Space Marine 2 devs felt limited by co-op, forced to “compromise” on design

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 continues to get praise from fans for epic campaign and thrilling Operations. However, the developers at Saber Interactive are looking back with mixed feelings, as the team believes the game’s three-player co-op design forced them to compromise on the game’s single-player mode.

While the restrictive design was an issue for the developers, fans haven’t complained at all about this structure. Furthermore, with major updates adding free 4K textures and a new operation later this month and it’s easy to see why players are happy with what they’ve got.

Space Marine 2 devs wish they did more with the campaign

In an interview with GamesRadar, creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick revealed that “compromises” were made with Space Marine 2’s single-player campaign due to its promise of three-player co-op multiplayer. Since the main gameplay loop revolves around three players assisting each other in killing monsters, Hollis-Leick feels that limited the kind of scenarios they wanted to do in the story.

Hollis-Leick details a pitch where they wanted Chairon to go rogue for a bit, separating himself from Titus and Gadriel. The devs also wanted to do more with Gadriel, but the focus on three-player co-op meant they had to be with Titus at all times. While this is in service to the main gameplay loop, the fact these characters couldn’t have their side missions in the campaign is disappointing.

This idea is introduced slightly alongside the debut of Chaos forces. When the Thousand Sons army arrives, Chairon splits off to fight while Titus and Gadriel support from above, but the team wanted to do more.

“One of the levels where we tried to do that, is where Chairon goes rogue on his own and gets separated from the rest of the squad,” Hollis-Leick explained. “And that, that was us really trying to stretch that. So it felt like they were divided for a time, but, yeah, the closest we could get is for Gadriel and Titus to almost kill each other in a cinematic, and then, and then we’ve got to go back into battle again as a three-man team. So yeah, the co-op thing makes that tough.”

The greater good

Although these ideas for the Space Marine 2 campaign were interesting, there’s no denying that it’s the multiplayer that keeps these players busy. Because the single-player is meant to introduce Operations players to the combat and various monster-themed scenarios, the devs had to keep these three together at all times.

The only exception here is this game’s intro, which features Titus battling these monsters alone for a good while. It’s a shame that the developers weren’t allowed to flex their creative muscles more, but with the game’s stellar quality, it’s hard to stay mad at this decision.

For more on Space Marine 2, check out our guide on the game’s Heavy character build. Players can also check out our guide for the best Assault build.

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