Time is relative. Something that for some is a sigh, for another can feel like hours… but the clock shows the same seconds for everyone. I am sure that there is no one who does not know this feeling. Minutes are nothing when I play video games, although there are exceptions where they seem like centuries.
Almost four minutes of an encounter in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 seemed like an eternity due to the enormous tension I built up. I wasn’t even playing on the maximum difficulty, but the situation was certainly worthy of the cruelest and deepest tyrannical hell.
The doors of Valhalla opened for me for a few minutes in Space Marine 2
The idea was to try the Operations mode (PVE cooperative) alone using a little trick to avoid matchmaking. Nothing illegal. It was for academic purposes, I promise. Two bots (Bastion and Sniper) joined me after choosing the Assault class (Tier 2-3) in Operation Hell in Threat: Medium.
The beginning of the mission was difficult, a very direct hint of the small ordeal that would be the rest of the mission. The AI of Space Marine 2 It’s not exactly efficient during combat. Everything was going relatively well until I arrived at the gates of the Promethium Refinery. You have to cross a large esplanade dotted with industrial metal to reach the main door.
The area before the refinery is usually a hot spot in all missions. There are always enemies, but there is a chance that a random boss or a large horde of bugs will appear. And the latter is especially tricky because it appears after combat against existing enemies begins. You end up surrounded by dozens of enemies without realizing it.
I killed two Lesser Tyranids and went straight for two warriors on a platform. The first fell quickly and the second put land between him and my war hammer. I used the thrusters to fly quickly and deal a devastating blow. Two more ran up with their lackeys… and behind them fell the biological structures that the bugs use to deploy, like the capsules in Helldivers 2.
In a matter of seconds, four warriors gathered in front of me and dozens of smaller bugs. I know exactly how to proceed in these situations: defensive position and parry all his blows to wear them down quickly. I thought I had everything under control around minute 1:15 of the video. I felt somewhat overwhelmed, but nothing I couldn’t control.
Seconds later I looked at the battlefield to position myself and develop a strategy. Two very different tsunamis washed over me: fear for the dozens of tyranids chasing me and excitement for the glorious battle that awaited me. I felt like the doors of Valhalla were opening for me.
There were 5-6 warriors approaching from one flank along with dozens of minors and two others stalking from the other end with their respective lackeys. It was clear to him that the only way to survive was to withstand attacks and return blows through critical shots and executions. I had to dodge all types of attacks, physical and sniper, at the same time. To quote Bob Lee Swagger’s character in The Shooter: “Slowness gives you precision, precision gives you speed.”
At minute 2:10 I managed to perform an execution on a finished warrior and I took advantage of the animation to control the situation: there were 8 more warriors waiting their turn to attack me… and they don’t exactly respect turns. I knew I had enough skill to survive, but it was certainly obvious that the Valkyries were waiting to take me to Valhalla.
The next execution came quickly. He blocked one attack after another. Sometimes they managed to fit me in three or four seconds because the group does not follow a rhythmic pattern to hit and that makes you miss a lot of blocks when you try to instinctively anticipate their movements in the middle of the battle.
Critical hits and blocks everywhere. I landed several critical shots in a row on a couple of occasions. The situation became much more controllable around the 2:40 and 3:00 mark due to all the wear and tear he had caused with the parrys.
Both the Space Marine armor and the warhammer were filled with blood. I had only been in combat for three minutes, but I promise that for me it was like 10 or 20 minutes, I’m not exaggerating. He felt his shoulders heavy and his index fingers tired from blocking and hitting so much. The last two warriors of the great horde fell at the same time, around minute 3:11 of the video.
I turned the camera towards the battlefield and saw the remaining enemies. A warrior who was about to capitulate thanks to the Bastion and the heavy sniper in the background. I executed the first and charged fearlessly towards the second. I dodged his rifle shots while firing with my Heavy Bolter. I was critical before arriving. I executed it without any mercy.
“That pitiful xenon was nothing more than a hateful worm,” my Space Marine said after finishing off the last enemy. I walked in the direction of the refinery. Armor and hammer were bathed in bug blood. He had survived. He didn’t know how, but he had done it. I saved the video for memory. What I thought was 10 minutes ended up being just over 4 minutes. I watched the replay and all I could think was, “This is fucking crazy.”
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