As a Warhammer 40K experience, Space Marine 2 excels in many ways. The unending tide of Tyranids. The ballistic characteristics of different models of boltguns. The way the Imperial Guards look up at you as if they've seen an avenging angel descend from the heavens. But as a video game, Space Marine 2 doesn't have much to brag about. In fact, there's really only one thing it excels at: combat.

But this is by no means a criticism. Just like its predecessor from 2011, Space Marine 2 is also heavily influenced by Gears of War. It combines spectacular scenes and immense destructive power and uses linear levels to lead you from one bloody battle to the next.

This design focused on a single goal aligns with the setting of the Space Marines (they are constantly waging war across the galaxy), but beyond that, the design of Space Marine 2 also reminds me of the Xbox 360 era — a time when games hadn't yet succumbed to the bloated "ultimate mash-up" trend, where everything needs a little bit of everything. Space Marine 2 proves with a modern game that sometimes focusing on a single concept is much better than slapping together a bunch of half-baked gameplay mechanics.

Developer Saber Interactive has built an excellent combat system thanks to their deep understanding of the Warhammer 40K universe. It's not about rigidly converting the tabletop game into a video game, but about depicting the battles those miniatures represent.

In fact, Space Marine 2 feels more like an adaptation of the illustrations in the Warhammer 40K rulebook, with a particular late-game scene seemingly recreating a painting by Games Workshop's famous illustrator John Blanche. Blanche's work often conveys the horror and glory of a last stand against an endless tide of enemies, and Space Marine 2 successfully replicates this feeling. Your enemies — the Tyranids — swarm the screen in the hundreds, a feat made possible by an upgraded version of the swarm technology Saber developed for World War Z.

At first, these swarming space bugs are just target practice for your ranged weapons. The thick barrel of your gun thunders with each shot, and every bullet explodes enemies into a shower of gore, giving the shooting in Space Marine 2 a weighty feel.

Saber has also shown their deep understanding of the many types of boltguns in the Warhammer 40K universe. At first glance, they may seem like seven different versions of the same gun, but after using them, you realize each one is unique with its own purpose. The stable and reliable automatic bolter, the precise and rapid bolter carbine, the devastating heavy bolter... each weapon has a different effective range and damage effect.

However, despite the satisfying shooting mechanics of these boltguns (and their plasma cousins), the most thrilling part of Space Marine 2 comes when the enemy horde closes in for melee combat. The transition between shooting and melee is incredibly smooth, unmatched by any other game I've seen. You can instantly switch from pulling the trigger to swinging a chainsword, allowing players to quickly respond to approaching enemies, and vice versa. This makes the transition between ranged and melee combat feel seamless and unique.

Once you truly engage in melee combat, Space Marine 2's melee system is far more complex than simply bashing enemies with a gun stock or stabbing them with a knife like in other third-person shooters. When faced with swarms of Tyranid Hormagaunts, I frantically press light and heavy attack buttons to stun them or skewer them into a bloody mess, slaughtering these cannon fodder enemies.

However, when the Tyranids (and later the Chaos Space Marines) send in their stronger units, the depth of the melee system truly reveals itself. I have to use dodge, block, and parry effectively to defeat them. As more and more smaller enemies chip away at my shield and health, finding those towering special enemies becomes crucial. Engaging in brutal close-quarters combat with them and executing finishing moves restores your shield, allowing you to survive for a few more minutes.

Throughout the main campaign, Saber has carefully crafted numerous combat scenarios that push players to the brink of death. Smashing through an enemy’s chest with an execution move to escape danger is extremely satisfying (and very Warhammer).

However, aside from the excellent combat system, Space Marine 2 falls short in many other areas — areas that we in 2024 have come to expect from games.

The levels are extremely linear, often interrupted by elevator load screens, with none of the intricate, twisty paths filled with surprises that we’ve come to appreciate over the past decade. The level mechanics and mission variety are also lacking. Apart from a few jetpack levels, Space Marine 2 is almost entirely about carving a bloody path through hordes of enemies. There's no opportunity to drive a tank, no environmental puzzles, not even an on-rails shooting segment.

I did wish for some more varied segments or scenes to give me a fuller sense of what it's like to become a Space Marine. For example, could they let us pilot a Dreadnought in a future sequel?

But this focus on one core gameplay loop reminds me of the more straightforward fun from the Xbox 360 era.

Back then, we played a lot of games that focused on their core selling points. For example, the bloody blades of Dark Sector, the time manipulation device in Singularity, the jetpack combat in Dark Void, and, of course, the orc-slaying in the first Space Marine. Even some triple-A studios took this approach, most notably Epic with their cover-based shooting mechanics in Gears of War (though Space Marines adamantly refuse to hide behind cover).

Star Wars: Outlaws This focus on a single mechanic contrasts sharply with the approach taken by many modern triple-A studios. Nowadays, many big companies cram their games full of different elements in an attempt to appeal to all types of players. Ubisoft is perhaps the most guilty of this, filling their open-world games with so many features, many of which feel half-baked and unnecessary.

The recently released Star Wars: Outlaws is a prime example of this: an open-world stealth adventure game that also includes action combat, RPG-like loot progression systems, faction reputation, space flight, and more, though many of these elements have been criticized as lacking substance by reviewers and players alike. Before Outlaws, Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (which combined tactical shooting, stealth, survival, and looter-shooter mechanics) and Watch Dogs: Legion (which included stealth, hacking, action, and a much-hyped but underwhelming "play as anyone" system) also suffered from this "jack of all trades, master of none" problem.

Starfield Ubisoft isn't the only company to fall into the "mash-up" trap. Bethesda's Starfield, released last year, tried to incorporate procedurally generated galaxies, base building, and ship crafting into a traditional RPG, resulting in a game that was broad but shallow, with many systems lacking depth. Recent Gears of War games have also shown this trend — linear main storylines have been partly abandoned in favor of a rather empty open world, bland side missions, and a completely unnecessary skill tree for a robot in Gears 5.

Space Marine 2 feels like the opposite of this trend. There's no mini-game. No filler space segments. No procedural generation thrown in to "extend game life." It focuses solely on slaughtering the enemies of humanity. Of course, this single-mindedness has its drawbacks: I had hoped Space Marine 2's missions would be more varied, incorporating more elements unique to the Warhammer 40K universe. But even so, Space Marine 2 made me nostalgic for a time when delivering a solid core gameplay experience was enough.

While I do appreciate ambitious studios and don't want to stifle important creativity, in an era of poor sales and ballooning budgets, Space Marine 2's approach might be something many triple-A or near triple-A studios should consider. The Xbox 360 era wasn't some terrifying dark age of technology, and looking back may prove fruitful. Space Marine 2's campaign does just that, and ultimately, it has received the blessings of the Omnissiah.