Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's multiplayer modes are respecting the series' lore, at least when it comes to making marines OP enough to carry a team full of slackers.
Publisher Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits says as much in an interview with PCGamesN while discussing the God/Gears of War-style sequel's PvE and PvP modes. "I've worked on a number of co-op games, and this is the problem," Willits says. "Games that over-rely on people playing together and make [teamwork] a requirement to be successful sometimes fall apart because, sadly, humans do whatever they want to do – and I love my gaming friends, but I want to kill them sometimes!"
Willits explains that "the most successful co-op games" are the ones where you can still have fun, kick butt, and grab a victory, "even if your teammates are idiots" - which probably explains the Helldivers 2 comparisons that keep following Space Marines 2. And his logic isn't too hard to follow: "It's just frustrating when you've got three people that are doing exactly what they need to do and one guy screws around."
While you can still tear it up on your lonesome, coordinating with your squad is still the best way forward. "There are no requirements for group combat, but there's definitely an advantage if you gang up," Willits notes.
Space Marines 2 allows for the entire campaign to be played with three players, alongside separate co-op missions where your three-person squad fights off hordes of bug-like aliens. Then, separate competitive modes pit six of the titular murder hunks against six others, which might make carrying an aloof team somewhat more difficult.
Hopefully, Space Marines 2 has what it takes to tear into our best co-op games ranking.
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
Getting Assassin's Creed Shadows on PS5 and Xbox Series X was all about adding "dynamism" to the open world, but the devs seem most proud about the trees
