warhammer 40K lore, Titus put the suspicions of the inquisitors to rest and is still in active duty after the Marines went through the Primaris upgrade. We’re curious to see how the enhanced abilities of the new armor and implants will be translated to gameplay - we already felt pretty powerful in the first game. While playing through a suitably epic and gory campaign as the writers’-pet Smurf chapter is already enticing, the highly customizable multiplayer portion of Space Marine was one of the best elements of the game, and we hope to see it make a triumphant return in the sequel - allowing players to customize their marine with all sorts of armor and colors denoting various chapters from the absolutely staggering amount there are in total. Fans looking forward to carving through an endless tide of Tyranids with chain swords and bolters will need to wait a while yet - there is no release date for Space Marine 2 at this time, which usually means the game is still a way away. We imagine things are fairly early on in development, though there are some flashes of gameplay in the trailer as mentioned above. Titus is definitely looking a bit worse for wear than he did before, and more than his face changed - replacing his previous voice provided by actor Mark Strong is Clive Standen who has appeared in things like Camelot and Robin Hood, to name a few. We’re eagerly awaiting the release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 despite the lack of a release date so far. Even so, you can subscribe to a newsletter for updates on the game - or just keep an eye on our feed - where we’re sure the publisher will let fans know about the release date whenever it is announced.