It’s been a turbulent week for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, its developer, its publisher, and its players. In the same breath as it announced an incredible 4.5 million sales in just over a month, publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Saber Interactive sparked an angry backlash with the release of the hotly anticipated Update 4.0.
IGN has reported on the details of this update and why it’s caused so much upset, but in short, it makes a number of significant nerfs to the Space Marines’ ability to fight back against the Tyranid horde and Thousand Sons Chaos Marines. The popular PvE co-op mode Operations was made harder, deliberately so, Focus said in the patch notes, after it deemed the missions too easy. The new Lethal difficulty, via a new mechanic that forces players to stick close together in an almost impossible fashion, was slammed by frustrated players who are now saying that Space Marine 2 is doing a Helldivers 2 and going so far with nerfs that it’s killing the fun.
These nerfs have gone down so badly with Space Marine 2 players that the game has suffered a now familiar review bomb campaign on Steam, with over 1,200 negative reviews in just two days. Space Marine 2’s official Discord and subreddit are packed with complaints, too.
Now, two days after the patch came out, publisher Focus Entertainment has signaled its intent to release a follow-up patch next week with “balancing fixes.”
“We closely read your feedback regarding the latest patch for Space Marine 2 and we’re actively working on another one including balancing fixes,” Focus said. “It should release next week.”
The hope, of course, is this patch rights the ship. Perhaps it will revert some of this week’s changes completely, tweak them slightly, or maybe even include a few buffs. We’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, this weekend’s going to be a tough one for Space Marine 2 players.
We’ve got plenty more on Space Marine 2, including a big feature on the game’s modding scene, where plenty of interesting things are going on behind the scenes. Last month, Saber Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits told IGN how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 had “changed everything” for the company. Eagle-eyed fans have spotted the Space Marine chapter now all-but confirmed to get a cosmetic pack after the Dark Angels, and even an unannounced new Thousand Sons enemy type.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.