"It was an insane amount of work" A dive into the challenge of making Space Marine 2 lore accurate

There is perhaps no other IP with such an intensity of detail, or worldbuilding, or lore as rich as Warhammer. It’s been around for nearly 50 years. 50. Any work done within it must align with an absurd amount of lore written over years within books and magazines. As you can imagine, faithfully recreating Warhammer in other mediums is tricky. A fact that Saber Interactive chief creative officer Tim Willits was eager to speak about at the Space Marine 2 booth at Gamescom.

Space Marine 2, a long-awaited sequel to a cult classic from the Xbox 360 era, immediately seeps and oozes a reverence for the source material. You don’t even have to play it, it leaks from its trailers and screenshots. Every bit of armour, every NPC, every building. Seeing it is impressive, and actually playing it is a step above. It feels like a labour of love – emphasis on labour.

“It’s a very big challenge,” Willits stated, tapping the table in unison with aspects of the Warhammer lore the Saber team had to incorporate in the upcoming action game. “The Warhammer universe is what, 45 years old now? There was Space Marine 1, which ends with Titus going to the Deathwatch for 100 years. Most people are like, ‘what the hell? I’m already lost.’ The Warhammer universe is so big, there are thousands of planets, different legions, Chaos, the influence of the warp… So, we have so many tools to bring into this story, and it was a pleasure for the team to bring them all in.”