This is that battle will be upon you in moments. I am already watching for them, Captain. Space Marine 2 is an example of what I like to consider a perfect game. Not the best game ever made. Not a game that you are obligated to consider your favorite, lest I hunt you down and destroy you for the exclusively devious act of not loving my favorite thing, but rather a game from which there are simply zero holes. The difference between idealized ideation and actual existence is so small that it might as well not exist. It is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be and how to be that.
And what it wants to be is surprisingly deep. It would have been very easy for Space Marine 2 to just be a big stompy man shoots his way through the galaxy simulator. But instead, this game is a big stompy man shoots his way through the galaxy while engaging in wonderfully detailed worlds and a story about growth and redemption and brotherhood simulator. All while you as the player are offered so many perspectives on the same events, which you should know by now is one of my big things with games. With so many good things going on in Space Marine 2, it was only a matter of time before I covered it. And now that I'm here, I don't want to leave a single stone unturned.
At time of typing, I have 175 hours into this experience and I have loved every moment of this game from the final credits to the opening scene and everything in between. So, if you'd like to come along, I'm going to spend the next however long I feel like yapping about this game. Space Marine 2 opens with a short scene that details everything you need to know about these opening moments in a way that in no uncertain terms could only be described as brilliant. But to clarify why, we have to consider not just this beginning but also the very beginning which for 40k means 1987. This year in particular meaning of course that almost 40 years of creative work have led into these opening moments in the game that follows.
As any creative type can tell you, letting us sit on a project for 40 years will often create a mess rivaled only by other 40-year projects. In the case of Warhammer 40,000, this means a dictionary's worth of proper nouns that if you don't happen to already know, will threaten to overwhelm and consume you. This means, of course, that Space Marine 2 has the deeply unenviable task of trying to ease you into almost 40 years of creative history denoted largely by terms and words unfamiliar to you in a way that is both understandable and inclusive towards the main story. And the most marvelous thing about this game is how easy it makes that look.
We open on a wide shot of a planet called Kadaku. Don't worry about the sector named Spaghetti. If it was important for you to know, it would be clear. All you really need to know is that this is an imperial space, which you will quickly come to understand means human-held space, and that it's also about to get very messy. We cut next to a computer monitor, and the particularly observant amongst you might notice that this terminal has a very distinct aged sort of vibe to it. It looks like a monitor from the 1980s that essentially has been brought 40,000 years into the future, which is oddly spot-on for the tech used by the Imperium of Man.
Depending on how you want to classify success and failure, the Imperium of Man is anywhere from 10 to 20,000 years past their most advanced era, and the faction has been in a noted state of decline ever since. So having technology in universe resemble things that we would recognize that are out of date, retro, aged, whatever, is a great way to represent this decline. In fact, this decline is actually a huge part of the setting and the narrative. And even if it isn't ever fully addressed, it can be felt in a huge way throughout the entire game.
In my video on Halo ODST, I talked a lot about how humanity could never really win a fight against the Covenant. But if they played all their cards right, they could lose on their own terms. And it's this same theme that encompasses the majority of the stories in Space Marine 2. Though the tone is wildly different. There is never the feeling in Space Marine 2 that you are fighting for something, that you are fighting for a good purpose. This is the grim dark future. You are only fighting.
Speaking of fighting, back at the terminal, we're starting to see more of those proper nouns show up. Someone named Arch Magos Nosic is calling for help. And while you won't know who that is or what their role is, the presence of the prefix arch should imply a leadership role in some sort of religious structure. If you're wondering about what those alien looking things from the previous cut scenes were, here's your answer. They're called the tyrannids. And even if you don't know anything about them, the line that follows instructing that bombardment preparation be halted tells you everything you need to know about both the tyrannids and the Imperial approach to fighting them, as it implies that the proper and expected primary response to a tyrannid threat is to simply glass the entire planet, even if it's a colonized and human-occupied world. Of course, that can't happen on Kadaku because Project Aurora is located planet side.
What is Project Aurora? Project Aurora is classified. That's what. Stop asking questions or I'm going to report you to the Inquisition. All you need to know is that its strategic value is absolute. So, someone is going to need to respond and fast. Q transition. What is a Death Watch Kill Team Primus? Okay, good question. Let's break that down. Kill Team is a pretty self-explanatory term. You're probably not going to mistake any of these guys as like librarians or something. Although I mean I guess there could be librarians in a kill team. Man, 40k is weird like that.
Primus is also pretty clear right off the jump. Has the same route as primary. So like it's the first and considering that we just jumped from a call for help, it's clear from the framing alone that these guys are the help. And given their title as Primus, we can assume that they're the primary response with the death watch being whatever faction they belong to. Now, if you don't know what a death watch is, let me hold your hand through the finer details in a new segment that I like to call "everyone says we sound the same."
Anyways, frame one, look at the shoulder pad. Death, war, glory, purification, mortise, extermination. You don't need any of the history on these guys. They literally wear who they are on their sleeves. But you might notice a bit of a quirk with the right shoulders. Now, the Death Watch is not a Space Marine faction exactly. Rather, the Death Watch is a branch of the Imperial Inquisition that is made up of temporary, let's call them, volunteers donated from actual Space Marine chapters. We can see this here with our marine sporting the symbol of the Space Wolves. Cut to the next shot and we can see that our Space Wolf is joined by a Black Templar and a Dark Angel. Peep. One more shot and check this out. We've even got a son of Sanguinius sporting the blood angel's red.
Jump back to our first shot, however, and we can see that our opening man is the odd one out with no identifying symbol present. Don't worry about what any of these particular proper nouns mean. All you really need to know is that everyone here is repping their own personal frat house, except for this guy. Now, whoever these guys are individually aside, collectively, they're here to deliver a virus bomb that will hopefully, at least temporarily, [ __ ] the Tyrannid hive fleet.
Speaking of Tyrannids, it's the Tyrannids. If this is your first time meeting them, then you'll probably pick up pretty quick that these guys are a swarm-based species with lots of different forms. But they're also a hive mind, so they're much smarter than you might instinctually give them credit for. This little guy gets a peep at the three funny numbers on the back of your credit card, and before you know it, the whole hive is buying Robux on your dime.
During the flight in, our man is knocked from the transport, resulting in him getting the chance to engage in every space marine's favorite pastime, aura farming, which lets us as the player know that one single tyrannid of this scale is not a threat to our boy. And his casual posture as he falls indicates that something like terminal velocity is a minor annoyance at worst. Space marines, it seems, operate on something akin to cartoon physics. Now, even as you begin taking control of your character, I want to take a moment and just highlight how effective these opening moments are.
This cutscene could be your first introduction to Warhammer 40,000 as a concept. And I still think you'd walk away from this animation knowing everything you need to know about what you're going to experience here. This dev team managed to condense 40 years of lore and fluff into like 4 minutes of relevant, concise, important detail that perfectly prepares you for the grim, dark future you're about to step into. That is not just good game design. That is mastery over your art. And no, I don't think that's a little dramatic to say. Thank you for asking.
The mission does not go swimmingly exactly with our man separated and his comms damaged from his fall. He's essentially put into the role of passive observer as his team, also separated during the drop, is slowly dismantled by an overwhelming force with our leading man alone able to recover the virus bomb and get it to the launch facility. A success that still costs him greatly, only for him to be mysteriously rescued in what would otherwise appear to be his final moments.
We awake 4 days later and surprise jump scare. The Christmas skeleton has been watching you sleep. Don't be scared. It's just a prank. It's actually just our good friend, the chaplain, who's always been nice and never done anything wrong. He welcomes us back to the land of the living and also back to the chapter. Because Titus is not just a member of the Death Watch, he's also an ultramarine. So why didn't he have the symbol of the Ultramarine as part of his kit during his service in the Death Watch? Man, that is a great question. You are full of those today. I've always liked that about you.
The chaplain exposits that even after a hundred years in the Death Watch, the Inquisition could find no taint or stain upon Titus and that those hundred years were spent as penance for an accusation of heresy faced. This accusation being why he was also stripped of his chapter markings. Now, what heresy is exactly is not fully explained here. And that's okay because it still paints a strong enough picture wherein to be even accused of heresy is to undergo a century of penance with your personhood and identity stripped away from you. And that comes with a remarkable amount of shame.
This is compounded by a remarkably powerful bit of narrative where our two friendly squadmates for the game, Chairon and Gadriel, note that Titus served in the Death Watch. And Gadriel will remark that that must have been a great honor. But if Titus feels that way, he sure has a funny way of showing it, indicating that whatever the Death Watch is, there may or may not be a massive difference in how it's understood in universe by people who have and have not served there. And considering how Titus is treated by the company Chaplain upon his return to the Ultramarines, it's clear that whatever sent him to the Death Watch, even if you don't know what that is, is not to be considered a great honor. This of course explains why Titus isn't representing himself as an ultramarine during his service with what would be his ultramarine chapter pouldron instead covered.
Gadriel and Karon are also going to be very important because the chaplain concludes that while the Inquisition can find no guilt to lay on Titus, Titus will never know true redemption until it comes from his brothers in the Ultramarines. I'd love to say more, but we're getting closer and closer to just talking about the actual narrative, and we're not quite ready for that yet. So, just hold on to all of this for a little while. And for now, let's focus on the fact that what all of this means is that before you're even really given full control of your character, before this story starts in earnest, you already know so much about them, about this world. And even if it's not an active thought, the tone of this universe and your role in it is planted so neatly right into your subconscious and it only keeps happening.
I occasionally comment that my favorite thing about Space Marine 2 is how it establishes a real sense of scale to the universe. Usually using this as a joke to quickly shift a conversation when needed. But the truth is, my favorite thing about Space Marine 2 is how it establishes a real sense of scale to this universe all the way from the smallest interactions to the biggest set pieces. I've talked before about how one of my favorite ways to analyze non-open world games is to treat them like open world games. I've done this with both Dishonored games. I've done it with vampire-based battle royale, and I'm here to do it again with Space Marine 2, because Space Marine 2 has the deeply unenviable task of trying to take a classical level-based shooter and present it as something that could in theory span an entire galaxy. That is not easy, and it's made only more difficult by the absolutely comical sense of scale and size present in the greater 40k universe. And yet, I don't think there's any place in the entire game where Space Marine 2 feels comical.
I fully believe every locale. I do not blink or pause when I actually have a moment to compare a sense of scale. And I have never once felt that any element of size was incorrect. And I want to make the point I think this is special. Take as a point of compare the Halo series. I remember for the longest time having it in my head that a grunt from Halo must have been like three, maybe 4 feet tall. I mean, they're little guys after all. Just look at how small they are. There's no way that these guys could be 5 and 1/2 ft. This little bastard is 5'6". You're telling me this dude is only 6 in away from being successful on Tinder? I want to be clear, this is not a dig at Halo in any way. I think trying to design a world when the perspective character is a bio-augmented super soldier monster is actually very difficult because the world often needs to look like it's designed for normal people like you and I, but it needs to feel like it's designed for an 8-ft tall 2-ton Mr. Jonathan Halo. So everything ends up with a really weird sense of scale once you actually break it down.
Like for example, both a Spartan and a normal dude can sit in a puma, but there's a very clear difference in scale between these two guys. So, who do you design the size of the vehicle around? Now, I love Halo. I love them all. Yeah, even that one. But when it comes to this particular element of game design, I've never seen it done better than Space Marine 2. Because the way that Space Marine 2 solves this problem is to look at normal people, evaluate them in their totality, and then say, "Fuck you, dude. You're meat. You're just meat. Get in the grinder." Any normal humans that might happen to be interacting with the geometry, alive or otherwise, are simply tools by which the game highlights the absolutely insane nature of the size of this universe. I love this scene in particular for this. And also, you should not trust anyone who does not kneel in return.
Now, it's important to note the mastery that Space Marine 2 displays over size and scale is not just in the design of Space Marines and the machines and the aliens as physically larger than normal people. It's about how much of this universe is still larger than the Space Marines. It's about how if any one word had to actually describe the universe of 40k, grim dark would be a distant second to massive. Let me give you my favorite example. The game opens proper with Titus responding to a tyrannid invasion of the planet Kadaku in the reciduous system joined by his two friends, Gadriel and Chairon. Now, there's a lot going on on Kadaku these days, so I'll forgive you if you've never taken a second to look up and go stargazing, particularly at the one star that matters, the system's sun. Were you to do so, you'd probably note that this particular star is rather reminiscent of our very own sun with a nice, comfortable yellow glow. Of course, in reality, the sun is not yellow. It is a very pale white made to look yellow to our naive human eyes because we are being tricked by the gaseous compounds in the atmosphere and how they interact with light. Fun fact, this is the origin of the term gaslighting. Take a moment to bask in the sun, but don't forget you are on the clock.
A few missions later, we'll see Titus and Co departing Kadaku and heading towards the nearby planet of Avarax, notably still within the reciduous system. So, both planets are orbiting the same star, which is a point I only note because when we make landfall at Avarax, we are not on the ground, but rather miles high in the towering spires of a hive city. And if you were to take a moment to stargaze again, you would note that now the star is white because you're so high up that there isn't enough atmosphere to disrupt the light. And I know that that's such a small thing, but it tells so much of this game and its world in just one thing. You know, the attention to detail to think to change the shade of the star to represent how high up you are. Yes, but also for you as the player to recognize that you are so high up that you can look out and imagine yourself on the same level as these ships in orbit. And all the while you're on a man-made structure and that there is still thousands of feet of structure above you still.
And all of this talk of set pieces is to say nothing about the design of the Imperial Guard or the Mechanicus or the servitors or the Tyrannids or the machines of the universe and how they compare and interact with the space marines as our surrogates into the world. Genuinely, space marines are so much larger than normal humans that when you encounter renegade guardsmen later in the game, you can actually kill them just by walking into them. And I love the understanding that comes with the subconscious realization of just how genuinely horrifying some of these tyrannid kaiju are. To recognize that I could kill a man if I'm not careful where I step only for this hive tyrant to be multiple times my size drives home the true shape of this universe and what it means to be at its mercy.
One of the more beloved duologies of games in recent memory is the Red Dead series, both one and two, wherein game one is set in 1911 as John Marston attempts to put together a life for himself in the aftermath of a story that we don't get to see the totality of, and game two lets us experience that story. Because despite the naming convention, Red Dead Redemption 2 could technically be seen as Red Dead Redemption 1 because it's a prequel to Red Dead Redemption 1. Does that make sense? Don't answer. I can't hear you. What I mean is that you could play either Red Dead 1 or Red Dead 2 as your first entry into the series, and you would still get an engaging story either way with access to the full story, so long as you still play both games. The only thing that changes is your experience with the story and its events and its characters. This is the metric by which I adore Space Marine 2 because as the name might suggest, this is a sequel to the perhaps expectedly named Space Marine.
Except I never played Space Marine. Despite a totally overwhelming obsession with the 40k war game, I've only been in the space for 2 and 1/2 years or so. And Space Marine came out in 2011 when I was a freshman in high school. And even though most of that time period exists as a cringe-fueled fugue state for me, I do at least know that I never really had the chance or interest in playing the first game during its time. And this meant that I came into Space Marine 2 with absolutely no knowledge of anyone here or of any of the events that led to this place. And what I found was exceedingly cool because depending on if you've played Space Marine 1 or not, you're essentially given two potentials for your perspective character.
Yes, you play as Titus. And if you've also played Space Marine 1, then you'll know the story of Titus. So Titus remains your perspective character. It is his story and growth and redemption that we are following. But if you've never played Space Marine 1, if you do not know Titus or his story, then even as you play as him, he is not your perspective character. Gadriel is. Gadriel and Titus do not meet on even footing and will not have it for most of the narrative. Titus's introduction to Gadriel is being told that he will be taking over command of Gadriel's squad with his return from the Death Watch. Which means that from the perspective of Gadriel, a man who he's never heard of, of whom there is minimal records, has just been given command of what had been up until this moment his men. I think it's important to note that Gadriel does not receive this news with hostility. He is content, if perhaps slightly disgruntled, to accept this change of command. And during their first real encounter together, even attempts to bridge the gap between them. Though, as we saw earlier, Titus is not receptive.
This non-receptiveness, I suppose this gap between them simply exists. And I do not think Gadriel does anything wrong with this. Rather, I think Gadriel does genuinely commit himself to accepting to work with Titus as well as he can, as evidenced by their disagreement over the best way to proceed, quickly ending with Gadriel accepting Titus's command, even though it directly contrasts with Gadriel's own idea of what the best plan could be. Things change, however, after the first mission together. You play as Titus, and you are joined by brothers Gadriel and Chairon. Yes, but these are not the only Marines attached to this squad. Other members of note include Liio and Elon, who operate as part of a three-man fire team away from Titus and Co. during the first mission. Upon meeting again on the ship, however, Lio reveals that during an attack, Elleon was killed. Gadriel states that he served alongside Elellon for 20 years and that something as simple as minor tyrannids could not have killed him and indirectly blame Titus for Elon's death, stating that Titus should not have let the squad be split. Titus says it's time to move on. But Gadriel says that he doesn't forget his brothers so soon.
And there it is, our main inciting incident for the redemption of both characters. Because though it might not seem like Gadriel has done anything wrong, this event caused in part by Titus's callous attitude will nearly lead to the destruction of an entire star system. Mission two involves the rescue and Xfill of one Archmagos Nosic. You know, the guy from the start of the game. He's currently in a position threatened to be entirely overrun, but he's not willing to leave his station without some very specific research. So, your job quickly becomes to secure Nosic's data as well as the man himself. The mission goes smoothly enough, though the tension between Titus and Gadriel continues to show and grow as time moves on. Nonetheless, Nosik and his data are secured, and Liio's team moves to Xfill them both, though they don't get far before things go wrong.
The second half of the mission is a desperate scramble to try and get to the downed Thunderhawk before the tyrannids can overwhelm the crash site. But our arrival only shows that things are about to get much worse for this system because whatever did this, it wasn't tyrannids. This is again a place where the game perfectly explains a thing without needing to dump proper nouns onto you. Chaos. What is chaos? It's what does this to people. And while this is clearly concerning, more concerning still is that whatever forces of chaos downed the Thunderhawk and then made a show of desecrating the passengers left Nosix's research behind. There is little time to consider that though because something about this encounter is having an obvious effect on Titus and he collapses under the influence.
Now, the particularly empathetic among you have probably already done this, but if you have not, then feel invited to explore this day from the perspective of Gadriel. You served with Elellon for 20 years, and your position as sergeant probably gave you some level of command over not just him, but also Liio and others for the duration of that service time during which obviously none of these characters had died. And suddenly in one day, the same day that command of these men was taken from you and given to a stranger, that stranger's decisions killed all three of them. Deaths that this stranger seemingly feels no remorse for, only for that stranger to have some sort of clear, obvious, abnormal reaction to the presence of chaos. Titus recovers and when intercepted by the chaplain from the start of the game, insists that his collapse was a result of his injuries from the prologue, nothing more. The chaplain tells Gadriel that should his lieutenant collapse again, he hopes Gadriel be close by. After all, any weakness of the soul could lead to corruption. Hint hint.
Now, here's the thing. If you've played Space Marine 1, then you know what Titus's story is, and you know that he is, broadly speaking, totally okay. You will know that he was essentially framed for the things that got him sent to the Death Watch so long ago, accused of being corrupted by the forces of chaos—something that you would know he wasn't and you'd get to watch over the course of this story as the events of the first game are echoed here, leaving you to hope that somehow something will play out differently this time. Because you'll soon come to recognize that Nosix's Research Project codename Aurora is not just the McGuffin of this game. It's the same McGuffin from Space Marine 1. The same warp artifact that Titus' unique experience with is what got him accused of corruption and heresy a century ago, but now under a new name, being used by the Mechanicus for experimental reasons.
Learning this, Titus can't help but dig deeper into the intent of the Mechanicus, acting in ways that concerns Gadriel, all the while failing to answer any of Gadriel's questions or inquiries about who Titus is and what he's doing now—meaning that for this whole story, Gadriel's suspicions about Titus and his intent are only growing. Of course, Titus is not keeping this so close to the chest because he's an agent of chaos or because he's corrupted, but because I think he does feel a genuine sense of shame. He's distant from the members of his squad because the last time he was close to one of his brothers, it was that brother's accusation that condemned Titus to a hundred years of penance. And simply put, Titus is not ready to acknowledge that or open up to his brothers about that betrayal and the trauma that comes alongside it. And this nearly costs him everything.
So secretive and distant is Titus that Gadriel has become so distrustful as to request a transfer to a new squad, which I think makes sense. Most of the people he knew in this one are dead now, and it's very easy to place the blame for those deaths. With both a tyrannid high fleet and a chaos incursion happening, it's only a matter of time until the Ultramarine fleet loses this fight. But this one fleet is not all the Ultramarines have to offer. If they can get a message through to the master of the Ultramarine chapter, one Marneus Calgar, the potential reinforcing fleet could be just enough to deliver the win to the blueberries.
Now, if we really wanted to, we could discuss how faster than light travel works in the 40k universe. From the Imperium of Man's warp drives to the Eldari webway or incursions into real space by the forces of chaos, but that would probably result in a script even larger than this one. So, let me break it down for you. You know how in Minecraft, every one block walked in the Nether is seven blocks walked in the overworld. Okay. Well, 40k does a very similar thing where you can very carefully slip into hell and so long as some terrible demonic warp fiend like Ronald Reagan doesn't ambush your ship, you can safely pop back out somewhere else very far away from where you started. You can also use this to text again. Imagine Minecraft. A person called an astropath can in essence leave their body in the overworld while they send their soul into hell. You tell the body something you want to say to someone very far away. And then the soul in hell screams that message as loud as it can. And then very far away, another person whose soul is in hell gets a collect call, which is a joke for old people. And assuming they accept, they can have their body read off that text message to someone else in the overworld. Thank goodness, there's absolutely nothing that could possibly go wrong if any part of this process gets interrupted.
The only hope for the Ultramarines is that Titus and Co can get to a local astropath and send a message out to the rest of the chapter. But there's a problem. The moment the astropath slips into Titus's mind to get his message to Calgar, she flips instantly and accuses Titus of only attempting to bring Calgar here so that Titus can kill him. Gadriel jumps into action instantly. The words of the Chaplain from the start of the game fresh in his mind still. But when the trigger is pulled, it isn't Titus that lies dead. It's the astropath. And Chairon is the one responsible. It was the astropath that was corrupted, not Titus. With the possession happening when the astropath attempted to send Titus's message, which begs the question, did anyone get the call for help? We'll just have to wait and see.
The payoff of this scene is twofold, with the main element of that payoff being what I've seen most people refer to as their favorite scene from the game being, of course, the banner scene. And we will talk about that. But before we talk about it, we need to talk about the other part of the payoff. Smaller, quieter, and to me, even more valuable. Because Gadriel apologizes. He feels genuine regret for giving in so totally to doubt and fear and suspicion. And Titus tells him that an apology isn't needed because Titus understands. Everything in this game has been mirroring the events of the first, the events that resulted in Titus's century of penance. But here, instead of shame and failure, there is a simple moment where Titus is able to accept that his disregard for the concerns of the people serving under him is what cost him before and almost cost him again.
Now, finally, Titus can be honest. He accepts the weight of the error of his secrecy. He understands his own blame for the events a century ago and also today. And the gap is closed. No new trauma, no new shame. Just two men being vulnerable, understanding each other, and making a silent promise to be better. I don't care what the rest of your game is. If you give me this, I am always going to love you for it. From this point on, it is near impossible to overstate the cohesion and camaraderie present within the squad. And it's this that enables the best scene in the game.
The context of how we get there is not wildly important. There are some ultramarines in trouble and Titus and Co are moving to respond. They arrive at the arena to find the remaining marines scattered, disorganized, and the company's standard abandoned to the dirt. You have to remember the Chaplain's words from the start. Sure, the Inquisition can't find a reason to consider you guilty, but you'll never be free from the shame of accusation alone until you've been redeemed in the eyes of your brothers. And over the course of the story, we get to watch as Titus goes from the lowest points of his life to making the same mistakes and errors from his past only to rise above those failings with the genuine care and trust of those closest to him.
So that by the end of his story, Titus is not just redeemed in the sight of his chapter. He is the heart of that chapter. The symbol to which the Ultramarines rally when the night is dark and the end is close. Titus in this moment is the hope, the defiance, and the brotherhood that defines this entire chapter. He does not hold the standard. He has become the standard. And along the Titus parallel when the time comes to actually interact with project Aurora when Titus moves to disable part of the warp structure once again moving towards the artifact that condemned him a century ago. It is Gadriel who cuts in front and takes the burden upon himself to interact with the warp and emerge alive. He has become the thing he once feared and doubted and found himself nonetheless for it.
I know I haven't said much about Chairon yet, but when it comes time to disable an additional component, he takes it upon himself to interact with the object, silently ensuring that there could be no singular accusation of corruption. The whole team has passed through this trial and found themselves unscathed and equals. And what follows is largely unimportant. That's not to say it's unsatisfying. It's a rather pleasant final act with a big bombastic final boss all led into by the reveal that yes, Calgar and the Ultramarines did in fact get Titus's message. And indeed, Aura farming does come naturally to a Space Marine. But this is all more the icing on the cake than the cake itself.
I adore Space Marine 2 for how it gently folds four decades of lore into a neat, accessible form. I adore Space Marine 2 for how well it establishes the scope and scale of its universe, but mostly I adore Space Marine 2 for making this work, for taking what could have been a very simple premise and instead finding a way to give two different perspectives simultaneously and giving them both so much value. But I mean, should I really be surprised that they pulled it off? After all, extra perspectives is what this game is really all about.
