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This Is Why Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 Is 3-Player Co-Op Instead of 4

3 months ago
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Highlights

  • Saber Interactive chose a three-player team size for co-op in Space Marine 2 to balance the overpowering strength of Space Marines.
  • Building a challenge around the invincibility of Space Marines was difficult, with larger teams making co-op missions too easy.
  • The decision to limit the co-op team size to three in Space Marine 2 was based on the need to provide a reasonable obstacle for players.



Developers from Saber Interactive, the studio behind third-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 explained why the game’s cooperative mission mode has a maximum player count of three. Called “Operations,” the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 co-op mode pits teams of three Space Marines against hordes of enemies in unique missions.

Nearly 13 years after the original Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine game introduced many gamers to the power of the Adeptus Astartes, Saber Interactive is about to bring new generations of Warhammer 40K fans onboard with current-generation platforms. Space Marine 2 is set some time after the first game left off, starring Titus of the Ultramarines, one of the strongest Space Marine chapters around.


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What Feature In Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 Are You Most Excited For?

Space Marine 2 is set to have a replayable co-op campaign in the same vein as World War Z, Saber Interactive’s previous horde shooter. I was hyped enough with Captain Titus’ return and Hive Fleet Leviathan being one of the game’s main enemies, but I seriously didn’t expect Space Marine 2 to have an entirely separate multiplayer campaign, and I’m very excited to try it out.

That said, the three-player team size in Space Marine 2‘s Operations mode is unusual. Saber Interactive explained the reason for this in an interview with PC Gamer, saying that Astartes are simply too powerful to operate in a larger group. Adding even a fourth member made the new Space Marine 2 co-op mode “too easy” and left Saber less able to effectively balance the challenge level players faced.


Saber Interactive Said Space Marine 2 Co-op Was ‘Too Easy’ With 4 Players

Part of the reason that Saber Interactive found co-op play too easy with larger teams is that even individual Space Marines are extremely powerful. In the Warhammer 40,000 setting, Space Marines are the most powerful soldiers that the Imperium can field. According to Space Marine 2 Creative Manager Yann François, Space Marines are “almost invincible.” Dressed in power armor, armed with the best weapons humanity can produce, and enhanced by exotic genetic modifications, Space Marines are almost literal one-man armies.


For that reason, the difficulty for Saber Interactive when balancing the Operations mode of Space Marine 2 was building a challenge around that sense of invincibility. Unfortunately, co-op missions with larger teams were too much of a “massacre,” with four Space Marines easily dominating the hordes of enemies in each mission. Thus, Saber Interactive settled on three members as a “good number,” able to communicate the overpowering appeal of the Space Marine faction to players while still giving them a reasonable obstacle.

While three players is a relatively unusual team size for cooperative games, the number is becoming more popular with multiplayer game developers. The default team size for Destiny and Destiny 2 was a three-person fireteam, while Outriders also used a co-op team size of three. Space Marine 2 is about to join those ranks when it comes to co-op, though its multiplayer PVP modes will offer larger team sizes.


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