And by the emperor it delivered...with some minor flaws.

When the first trailer came out it hit most Space Marine fans as a huge surprise since nobody
ever expected a sequel to finally arrive myself included, but oh boy we can be all thankful that it did because it's a blast!

I will create a mini section for the 3 main parts of the game, which are the following: The story mode, the co-op operations and PvP.

What is your craft? Death.

It's a little bit on the shorter side but it's quite a ride. I try to remain spoiler free , so you can experience it for yourselves.
The gameplay is a mix of the original space marine paired with the horde system with tyranids and it works wonder for this game.
In the early game, depending on the difficulty you picked might feel slightly weak, but:
1) It's required for a healthy gameplay progression (By the middle, you'll feel a lot more potent with the gear you have, and at the end you'll be straight overpowered with a certain weapon combo), and don't forget that tyranids can rip through Astartes especially Warriors.

There is also a surprise enemy later on, which most of you'll probably expect, but it managed to be something new, a faction we never seen in a 40K game before. A breath of fresh air, a welcome change, you'll see.

I'd recommend taking it slow on the ship and taking in the ambience and mini events that happen between missions, they are 40K perfected. The devs clearly had passion and care about the source material.

And the final level: You are going to love it if you like Warhammer. It starts on a high momentum and keeps going and going until the very end. The boardroom meeting about it must have been like: "How much hype do you want during the last 2 hours?" "Yes."

So yeah, the story mode is roughly 7-8 hours long depending on the difficulty you pick, but it's a ride you'll remember.

The coop mode.

The bread and butter of the game for the devs, the mode they clearly have priority on and want to expand further during the first 4 seasons of the game.
It's a mix of Darktide (With the fixed missions that can randomise) , WWZ with it's progression system and horde mechanics, and Space Marine with it's gameplay loop.

Overally it's really solid and has longevity if you like that kind of stuff, you can upgrade your characters and wargear with branching paths, and it's really really fun especially with friends.

There are only a few downsides as of writing this:

1) Class locks. Understandable but you can matchmake with a certain class selected and get dropped into a match in progress where you are forced to switch or quit.
2) No option to host a public lobby on your own. That's allegedly getting changed "soon". We'll see.
3) Balance. The balance is fine for the most part, there is only one black sheep , the assault class. It's rather weak, or simply doesn't have it's proper plance among the 6 mainline classes. It needs some slight love.

The Pvp mode:

Not much to say, it gives you vibes of a game that's from 2012...but that's a good thing. You have 3 modes, the classic domination mode, team deathmatch and king of the hill. The TTK (Time to kill) is fast as it should be, and the matches are really fast and fun.

Balance seems fine for the most part, i'v played a lot of matches, unlocked some relic armors and never felt like anything needs a nerf. Of course it's early to tell, we have to wait until the community unlocks everything and some time passes, but so far it's solid.

There is only one big negativity when it comes to pvp: The maps. Don't get me wrong, they are good but there are only 3 maps currently in the game. They are adding more later on, but you can't help but feel like there should have been at least a few more on release.

A short summary for the end:
🟩 Pros 🟥 Cons

-An amazing campaign mode, which makes 40k come alive -That is slightly on the shorter side
-A really fun, classic vibe PVP mode -That has little map variety
-The graphics are really nice and works well with the art design -Technical issues on some systems, i had no problems
-The coop mode is a blast especially with friends.
-It's a long awaited sequel to Space Marine 1 and it delivers

If you read through all that, i would like to thank you for taking your time to do so and have a nice day dear reader!
Also thank you for Saber interactive for making such a banger of a sequel!

this game feels like it was made in the mid 2000's/early 2010's but like in a good way

-------------------------------

It's sad that I have to say this, but it's wonderfully refreshing to be able to boot up a game, play for an hour or two, and close it again. Rather than boot it up, do my dailies, check my weeklies, check my season pass etc.

You boot the game up, and you play it. It doesn't try to open your wallet at any point.
While this should not be something to be praised in the year 2024, it is refreshing to see.