Alex's 2024 Game of the Year: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II

If I can't have Hades II as it's in Early Access, then my pick for 2024 game of the year comes down to two options. "But what about Metaphor? What about Astro Bot?" Not played them. Same goes for Black Myth: Wukong. While I've put an hour into Stellar Blade, I can't really put that up there with the same quality as other stuff. I thought Helldivers II would have a chance, then Arrowhead called in an Ordinance on their own head. So, here we are. Balatro, or Space Marine II.

I mean, you've read the headline. It's Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II. While I flip and flop between my game of the year pick on any given day, I think that as a Warhammer fan, Saber Interactive simply knocked it out of the park with the representation of the universe and characters within it. As we slowly got to see and play more of Space Marine II, as everything was unveiled piece by beautiful piece, it looked like a game right out of the 2010s in all the glory that brings.

3 game modes, a story campaign that cared for nothing more than being badass, and a PvP mode that lets you add in more hours after you've done all the PvE content? It sounds like a recipe for success to me, and while other games like Metaphor: ReFantazio and Astro Bot might be better on paper, there's nothing quite like the feeling you get in the banner scene later into the campaign.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II isn't just a vibes game, though. Saber Interactive put serious work into making a Space Marine - a work of fiction - feel more alive and real than most characters I've seen this gaming year. Each crunch of a popped enemy skull, each thunderous step of your power-armoured boot. It's all beautifully done to great effect, making me almost glad for the delays, as the developers took the time to really get the experience right.

The visuals create the perfect sense of planetary warfare, with structures beyond your imagination being ripped asunder by thousands of Tyranids flying almost faster than the eye can catch them. It's enough to make you wonder how humanity survived forty-thousand years of this, but then when you step into battle as Titus, ripping the enemies a new one with your chain sword and Bolter, you realise that humans have some serious weapons up their sleeves as well. As you fight your way past Tyranids and the horrors of Chaos' creation, you'll encounter some of the most unabashedly Warhammer moments you'll see in a video game. Saber Interactive turns up the cinematics and the sheer metal nature of it all up to 11. It's not trying to be something it's not. It's Warhammer, and whether you like it or not, that's what it's going to be.

The gameplay is thick and fast, and can be toggled to be as deadly as you like. The story is not exactly Shakespearean stuff, but it is incredibly entertaining, backed with cinematics that Amazon should be studying if they want this Henry Cavill show to be a success. It all does the job in such a phenomenal way, giving people that action-packed introduction to Warhammer the hobby and lore so desperately needs. Titus is the new poster boy, as proven by his appearance in Secret Level, and I couldn't be happier for him. The only worry is as the games and stories go on, I fear he'll become so powerful Games Workshop may be forced to remove him from the canon.

In 2024 we've seen the success of play. Games like Astro Bot, Black Myth: Wukong strive to give players a great platformer or gorgeous action/adventure, without the fat that feels tacked onto a lot of AAA releases now. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II feels very similar. A game that has a lot to it, with all of it feeling equally necessary for its success. It's just a good time, and one of the only games this year that had me smiling from ear-to-ear throughout certain segments.