Well worth the wait
The highly anticipated sequel toWarhammer 40,000: Space Marineis over a decade in the making, and fans are thrilled to finally be getting some more info about the game. It was officiallyannouncedat the start of this year with a thrilling new trailer, and today during the PC Gaming Show, we got tohear from the devsat Saber Interactive themselves about their experiences bringingSpace Marine 2to life.
Saber’s chief creative officer Tim Willits is a developer with a ton of experience, going back to 1990’s id Software days when they were making influential titles likeHexenand the ever-iconicQuake. Willits let us in on the origins of the space marine trope, which is well known in games from theDoomseries: “I bet many people do not know that the original DoomGuy was actually a space marine inspired by an even older space marine, which is the Warhammer 40,000 space marine.”
Willits also told us what we can expect from the gameplay, and from the sound of it, we can expect quite a lot. “The combat in Space Marine 2 is a mix between in-your-face melee combat, along with some really cool over-the-top weapons. We looked at the original Space Marine game where they had a lot of this ‘push-forward combat’, which has inspired many other videogames,” he said. “That ‘never-stop, never-take-cover combat’ is integral to Space Marine 2, along with these really cool, powerful weapons. You’re either tearing up enemies in front of you, or you’re blowing ’em away from the back of the battlefield. It’s the best of both worlds.”
One of the most endearing details of development the team mentioned, though, was their trip to theWarhammermuseum in the UK, which is known asWarhammerWorld. Creative director at Saber Oliver Hollis-Leick said that upon seeing the cases full of beautifully painted and posedWarhammer 40,000figures, he and Willits turned to each other and said, “We need to makethiscome alive. I don’t want to look at this, I want to beinsidethis. I want to be gunning down tyranids by the thousands.”
You can tell by this last statement alone just how much love the team at Saber has put into this project, and I for one can’t wait to see what they have in store for us. Even without any kind of release window on the horizon just yet, we’ll still be looking forward toWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2‘s upcoming release on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.
