This game is a solid action-shooter romp with fast-paced, exciting combat, an incredibly cinematic campaign, and a surprisingly deep customization and progression system to be found in its co-op and PvP game modes. It is well worth your money and if you're still on the fence, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't pick this entry up when it goes on sale.

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Space Marine 2 is one of those rare cases where a game is made as an unabashed love letter to its predecessor, and in a surprise twist, it does more than match the original -- it surpasses it in almost every way.

This is particularly impressive if you consider that SM2 is the sequel to a cult classic title that was largely slept on when it was originally released. The original Space Marine had all the makings of an outstanding game, but for as phenomenal as its gameplay was and as glowing as its reviews tended to be, it unfortunately neither sold well nor gained enough traction to popularize it after its release. It's also one of my favorite games of all time.

Space Marine 2 takes everything that made the original stand out and amplifies the oomph by a factor of wowza -- which is to say, it's a damned fine game, developed by a studio that not only understood their assignment -- to make a game worthy of being called a sequel -- they utterly aced all expectations. Without further ado, let's jump into what makes this game so good!

+ The campaign is not one of your dinky four hour Call of Duty campaigns with a plot as deep as the shallow end of a pool and the characterization of a pack of wild chimps -- it's a fully-featured, action-packed and highly-cinematic 10+ hour experience. I would almost compare the overall scope, scale and feel of the campaign as one very long Hollywood action movie. But like... you know, an actually good one.
+ Operations, SM2's 3-player cooperative PvE mode, expands upon the campaign story by introducing you to three out of a total of six fully-customizable classes in a slew of six exciting co-op missions with randomized spawns and emergent gameplay events (which only increase in number and variety as you scale the game's difficulty levels ever-higher). No two Ops missions play the same, as each one is a full-range map with unique objectives, the occasional MMO raid boss-worthy fight to spice things up, and LITERALLY hundreds (if not thousands) of xenos and heretics standing between you and glory.
+ I haven't had a chance to try out Eternal War, SM2's PvP mode, but my understanding is that it is stacked to similar degrees in terms of replayability when compared against its coop mode.
+ Armor customization is deep and robust, allowing you to use any of the numerous provided Astartes chapters as a base (or, for the creative hands among us, recreate one of your favorites from beyond the breadth of the game's choices or even put together something homebrew). Each class has its own unique armor that can be customized to the umpteenth degree, ranging from swapping out one or both pauldrons, gauntlets, greaves and more or swapping in a different pattern for each individual armor piece, all of which can be painted just like the war games (and for the tabletoppers among us that just gasped in fright, don't worry -- you don't have to wait for the primer or paint to dry).
+ The progression is, to be frank, so much deeper than I could have expected going in. Each class comes with a full 25-point perk tree, they all have their own selection of weapons that can be upgraded to perform better or even take on entirely different playstyles (for ranged weapons) or brand new combos and special attacks (for melee weapons), and ALL weapons have two perk trees, some with multiple choice picks to further assist the player in making their loadout truly feel uniquely them.
+ The combat. THE COMBAT. If you thought the original had fluid, frenetic combat -- and you SHOULD -- then SM2 is going to throw you through a loop. The good thing is that loop is violent, chaotic, a ton of fun, and greatly expanded upon compared to its predecessor; gone are the days of simply bashing, stomping and smacking your enemies into paste, as the game's melee combat has been completely reworked from ye olde button-smashing to a fully-developed system with blocking, dodging, and attack combos with light, heavy and special attacks. Melee combat at its roots is simple enough to be engaging and serviceable without alienating casual fans, while it is still deep and complex to reward highly-skilled and/or highly-dedicated players through the additions of of perfect dodges and perfect parries.
+ The core gameplay loop is engaging, as you proceed to tear through veritable roves of lesser enemies while brutally destroying more dangerous fare with visceral melee executions and gun strikes. Combat feels cinematic, it feels responsive, and you can really feel the sheer power and impact of each step, maneuver and strike from your futuristic super soldier of choice. And just as excitingly, the way the game centers around single-handedly demolishing hordes of foes in the high dozens makes any ground you gain feel hard-earned rather than easily-given.
+ The game fully immerses you in the iconic aesthetic and vibe of the grim dark 40th century. I think one thing that even the game's harshest critics can agree on is that, from SM2's gothic-industrial soundtrack, to its crunchy, punchy and visceral visual and sound effects, and large, sweeping, absurdly-detailed grandiose set designs really come together to make you feel like one of the series' titular Space Marines dropped into the middle of all-out war.

(As a quick disclaimer, the following section is just my personal opinion and by no means the definitive way the game should play. These are just my own gripes.)
- Control and target priority feel somewhat wonky and could use some attention, including outright absurd behavior when it comes to threat priority. This has resulted in mishaps such as grappling into entirely the wrong enemy ("no, no, I totally meant to dropkick that random traitor guard behind the Rubric marine, I swear"), or accidentally locking myself into a particular animation that I cannot cancel in times where I find myself seriously needing to dodge or parry.
- Item pickup visibility isn't distinct or obvious enough, especially from a distance. Sometimes I'll book it straight past gear and consumables that I didn't manage to spot in the chaos of combat.
- An entire melee weapon archetype, known as 'Blocking', is functionally useless compared to its two alternatives -- Balanced and Fencing. From my understanding the devs are aware of and in agreement with the belief that Blocking weapons need some serious love before they can contend with its cooler, better siblings.

*The season pass looks to be chock full of worthwhile goodies that should breathe new life into the game and enhance its staying power.
*There are weapon and armor unlocks. Weapon unlocks are entirely achieved through gameplay and cannot be acquired through MTX. Armor unlocks are entirely cosmetic, the vast majority of them are earned through gameplay as well, and they do not affect or alter gameplay in any capacity.
*No, you don't have to have an EGS account to play the game or access any of its features. I sure as heck don't. On that note, if you wrote a Big Angy Gamer Review(tm) because you couldn't be bothered to read before you click things, you're bad, you should feel bad and if you haven't yet, you'd better go change your review to something positive before Santa poops in your holiday stockings. You dingleberry.

EDIT: Updated strictly for the sake of unlocking the Steam Awards achievement. Game is still very, very good.