In recent years, some of the best Warhammer games have arrived non-stop. Though Space Marine 2 has been this month's breakout hit, its spacefaring siblings Boltgun and Rogue Trader were some of my favorite games of 2023, while Total War: Warhammer 3, one of the best strategy games I've ever played, still waves a flag for the fantasy side of the universe. Across the games I've already mentioned, there are two big throughlines: massive isometric RPG Rogue Trader and retro shooter Boltgun offer unique perspectives on the setting, while Warhammer 3 and Space Marine 2 show the sheer size of Games Workshop's universes in ways that once seemed impossible.
During a recent chat with Space Marine 2's game director, Dmitriy Grigorenko, and creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick, a large part of our conversation revolved around Space Marine 2's technology. It was "very challenging" to make the technology behind it work, admits Grigorenko, but it's hard to argue with the result – as I said in my Space Marine 2 review, it really does feel like you've stepped into an intergalactic shootout. But is this a glimpse into the future of Warhammer games?
A grimmer, darker future
Though Space Marine 2 has only been out for a few weeks, it's hard not to get excited at the potential on offer. It's proof that we now have the technology to tackle 40K at a broader scope – and when I ask Grigorenko if these advances will drive bolder Warhammer adaptations, he says it "absolutely" will.
Yet the game director argues that scale has been something many Warhammer games have successfully worked around – he's played around 100 hours of Darktide, for example, and is waiting for a Mechanicus sequel like the rest of us – and finding the right angle will always matter when telling a story in the grim, dark future.
"It's all about what kind of game you want to make, because the universe is vast, and you can make a game out of anything," explains Grigorenko. "I can't wait for a dating simulator. But, I mean, I'm making a joke, but maybe someone is going to make it eventually! It's all about, 'what do you want to make?' It's not about, you know, the [technical] quality."
Grigorenko points out that even Space Marine 2's technical achievement was driven by the passion of its developers, a team made up of many 40K fans. "A funny thing about the background battles that you saw in the game – just a little secret for you: all of those battles in the background, obviously, they're far away, they're really simplified, but these are real units, and they actually shoot and kill each other, and they're actually fighting," he says, grinning.
"There was zero reason to do that! Our programmers just did it for the sake of doing that," he continues. "We were like 'okay, actually, you can make a real-time strategy out of this, we can actually command those guys'' – you can do it in our engine, but we couldn't figure out how to make it work."
Does that mean we can expect Grigorenko to head a real-time strategy spin-off? By the Chaos gods, no. "I don't want to do an RTS," he says, laughing. "But I don't know – maybe someone else will do it! I think there's a lot of potential in what we've made. We've made a rocket and launched it to the Earth's orbit, but we can add a new engine and launch it to the moon."
As much as I'd love to see someone at Saber Interactive turn Space Marine 2's horde mechanics into a top-down slaughterfest, perhaps it's a project for another developer. I'm still holding out on Creative Assembly turning to the dark side of 40K once it's fleshed out Warhammer 3 for all its worth, and for now, there's always Dawn of War. Then again, perhaps Grigorenko is onto something – if there's a studio with eyes on a grimdark dating sim, please know my wallet and heart remain open for Nurgle's love.
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