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the game is over priced for what you get so it couldn't of added all the extra money grabbing tactic used by other games a 7 hour story mode for £55 is to much money to ask when you have zero interest in the MP mode
@@SlackWi if you want a video game ass video game absolutely. Fun western vampire slayer with combat in the same vain as SM2, but with a little more God of War. Fun time
A live service unfinished game with broken AI? Really? The broken ai part i get, a lot of old games do that, but removing 80% of content so it can be added later doesnt feel very vintage to me
@@samjones337 To be fair, that is easier when your lore is forty years of adding goofy skins and cosmetics to the official canon because it looks sick.
@@Richard-qx2zx Look at Assassins Creed though... Thousands of years of human history with cool and interesting armor and outfit choices and nowadays they opt for World of Warcraft style sets...
As a Warhammer newcomer this game did an excellent job introducing me to the world. The campaign was a little short but mostly enjoyable. It did get a little repetitive after a while but still a solid experience.
Remember the time when we had Halo campaign lengths and everyone was praising the quality of those? A campaign does not need to be long or bloated with nothing. Look no further than any Ubisoft style open world game. A campaign needs to be high quality. That is all that matters and by the Emperor this game delivers
@@bonecollector5 I have the same thing. i wouldn't say bored but after a week I want to play operations, but im still busy with the campaign. so I have a bit of fomo. But I also know that in a while I wish that I can play the campaign fresh again so im taking my time.
@@MixedMilk1 it’s definitely not as polished, but the build variety is absolutely insane. The narrative branches are very thorough too. Also outside maybe the Total Warhammer games, the lore is some of the deepest for Warhammer in general for a game.
If they stick to the narrative highpoints of the Original only, we have nothing to fear. If they decide to re-write the story themselves, well... that could go either way.
@@acceptablecasualty5319 i think this is like the best case scenario for the remake right now, Saber is like an old school, non woke, quality, independent developer that seems to respect the source material.
@@Renagale Those lore videos mostly consist of the same shit happening somewhere else in the universe with different people. I'm so mindblown that this IP is so loved. It's so incredibly 2-dimensional. There's literally only war. "Yeah, but they shoot with bullets the size of a fist, dude!" OH NO WAY!?
@@TylerDiddaThing while I trust that's true, I haven't seen them yet. I guess we'd have to read the books for that because all the games -- even the good ones -- show I wanna say a childlike simplicity to the 40K universe.
@Vince01 some games i recommend are battlesector, chaos gate daemonhunter, and rogue trader as recent greats. Dawn of war if you like rts. book wise the horus heresy has an awesome starting trilogy, and the audio book versions are fantastic!
I love how any time Warhammer is involved in anything, there will be references people make to the most obscure stuff in the lore, and a lot of people will still get it. I also get it btw fuck Fulgrim rylanor a real emperors chosen
Blizzard tried to make a third person shooter based on the Terran faction of Starcraft. It was never released, it died in development for one reason or another. If you are interested, look up Starcraft: Ghost.
Just keep away from actual warhammer. If you think video games are expensive, your wallet would cry trying to buy the miniatures.... as I look at my 3k of minis...
I literally didn't care for or know anything about 40k besides that space marines looked cool until I got this game to play with a friend and now I'm probably 40 hours of Warhammer lore videos deep and playing Rogue Trader on the side. Space Marine 2 has been incredible lol
@@SledTillDead I'm only a few hours in but absolutely loving it so far. I feel like I know a lot of the overarching large plot points of the Warhammer timeline in general, so seeing the more minute details has been super cool
Lifesteal has been a thing since the original Warcraft 3. The consumable restoration is probably obsolete, like in 2007. That was when game like Prototype, Infamous, and Skyrim allow Lifesteal in a 3rd person combat. SM1 and Doom 2016 only make it as a mean to an end with extra brutalized moves. And it's a great formula since the game is heavily combat oriented. Although it is sad that this feature is marketed as "innovative", "engaging", "Doom-like" by some journalist... it's like they don't have anything better to say.
The perfect sequel. Basically “more of the same” but with enough twists on the original game’s formula to force a pleasurable change in the combat puzzles. And yes, SM1 pioneered the “glory kill” before DOOM did it.
30:25 small correction, every time you win you actually get a cosmetic for your class. It's actually what keeps me motivated to win and I haven't played the objective this hard in a pvp game in a while because of it. Fantastic review though I agreed with everything!
Yeah, you feel so motivated to win because it unlocks more cosmetics, which feels like the true endgame. They were so clever to tie everything into the cosmetic unlocks.
Just a note: the Campaign itself is also playable in Coop, where two other players take control of Chairon and Gadriel. The "Coop PvE" this video often mentions is more officially referred to as "Operations" to differentiate it from the Campaign Coop.
Yeah no idea what people are on about content wise. I have 110 hours in this game and only have four classes at 100% progression. If you want all six classes, I strongly recommend not playing Bulwark or Assault they are so bad right now, you are looking at 200 hours minimum. But yeah no content. Absolutely laughable what some people say about this game
@@requiemagent3014yea same. Its just fun. I got roughly 80 hours. And i only played when i wanted to. Because other than in D4, Tekken, mk1 and so on, i dont HAVE to play non stop.
@@requiemagent3014 I just clutched on the hardest difficulty as an assault so youre just ass. Also bulwark is broken in a good way, his ultimate has saved my squad like 100 times already. Unless you're talking about pvp which I do not care about in the slightest. And yeah this game has barely any content. Could have gave us 12 operation missions and I would have been good for a year but no.
@@whenallelsfails21 You clearly don't play this game in any serious capacity. The current meta is pretty clear cut. Tactical with Melta and Sniper with Las Fusil are must picks. The third slot is usually reserved for Heavy with heavy Melta. But Vanguard with Melta also works. Third slot is personal preference. With a Melta or Las Fusil you can heal to max health with even the tiniest sliver of contested health. This is an intended game mechanic. So Bulwark is absolutely useless. It lacks firepower and the healing factor doesn't make any sense when Melta heals more reliably and faster. Assault is just a joke. No idea why this class isn't deleted from the game. I have absolutely no defense for that thing. You can play whatever you want but those two classes are not considered viable right now and nobody wants you in a serious team comp. When lethal gets released next month expect getting kicked from teams constantly
@@requiemagent3014 most people arent playing the multiplayer stuff, it has literally no content if you arent interested in multiplayer stuff. the campaign can be finished in one sitting, and then thats it.
I STRONGLY recommend playing operation missions before the corresponding champaign missions when they come up. You get the full story in order this way. As opposed to waiting until after the champaign to play all the operations. They are not stand-alone, they are tied to each other.
It's honestly kind of like how Gears of War's PvP was initially thrown in last minute, but ended up becoming a huge success at the time. This game is so nostalgic.
There's so many references to the tabletop. When Titus said: "Raise your Armor of Contempt" when facing the Thousand Suns I legitimately got goosebumps
About the campaign: pump the difficulty to veteran, it vastly improves the enemy encounters and drives you to learn the parry mechanics and make more substantial decisions about your loadout. Other than that, the Emperor protects.
You can unlock all of the cosmetics in the game playing exclusively PvP. It is said in the video that you do not unlock anything via performance in the "Eternal War" PvP mode. This is incorrect. You unlock the cosmetic armor sets by both beating PvE missions AND winning PvP matches. Because the PvP matches are so much faster than operations you can unlock all of the cosmetics for the PvE classes quite quickly. For example, I only play sniper in the PvP gamemode but when I play operations I have a level 1 sniper with all of the cosmetic armors unlocked. The weapon leveling system, however, is tied to game mode and does not crossover. Awesome video, just wanted to let people know there is an inncentive to play PvP as you will unlock drip to please the emperor.
As person that follows 40k through the books and tabletop game..I can fully say that the visual tone and quality is everything the universe is supposed to be. The scale of everything makes you feel small, even as a 10 foot talk genetically modified dude. Everything is dirty and dark. The architecture is ornate and ancient juxtaposed by technology interspersed throughout. The developers getting this right is such a fresh breath of air in a industry that tends to recreate intellectual property with such a heavy hand.
I remember playing World War Z being amazed at the cinematics and scale of the enemies. I didn't know that it was the same developer but I wasn't surprised when I found out later and its no wonder Warhammer's aesthetics are amazing, it was the perfect team for the job.
Black Myth: Wukong launches with resounding success, _AAA_ quality and without nickel-and-diming its players Space Marines 2 launches with resounding success, _AAA_ quality and without nickel-and-diming its players AAA publishers: "No stupid battle passes? No overpriced skins? Not broken at launch? These are not real AAA games."
Don’t forget about Astro Bot, which launched with resounding success, _AAA_ quality and without nickel-and-diming its players, despite being essentially a playable ad for Sony. Just shows that amazing things can happen with passionate developers and no BS.
Also, for those who care about offline mode, I’ve tested this, both the coop and campaign can be played without internet connection. PvP is the only thing lost. This purchase is well worth it due to this.
In my experience, progress is NOT saved if you're in Offline mode. I got over 5 levels, unlocked a bunch of cosmetics, etc all solo w/bots in Offline Mode. When my friend logged on, I switched SM2 back to Online mode the way it tells you to, and all of that progress was lost/not recorded. This is in line with what the developers had stated, AFAIK.
Real quick, PVP is 6v6 and winning a PvP match does count towards unlocking a class cosmetic as if you have completed a coop mission. Weapon unlocks for PVP are also handled by an account level that increases no matter which class is played.
As a tabletop player, seeing the imperial guardsmen's reaction to seeing the space marines made me tear up. The part with the dreadnought, absolute fing class. Like chefs kiss good.
As a 40k fan, the beginning of the campaign took a bit to get into and I was going to put it down, but as soon as the 3rd mission came in I was loving it and standing up and yelling “hell yeah brother” like an excited Hulk Hogan. There were a couple of bits that contained small snippets of some of my favourite scenes and lines in gaming. Some of the most epic words since “I am Davian Thule … and I shall be your death!”
I found the best campaign experience was doing the coop missions right when they became available, made it feel much more organic. Also, don't sleep on PvP. Sure it's barebones atm but it's the fastest way to unlock armor pieces/cosmetics (don't know how you missed it but THEY ARE shared between PvP and PvE) and I found it just so damn fun and addicting. Can't wait for them to release more content and expand on what's there with the success they're having.
The point on saber doing their homework is huge; I have 0 experience with warhammer, but had a great time just taking in the campaign. Meanwhile, I played with friends who were deep in the lore, and they were giddy pointing out crazy details, like soldier uniforms showing how long they were in service, or how significant certain characters glowing was. Awesome having a game that's a great time for both kinds of players
GOTY Make sure to vote for it when the opportunity arises! Let the devs know "yes, more of this." Playing on "Ruthless" difficulty is a game changer. Such an incredibly satisfying experience. You have to think fast and every decision matters. Highly recommend for people that are starting to feel like it's repetitive.
Nah...Concord is GOTY. In fact I'm just sitting in the lobby waiting for a few more players to drop in and game. Should be any time now..... Any time...
I think with a metacritic score of 83 is too low to since it’s the reviewers who are judges and ultimately decide the GoTY, not the players. Wukong is rated in the low 80s, too, but since it sold the most this year will probably be nominated for the impact it had. Astrobot is the highest rated game so far, then FF7 Rebirth. I think they have more of a chance of winning realistically. Has a game with a metacritic score below 90 ever won GoTY?
I feel like we played 2 completely different campaigns lol. On the gameplay end, I felt forced to take a more cautious approach because I was playing solo, and it felt like a coinflip whether I was going to get enough executions to sustain in a close quarters brawl, and the AI companions were worse than useless a lot of the time. The weapons absolutely felt impactful to me because the stalker bolter, and the sniper were excellent for picking high value elites before the horde got to me so there was this rhythm of taking out dangerous ranged enemies, clearing as much horde as I could, then having to find more cover to take out the next wave of elites. With the auto guns, and especially the heavy bolter, it felt like they had their place in the more sustained battles where the horde never stopped, and needed to be cleared faster than my melee could do it, and instead I had to rely on the plasma pistol to take out elites. Surely I didn't find the optimal way to play the game in just a few hours, but I definitely felt like my weapon choices were important to getting through the encounters. As for the story, I groaned every time the brothers rehashed the exact same character drama from the first game, with absolutely no interpersonal growth, or introspection from Titus on his situation with warp resistance until the very end. I was really disappointed about this because Titus supposedly spent another 100 years in the deathwatch for his suspected crimes, but he shows no curiosity, or will to prove his innocence... just more blind denial, and pushing the plot point to a future game or dlc. The larger plot with the scheming adeptus mechanics, his naive apprentice, and the forces of chaos was much more compelling for me especially because of how it forshadowed future encounters that paid off big time with some of the set pieces in the back half of the game. Nothing ground breaking, but I though it was really effective as a skeleton for the game's level progression. I agree that it was a bit of a mixed bag, but definitely still glad to have played it just because of how stunning the presentation was.
I don't know why everyone reviewing Space Marine 2 credits Doom with the origins of "push forward combat." In the era that Gears of War was cementing "just sit behind the wall for the entire firefight" combat, Space Marine 1 implemented the first "executions heal you, so push forward" combat. But every review of Space Marine 2 seems to think Doom made it in 2016, when Space Marine 1 had it 5 years earlier in 2011
If you breeze through on Normal or Easy without going for dataslates or stopping to take in the sights/photo mode, I can see someone powering through that quickly. Yeah, took me around a dozen hours too though :)
well veteran is incredibly unbalanced and a massive difficulty spike from normal, im guessing you got stuck on some bits for a while, like that one tower defence part with the flying f*ckers. I beat it in one afternoon
From Saber CEO Matt Karch himself; “… All I wanted was a throwback game. We had the chance to work on something which by its nature was ‘old school’… We worked on Halo back in the day, and that game could be distilled down to the simplest of shooting loops, but it was entirely addicting. That is what we wanted to recapture. I hope that games like Space Marine 2 and Wukong are the start of a reversion to a time when games were simply about fun and immersion.” I think the team at Saber nailed it!
Please stop sharing this. Just do a teeny tiny bit of verification before you go around posting stuff you've seen online. It literally takes two seconds but I suspect you've seen this from Asmongold who didn't check, either.
Easily the best 40k game ever made. Also the combat is just phenomenal. I have 110 hours in this game and only have completed four classes to 100% at this point. If you want everything you are looking at a bare minimum of 200 hours. This game is just absolutely fantastic and filled to the brim with content. It's also high quality content
@@jwash87 No it has not. I have an ungodly amount of hours in Darktide and only play Auric damnation or Auric Maelstrom. Darktide literally cheats and just deletes players from the map when you are performing too well. Yeah you need to be actually good to notice this. Space Marine 2 combat flows like a waterfall. Nothing better than getting a perfect parry, followed up by a gun strike and an execution. With a Melta, which is a meta gun right now, this combat flows so well. Cannot remember a combat loop this satisfying for ages now
This definitely feels old school in the best way. Multiplayer is so much fun and Titus will be in Secret Level so I'm interested in seeing how Warhammer continues to grow in the gaming space.
Going to give a shout-out to Exoprimal here, rest in peace. Good ol' PvE horde shooter that took a lot of chances, some good, some bad. There was some mild PvP flavor, minimal monetization, and had a generally excellent gameplay loop with good character kits and a shit ton of dinosaurs. Like space marine 2 and kinitsugami, I hope publishers keep giving these "riskier" games a chance!
As someone who has been into Games Workshops Warhammer 40k since 1990's, has a massive collection of models that I've painted; I'm really enjoying this, I'm playing the campaign solo, and then also joining two friends to play it coop, it is great fun.
My friends and I have enjoyed it a lot when we do get to play together, but our big gripe with it right now is that the servers seem to be broken. That joining server bug turns every load screen into a roll of the dice if we’re going to stay together or not. Thankfully, campaign missions let us start from a previous checkpoint, but Operations are especially annoying since it’ll replace the dropped player with someone else almost instantly. And since there are no private lobbies at launch - for some weird reason - we’ve largely avoided that mode. Just warning others who plan on playing with their friends. You might want to wait until they fix all of this. It’s been incredibly frustrating for the three of us. It’s great when it works, but sometimes it takes an hour for us to actually start playing together.
Seconded. I had found a good fireteam finally during ops and was randomly disconnected joining my next round w/ them - it made me super sad to see that happen. That and poor matchmaking in terms of unique class selections at the first go, and those pesky chaos hordes need quite a bit of tuning, too...
That is just a lie. Plain and simple. I have 110 hours in this game and had the infinite loading screen three times. They already put out a patch for this and it didn't happen even once since then. The game works just fine for thousands of people cross platform but you in particular cannot play. I call BS on that
@@requiemagent3014 Why you would claim so adamantly that anyone would lie about this issue is bizarre. I've seen hundreds of people complain about it. Just go argue with everyone in Steam discussion about it. They'll love you. I have 38 hours and failed to load close to a 100 times. Usually before the operation but never have I made it past 2 runs with the same group. Disabling crossplay helped a lot. Last few days it just disconnects me if I try to launch alone(warning sign being that I can't quickly find a team), which is a better problem since I don't have to wait hoping to load and then force close. Just exit to title screen and try again.
@@requiemagent3014 “Since it isn’t happening to me, it couldn’t happen to anyone else” 🙄 I was just trying to warn people, man. Not enough people are talking about the connectivity issues. I have video evidence of all three of my friends having the “Joining server” bug on the same night every time we’ve played together. PS5 players are talking about it frequently. And that patch was just a hotfix for crashes. What are you talking about? I wasn’t even saying this game is bad. Some people get so defensive. I REALLY enjoy this game, alright? Happy? Calm down, buddy.
Was a huge fan of this one, was nice to have legit writing too. Saber definitely did their homework on this. Case in point is when Gadriel finds out Titus came back from the Deathwatch. That scene works regardless of how much lore you know, without 5 minutes of exposition. If you don't know anything, Gadriel's suspicion makes sense given the motivation Gadriel is a bit peeved by the late change to command and Titus's attitude. If you DO know how the Deathwatch works though, the scene has additional layers, because Gadriel knows Titus should be a Veteran if he was on The Long Watch, yet here he is, 200 years of service and he is a run of the mill 2nd Lieutenant with no Veteran honors? Titus's return should have been celebrated, as every return from the Long Watch would be, making Gadriel suspicious. And the story is littered with moments like this that just make me respect the effort Saber has put in. They cared, which feels rare in modern gaming.
And this is the point of the video where I stopped watching. The glory kill nonsese ruined Doom for me and this implementation seems especially dull. Melee is fine as an option, but not when forced.
I've always disliked that mechanic, especially in Doom. I don't want to finish the enemy off by watching a cutscene I've seen a million times already, I want to blast his head off with a shotgun. It's a power fantasy, don't wrestle control away from me.
@@Damocles3 I don't like the animation locking of glory kills, but I was still able to enjoy 2016. The sequel however... no I do NOT want to keep spamming animations to get ammo from enemies
Lets get this straight, no game in the 360 era had hordes this massive and smooth and just amazing looking! This game literally takes my breath away sometime.. The graphics in random spots in an online co op sometimes, I just stop and look around and smile.. It's that type of game..This game is all balls! 10/10
You actually unlock each PVE mission when you reach certain sections of the campaign, like usually they say something like "we need to do this but can´t" and then the other squad appears in the hangar showing that you now can do the mission in between the campaign missions
@@SethKnows True I should have said you unlock intel for them when at a certain part of campaign but can play them any time but it makes the most sense to play them when "unlocked" so the mission content makes the most sense timewise for the campaign at least
It's great to wake up and see reviews for two completely different games, this and Plucky Squire, both with great breakdowns. This is why I love coming back to SkillUp
I really love these reviews where Ralph gets to gush about how much he loves a game. Seriously some of the best writing on YT. He’s so good at articulating what makes that make a game enjoyable and the reasons it should be celebrated. Well done!
@@JOHNNY5GMG the pve and pvp progression specifically is slow. Like I've played 25 pvp matches and am only level 7 and for PvE it's taken like 15 individual missions to just get one class to level 10 and there's still more levels. If you want to try new classes you'll be spending a ton of time replaying the exact same mission ad nauseam
@@TalentedTacoTrex I believe there are specific missions you can grind in the co-op mode. As for which ones yield the most optimal results, i.e. XP rewards, I can't say. There should be some guides up by now, though. 👍
You know what sold me on this game? Crossplay on launch. I can play with my PC bros and my Xbox bros. Just being able to do that satisfies me enough. FOR THE EMPEROR!
AND with no Asterisk. We can only hope Sony, Microsoft or Epic don't decide to kneecap the game with some egotistical attempt to capitalize on the Playerbase.
Fantastic video! Just a small correction, you CAN in fact unlock Armor customization by playing PVP, the same customization is shared between PVP and COOP.
As an indicator of how well done the customisation is the colours are named after and basically same as the actual paints you can buy from GW, so you can have the same colour scheme as an army you've painted. Not an overstatement to say this game looks amazing, never really seen the point of a Photomode in games before and then I played this. Screenshots can look so good they're like actual art from a 40K codex. I don't think any game has ever captured a 40K war zone so well, the scale and the unrelenting horror of it. The environmental world building is distinctly impressive, stumbling across a Cadian captain stood on a tank giving a rousing speech to a platoon of soldiers is the kind of background detail that they really didn't have to add but did just to flesh out the environment.
UMMM CORRECTION. Warhammer minis are pretty much all polystyrene plastic NOT metal. The age of metal miniatures is largely long since abandoned and even resin has been left behind with the exception of 3d printers.
I’m sitting in my hospital bed right now after a surgery for my Epispadias correction surgery. I just wanna say what joy your videos bring me and I hope the FPS crew is doing well. I bought Warhammer SM2 for my recovery days and this review made me so happy ❤❤❤
Sabre absolutely delivered. What a fantastic experience. Finished the campaign, turned right around, ramped up the difficulty and played it again. Top shelf and a pleasure to throw money at these guys. Bravo!
The last time I was involuntarily taking screenshots constantly while playing a campaign was New Colossus. SM2 is Jaw-Dropping visually, I never thought I'd see the setting represented so perfectly. Also I ADORED the pvp in space marine 1, so I probably would have bought it even if it was JUST a pvp mode.
Ghost of Tsushima is the closest I can think of to this in terms of business model/value proposition rather, instead of PvP it's a longer campaign? Wasn't at launch though.
I disagree about the executions. It’s a nice 2-3 second break from the fire fight and you strategically map out your next execute during the existing. It’s a cool system.
This is the most comprehensive and well-informed review I have ever watched on any game I have ever been a part of. I feel like I learned new things about a game that I have been involved in since we started working on it. Thank you for taking the time to present this in such a compelling fashion. Our attitude on PvP was that you can't have an old school game without an old-school mode regardless of whether anyone played it. We will do our best not to let you down...
The amount of praise this game gets in this video for 'not being a live-service game' when the game has season passes laid out through to 2025, and has an update schedule like any other live-service game is genuinely kind of hilarious
Skill up is my favourite and sending you some love from Canada to the land down under. I trust your reviews so much I wait for them. I actually started this one because of your preview. I watch every one of them knowing that your review is from the status of a player and that means a lot.. thank you once again
I very, VERY rarely buy games at full price. The last two games I did that with delivered such differing returns; Elden Ring punched holes in my social life; Diablo 4 punched holes in my patience. Space Marine 2 came out when I had some extra scratch and I really took a risk but luckily I already had two other friends that bought in. I’m not even a third of the way through the main campaign and I’m simply giddy at the thought of the hours of dumb, pure fun to come with my battle brothers. I understand the apprehension that comes with shelling out AAA money for fresh releases because these days it’s a cruel gamble on how much respect for your time some of the publishers these days actually have. For whatever my frugal word is worth, please buy this game. It’s been rare when a game comes around with little to no buyer’s remorse attached to it, but I believe this is one of them. The Emperor needs more fearless warriors. I don’t even really know Jack shit about the lore but damn it, this game is indoctrinating me.
Loving it. You did a great job explaining the issues professional reviews have had with it and made me realize it’s bc the campaign is the appetizer, but the operations are the main course.
I admittedly want to play this one pretty bad as a 90s kid in his late teens during peak Halo and Gears of War but I’m currently super addicted to Warframe again and I fear paying full price for a game that may just gather dust for a while 😅
One of the things that I think is helping my enjoyment of the campaign (and I'm loving it) is that I'm playing through the offshoot missions IMMEDIATELY after I play the story mission they shoot off from - and it's a blast to go back and forth between the "zoom and booom" vanguard with grapling hook and melta gun and Titus's more measured playstyle! it gives the experiecne a really welcome variety.
This reminds me of my childhood going to blockbuster and picking up the newest game that wasn't one of the heavy hitters and just needing something new to play, finding out that it is actually pretty solid because it had the three things every game needed back then: Campaign, Co-Op, Multiplayer.
This game reminds me of Transformers Fall of Cybertron. 3rd person shooter w/ spectacle environments, 3 person coop campaign with 3 different personalities clashing in the moment to memoment & cutscenes. Classes with their own abilities. Multiplayer coop mode & pvp mode. While playing this, I can't help but wonder if TFFoC had this type of interwoven melee combat along side transformations & high mobility of that game. The games play so similarly. The gunplay is pretty similar too. Would have been such a fun game, but also brings back nostalgia.
@@Soft_Cannoli maybe, maybe not. This is the first game I've played in a while though where I wasn't made to feel like it's a second job, and didn't insult its fans, and has really top-notch gameplay. I put it at a solid 8.5-9/10 for the sheer aspect of it being fun and not trying to step out of its bounds.
i bought the collectors edition and it came with a great artbook but there was also a message from the creative director where he said he was a big fan of the original space marine and warhammer in general and wanted to make something really good
I always watch your reviews before buying any major releases, but this is the only game I bought and put nearly 50 hours in before your review went up. There was something about the trailers, previews and early impressions that really sold me, and game still managed to surpass my expectations. Much love to the devs for this ❤
I love the source material, they didn't need to invent guns, they had warhammer, same with armor, same with enemies, bosses, etc! They just had to implement it right, and be creative, and they did! They did a perfect job recreating it!
Space Marine 2 is definitely the first Warhammer game that should be nominated for GOTY. I'm not a Warhammer fan but this game single handedly got me looking into the universe. Just absolutely solid.
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the game is over priced for what you get so it couldn't of added all the extra money grabbing tactic used by other games a 7 hour story mode for £55 is to much money to ask when you have zero interest in the MP mode
When you get that targeting reticule on a downed foe if you shoot it you will also regain shield
Space Marine 2, a recommended game sponsored by AMD, sponsored by Nvidia 😂 couldn't make it up
And what’s also great for the game is, The Collectors Edition has a Disk 🤩👏🔥👏🔥👏🔥
It's the most 'video game ass video game' I've played in a long while. It's so nostalgic.
You played Evil West?
@@kaladinstormblessed8790 i have not, should i?
@@SlackWi if you want a video game ass video game absolutely. Fun western vampire slayer with combat in the same vain as SM2, but with a little more God of War. Fun time
@@kaladinstormblessed8790 thanks man, ill check it out
A live service unfinished game with broken AI? Really? The broken ai part i get, a lot of old games do that, but removing 80% of content so it can be added later doesnt feel very vintage to me
Fun Fact: All the colours in customisation are named after the real life official warhammer paints from Citadel
This is another reason I love the customization so much. No goofy skins or cosmetics that are unfriendly to the lore.
@@samjones337Technically you could argue that the names with Warhammer Fantasy references are lore breaking, but that's nitpicking
@@samjones337 To be fair, that is easier when your lore is forty years of adding goofy skins and cosmetics to the official canon because it looks sick.
@@samjones337 Swim suit marines when?
@@Richard-qx2zx Look at Assassins Creed though... Thousands of years of human history with cool and interesting armor and outfit choices and nowadays they opt for World of Warcraft style sets...
As a Warhammer newcomer this game did an excellent job introducing me to the world. The campaign was a little short but mostly enjoyable. It did get a little repetitive after a while but still a solid experience.
I honestly found it to long. I was getting pretty bored of the campaign halfway through.
@@bonecollector5that’s weird especially considering it’s very short
Remember the time when we had Halo campaign lengths and everyone was praising the quality of those? A campaign does not need to be long or bloated with nothing. Look no further than any Ubisoft style open world game. A campaign needs to be high quality. That is all that matters and by the Emperor this game delivers
Is it good replay for solo play. I don’t care for multiplayer much or co op. But love a good action fun.
@@bonecollector5 I have the same thing. i wouldn't say bored but after a week I want to play operations, but im still busy with the campaign. so I have a bit of fomo.
But I also know that in a while I wish that I can play the campaign fresh again so im taking my time.
Space Marine 2. Boltgun. Rogue Trader. Mechanicus. Darktide.
40k fans have been eating good lately.
Mechanicus 2 cannot come soon enough, brother.
@@Ghouleh3133 The Omnissiah wills it!
Rogue Trader is so damn good. It kinda sucks it gets overshadowed by BG3.
@conaldeugenepeterson2147 its that good? Ill have to give it a go after this.
@@MixedMilk1 it’s definitely not as polished, but the build variety is absolutely insane. The narrative branches are very thorough too. Also outside maybe the Total Warhammer games, the lore is some of the deepest for Warhammer in general for a game.
These are the KOTOR Remake devs, I’m so happy.
If they stick to the narrative highpoints of the Original only, we have nothing to fear. If they decide to re-write the story themselves, well... that could go either way.
@@acceptablecasualty5319 I am a little more interested in the second one's remake - it has far more to gain from the treatment as well.
@@acceptablecasualty5319 i think this is like the best case scenario for the remake right now, Saber is like an old school, non woke, quality, independent developer that seems to respect the source material.
@@TheOneCrispy1533 sorry to break it to you, but "woke" people helped make this game! One of the writers is a trans women! Oh no!
@@TheOneCrispy1533people who call things woke unironically are troglodytes
You found warhammer lore videos that are 12hours?????? I didn't know they came that short.
@@Renagale Those lore videos mostly consist of the same shit happening somewhere else in the universe with different people. I'm so mindblown that this IP is so loved. It's so incredibly 2-dimensional. There's literally only war. "Yeah, but they shoot with bullets the size of a fist, dude!" OH NO WAY!?
@@Vince01 You sound like a nerd who doesn't know cool shit when it happens right in front of your face
@@Vince01 I can see that point, but there's a lot of depth. There's plenty of silly goofy dark stuff, but a ton of excellent stories and characters.
@@TylerDiddaThing while I trust that's true, I haven't seen them yet. I guess we'd have to read the books for that because all the games -- even the good ones -- show I wanna say a childlike simplicity to the 40K universe.
@Vince01 some games i recommend are battlesector, chaos gate daemonhunter, and rogue trader as recent greats. Dawn of war if you like rts. book wise the horus heresy has an awesome starting trilogy, and the audio book versions are fantastic!
I waited for Space Marine 2 almost as long as Ancient Rylanor waited for Fulgrim.
luckily you didn't need your virus bomb
And we got a glorious virus bomb as a reward.
I love how any time Warhammer is involved in anything, there will be references people make to the most obscure stuff in the lore, and a lot of people will still get it.
I also get it btw fuck Fulgrim rylanor a real emperors chosen
“I am Rylanor and I am the Ancient of Rites!
So now I reject now and for always!” - Stringstorm
Jesus christ
Meanwhile Blizzard is sitting on the Starcraft franchise doing fuckall with it when they could pretty much have their own space marine shooter
They probably realize how not-unique Starcraft is, lol.
@@Trepanation21 Well they ripped off 40k...so...yeah they've known all along.
Blizzard tried to make a third person shooter based on the Terran faction of Starcraft. It was never released, it died in development for one reason or another. If you are interested, look up Starcraft: Ghost.
How about Overwatch? Couldn't they just put PVE into it?
OH WAIT...
EXACTLY
Dear SkillUp, please stop "strongly recommend"-ing these bangers to me... I'm afraid that my wallet cannot take it anymore. 😂
For real. Meanwhile he makes Austin review Concord too 😂😂😂
@@Ziggyvu RENT FREE
There are alternative solutions if you only care about Single-player stuff.
My wallet is ralphing money. Thanks Ralph
Just keep away from actual warhammer. If you think video games are expensive, your wallet would cry trying to buy the miniatures.... as I look at my 3k of minis...
This game single-handed;y cured my Destiny 2 live service brain
Honestly a few bangers to play alongside a long running game like D2 is such a good break in between seasons.
The emperor protects
God Destiny 2 makes me so sad. I’ve never played a game that got me as invested as D1 did. It’s such a shame how badly the series has declined.
@@bonjoviburneraccount8148 By replacing it with SM2 live service brain. Because it is a live service vehicle.
Same brother, the Emperor has saved us from Nurgle's Live Service rot.
I literally didn't care for or know anything about 40k besides that space marines looked cool until I got this game to play with a friend and now I'm probably 40 hours of Warhammer lore videos deep and playing Rogue Trader on the side. Space Marine 2 has been incredible lol
Rogue Trader is fantastic, especially for world building
It really is incredible what established lore and worldbuilding can do for a game as a project
@@SledTillDead I'm only a few hours in but absolutely loving it so far. I feel like I know a lot of the overarching large plot points of the Warhammer timeline in general, so seeing the more minute details has been super cool
The emperor protects!
The same thing happened when I played Darktide the first time with a friend who's deep in the lore! Also been playing Rogue Trader for more lore!
Space Marine 1 did the glory kills that heal you in 2011... Modern Doom came out in 2016...
Lifesteal has been a thing since the original Warcraft 3. The consumable restoration is probably obsolete, like in 2007. That was when game like Prototype, Infamous, and Skyrim allow Lifesteal in a 3rd person combat.
SM1 and Doom 2016 only make it as a mean to an end with extra brutalized moves. And it's a great formula since the game is heavily combat oriented.
Although it is sad that this feature is marketed as "innovative", "engaging", "Doom-like" by some journalist... it's like they don't have anything better to say.
UA-cam recommended me WTF Is... - Warhammer 40k : Space Marine ? today and it made me sad.
Crazy to think it's been so long, TB was one of the best to ever do it
Same here. RIP TB 🙏
It hit the feels hard to see his name in the credits for Space Marine 2 - such a nice touch by Saber.
RIP Total Biscuit! He would have been bigger than SkillUp as a reviewer if he lived today.
I listen to his videos from time to time just to hear his voice again.
The perfect sequel. Basically “more of the same” but with enough twists on the original game’s formula to force a pleasurable change in the combat puzzles. And yes, SM1 pioneered the “glory kill” before DOOM did it.
30:25 small correction, every time you win you actually get a cosmetic for your class. It's actually what keeps me motivated to win and I haven't played the objective this hard in a pvp game in a while because of it. Fantastic review though I agreed with everything!
Yeah, you feel so motivated to win because it unlocks more cosmetics, which feels like the true endgame. They were so clever to tie everything into the cosmetic unlocks.
Just a note: the Campaign itself is also playable in Coop, where two other players take control of Chairon and Gadriel. The "Coop PvE" this video often mentions is more officially referred to as "Operations" to differentiate it from the Campaign Coop.
I’m glad you commented this cuz i wasn’t sure
Had immense fun and joy from this game, feels like something made a decade+ ago. And has so much content. VFM 100%. Get it brothers!
Yeah no idea what people are on about content wise. I have 110 hours in this game and only have four classes at 100% progression. If you want all six classes, I strongly recommend not playing Bulwark or Assault they are so bad right now, you are looking at 200 hours minimum. But yeah no content. Absolutely laughable what some people say about this game
@@requiemagent3014yea same. Its just fun. I got roughly 80 hours. And i only played when i wanted to. Because other than in D4, Tekken, mk1 and so on, i dont HAVE to play non stop.
@@requiemagent3014 I just clutched on the hardest difficulty as an assault so youre just ass. Also bulwark is broken in a good way, his ultimate has saved my squad like 100 times already. Unless you're talking about pvp which I do not care about in the slightest. And yeah this game has barely any content. Could have gave us 12 operation missions and I would have been good for a year but no.
@@whenallelsfails21 You clearly don't play this game in any serious capacity. The current meta is pretty clear cut. Tactical with Melta and Sniper with Las Fusil are must picks. The third slot is usually reserved for Heavy with heavy Melta. But Vanguard with Melta also works. Third slot is personal preference.
With a Melta or Las Fusil you can heal to max health with even the tiniest sliver of contested health. This is an intended game mechanic. So Bulwark is absolutely useless. It lacks firepower and the healing factor doesn't make any sense when Melta heals more reliably and faster.
Assault is just a joke. No idea why this class isn't deleted from the game. I have absolutely no defense for that thing.
You can play whatever you want but those two classes are not considered viable right now and nobody wants you in a serious team comp. When lethal gets released next month expect getting kicked from teams constantly
@@requiemagent3014 most people arent playing the multiplayer stuff, it has literally no content if you arent interested in multiplayer stuff. the campaign can be finished in one sitting, and then thats it.
I STRONGLY recommend playing operation missions before the corresponding champaign missions when they come up. You get the full story in order this way. As opposed to waiting until after the champaign to play all the operations. They are not stand-alone, they are tied to each other.
There are missions that have you drink champagne? Sounds interesting.
🥂
It’s only Champaign if it comes from the Champaign region, otherwise it’s just Sparkling Mission.
Space marine 2 having PVP reminds me of Bioshock 2 having PVP. It felt so random but was actually entertaining.
It was done in part by warframe devs, and yes warframe's pvp is also fun if you get into it (at least for a few hours)
Loved Bioshock pvp. Back then a lot of games eexperimented and had great pvp. Dead Space 2 was another one.
It's honestly kind of like how Gears of War's PvP was initially thrown in last minute, but ended up becoming a huge success at the time. This game is so nostalgic.
Or Dragon Age: Inquisition, or Splinter Cell.
There's so many references to the tabletop. When Titus said: "Raise your Armor of Contempt" when facing the Thousand Suns I legitimately got goosebumps
The sons of Magnus have no chance when their AP is reduced by 1.
Thanks Sabre interactive, most Space Marine kits in the hobby stores are now sold out lmao.
But seriously, this game is good
About the campaign: pump the difficulty to veteran, it vastly improves the enemy encounters and drives you to learn the parry mechanics and make more substantial decisions about your loadout. Other than that, the Emperor protects.
The Emperor protects his faithful!
You can unlock all of the cosmetics in the game playing exclusively PvP.
It is said in the video that you do not unlock anything via performance in the "Eternal War" PvP mode. This is incorrect. You unlock the cosmetic armor sets by both beating PvE missions AND winning PvP matches. Because the PvP matches are so much faster than operations you can unlock all of the cosmetics for the PvE classes quite quickly. For example, I only play sniper in the PvP gamemode but when I play operations I have a level 1 sniper with all of the cosmetic armors unlocked. The weapon leveling system, however, is tied to game mode and does not crossover.
Awesome video, just wanted to let people know there is an inncentive to play PvP as you will unlock drip to please the emperor.
As person that follows 40k through the books and tabletop game..I can fully say that the visual tone and quality is everything the universe is supposed to be.
The scale of everything makes you feel small, even as a 10 foot talk genetically modified dude. Everything is dirty and dark. The architecture is ornate and ancient juxtaposed by technology interspersed throughout.
The developers getting this right is such a fresh breath of air in a industry that tends to recreate intellectual property with such a heavy hand.
Nah, it is sadly not 100% lore and cannon accurate.
I remember playing World War Z being amazed at the cinematics and scale of the enemies. I didn't know that it was the same developer but I wasn't surprised when I found out later and its no wonder Warhammer's aesthetics are amazing, it was the perfect team for the job.
2024: sooo? Is this a Video Game??
2012: This is what a Video Game suppose to be.
Bolt Gun
Space Marine 2
...40k bringing back the good ol days
@@11679MRT Nice, you just described at least 50% of what 40K is all about.
Black Myth: Wukong launches with resounding success, _AAA_ quality and without nickel-and-diming its players
Space Marines 2 launches with resounding success, _AAA_ quality and without nickel-and-diming its players
AAA publishers: "No stupid battle passes? No overpriced skins? Not broken at launch? These are not real AAA games."
The real AAAA games lol.
SM2 actually does have a battle pass.
Don't forget Astrobot!
It's honestly been a very good year for gaming
Don’t forget about Astro Bot, which launched with resounding success, _AAA_ quality and without nickel-and-diming its players, despite being essentially a playable ad for Sony. Just shows that amazing things can happen with passionate developers and no BS.
Add the DnD game to that list.
Also, for those who care about offline mode, I’ve tested this, both the coop and campaign can be played without internet connection. PvP is the only thing lost. This purchase is well worth it due to this.
Yeah like I picked up Anthem for 3$ the other day. You can't even load into the main menu of that game without an internet connection!
Are you able to gain XP in offline operations? I read that wasn’t going to happen
You can also disable Easy Anti-Cheat for solo/offline. I don't wanna paste it here, but it's on page 3 of TechPowerUp's performance analysis article.
Is it possible to leave a solo PvE mission halfway and continue later?
In my experience, progress is NOT saved if you're in Offline mode. I got over 5 levels, unlocked a bunch of cosmetics, etc all solo w/bots in Offline Mode. When my friend logged on, I switched SM2 back to Online mode the way it tells you to, and all of that progress was lost/not recorded. This is in line with what the developers had stated, AFAIK.
Real quick, PVP is 6v6 and winning a PvP match does count towards unlocking a class cosmetic as if you have completed a coop mission. Weapon unlocks for PVP are also handled by an account level that increases no matter which class is played.
Yes it does
Your hype the last few weeks was the reason i bought it day 1. I have not been disappointed. Waiting on a friend to get it so we can do co-op.
I'll team bbro
As a tabletop player, seeing the imperial guardsmen's reaction to seeing the space marines made me tear up. The part with the dreadnought, absolute fing class. Like chefs kiss good.
As a 40k fan, the beginning of the campaign took a bit to get into and I was going to put it down, but as soon as the 3rd mission came in I was loving it and standing up and yelling “hell yeah brother” like an excited Hulk Hogan. There were a couple of bits that contained small snippets of some of my favourite scenes and lines in gaming. Some of the most epic words since “I am Davian Thule … and I shall be your death!”
It seems repetitive
How did the deathwatch intro not immediately get a warhammer fan hyped I’ll never know
@@arksolaire28bro fr first 2min of the opening cutscene I was LOCKED IN
@@Bookish1995that’s how I feel. I just know it’s something I’ll put down after like 6 hours
I found the best campaign experience was doing the coop missions right when they became available, made it feel much more organic.
Also, don't sleep on PvP. Sure it's barebones atm but it's the fastest way to unlock armor pieces/cosmetics (don't know how you missed it but THEY ARE shared between PvP and PvE) and I found it just so damn fun and addicting.
Can't wait for them to release more content and expand on what's there with the success they're having.
Game that makes people say : Hell yeah.
Hell yeah
Hell Yeah
Hell yeah.
Heck yeah
@@potapotapotapotapotapota heretic detected.
The point on saber doing their homework is huge; I have 0 experience with warhammer, but had a great time just taking in the campaign. Meanwhile, I played with friends who were deep in the lore, and they were giddy pointing out crazy details, like soldier uniforms showing how long they were in service, or how significant certain characters glowing was. Awesome having a game that's a great time for both kinds of players
GOTY
Make sure to vote for it when the opportunity arises! Let the devs know "yes, more of this."
Playing on "Ruthless" difficulty is a game changer. Such an incredibly satisfying experience. You have to think fast and every decision matters. Highly recommend for people that are starting to feel like it's repetitive.
Look, it’s a pretty good game. Fun time with serious flaws. But this is NOT GOTY, not even close.
@@03dashk64 Taste is subjective you silly goose. Totally cool if you don't feel that way :D
What game are you hoping makes GOTY? [Genuine curiosity]
Nah...Concord is GOTY. In fact I'm just sitting in the lobby waiting for a few more players to drop in and game.
Should be any time now..... Any time...
@@whatifindbeautiful Ayyyyyyyeeeee *finger guns* XD
I think with a metacritic score of 83 is too low to since it’s the reviewers who are judges and ultimately decide the GoTY, not the players.
Wukong is rated in the low 80s, too, but since it sold the most this year will probably be nominated for the impact it had.
Astrobot is the highest rated game so far, then FF7 Rebirth. I think they have more of a chance of winning realistically. Has a game with a metacritic score below 90 ever won GoTY?
I feel like we played 2 completely different campaigns lol. On the gameplay end, I felt forced to take a more cautious approach because I was playing solo, and it felt like a coinflip whether I was going to get enough executions to sustain in a close quarters brawl, and the AI companions were worse than useless a lot of the time. The weapons absolutely felt impactful to me because the stalker bolter, and the sniper were excellent for picking high value elites before the horde got to me so there was this rhythm of taking out dangerous ranged enemies, clearing as much horde as I could, then having to find more cover to take out the next wave of elites. With the auto guns, and especially the heavy bolter, it felt like they had their place in the more sustained battles where the horde never stopped, and needed to be cleared faster than my melee could do it, and instead I had to rely on the plasma pistol to take out elites. Surely I didn't find the optimal way to play the game in just a few hours, but I definitely felt like my weapon choices were important to getting through the encounters.
As for the story, I groaned every time the brothers rehashed the exact same character drama from the first game, with absolutely no interpersonal growth, or introspection from Titus on his situation with warp resistance until the very end. I was really disappointed about this because Titus supposedly spent another 100 years in the deathwatch for his suspected crimes, but he shows no curiosity, or will to prove his innocence... just more blind denial, and pushing the plot point to a future game or dlc. The larger plot with the scheming adeptus mechanics, his naive apprentice, and the forces of chaos was much more compelling for me especially because of how it forshadowed future encounters that paid off big time with some of the set pieces in the back half of the game. Nothing ground breaking, but I though it was really effective as a skeleton for the game's level progression.
I agree that it was a bit of a mixed bag, but definitely still glad to have played it just because of how stunning the presentation was.
My personal GOTY this year. Knew nothing about Warhammer and never played one before. Now it’s got me watching Warhammer lore videos. For the Emperor!
I don't know why everyone reviewing Space Marine 2 credits Doom with the origins of "push forward combat." In the era that Gears of War was cementing "just sit behind the wall for the entire firefight" combat, Space Marine 1 implemented the first "executions heal you, so push forward" combat. But every review of Space Marine 2 seems to think Doom made it in 2016, when Space Marine 1 had it 5 years earlier in 2011
Did you say 6-8 hour campaign? Good lord my experience was nothing like that, solid 12 hours here on just veteran.
Difficulty has a big play on it for sure
If you breeze through on Normal or Easy without going for dataslates or stopping to take in the sights/photo mode, I can see someone powering through that quickly. Yeah, took me around a dozen hours too though :)
well veteran is incredibly unbalanced and a massive difficulty spike from normal, im guessing you got stuck on some bits for a while, like that one tower defence part with the flying f*ckers.
I beat it in one afternoon
Rats and the boss fights were hell on Angel of death
@@selectionn mmm, i'm not sure if i would say unbalanced, but its definitely more challenging than normal. But i had a blast through the campaign!
From Saber CEO Matt Karch himself; “… All I wanted was a throwback game. We had the chance to work on something which by its nature was ‘old school’… We worked on Halo back in the day, and that game could be distilled down to the simplest of shooting loops, but it was entirely addicting. That is what we wanted to recapture. I hope that games like Space Marine 2 and Wukong are the start of a reversion to a time when games were simply about fun and immersion.”
I think the team at Saber nailed it!
Fake comment mate.
Please stop sharing this. Just do a teeny tiny bit of verification before you go around posting stuff you've seen online.
It literally takes two seconds but I suspect you've seen this from Asmongold who didn't check, either.
@@combatwombat2134No, I'm the Fabricator General of Mars and I can confirm his content is totally true. There is no Void Dragon sleeping under Mars.
@@joshuayung5158 that's just what the void dragon would want us to believe.
dunno if the comment was fake, but saber most definitely did work on halo: mcc and they were the ones behind halo: ce anniversary
Easily the best 40k game ever made. Also the combat is just phenomenal. I have 110 hours in this game and only have completed four classes to 100% at this point. If you want everything you are looking at a bare minimum of 200 hours. This game is just absolutely fantastic and filled to the brim with content. It's also high quality content
If you are happy doing the same thing over and over. For me it’s getting boring very quickly.
Servers are frustrating too.
Easily! The sky is the limit with the amount of content they can add to the base game.
Rogue Trader is the best. DoW and DoW 2 easily clear this as well. More variety is sorely needed and the servers need fixing. It is fun though.
Darktide has much better combat.
@@jwash87 No it has not. I have an ungodly amount of hours in Darktide and only play Auric damnation or Auric Maelstrom.
Darktide literally cheats and just deletes players from the map when you are performing too well. Yeah you need to be actually good to notice this.
Space Marine 2 combat flows like a waterfall. Nothing better than getting a perfect parry, followed up by a gun strike and an execution. With a Melta, which is a meta gun right now, this combat flows so well. Cannot remember a combat loop this satisfying for ages now
"Really disruptive weather event", man has played Space Marine so much he's starting to think like one.
This definitely feels old school in the best way. Multiplayer is so much fun and Titus will be in Secret Level so I'm interested in seeing how Warhammer continues to grow in the gaming space.
Going to give a shout-out to Exoprimal here, rest in peace. Good ol' PvE horde shooter that took a lot of chances, some good, some bad. There was some mild PvP flavor, minimal monetization, and had a generally excellent gameplay loop with good character kits and a shit ton of dinosaurs. Like space marine 2 and kinitsugami, I hope publishers keep giving these "riskier" games a chance!
I actually needed a 40 minute skillup review after your very short astro bot review, thank you.
As someone who has been into Games Workshops Warhammer 40k since 1990's, has a massive collection of models that I've painted; I'm really enjoying this, I'm playing the campaign solo, and then also joining two friends to play it coop, it is great fun.
My friends and I have enjoyed it a lot when we do get to play together, but our big gripe with it right now is that the servers seem to be broken. That joining server bug turns every load screen into a roll of the dice if we’re going to stay together or not.
Thankfully, campaign missions let us start from a previous checkpoint, but Operations are especially annoying since it’ll replace the dropped player with someone else almost instantly. And since there are no private lobbies at launch - for some weird reason - we’ve largely avoided that mode.
Just warning others who plan on playing with their friends. You might want to wait until they fix all of this. It’s been incredibly frustrating for the three of us. It’s great when it works, but sometimes it takes an hour for us to actually start playing together.
Seconded. I had found a good fireteam finally during ops and was randomly disconnected joining my next round w/ them - it made me super sad to see that happen. That and poor matchmaking in terms of unique class selections at the first go, and those pesky chaos hordes need quite a bit of tuning, too...
That is just a lie. Plain and simple. I have 110 hours in this game and had the infinite loading screen three times. They already put out a patch for this and it didn't happen even once since then.
The game works just fine for thousands of people cross platform but you in particular cannot play. I call BS on that
@@requiemagent3014 it's probably a region server problem
@@requiemagent3014 Why you would claim so adamantly that anyone would lie about this issue is bizarre. I've seen hundreds of people complain about it. Just go argue with everyone in Steam discussion about it. They'll love you.
I have 38 hours and failed to load close to a 100 times. Usually before the operation but never have I made it past 2 runs with the same group.
Disabling crossplay helped a lot. Last few days it just disconnects me if I try to launch alone(warning sign being that I can't quickly find a team), which is a better problem since I don't have to wait hoping to load and then force close. Just exit to title screen and try again.
@@requiemagent3014 “Since it isn’t happening to me, it couldn’t happen to anyone else” 🙄 I was just trying to warn people, man. Not enough people are talking about the connectivity issues.
I have video evidence of all three of my friends having the “Joining server” bug on the same night every time we’ve played together. PS5 players are talking about it frequently.
And that patch was just a hotfix for crashes. What are you talking about? I wasn’t even saying this game is bad. Some people get so defensive. I REALLY enjoy this game, alright? Happy? Calm down, buddy.
Was a huge fan of this one, was nice to have legit writing too. Saber definitely did their homework on this.
Case in point is when Gadriel finds out Titus came back from the Deathwatch. That scene works regardless of how much lore you know, without 5 minutes of exposition. If you don't know anything, Gadriel's suspicion makes sense given the motivation Gadriel is a bit peeved by the late change to command and Titus's attitude.
If you DO know how the Deathwatch works though, the scene has additional layers, because Gadriel knows Titus should be a Veteran if he was on The Long Watch, yet here he is, 200 years of service and he is a run of the mill 2nd Lieutenant with no Veteran honors? Titus's return should have been celebrated, as every return from the Long Watch would be, making Gadriel suspicious.
And the story is littered with moments like this that just make me respect the effort Saber has put in. They cared, which feels rare in modern gaming.
Inquisitor - Martyr, Dark Tide, Rogue Trader, Space Marine 2. Warhammer hasn't released a bad game in years now!
I enjoyed Mechanicus too! And needless to say Total War.
Don't forget Boltgun!
Half of those games are only good for fans. They are objectively not good
Chaosbane was abhorent. And the smaller ones were whatever.
Learn what objectively means, bozo. Guarantee you haven't played any of them. @punani_slayer4209
The push forward and heal mechanic comes from the first game, not from Doom 2016, inspired the other way round I say
And this is the point of the video where I stopped watching. The glory kill nonsese ruined Doom for me and this implementation seems especially dull. Melee is fine as an option, but not when forced.
First game did it much better.
I've always disliked that mechanic, especially in Doom. I don't want to finish the enemy off by watching a cutscene I've seen a million times already, I want to blast his head off with a shotgun. It's a power fantasy, don't wrestle control away from me.
@@Damocles3 I don't like the animation locking of glory kills, but I was still able to enjoy 2016. The sequel however... no I do NOT want to keep spamming animations to get ammo from enemies
I remember gears of war being criticized because it was a “video game”. Now they’re praising Space Marine for doing the same thing.
Lets get this straight, no game in the 360 era had hordes this massive and smooth and just amazing looking! This game literally takes my breath away sometime.. The graphics in random spots in an online co op sometimes, I just stop and look around and smile.. It's that type of game..This game is all balls! 10/10
You actually unlock each PVE mission when you reach certain sections of the campaign, like usually they say something like "we need to do this but can´t" and then the other squad appears in the hangar showing that you now can do the mission in between the campaign missions
You can play them even if you haven't touched the campaign.
@@SethKnows True I should have said you unlock intel for them when at a certain part of campaign but can play them any time but it makes the most sense to play them when "unlocked" so the mission content makes the most sense timewise for the campaign at least
It's great to wake up and see reviews for two completely different games, this and Plucky Squire, both with great breakdowns. This is why I love coming back to SkillUp
RIP TotalBiscut. He would’ve loved this.
I really love these reviews where Ralph gets to gush about how much he loves a game. Seriously some of the best writing on YT. He’s so good at articulating what makes that make a game enjoyable and the reasons it should be celebrated. Well done!
While I thought this game was great I really wish the PvP and PvE progression wasn't so painfully slow
Painfully slow? ive heard the main game is like 8 hours long bro.....
@@JOHNNY5GMG the pve and pvp progression specifically is slow. Like I've played 25 pvp matches and am only level 7 and for PvE it's taken like 15 individual missions to just get one class to level 10 and there's still more levels. If you want to try new classes you'll be spending a ton of time replaying the exact same mission ad nauseam
Put in the hours. It's not like this game isn't excellent. Also ignore PvP. This is not a real game mode.
It’s not. I did like 12 operations and got my Heavy to Max already.
@@TalentedTacoTrex I believe there are specific missions you can grind in the co-op mode. As for which ones yield the most optimal results, i.e. XP rewards, I can't say. There should be some guides up by now, though. 👍
Seeing imperial guard and their vehicles in action in this game gives me nerd joy
You know what sold me on this game? Crossplay on launch. I can play with my PC bros and my Xbox bros. Just being able to do that satisfies me enough. FOR THE EMPEROR!
AND with no Asterisk. We can only hope Sony, Microsoft or Epic don't decide to kneecap the game with some egotistical attempt to capitalize on the Playerbase.
@@acceptablecasualty5319 *cough* Helldivers
Wow! no game does that nowadays.
Fantastic video!
Just a small correction, you CAN in fact unlock Armor customization by playing PVP, the same customization is shared between PVP and COOP.
shoutout to Saber for making such a sick 40K game.
As an indicator of how well done the customisation is the colours are named after and basically same as the actual paints you can buy from GW, so you can have the same colour scheme as an army you've painted.
Not an overstatement to say this game looks amazing, never really seen the point of a Photomode in games before and then I played this. Screenshots can look so good they're like actual art from a 40K codex.
I don't think any game has ever captured a 40K war zone so well, the scale and the unrelenting horror of it. The environmental world building is distinctly impressive, stumbling across a Cadian captain stood on a tank giving a rousing speech to a platoon of soldiers is the kind of background detail that they really didn't have to add but did just to flesh out the environment.
UMMM CORRECTION. Warhammer minis are pretty much all polystyrene plastic NOT metal. The age of metal miniatures is largely long since abandoned and even resin has been left behind with the exception of 3d printers.
I’m sitting in my hospital bed right now after a surgery for my Epispadias correction surgery. I just wanna say what joy your videos bring me and I hope the FPS crew is doing well. I bought Warhammer SM2 for my recovery days and this review made me so happy ❤❤❤
The Emperor decreed this game be a giant middle finger to the industry
Sabre absolutely delivered. What a fantastic experience. Finished the campaign, turned right around, ramped up the difficulty and played it again. Top shelf and a pleasure to throw money at these guys. Bravo!
I'm starting to think we never realised how good we had it in the PS3 360 era
Facts
The last time I was involuntarily taking screenshots constantly while playing a campaign was New Colossus. SM2 is Jaw-Dropping visually, I never thought I'd see the setting represented so perfectly.
Also I ADORED the pvp in space marine 1, so I probably would have bought it even if it was JUST a pvp mode.
This is why Evil West is so good! It feels like a 360 game in all the best ways
Evil West was also a great throwback game. Super under rated. Shadow Warrior 3 also
Played like 2 hours and dropped it
I worked with Saber for a while in 2006. Inventing tech that kinda shouldn’t exist was their bread and butter even back then.
Ghost of Tsushima is the closest I can think of to this in terms of business model/value proposition rather, instead of PvP it's a longer campaign?
Wasn't at launch though.
Ghost of Tsushima sucks though
@@gamedone735 lunatic level take
@@gamedone735🤡
@@breaddoppio lol Ghost of Tsushima is just a ubisoft game made by sony
This is the same company that made Wwz. That’s why the melee combat and hordes feel so good and familiar for those who have played that
I disagree about the executions. It’s a nice 2-3 second break from the fire fight and you strategically map out your next execute during the existing. It’s a cool system.
This is the most comprehensive and well-informed review I have ever watched on any game I have ever been a part of. I feel like I learned new things about a game that I have been involved in since we started working on it. Thank you for taking the time to present this in such a compelling fashion. Our attitude on PvP was that you can't have an old school game without an old-school mode regardless of whether anyone played it. We will do our best not to let you down...
Courage and Honor!
1:47 I wouldn't say the game feels "dated, in a good way" so much as it feels *classic,* bringing back the glory of an era we thought bygone.
The amount of praise this game gets in this video for 'not being a live-service game' when the game has season passes laid out through to 2025, and has an update schedule like any other live-service game is genuinely kind of hilarious
Skill up is my favourite and sending you some love from Canada to the land down under. I trust your reviews so much I wait for them. I actually started this one because of your preview. I watch every one of them knowing that your review is from the status of a player and that means a lot.. thank you once again
I very, VERY rarely buy games at full price. The last two games I did that with delivered such differing returns; Elden Ring punched holes in my social life; Diablo 4 punched holes in my patience. Space Marine 2 came out when I had some extra scratch and I really took a risk but luckily I already had two other friends that bought in.
I’m not even a third of the way through the main campaign and I’m simply giddy at the thought of the hours of dumb, pure fun to come with my battle brothers.
I understand the apprehension that comes with shelling out AAA money for fresh releases because these days it’s a cruel gamble on how much respect for your time some of the publishers these days actually have.
For whatever my frugal word is worth, please buy this game. It’s been rare when a game comes around with little to no buyer’s remorse attached to it, but I believe this is one of them.
The Emperor needs more fearless warriors. I don’t even really know Jack shit about the lore but damn it, this game is indoctrinating me.
Loving it. You did a great job explaining the issues professional reviews have had with it and made me realize it’s bc the campaign is the appetizer, but the operations are the main course.
"Why do we have to slog through overmonetized slop" *glances at the Destiny 2 player narrating the video*
He's just virtue signaling. He knows gamers like hearing that type of rhetoric.
@@jwash87 I was mostly just poking fun at him, not supporting whatever hate-boner you've got.
@@jwash87 not really rhetoric when it's true for this game specifically.
I admittedly want to play this one pretty bad as a 90s kid in his late teens during peak Halo and Gears of War but I’m currently super addicted to Warframe again and I fear paying full price for a game that may just gather dust for a while 😅
PC Gamer gave this a 60%.
But gave Star Wars Outlaws a 73%
Yeah. There are these things called “opinions”.
And that tells you everything you need to know about pc gamer
@@funkrobot9762that’s also known politely as the outlier opinion. Skill Up also called it out as a surprisingly low score.
They gave Gollum a 62 or 63.
Outlaws is a good game. Stop trying to compare it to this title. They are not remotely the same.
I'm over 90 hours in, I forgot the game released on the 5th. The operations pve missions are awesome and challenging. I can't get enough.
A breath of old air...my favorite.
One of the things that I think is helping my enjoyment of the campaign (and I'm loving it) is that I'm playing through the offshoot missions IMMEDIATELY after I play the story mission they shoot off from - and it's a blast to go back and forth between the "zoom and booom" vanguard with grapling hook and melta gun and Titus's more measured playstyle! it gives the experiecne a really welcome variety.
Ah yes, my opinion has arrived
This reminds me of my childhood going to blockbuster and picking up the newest game that wasn't one of the heavy hitters and just needing something new to play, finding out that it is actually pretty solid because it had the three things every game needed back then: Campaign, Co-Op, Multiplayer.
A modern game for the actual audience.
This game reminds me of Transformers Fall of Cybertron. 3rd person shooter w/ spectacle environments, 3 person coop campaign with 3 different personalities clashing in the moment to memoment & cutscenes. Classes with their own abilities. Multiplayer coop mode & pvp mode. While playing this, I can't help but wonder if TFFoC had this type of interwoven melee combat along side transformations & high mobility of that game. The games play so similarly. The gunplay is pretty similar too. Would have been such a fun game, but also brings back nostalgia.
the games seriously not fun dont believe the hype
The game was too hyped up and everywhere people are overstating its quality.
@@Soft_Cannoli maybe, maybe not. This is the first game I've played in a while though where I wasn't made to feel like it's a second job, and didn't insult its fans, and has really top-notch gameplay. I put it at a solid 8.5-9/10 for the sheer aspect of it being fun and not trying to step out of its bounds.
i bought the collectors edition and it came with a great artbook but there was also a message from the creative director where he said he was a big fan of the original space marine and warhammer in general and wanted to make something really good
Nothing better than the heaviest Scot accent saying “that beast is not yet dead”
I always watch your reviews before buying any major releases, but this is the only game I bought and put nearly 50 hours in before your review went up.
There was something about the trailers, previews and early impressions that really sold me, and game still managed to surpass my expectations.
Much love to the devs for this ❤
I love the source material, they didn't need to invent guns, they had warhammer, same with armor, same with enemies, bosses, etc! They just had to implement it right, and be creative, and they did! They did a perfect job recreating it!
I really loved the campaign was surprised to see you slate it so much
Space Marine 2 is definitely the first Warhammer game that should be nominated for GOTY. I'm not a Warhammer fan but this game single handedly got me looking into the universe. Just absolutely solid.