STACK #239 September 2024

GAMING FEATURE

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SEMPER FIDELIS Wade Pryce, the lead writer at Warhammer 40,000 Studio, gives a quick primer on Space Marine lore… “The Space Marines were created for that Great Crusade. They were a necessary component in a war for galactic unity. And the Ultramarines are one of the most iconic and famous of those Space Marine forces that have endured through the 10,000 years from their creation at the Great Crusade to the stagnation of the 41st millennium.”

The world of Warhammer 40,000 slams onto our screens once again this month in action blast Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 . Oliver Hollis-Leick, the game’s creative director at Saber Interactive, tells us more. Words Bec Summer

asking for, trust me, we're asking for even more! People who've read the books will have expectations about how Space Marines fight, so that's been our guiding principle behind the gameplay that we've created. Has the game’s tabletop roots inspired any particular features in-game? One of the things people love about this world is the ability to customise your character. You know, you take these little miniatures, you pose them in the way you want. You give them the weapons that you want, you paint them the way you want. And we wanted to take that same approach and put it in the game, so you can do the same thing with your character. What play modes feature in Space Marines 2 ? The game offers three modes: A co-op story campaign that you can play with your friends, a highly replayable PvE mode with lots

Can you please give us a brief story summary? Space Marine 2 is a third-person action shooter set in the grim, dark future of Warhammer 40,000 that puts you in the middle of a war against the Tyranids, for the control of an imperial solar system. What expectations did you and your team set when undertaking this game? We didn't just want to create any third person shooter, we wanted to create a game that embodied the galactic warfare that you’ve come to know from this franchise. We wanted action in the sky, on the land. We wanted flames, we wanted explosions. It’s a passion piece for all of the people working at

Saber. You know, these are people who've read the novels for years, who've played the games, and so nobody has higher expectations than us.

Do you feel outside pressure from fans of this massive franchise? No matter what the fans are

• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is out Sep 9

THE BIG GUY British actor Clive Standen, who starred in TV’s Vikings and Taken , amongst several other roles in movies, TV, and video games, plays Lieutenant Titus.

it's about creating it and giving it a base of reality. I'm playing physically what amounts to like a super galactic space warrior. You know, these guys are two and a half metres tall! They're probably about 500 pounds before you even put the armour on top of them - and their armour is ginormous! How do you recreate that? This guy is an unstoppable force. But you've also got to find some kind of grit and a hardness that shows that he's been there, done that, seen more than all the other Ultramarines he's now in this unit with.

of progression and customisation, and a PvP mode that puts you against other players. The more you play these PvE missions, the deeper you can go into the progression of these characters. Unlocking skills and perks and weapons. And, as you do that, our famous AI director is able to increase the challenge and throw tougher enemies at you in more challenging situations.

Please, tell us more about your character… Well, Titus is, you know, ‘been there, done that’ – he’s seen more than all the other Ultramarines. He's an apex predator, yet everything he does with purpose, everything with intention, everything with extreme power.

As an actor, how do you go about getting into this character’s head? For me, to go right back to the bare basics of what acting is about and just be in an empty space, but on the day

12 SEPTEMBER 2024

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