Space Marine 2

[Lordnine]

I can't be the only one who was excited to see that Space Marine 2 was announced yesterday! The first Space Marine had the most satisfying combat I've ever seen in a third person shooter. Strange that Relic doesn't seem to be involved at all but I suppose the company is not what it once was and is also busy with Age IV.

[dbt1949]

Looks cool even for a turn based player like me.

[raydude]

I can't be the only one who was excited to see that Space Marine 2 was announced yesterday! The first Space Marine had the most satisfying combat I've ever seen in a third person shooter. Strange that Relic doesn't seem to be involved at all but I suppose the company is not what it once was and is also busy with Age IV.

I remember when I first played Space Marine. It took me a while to forget old habits of playing cautiously and firing from cover and instead charging into battle. But when I did, boy did that bring a smile to my face!

[$iljanus]

I can't be the only one who was excited to see that Space Marine 2 was announced yesterday! The first Space Marine had the most satisfying combat I've ever seen in a third person shooter. Strange that Relic doesn't seem to be involved at all but I suppose the company is not what it once was and is also busy with Age IV.

I remember when I first played Space Marine. It took me a while to forget old habits of playing cautiously and firing from cover and instead charging into battle. But when I did, boy did that bring a smile to my face!

If you want to “fire from cover” go join the Imperial Guard!

[Smoove_B]

Hadn't seen this, no - thanks for posting it. And yeah, the first one was big fun so I'm absolutely excited for this one. Awesome.

[Kasey Chang]

Whoever did the game trailer got all bit of lore right, according to WH40K grognards. They are spotted the proper rank insignia (leftenant?), the chains on the right gauntlet (Black Templars?), AND an inquisitor pendant visible from the rear. Even the forehead studs (now shows 4) indicate this is 200 years or more since the previous game. And the markings means he's now a Primaris Spacemarine, not regular Firstborn. So he's "crossed the Rubicon" (undergone the transformation), and a proper Ultramarine, not a "greyshield" (unattached primaris marine). So either he's working FOR the inquisition... Or he's still in redemption.

[baelthazar]

The armor Primaris marines is pretty distinctive. And of COURSE he was going to be a lieutenant. Games Workshop has a bit of an insider joke about Primaris Ultramarine lieutenants.

[Max Peck]

This releases on 9 Sept.

[Jaddison]

My Space Marine 2 experience tonight was this:

Attempt 1: Startup, try connecting to some Epic thingamajig which crashed the game and gave me BSOD
Attempt 2: Connect to some Epic thingamajig and failed but no BSOD just terminates the startup of the game

There will be no attempt 3 tonight

[raydude]

My Space Marine 2 experience tonight was this:

Attempt 1: Startup, try connecting to some Epic thingamajig which crashed the game and gave me BSOD
Attempt 2: Connect to some Epic thingamajig and failed but no BSOD just terminates the startup of the game

There will be no attempt 3 tonight

Apparently the issues are with the Epic Launcher itself. I haven't looked too much into it (as I don't have the game) but I'm sure there are work-around solutions that don't involve the launcher.

Interestingly enough I also had issues with the Epic Launcher for Zenless Zone Zero yesterday. Looking online I was not alone, and people already had the solution of going to the ZZZ directories and clicking on the Zenless Zone Zero.exe. So I wouldn't be surprised if you could start SM2 in a similar fashion.

[Jaddison]

I did try one more time before bed that way if it crashed to BSO again the machine could restart overnight

Try 3 worked but because I was past my bedtime I only played part of the tutorial.

Visually it is stunning and the little combat I got to try was very well done. looking forward to diving deeper

[Holman]

Do you get the joy of the Epic launcher even if you purchase through Steam?

[Jaddison]

Do you get the joy of the Epic launcher even if you purchase through Steam?

Yes even with Steam....supposedly to allow cross play.

On normal I am struggling to get out of the tutorial, lots of required block, parry strike special combos and precise button mashing is not my strength

[Holman]

How is performance? Does it play OK with the minimum specs?

Also, for those who have played the first game, what are the biggest differences here (besides Orks vs 'Nids)?

[Paingod]

Do you get the joy of the Epic launcher even if you purchase through Steam?

Yes even with Steam....supposedly to allow cross play.

On normal I am struggling to get out of the tutorial, lots of required block, parry strike special combos and precise button mashing is not my strength

I don't know about the Epic Launcher. When I run the game, it just opens to the loading screen and then to the main menu. I don't have an Epic account or anything Epic installed and crossplay has worked fine. Is it hiding inside the game somewhere?

I'm not strong with timed button pushes either. The indicators are barely there long enough for me to register and act on them, which I suppose is the point. It is an "intense action-oriented" kind of game. It's taken a long time to get anywhere near good, and I still die a lot. You're supposed to constantly evaluate the battlefield and not jump directly into the thick of it unless that's somehow advantageous. If you're surrounded and not about to execute a huge AoE attack, you probably made a mistake. I continue to struggle with how fast combat moves and how many enemies there are and how easy it is to get overwhelmed. I've been much more successful by slowing down, dodging away, and forcing enemies to come to me from one direction.

I'm currently playing on Veteran (3rd difficulty) because the game describes it as "the intended experience" and I've always tried to run games the way developers thought they played best. I'm deep into the campaign and it's continually difficult with a lot of loads, but a lot of feeling good when I pull off a strong victory or beat the snot out of something that gave me trouble before.

I'm curious about the longevity of the game after the campaign, though. PvE is mostly running the same 6 missions in order to level up classes and collect item enhancement unlocks. PvP sounds like it's a handful of maps and people destroying each other as fast as possible. There's also some pretty nasty cheats out there, including aimbots and unlimited grenades that would make PvP frustrating.

If you need practice with block and parry "in a safe space" each class has tutorial modes that grant small rewards for completion when you switch over to multiplayer. These tutorials have three tiers - easy to hard - and it's usually about forcing yourself to complete them as fast and/or perfectly as possible. They can be done over and over with no penalty and generally only run about 40-100 seconds.

Perfect parries and dodges change the battle and often stun things or provide "invulnerable frames" where you can't be hurt, in addition to recharging armor and health. They're incredibly important, and I'm really not good at it.

If you listen closely, there's a small chime noise that plays when it's the "perfect moment" to parry or block in order to achieve the response attack and not just dodge the damage. Listening to that enough lets you start predicting it as part of the the timing of the indicator. I was using a wireless headset and these chimes were coming in milliseconds late, which meant I was always pressing late, so it felt very broken. Using speakers changed things. It also means I'm getting a 3.5mm cable to use with my headphones to eliminate that lag.

Aside from being an intergalactic 9' tall badass, I love that the backdrop of your missions often involves an epic war going on in the background. It lends a real cinematic quality to an already fun experience.

[Blackhawk]

Playing this, thanks to the season.

For the record, the Steam version does not use the Epic launcher. It uses Epic Online Services in the background to allow the crossplay to happen.

[Glycerine]

Working my way through the story for a second run on veteran and man is it tough. Really great game though, nothing like playing a Space Marine. It’s making it hard to go back and play Darktide.