Approximately one trillion Warhammer games have come out since the 2011 release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, but despite the cult popularity of the third-person action-shooter, and its cliffhanger ending, there was no Space Marine 2. That will finally change next year, and at The Game Awards we finally saw what the long-awaited sequel's gameplay will look like.
As PC Gamer brand director Tim Clark put it in our work chat: "goty confirmed."
OK, OK, we won't really commit to calling Space Marine 2 our 2023 GOTY until we've actually played the thing, but our typical cautions against pre-release hype are hard to make in good faith when a trailer looks this good, at least if you're a stompy space marines and Imperial Gothic architecture fan.
Space Marine 2 is being developed by Saber Interactive, "the team and engine behind World War Z," as publisher Focus Entertainment puts it. World War Z wasn't our favorite co-op zombie shooter ever—we gave it a 60% in our review—but it wound up being a modest hit that remains well-liked in its current "Aftermath" iteration. The tech behind its hordes of enemies was impressive, and that's on display here.
Space Marine 2 will see the return of Captain Titus, who's been demoted to lieutenant, and is now voiced by English actor Clive Standen. (Titus was played by Mark Strong in the original game.) He's still got that sweet stomp move, and a jump pack, which was one of the best things about the original.
Space Marine 2 will release on PC and consoles next year, says Focus. That's a wide window, but it's narrower than the "TBA" we had before.
