Space Marine is my games of the year for 2024

My GotY 2024 ignores modern gaming trends, delivers pure action and punishes the heretical bolter fire competition that only wants quick money.

Sometimes there are games that are so out of date that they are perfect for that very reason. For me is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 the game of the year 2024. Old-fashioned, brutal, macho – everything that I’m actually not. Here you can surrender to the chaos without having to worry about your brain (dear Inquisition, give me time to explain). There is heart and soul in this. The developers have celebrated the 30-year-old Warhammer lore in every detail. Be it in the last pixel of the background Tyranids or in the thunderous voiceover praising the Emperor. And do you know what’s best? This game came onto the market – oh surprise – ready! No half-baked mechanics, no unfinished systems, just pure gaming pleasure.

For me, Game of the Year is a game that doesn’t fit into 2024 at all – old-fashioned, brutal, macho

For me the board is not (just) GotY because it sucks, but because it is simply finished. Space Marine 2 focuses on exactly what other games have forgotten: fun without compromise. No half-finished DLC plans that won’t complete the game until three years from now. No, here you get a finished experience for the release and beyond.

So namely: Instead of ruining the fun later with balancing nerfs, players criticize that they would rather make everything stronger than Horus on Chaos Crack. The three and a half meter tall Space Marine feels as he should: like a living tank that dismantles Tyranids one by one.

Instead of following the trend of constant online services cash grabs (and dying as a flop after a few days), the game offers free missions and new weapons months after release. Free? Hello? What year is it again? Here you realize: It’s about the community, about the players, about the Emperor!

Poem to Santa Claus: brutal Christmas everywhere

Emperor, hear me: And now, dear reader, comes my wish list for Santa Claus in a very contemplative and not at all fitting way for “Grim Dark”. In style as a poem. Because I already want something like Space Marine for next year:

• Dear Santa, listen to me, I have a busy day:
  
  A game like this that hits, where you don’t regret the purchase.
• The lore so old, so venerable, noticeable in every pixel,
  
  For fans, by fans, made purely by hand, that’s clear.
• But Santa, look how others do, the games are often empty,
  
  With bugs that bring frustration instead of joy, you don’t want anything more.
• Give us more, like the Space Marine, where everything crashes and lives,
  
  Where no one balances the fun, where everyone raises their hammer.
• Let’s storm, let’s rage, be like real warriors,
  
  And no more half measures – that would be really great!
• Let us slaughter, let us rage, let us scream in the name of the Emperor,
  
  And please, Santa, never let games like that happen again Redfall Or Skull and bones be!
• Give us creaks that shoot and worlds that burn,
  
  And let the industry finally embrace games for gamers

Poem interpretation: In contrast to Warhammer are some of the biggest gaming flops of the year. Concord, XDefiant, Redfall – all names that caused more disappointment than enthusiasm. Games thrown onto the market unfinished in the hopes of getting better over time. In the end, these flops were born. But Space Marine 2 shows that there is another way. It proves that games can be made by fans for fans without relying on short-term profit – the community thanks that with almost 5 million units sold. And the Warhammer 40k part is also on Amazon Prime Video.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a playable love letter to gamers and the Warhammer community. It’s proof that well-crafted games with passion still have their place in the industry. Let’s hope that in 2025 more developers have the courage to follow this example. The Emperor would be proud!