What Space Marine 2 Can Learn from Helldivers 2

There’s no doubt that Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has had a pretty great launch, with fans of the universe joining new players all coming together to kill the hordes of enemies. However, with the continued push of time, Saber Interactive now has to start working on solving a few of the issues and bringing out content to keep those players.

We are in an interesting situation at the moment where we can actually look at another game to see the potholes that Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 needs to watch out for. I am talking about HELLDIVERS 2, another game that launched spectacularly. However, if you have been following the news, you would have noticed that HELLDIVERS 2 has been losing players as of late. This is due to several issues, one of which is the issues with PSN accounts on PC, many of which have been fixed in the recent patch, but the damage has been done.

So, what can Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 learn from HELLDIVERS 2 launch problems, and what does the game need to do in the next few months? We have a pretty good idea of what to expect in the future thanks to the recent roadmap, and one of the most important additions is new PvE missions (or Operations). Operations in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 are fun, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s pretty easy to get bored after playing them for a while. Games like this need a constant influx of content to keep players invested, and this includes new enemies and DLC, some of which we know will be coming soon. 

However, while new content and enemies are great, there is one area that Saber needs to focus on for the game: balancing. One of the biggest issues with HELLDIVERS 2 is the constant debuffs on guns, essentially making them weaker and weaker. We all remember the weirdness of HELLDIVERS nerfing flame weapons, only to then release a fire-based war bond. I remember trying to play the game before the major rehaul, and it just wasn’t fun. Now, I should specify that balancing is incredibly difficult, especially in such a big game, so I don’t blame the developers of HELLDIVERS 2.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 needs to be careful with its balancing, mostly because it’s in a relatively good place at the moment. While the weapons have clear winners and losers, they’re still fun to play with (despite the melee weapon profiles being terribly explained). This is good because we want to use all the weapons, but overcorrecting leads to players just using the same weapons forever. Thankfully, it isn’t so bad in PvE, so you can usually get away with using whatever weapons you want with no real issue, but I worry about the state of PvP. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 needs to make sure it doesn’t over-correct and just make the game unfun to play.

It seems that Saber is aware of this risk, as their recent update has fixed a lot of issues, some of which we weren’t even aware of. For instance, they realised that fighting Chaos wasn’t really as fun as fighting Tyranids and seemed to have fixed that issue with fewer, enemy spawns for the Chaos troops. Only time will tell if this works or if it hasn’t solved the issue at all. They have also added a sparring pit for players to have mock fights with each other, which is an entertaining premise. It seems like people are enjoying the game still, and the player base has remained relatively constant. 

I still enjoy Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 when I have time to play it, and I can’t wait for all the new content to come out. Well, other than the Dark Angels stuff because I hate DA with a passion, but that’s a story for another day. I’m also excited about the possible single-player DLC that Saber has mentioned. It is a good time to fight for the Emperor (and we’re all hoping for a remake of the first).