Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II
Saber Interactive · Shooter, Action, Adventure
Overview
Embody the superhuman skill and brutality of a Space Marine. Unleash deadly abilities and devastating weaponry to obliterate the relentless Tyranid swarms. Defend the Imperium in spectacular third-person action in solo or multiplayer modes.
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Fight the enemies of Mankind as Lieutenant Demetrian Titus in this sequel to 2011’s Space Marine, and prove your loyalty once again as you are reinstated to the Ultramarines. Hold at bay the horrors of the galaxy in epic battles on far-flung planets and uncover dark secrets to drive back the everlasting night.
Dive into a war of galactic proportions! Enjoy intense, gory and fast-paced third-person action with hundreds of enemies on screen, and purge the relentless Tyranid swarms made possible by Saber’s trademark Swarm Engine.
Jump in endlessly brutal and replayable PvE and PvP modes as your own Space Marines, unlocking new skills and cosmetics the more you play! Fight as one of seven unique classes, unlock up to 25 perks for each class, add perks to each of your weapons, and customise your appearance with a huge array of armour and weapon cosmetics!
Tear through unending waves of Tyranid and Chaos assaults and fight to survive as long as you can in the unforgiving 3-player Siege mode. Accumulate points with each wave you defeat to spend on ammunition, equipment charges, Medicae Stimms and more… or use them to summon reinforcements like Cadians, Space Marines or the mighty Dreadnought.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,786 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Players love how Space Marine 2 feels to play. The combat is heavy and gory, with chainsword executions, gun strikes after a perfect parry and bolter fire into Tyranid swarms, and reviewers describe the gothic environments as stunning. Co-op keeps people playing after the campaign: Operations, Siege and Stratagems with two friends. Reviewers who bring up post-launch support say new missions, classes and weapons arrived as free updates and that paid DLC is cosmetic only. A few dozen reviewers say the game was their first step into Warhammer 40k.
Technical problems lead the complaints. Crashes and stutter come up in more negative reviews than any other problem, some of them blamed on a specific patch, followed by disconnects that wipe a half-hour mission's rewards and loading screens at every step. Players are split on the short campaign and its full price, on a parry-and-dodge system that some find deep and others find unreliable and full of stunlocks, on the PvP mode, and on an endgame grind of prestige resets and Absolute-difficulty cape challenges. Most reviewers still recommend it, and some advise buying it on sale.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Heavy, brutal combat that sells the Space Marine fantasyHigh
Reviewers describe the combat as weighty and crunchy: melee and gunfire blend together, executions refill armor, and a well-timed parry opens up a point-blank gun strike. One player sums up the learning curve: "The combat system takes time to get used to, but it is incredibly rewarding and visceral when you get it down." Another calls it their go-to after a long day: "The combat is brutal, satisfying, and never gets old." Comparisons to Gears of War, Doom and the Xbox 360 era are frequent and nearly always favorable. At the top difficulties the same system draws heavy criticism (see the parry and dodge section below), and a smaller group finds it clunky and slow from the first hour.
A faithful, gorgeous 40k world at enormous scaleHigh
Players single out the gothic cathedrals and hive cities, the sound of the weapons, small details like servitors and cherubs, and above all the scale of the Tyranid hordes pouring over walls and down hillsides. "Best Warhammer atmosphere to date." is a typical one-line verdict, and longtime fans say the game treats the lore with care. Several players are amazed the engine holds together with so much on screen: "It is unreal how many enemies can be on screen at one time and not tank performance." Others report the opposite on their own hardware (see the crashes and performance section below).
Co-op Operations and Siege with friendsHigh
After the campaign, players move on to the PvE modes: Operations missions that run alongside the story, the Siege horde mode, and Stratagems with daily and weekly modifiers. Reviewers like the class roles, the weapon and perk trees, and an armor customization system several describe as "space barbie" dress-up ("Customization is a pure addiction."). Many recommend it specifically for playing with friends: "Fantastic game to play with friends since it has a native 3 man setup." The campaign is fully co-op as well, which several players call rare these days. A handful of fans want a fourth slot instead of the three-player cap.
Free content updates, with paid DLC kept to cosmeticsMedium
Players who mention post-launch support like how it has gone: new missions, the Techmarine class, Siege mode and a training area, all free according to reviewers. "All gameplay, weapons, content, etc is included with the base game." Some older reviews were edited from negative to positive after players came back to a game they say has improved a lot since 2024. Critics say updates arrive slowly, that paid content is "drip-fed", or that recent patches broke more than they fixed (see the crashes section).
A gateway into Warhammer 40kMedium
A few dozen reviewers had never touched Warhammer before and came out as fans, a few going on to the books and shows. "This is my first introduction to the Warhammer 40k universe and man this game is incredible!" Not every newcomer found the story easy to follow: "a lot of WH terms are thrown at you and you're expected to know it all."
Where players are split
Parry, dodge and the higher difficultiesHigh
At Lethal, Absolute and hard Stratagems, the parry-and-dodge system divides players. Fans see a real skill ceiling: "This game is unforgiving & punishing, but so very rewarding if you stick with it." Critics describe dodges that still get hit, parry windows that fall apart when several enemies attack at once, stunlocks, bullet-sponge enemies and bolters that feel weak, so the promised power fantasy turns into a "Paper Marine". One reviewer puts it this way: "Space Marine 2 looks exactly like a Space Marine game should look. The problem is that too often it doesn't feel like a Space Marine game should feel." Another asks for difficulty that keeps the fantasy intact: "I just think the game feels best when you are outnumbered, not underpowered." Chaos draws more of this anger than the Tyranids, from Chaos Spawn packs to Terminators and constant ranged chip damage, and some players avoid it entirely: "Chaos is unfun and they refuse to let you fight Tyranids in Strategems."
A short campaign, and whether the full price is worth itMedium
Reviewers put the campaign at roughly six to twelve hours. Plenty love it as a cinematic ride with a strong finale, and some treat it as a tutorial for the PvE modes. Others feel short-changed for a full-price game. "Beat campaign in about 6 hours. Short game but it was a lot of fun!" sits next to "I am only giving this game a thumbs up because I bought the game on sale." Some reviewers mention picking it up at a discount, and some advise waiting for a sale. Smaller campaign complaints: no progression or cosmetics carry into it, it needs an online connection even solo, and one player hit a game-breaking bug: "It's lovely when you can't finish the campaign because your melee weapon is bugged on the last mission and you can't parry, pick up any melee weapons, or use melee to restore your shield."
The PvP modeMedium
PvP divides the players who try it. Its fans enjoy a simple, old-school arena shooter with distinct classes and compare it to Halo, Unreal Tournament or the Xbox 360 era. Its critics point to few maps, class imbalance (Assault and shock grenades get named most), no skill-based matchmaking, high ping and slow queues: "Single Player and Siege AMAZING... PVP just terrible and circa 2007". Some PvE players say they never touch it, and some resent PvE cosmetics being tied to PvP ordeals: "Putting PVE rewards under PVP is not only NOT encouraging me to play PVP, it is deterring me from supporting you with further season pass purchases."
The endgame grind: prestige, capes and Absolute unlocksMedium
These complaints tend to come from players with long playtimes. Prestiging a class resets its perks, weapon upgrades take a long time, and cosmetics are locked behind the hardest content. The cape challenges get singled out: reviewers describe dozens of Absolute missions per class for a cape, a requirement they say was lowered after launch. "Prestige perks system might be the stupidest grind I have ever seen in any game." Players who enjoy it see the grind as the point: "The grind for gear is real but, if it was too easy you wouldn't have a reason to play." Reviewers were also split on the Siege overhaul and the Stratagem modifiers (Atonements) they say later patches added, which some found fresh and others found punishing.
Cosmetic DLC and season passesMedium
Players agree the DLC is cosmetic only and disagree about whether that makes it fair. Supporters call it "player-first": "The monetization is player-first and fair." Critics point to the total cost of chapter packs and passes, to bought cosmetics that still have to be unlocked with in-game currency, to class-locked armor, and to passes that do not cover everything: "Season passes that don't include all the DLC for that season."
Repetition and enemy varietyMedium
With two enemy factions and a fixed set of missions, some players burn out: "Great game, becomes very repetitive after 20 hours." Some ask for Orks, Necrons or other factions. Others say the loop holds up: "The same missions over and over doesn't seem to get old."
What frustrates players
Crashes, stutter and patches that break the gameHigh
Crashes, freezes or performance problems come up in 22% of the negative reviews (386 of 1,719), more than any other complaint, and 35% raise some technical problem once disconnects and loading screens are added. Reviewers report crashes at launch or during the opening cutscene, at the end of missions (taking the rewards with them), in the armory, and deep into Siege runs, along with CPU-bound stutter and frame drops in big fights. Some describe a game that got worse: "Game ran fine for months but now every mission ending crashes." Several reviewers blame specific hotfixes and a late-September 2026 update for crashes every 20 to 30 minutes. Plenty of others report smooth performance, and reviewers share fixes such as moving the game to an SSD, turning off frame generation or capping the frame rate at 60.
Disconnects, ping and matchmaking with no way back inMedium
Reviewers say online play runs on player-hosted sessions and describe what that costs them: disconnects late in a mission with no reconnect option, hosts leaving and sending everyone back to the ship, matches on servers at 150 to 300 ping, and no way to host a public lobby or pick a class before loading in. "The game that waits to disconnect you right before the end of mission." Because progression needs a live connection, a short drop can erase a whole session: "Requiring an online connection for all unlocks and progression is plain BS."
Loading screens everywhereMedium
Long and frequent loading screens are a running joke and a real complaint: one to launch, one to join a lobby, one per mission, one for the results screen and one when the group disbands. "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only loading screens" and "Warhammer 40,000: Loading Screen Simulator" sum up the mood. Players on hard drives call the game close to unplayable, and some on SSDs still report waits of several minutes.
Bots that can't carry solo playersLow
Solo players say the AI teammates in Operations hit weakly, use basic gear and get ignored by enemies that swarm the player instead. "Only drawback is the AI bots do next to no damage to bosses and the constant disconnect to the server even on solo is beyond annoying." Campaign bots get fewer complaints.
Controls and missing PC optionsLow
Reviewers dislike the default keyboard and mouse layout, controller bindings limited to presets, flaky Steam Input support, no separate aim sensitivity, and cropped ultrawide and FOV options. "Great game but seriously messed up controls, totally backwards and counterintuitive."
Anti-cheat, Linux and background softwareLow
Easy Anti-Cheat draws complaints over false "mods detected" kicks and over updates that repeatedly broke Linux and Steam Deck play. A smaller group objects to the CertsUpdater utility and to data collection: "Refunded due to forced data collection before you can even start the game and potential malware, CertsUpdater, bundled in."
Toxic randoms and under-leveled players in the hardest contentLow
Some players describe vote-kicks for little reason and low-level players joining the hardest missions. "Game is great, but the community is extremely toxic and will kick you for any (or no) reason at all." Others describe a friendly community.
Install size and drive speedLow
The install size, which reviewers put at 90 GB or more and some at around 200 GB, with the optional 4K texture pack adding to it, and the practical need for an SSD put some players off: "Good game for sure, but holy 200gb."
3. The player conversation
Negative reviews are usually detailed and come in two kinds. Newcomers write about launch crashes, loading screens, controls and the campaign's length. Veterans with hundreds of hours write about balance at the top difficulties, prestige and cape grinds, Stratagem modifiers and whichever patch most recently broke something, and some of these veterans still vote positive while listing long complaints.
Week by week, reviews written from late May to early August 2026 were 84% to 90% positive. Setting the conduct protest aside, the share dipped to 81% in the week of 10 August 2026 and fell to 78% in reviews written from 28 September 2026, a stretch whose negative reviews complain about crashes, Linux support and a recent update. Edited older reviews show movement in both directions: some players flipped to positive after fixes and free content, others flipped to negative after a patch broke their game.
4. What the developers could do
- Stop patches from breaking stability. Crashes and freezes lead the negative reviews, and some describe a game that ran fine until a specific update.
- Add a reconnect option and keep partial rewards after a disconnect. Players describe losing half-hour missions and whole Siege runs to a dropped connection, a crash or a host leaving.
- Cut the loading screens and let players host public lobbies. Loading screens at every step and forced reloads when a group disbands come up in positive and negative reviews alike.
- Make dodges and parries reliable and rein in stunlocks and Chaos chip damage at high difficulty. Players on Lethal and Absolute say failed dodges, stunlocks and constant ranged damage make them feel underpowered instead of challenged.
- Ease the endgame grind. Reviewers ask for perks that survive a prestige, lower per-class cape requirements and more ways to earn top-tier cosmetics outside Absolute difficulty.
- Add level gates or matchmaking filters for the hardest content and PvP. Players complain about under-leveled teammates in Absolute and hard Stratagems and about uneven PvP matches at high ping.
- Improve the AI teammates for solo players. Solo reviewers say bots deal little damage, use basic gear and leave the player to absorb every enemy.
- Spell out exactly what each season pass and DLC contains. Buyers say passes left out content they expected and that paid cosmetics still need in-game currency to unlock.
