Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Studio Was Inspired by Fan-Series Astartes

Saber Interactive creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick has revealed that the studio has been taking inspiration from a Warhammer 40,000 fan-made series for its upcoming action game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. In an interview with IGN, Hollis-Leick talks about how the series, Astartes, was a big influence on the game.

Hollis-Leick speaks about some of the smaller details in Astartes that made the series such a fan-favourite among the Warhammer 40,000 community. For context, Astartes Creator Syama Pedersen was eventually hired by Games Workshop to work on a sequel to the series for its Warhammer+ subscription service.

“He got the sound of them walking down those corridors… ker-klonk, ker-klonk-ker-klonk… but when they move it’s straight away like they’re predatory animals,” Hollis-Leick said. He also goes on to talk about meeting with the original artist behind Warhammer 40,000‘s Space Marines to get a better understanding of the subject.

“He brought his old notebooks and all these drawings and diagrams and he explained to us exactly how that suit works,” Hollis-Leick said, referring to Space Marines creator Jes Goodwin.

“He explained to us about the shoulder pauldrons are suspended on a magnetic field, it’s part of the under armour, which gives them a lot of maneuverability, so it’s not restrictive. He told us that yes, it’s weighty and they do stomp, but they also have a lot of agility to them as well. So meeting with him was a real blessing and helped us figure out a lot of how it would work.”

“That’s what we put together: the science Jes gave us with the descriptions, matched with the great example set by Astartes.”

Hollis-Leick then goes on to talk about how the studio wanted to avoid Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 looking too goofy. The studio had to get the right balance between the imposing, heavy Space Marine armour, as well as the agility that the armour, in conjunction with genetic modifications, affords the typical Space Marine.

“It’s a really tricky balancing act because they’ve got to be able to move fast enough for them to be responsive to player input, but they’re also huge and you can’t break the physics of that amount of mass trying to move,” Hollis-Leick said.

“So it is a difficult balancing act and we had to think about it a lot of times and maybe rework things. With the walk and the run, it’s fairly easy, but when they’re in combat, we’re trying to have more lightning fast, flowing in and out of different speeds, I think.”

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 recently got an extended gameplay showcase that featured violent battles on Planet Avarax back in August. The trailer shows protagonist Lieutenant Titus, alogn with his allies Chairon and Gadrial, taking on hordes of Tyranids on Avarax.

The game is slated for release this Winter, and will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game is also slated to get a beta, sign-ups for which are still open.