The long-awaited Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 will go all-in on the galactic scale of its Tyranid invasion, according to one of the developers from Saber Interactive. Featuring the legendary Ultramarines and their plight against the mounting Xeno threat, and specifically focusing on the protagonist of the original Space Marine, the new game promises a new kind of WH40K experience.

Broadly speaking, many Warhammer 40K games don't successfully manage to convey the sheer scope and might of most of their featured factions, but Space Marine 2 aims to leverage a unique advantage that other development studios didn't have access to. In a recent interview, Saber Interactive's creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick went into some detail on what could set this new project apart.

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As Space Marine 2's recent gameplay trailers have shown, the game's battle sequences feature hundreds upon hundreds of active combatants running around all at once. According to Hollis-Leick's new PC Gamer interview, the game is supposed to be "bigger than its genre brethren, and bigger than its predecessor." The reason this is possible, specifically, lies in one of Saber Interactive's previous productions: World War Z. "We have our own proprietary engine at Saber which allowed us to do things in World War Z that you couldn't get from any other engine," explained Hollis-Leick. The software makes it possible for a game to simultaneously show hundreds of interactive enemies without an apparent reduction in visual fidelity, a crucial aspect of why Space Marine 2 looks as epic and grand as it does.

Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 Ultramarine vs Tyranid

The value of Saber Interactive's proprietary game engine has already been proven, it's worth pointing out. World War Z's recent Horde Mode XL underscores its staggeringly large hordes of infected humans, who often pile on top of others to reach higher ground. While World War Z technically is just another squad-based zombie shooter, the fact that it tosses hundreds of zombies at the players all at once helped elevate it over the rest of its competitors, and something similar may yet happen with Space Marine 2, as well.

From the shown gameplay footage, the Ultramarines will mainly be duking it out with Warhammer 40K's terrifying Tyranid Xenos in Space Marine 2. This means that Saber Interactive's World War Z engine will be perfect when it comes to showing off just how dangerous the full brunt of a Tyranid invasion force can get. Comments made by Hollis-Leick imply that the studio is doubling down on what made WWZ interesting, and the engine's ability to render hordes of enemies at once could come to a head in Space Marine 2.

Space Marine 2 is coming to current consoles and to PC, though the game doesn't yet have an official release window. Saber Interactive may provide further insight into the game over the course of the next couple of months, and a better overview of its engine and other technical aspects should be coming in due time, too.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is currently in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Source: PC Gamer