David Bridges
You’re an 8-foot tall, strolling tank. You’ve been bred for conflict, brainwashed since a baby to kill within the title of a corpse on a throne. You hack and shoot and kill on the orders of an obscene hierarchy, one which sacrifices folks of their tens of millions for the sake of a decrepit, dying society—the Imperium. That’s the central theme, the beating coronary heart of Warhammer 40K. Within the newest recreation, Saber Interactive’s House Marine 2, you’re made to really feel each inch the tremendous solider you play as. By no means does it ask you to have interaction with its satire.
I’ve lengthy loved Warhammer 40K, however so usually the individuals who write fiction for the setting battle to deal with the black satire that sits on the coronary heart of the setting. It jogs my memory first of a collection of video essays from Lindsay Ellis discussing the Michael Bay Transformers films. In a single video, Ellis broke down the primary movie by casting apart the vacant Sam Witwicky and positioning Mikaela Banes as the actual protagonist. Regardless of her company, her arc and character development, the digital camera by no means pans away from displaying the viewers her chest or rear finish. Ellis ends her essay with a quote that may assist us perceive how House Marine 2 doesn’t do Warhammer’s satire justice.
“Framing and aesthetics supersede the remainder of the textual content—all the time, all the time, all the time.”
I don’t hate the sport. In truth I loved my time with it the entire manner via. I loved it as a lot as I did with the primary House Marine after I performed in highschool. The issue is there’s a non-insignificant sexist, racist, and poisonous portion of the Warhammer fanbase that are likely to assume the Imperium is appropriate in its strategies. Newcomers may play it and never perceive what the setting is really about. That may be a disgrace.
In House Marine 2, you play as Titus, a titular house marine who’s been ousted from his chapter beneath false suspicion of heresy by the zealous and paranoid Imperium. He’s reunited together with his chapter as soon as extra, the Ultramarines, and despatched to cease a splinter fleet of insectoid Tyranids from Hive Fleet Leviathan there to devour a number of planets and all who reside there. The Imperium is much less involved with that as it’s a weapon of such supposed power it’s price not simply blowing up all three planets to cease the invasion there after which.
After which with little preamble, you’re into it. You’re hacking your chainsword via waves of hormagaunts and termagants with little time for the whys. The primary mission you’re taking within the recreation is to launch a virus bomb into the ambiance of the primary planet you go to, a jungle world known as Kadaku. In 40K, these are terrifying weapons of mass destruction. They don’t simply kill one species of marauding bugs, they destroy and dismantle all life on a planet. Books like Galaxy in Flames and Tallarn present the devastation brought on by these bombs and the “life-eater virus.” However in House Marine 2, the detonation does nothing to the planet. It solely, supposedly, slows the Tyranids down. It’s a missed alternative to point out the devastation that the Imperium can deploy. It’s too preoccupied with heroic final stands and empty proclamations of brotherhood.
The story of House Marine 2 continues instantly from the primary recreation launched almost 13 years in the past. In that title, Titus is distributed to a unique planet cease an invasion of Orks. Within the course of, he’s betrayed and turns into embroiled in one other invasion by the forces of Chaos, the mortal enemies of the Imperium. After killing virtually each Ork he comes throughout and stopping the ork invasion near-single handedly, as an alternative of being handled as a hero Titus is shamed. He’s taken away by members of the Inquisition—the Imperium’s jackboot intergalactic secret police power—just because his compatriots are so paranoid about his supposed resistance to the metaphysical powers manipulated by the forces of Chaos.
The sequel begins with Titus compelled to cover his identification as a blackshield–a member of the Deathwatch, a pan-chapter anti-xenos job power of outcast and penitent House Marines. He’s reunited together with his chapter, the Ultramarines (within the tabletop, they’re affectionately known as “Smurfs”), after he’s gravely injured combating the invading Tyranids. He’s supplied one other likelihood, however those that know his previous stay cautious. It’s refined however gamers can inform our fundamental character remains to be feeling the sting of betrayal. He’s not forthcoming in any respect with the man members of his squad, however he’s the one one who protests when the Imperium appears bent on recreating the identical superweapon that introduced in regards to the chaos invasion from the primary recreation.
Titus can by no means query the system that harm him. He can by no means voice his complaints in regards to the Inquisition or the chapter that deserted him. As a substitute, the sport is simply too targeted on simply how a lot of a superb house marine Titus is. His arc surrounds him studying to belief his brothers as soon as extra after being castigated for thus lengthy. Within the ultimate chapters of the sport, huge Papa Smurf himself, Chapter Grasp Marneus Calgar, comes down like an angel to Titus in his hour of want. He tells our hero that he was certainly proper all alongside, that the rationale he can resist chaos so effectively is as a result of he’s simply so good at being a House Marine. They win. Titus is honored and is given a spot at Calgar’s facet. All people’s completely satisfied.
The story of House Marine 2 isn’t almost as grand and epic as its arenas, setpieces, and environments. Titus’ voice actor, Clive Standen, presents a efficiency that emphasizes the underlying reserved energy of a centuries-old House Marine. And but, probably the most you comprehend of 40K’s satire stems from the spare dataslate audio logs and the few sequences the place you watch common human troopers get shot for daring to run away from the hoard of 8-foot-tall ravenous bug monsters. That entire time, you’re simply transferring from one area to the following, able to kill big murdering bugs or chaos cultists. The framing is heroic. The aesthetic is badassery. It doesn’t matter the context for the sport, even when it have been portrayed successfully.
Different 40K video games, like the primary Daybreak of Conflict RTS, handle to deal with the satire barely higher, however I don’t assume there’s been any higher instance of find out how to do it than with the latest Owlcat RPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Dealer.
I ran via Rogue Dealer from starting to finish on a Steam Deck earlier than the newest patches and updates made it, ostensibly, extra playable. It was buggy and unbalanced. The final chapter of the sport was clearly rushed, and half the storylines come to such a tough conclusion it felt like I used to be on the far finish of a practice the place every automotive is simply crashing into the following. However the recreation handles each the Imperium and House Marines with way more nuance than this newest third particular person shooter. The RPG lets you take three separate tracks. You’re both an imperium sycophant, a chaos worshiper, or an “iconoclast.” In different phrases, you’re an anti-imperial humanist attempting to carve out your personal dominion of a small patch of house.
It’s an Owlcat RPG, so in fact you’ve gotten companions you gather all through the sport. At one level within the recreation, you come throughout Ulfar, an area marine from the House Wolves chapter. The chapter is coded like Vikings of the ninth and tenth century, and so they usually get to behave as the great guys in comparison with the Imperium’s obtuse paranoia and xenophobia. In Rogue Dealer, the writers at Owlcat managed to make Ulfar fully alien to you or the remainder of your human companions. His voice actor, Oliver Smith, supplied us a deep, rumbling, snarling rendition of a brilliant soldier whose humanity is distorted and almost dismantled. The way in which to realize his belief is by understanding him and his tradition.
Or, as a superb member of the Imperium, you would decry him and his anarchistic methods. There’s quite a lot of silliness on this recreation, and that’s to its profit. Warhammer is a foolish setting. It was born out of the Nineteen Eighties anti-Thatcherism motion. The title of the Ultramarines doesn’t stem from simply how good House Marines they’re, however from the deep blue colour of their armor. Warhammer is huge, bombastic, foolish, and consistently biting. The satire ought to chunk tougher than a Tyranid Hive Tyrant or a ripping chainsword. In House Marine 2, it tries to disregard the problems on the setting’s coronary heart for the sake of a easy energy fantasy.
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