Where is the woke? Space Marine 2 leaves gender politics at the door and flies off the shelves

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 made a bold move: It didn't force progressive politics into its narrative.

Despite a three-day window to play an early release (at a whopping $90), fans still flocked to get physical copies of Saber Interactive's latest release.

Buying physical copies of games has become a returning trend for gamers who fear updates or patches will ruin the original, non-woke versions of games they love; see Tomb Raider or Stellar Blade.

With Walmart, Best Buy, and GameStop all selling out of physical copies, digital download was the only option left for this review — at the same price, of course.

After approximately six hours of gameplay, Space Marine 2 delivered an experience that fans of the original narrative will be thankful for; it's seemingly devoid of any real-world politics. The game provides an enjoyable but sometimes hand-injuring experience while delivering on its promise of awe-inspiring hordes.

Empty walls

Playing on PS5, it's hard not to notice a significant amount of clunkiness in the controls. Compared to titles like Chivalry 2 or Doom Eternal — which is actually a next-gen upgrade — stringing together moves felt sluggish. This was definitely not expected from a game of this generation, especially one with so much hype.

Understandably, some of this movement can be attributed to the physical weight of the characters and their armor, but not all of it.

There were also some running glitches and sliding with the character, but this can probably be patched out. But this is level-one stuff that one doesn't expect to encounter at this retail price.

Invisible walls were definitely not expected, either. Some parts of the game felt entirely too linear and reminiscent of PS3/Xbox 360-era titles. The gamer will find himself attempting to jump on platforms within his reach and asking why he can't trample a plant. If you want to fall to your death, shouldn't you be able to?

Wear your gloves

Image courtesy of Focus Entertainment Press Kit

The second-highest difficulty will bring some finger pain. Switching between hundreds of enemies and, at times, single firing will test even the greatest Metal Gear Solid-tested fingers.

These hack-and-slash controls will have you pressing buttons a lot, but it's not as flashy and fast as the aforementioned Doom Eternal, during which users need to remind themselves to blink.

At the same time, the controls were underwhelming. Sometimes you are so blinded by shots and exploding bubbles of acid from afar that there is no other choice but to run in order to simply figure out what is going on. The weapon controls made it hard to move while pinpointing enemies, as the mechanics are generally over the shoulder. It feels like the user is encouraged to no-scope, yet it isn't easy to do so on most occasions.

Again, a certain level of this is acceptable due to the nature of the protagonist, but it gets annoying.

Adding to this headache was the inability to pick up ammo by walking over or near it. The press-and-hold technique is painstaking, especially when being attacked from all angles.

The user can only carry one primary weapon, one sidearm, a melee, and three grenades. This feels extremely limited, especially given that Space Marines are seemingly eight feet tall and carry 2,000 pounds.

Forgotten wokeness

Image courtesy of Focus Entertainment Press Kit

'There are no female Custodes in Space Marine 2.'

Before its release, fans were cautious about the game possibly including recent changes to the decades-old story. While it's hard to grasp how much fans truly disliked the retcon of the lore, some of the recent stories are worth noting.

As That Park Place reported in May, lore was rewritten to ensure inclusivity to females, removing the words "sons" and "men" from older texts.

Adding women into the lore through a rewriting continued in July, when Games Workshop, creators of the Warhammer figures, explained a new "revelation" that "Custodians can be any gender.”

This came with a new female character in the animated series "The Tithes."

However, none of the newly rewritten content appeared to have made it into Space Marine 2, leading fans to rejoice over the new title.

DEI Detected's Kabrutus seemingly gave the game a passing grade, saying on X, "Just to make it clear: There are no female Custodes in Space Marine 2."

Clearly the game has resonated. Space Marine 2 launched out of the gates, peaking at over 186,000 concurrent players on Steam alone in its first week.

With gamers paying close attention to which games promote progressive politics, Space Marine 2 seems to have taken that into consideration. With Concord's collapse and Star Wars Outlaws' oncoming death, it may be in developers' best interest to avoid out-of-game politics.

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