So... Space Marine 2. I played this for 10 hours now.
I guess its 10 hours I won't get back. Not my game, despite it being totally my setting. The combat just doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, you're mashing buttons, you want to parry things, but there's five attacks incoming and somehow 4 miss and you parry the one because you pressed a button. Okay. Anything bigger than a termite must be executed with a very special 5 second (!!) long animation or you'll be shooting another full clip at it before it dies. So this game summarizes as mashing buttons to allow yourself to hit E and execute something, rinse and repeat, and pray you don't die in the process from one of the (heavily telegraphed) extra special attacks you 'must dodge or parry'... because they're different from the myriad of other stuff flying at you, for reasons unknown.
What the F. Now I know Space Marine 1 wasn't THAT different but somehow back then it was okay, but now with the heavily improved animations and environments it just looks so stupid, and plays so weird. It also stings that the game thinks it is as well balanced and plays like a Darktide or Vermintide, but it never even remotely reaches the same level of kinetic combat and feeling that your stuff just 'has to connect' well to succeed. I quickly just felt like I was balancing cheap tricks to survive to the next checkpoint so I could die/revive my way forward. There's little reward in being better, too. You're still going to take about as long to get to that next checkpoint anyway.
What also doesn't help is that its clearly a game that constantly has predictable checkpoints you're passing through. It almost immediately feels like and plays like an online co-op thing like Darktide. Not exactly immersive, despite the very much okay dialogue. That kind of level design is passable in the online environment... but in scripted campaign missions? Eh... it quickly feels like you're just walking from one repetitive encounter to the next. Yes, much explosions and spectacle... but you're not really part of it.
Its a shame really because the setting and all that is done well, the atmosphere is great. I just couldn't get into it because the gameplay got in the way.
