Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine arrived at an interesting time in the gaming timeline, as Gears of War and other cover-based shooters still cast a long shadow over the action game genre. Relic Entertainment’s Space Marine game was a major divergence from those games, an anti-cover-based shooter where players would dive into a mob of Orks and carve their way to victory with a high-powered chainsaw-sword.
In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, developer Saber Interactive is aiming to retain that signature combat while building on it to make players feel like a seven-foot-tall engine of destruction. Speaking to GameSpot, Space Marine 2 creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick explained how Saber Interactive wanted to combine violent warfare with quick-thinking tactics on the battlefield.
“We wanted to create a combat mechanic to sustain a player through the whole of a campaign, and so we wanted to be more nuanced,” Hollis-Leick said. “The Tyranids are a more tricky adversary, and especially with the Swarm mechanics which you didn’t have in the first game, we needed a system that would allow you to move through large numbers of enemies in a sort of strategic way that would characterize the unique combat style of a Space Marine.”