Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a heavy metal shooting and slashing game

If you’d given me a game when I was, say, 15, where you and two friends could fight what seemed like hundreds of Tyranid bugs at once, taking turns blasting them with bolt guns or pulverizing them with a chainsword, and then finishing off the biggest of them by ripping off a claw and ramming it through its head, all to the sounds of action-movie orchestration and dialogue about stoic duty, would I have complained?

No, I wouldn’t. But we are spoiled for choice now. How much do you enjoy Warhammer 40K: Space Marines 2 (for PC, Xbox and PlayStation, out September 9) depends on your ability to reach into the depths of your kill-’em-all mentality and commitment to fantasy storytelling. You can enjoy it somewhat tongue-in-cheek, which I did at times, particularly when playing co-op with friends who told me they didn’t like the game’s aesthetic at all. But strip away the grim trappings of fanaticism, Chaos Marines and skulls – so, so many skulls – and you’ve got a competent, sometimes innovative third-person squad shooter. It feels like Gears of War, minus the cover, but with heavier characters, more hand-to-hand combat and somehow even fewer women.

The best of Space Marines 2 means suspending disbelief, feeling heavy metal, and wanting to kill a whole lot of things with some really big dudes. In about a dozen hours of playtime, I found the core gameplay relatively engaging, with enough variety, upgrades, and challenges to make it feel more like the fun kind of endless war, not the real kind. It’s also pretty fun to team up with friends, as long as they’re OK with it Warhammer40K mood and some occasional repetitive challenges.

Consistent traditions, varied battles

I have no deep Warhammer 40K Traditional knowledge (Bolter was my deepest commitment before), so please forgive me for anything I get wrong in outlining the game’s story. You, Demetrian Titus, are an Adeptus Astartes, a Space Marine, a bio-engineered giant guy with three hearts and plugs in his head and an all-encompassing devotion to the Imperium of Man. In the previous Space Marine In the game, you resisted the lure of Chaos so well that you were handed over to the Inquisition and put into the Deathwatch. Now you’re back and demoted, and in the training mission something bad happens to you. You’re rescued by the Ultramarines and undergo the Rubicon Primaris operation to transform you into an even bigger and stronger fundamentalist killing machine.

And then you’re off, along with Brother Sergeant Gadriel and Brother Chairon, played by either your online friends or the game AI. You have a heavy primary weapon, a pistol-like sidearm, and a melee weapon, usually a chainsword, a large knife, or a giant hammer. Your armor is sturdy, but wears down, and only over time or by stripping a Downfall 2016-Style Melee finisher on downed enemies recharges it. You are not exactly agile, but you can swing with remarkable speed, as Chris Farley shows in his SNL prime. And you call your teammates “brother” a much.