Within the yr 2011, males had been males and the horrible affliction of “Unreal Engine 3 Neck” raged unabated. At the moment of peak Xbox, we received the unique Warhammer 40,000: House Marine, which paired the gothic grimdark far way forward for the Imperium of Man with Gears of Warfare-style capturing, minus the knee-high cowl in every single place.
12 years on, not a lot has modified in Warhammer 40K: House Marine 2, a minimum of going by an hour-long demo degree I had the prospect to pattern. I by no means get bored with seeing these large ol’ blue Ultramarine pauldrons, and we’re really fairly starved for straight-up, linear, over-the-shoulder shooter campaigns like this, however until the complete sport has some severe surprises in retailer, it would not really feel like House Marine 2 will win the favor of 2023 Ted.
First, the great: regardless of having to crank the graphics all the way down to medium for a secure 60 fps at 1440p on an RTX 3070, House Marine 2 continues to be a deal with to have a look at. Our large boys’ armor nails that just about candy-like look of a well-painted plastic miniature impersonating metallic, full with particulars like skulls, scrollwork, and my favourite: mud that constructed up and caked my Ultramarine clodhoppers as I stomped via the demo’s swampy jungles.
I used to be additionally impressed at how my Tyranid foes swarmed in numbers that put the 360 authentic to disgrace, even clumping collectively on the base of partitions to assist their comrades climb over like one thing in World Warfare Z (whose videogame adaptation Saber additionally developed). The demo degree’s inside parts leaned extra into “army industrial” 40K (boo) as an alternative of “freaky gothic” 40K (hell yeah), however there have been nonetheless some good atmosphere artwork touches just like the candles, scrolls, and tomes festooned about an otherwise-modern management room.
All of it fell aside with the fight, although. My complete time enjoying, I discovered myself craving for Auroch Digital’s current Warhammer 40K: Boltgun as an alternative. They’re getting down to be very completely different shooters, however Boltgun nails the House Marine fantasy of being an offended silverback in energy armor. I nonetheless felt like a gorilla in House Marine 2, however possibly one already half-sedated by a tranq dart after a toddler tumbled into his enclosure.
Titus simply would not really feel responsive, launching into sluggish, lumbering combos along with his chainsword that I am unable to cancel out of when it is time for an Arkham-style omnidirectional parry. The counter home windows are blessedly beneficiant, however I would be hammering the left bumper to counter (House Marine 2 didn’t really feel proper on mouse and keyboard) as Titus languidly labored via a pirouette strike along with his chainsword, a profitable riposte removed from assured.
The weapons do not carry that oomph for me both—these really feel like assault rifles and submachine weapons and never Bolters, and I feel they may do with deeper, punchier audio and extra dramatic enemy reactions to getting hit with micro-missiles. I used to be additionally disenchanted by the chainsword, which moderately than ripping and tearing would smack towards Tyranids like a pool noodle. There’s simply no chew to it.
It is onerous to inform how a lot of the complete arsenal this represents, however I do gotta say that I respect House Marine 2’s dedication to a Halo or Gears-style “you get two weapons and a pair factors in a degree the place you possibly can swap them out.” There have been no loadouts to talk of and no inexperienced, purple, blue, or grey loot drops in sight, and god bless it not even a touch of “+6% probability to poison an enemy whereas flanking.”
With the capturing failing to hold the day for me, the demo’s linear sequence of horde battles proved each uninteresting and irritating. On the second-highest (and really useful) issue degree, I could not even flip my mind off and simply let the violence machine go brrrrrr—large boy Tyranids take fairly a little bit of punishment to down, and getting overwhelmed meant a barely irritating look ahead to considered one of my squad buddies to come back give me a form phrase and slap on the rump to get me again in motion. The sheer spectacle of all these Tyranids on-screen directly is the one a part of the 40K fantasy that House Marine 2 is basically nailing in the mean time, but it surely’s simply not sufficient to hold the expertise for me.
I hope this is not my closing phrase on House Marine 2, and that the shooter is ready to cook dinner a bit extra earlier than its deliberate end-of-year launch. We’re residing in a renaissance of retro throwbacks proper now and, sorry to my fellow millennials, 360-style over-the-shoulder linear shooters are fairly retro at this level. There’s room for a sport like House Marine 2, however not one which appears like swimming in pudding.