Ahead of the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II, it was unanimously praised by the media and after the premiere, game buyers flocked to buy it.
Creating a complete action game with classic gameplay without any fuss was attempting, and now game director Dmitriy Grigorenko says in an interview with GamesRadar that the goal was precisely to recreate the feeling of the Xbox 360 era:
“I didn’t know it was that obvious, but that was the intention. We wanted to make a perfect sequel [to Space Marine] – that was in the original pitch. The ‘perfect sequel’ implies it’s the exact same game – a 360 game with a story campaign, some PvP, and a horde mode to accompany it. We wanted to make a classic experience.”
Creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick shares this view, recalling memories of the era and applying them to his own game:
“I recently went to an old friend’s house, and we used to play all of those Gears of War games. I’d go around on a Friday night, and we’d play until we finished the campaign – you could finish the campaign in one evening. We’d drink, eat, and play. I went back to his house last weekend, and we played Space Marine 2 from start to finish. It was just this amazing flashback experience!”
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II is already the second best-selling game of the year in Europe and it is likely to continue to increase sales figures significantly over the next three months before it is time to sum up 2024. There are probably many publishers who now realise that there is a market for complete gaming experiences and co-op, and that not everything has to be live service initiatives.
Recently, Saber Interactive boss Matthew Karch said that he wanted to make a game that was “old school” and also said that he thinks today’s games too often try to force messages on the players, when it should just be about having fun, something he claims Space Marine II and Black Myth: Wukong are good examples of:
“I hope that games like Space Marine 2 and Wukong are the start of a reversion to a time when games were simply about fun and immersion. I spent some time as Chief Operating Officer at Embracer and I saw games there that made me want to cry with their overblown attempts at messaging or imposing morals on gamers. We just want to do some glory kills and get the heart rate up a little. For me that is what games should be about.”
Do you miss the action games of the Xbox 360 era?