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How do people feel about all the flavors of bolters? I found myself preferring the Marksmen rifle in the campaign. Although I spent a lot of the final 3rd running plasma.

Also loved the heck out of the HB whenever I got my hands on one.

 Pacific wrote:
One of my least favourite parts of online gaming. It has been the case for as long as I can remember, even back to early mmorpg days of Ultima Online, Everquest etc. "CMON CMON CMON" as they run forward bunny hopping. At least in the case of Ultima, you could just wait for them to aggro a bunch of monsters, die and then loot their corpse

Ok the other hand, playing with a group of friends who have not been chain-drinking cans of Monster,.and killing stuff together, can be awesome!

I'm playing through on easy mode at the moment and have to say it's probably at the right level for me - and a termagent dies when hit in the head by a bolter shell, as it should

Same here, I am a gaming tourist haha, I prefer to just have fun and not sweat, though we are playing through the story and operations on normal, which makes things challenging enough without becoming a massive sweatfest. The director the game uses for operations loves to throw some meaty challenges our way every now and then (eight warriors, why game, why?! ) but with a little coordination and timely used abilities it becomes a fun challenge to tackle. Having an assault marine and the heavy tackle an assault while I as the tactical hold off an ambush to the rear, that's good fun.

 Nevelon wrote:
How do people feel about all the flavors of bolters? I found myself preferring the Marksmen rifle in the campaign. Although I spent a lot of the final 3rd running plasma.

Also loved the heck out of the HB whenever I got my hands on one.

Heavy bolt rifle is my weapon of choice, has a nice kick and bite to it, also using it in operations a lot. We've agreed to give any heavy bolter we find in the campaign to just one player, who loves his heavy weapons and is quite handy with one as well hehe.

That said, I like that the game makes every weapon viable and you can take whatever you want and still have fun with it. Sure, the power sword is the best all-round melee weapon, but sometimes, the combat knife is rewarding in its own way, same with the pistols, the plasma might be the "best" option, but I much prefer the heavy bolt pistol, which again, has a nice kick and bite to it.

I know the powersword is nice and balanced, but once the thunderhammer found it’s way to my grubby little hands, it never left.

Sometimes you just need to swing for the bleachers and turn things into clouds of gore.

 Nevelon wrote:
So finished the campaign. Bit short, but good.

Started doing some of the trials. Man do I suck.

If you started with the Tactical, just know that those are absurdly hard for some sick reason. I was able to A rank almost all of the trials for the other classes, but I can't even get a C rank on the first tactical trial.


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 BrookM wrote:
Same here, I am a gaming tourist haha, I prefer to just have fun and not sweat, though we are playing through the story and operations on normal, which makes things challenging enough without becoming a massive sweatfest. The director the game uses for operations loves to throw some meaty challenges our way every now and then (eight warriors, why game, why?! ) but with a little coordination and timely used abilities it becomes a fun challenge to tackle. Having an assault marine and the heavy tackle an assault while I as the tactical hold off an ambush to the rear, that's good fun.

Unlike story mode, Operations really wants you to play through Easy first to learn the levels and more importantly, get to around level 5 where each class unlocks a passive team buff that makes Normal mode significantly easier.

For the most part I've been pretty happy with the online experience in terms of the power gaming. I think it helps that the power games have to explore every nook and cranny for armory upgrades and the like so they're not really pushing the team to get through the level any faster than they probably can naturally. The game has a good flow and for the most part doesn't demand too much from players until Veteran level so people can kind of do their thing without harming the experience.

 LunarSol wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
So finished the campaign. Bit short, but good.

Started doing some of the trials. Man do I suck.

If you started with the Tactical, just know that those are absurdly hard for some sick reason. I was able to A rank almost all of the trials for the other classes, but I can't even get a C rank on the first tactical trial.

I did try some if the others with better results. But yes, it was a little disheartening to try what is naturally the first ones to try and just get stuffed.

I was wondering if you need to level up the guns first? I’m probably not using the ausepx right as well. But that’s why I was in the trials…. I’ll work on the others for now. Hopefully we’ll get bot lobbies and I can get more practice in before I saddle other players with my incompetence.

 Nevelon wrote:
I know the powersword is nice and balanced, but once the thunderhammer found it’s way to my grubby little hands, it never left.

Sometimes you just need to swing for the bleachers and turn things into clouds of gore.

Everything is a nail with a hammer that size! I've felt that way about the power sword myself, the hammer is a bit too clunky for my tastes, but that's because it has an awesome weight to it that makes it really live up to the hype of it being a massive thunder hammer, plus that way it's not a complete replacement of all the other melee weapons.

 LunarSol wrote:
Unlike story mode, Operations really wants you to play through Easy first to learn the levels and more importantly, get to around level 5 where each class unlocks a passive team buff that makes Normal mode significantly easier.

For the most part I've been pretty happy with the online experience in terms of the power gaming. I think it helps that the power games have to explore every nook and cranny for armory upgrades and the like so they're not really pushing the team to get through the level any faster than they probably can naturally. The game has a good flow and for the most part doesn't demand too much from players until Veteran level so people can kind of do their thing without harming the experience.

Sadly no easy in this household with how my brother is! ? It's one of the reasons I am eagerly awaiting solo lobbies, as I am dying to do some solo-levelling and get my passive already.

And yes! Some of the challenges are diabolically evil, while others I aced without even trying.

 Nevelon wrote:
How do people feel about all the flavors of bolters? I found myself preferring the Marksmen rifle in the campaign. Although I spent a lot of the final 3rd running plasma.

Also loved the heck out of the HB whenever I got my hands on one.

I got fairly hooked on the melta myself, but in terms of Bolters I liked the stalker in campaign. I think the Auto is the only one that's kind of bad all around, but the grenade launcher variants are probably my favorite overall.


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 Nevelon wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
So finished the campaign. Bit short, but good.

Started doing some of the trials. Man do I suck.

If you started with the Tactical, just know that those are absurdly hard for some sick reason. I was able to A rank almost all of the trials for the other classes, but I can't even get a C rank on the first tactical trial.

I did try some if the others with better results. But yes, it was a little disheartening to try what is naturally the first ones to try and just get stuffed.

I was wondering if you need to level up the guns first? I’m probably not using the ausepx right as well. But that’s why I was in the trials…. I’ll work on the others for now. Hopefully we’ll get bot lobbies and I can get more practice in before I saddle other players with my incompetence.

I really don't know. The bolters in Ops feel very underpowered until they get some levels, but I'm not sure if upgrades carry over. Certainly it would be weird if Tactical was the only one that needed upgrades to A rank.


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In terms of melee, I generally don't like Block weapons outside the Thunder Hammer. I tend to play the Bulwark a lot and definitely favor the Power Sword, but the Chainsword is very good as well. Fencing is probably unnecessary in the long term, but feels really nice.

Finally finished the campaign this evening. As it turns out, my favorite weapon during my play through became the standard bolt rifle.

Maxed out the Heavy class and getting close on the Bulwark. Ruthless is really fun with a coordinated team, but luckily you only need to clear a few missions that way to max out a character.

Probably work on a Tactical next, though Assault looks very tempting and many teams could use a good Sniper....

Hopefully tomorrow the private PVE servers will be implemented, they have maintenance scheduled then, as I am itching to do some grinding with my Tactical.

 BrookM wrote:
Hopefully tomorrow the private PVE servers will be implemented, they have maintenance scheduled then, as I am itching to do some grinding with my Tactical.

And they have!

Looks like a great patch overall. Going to need to try it out and see but lots of good fixes and the few nerfs seem pretty reasonably thought out.

Pleasantly surprised by this all and already enjoying it a lot. Bots are no real substitute for real players, but this is so much better than running with randos and the cheaters that are rife in the game right now.

I haven't had a problem with the playerbase honestly. Played quite a few games with random matchmaking and while its no where near as effective as playing with friends on voice chat, I've had maybe 2-3 wildly incompetent runs total.

Servers are a bit gak at the moment though, only managed to get two solo games in, every other was interrupted by a server failure, losing all progress unless I go off-line, which means no XP or progression.. ?

fething hell the Heldrake boss battle is an unfun mess, nothing like running around dodging fire attacks while hordes of ranged enemies are spawned in around you as you try to find the three right symbols to weaken an enemy for a split second so it can take damage..

Got the game last week, it's decent enough, but I dunno, maybe its just me not getting excited about games anymore. Or maybe I am just useless when it comes to gaming

 BrookM wrote:
fething hell the Heldrake boss battle is an unfun mess, nothing like running around dodging fire attacks while hordes of ranged enemies are spawned in around you as you try to find the three right symbols to weaken an enemy for a split second so it can take damage..

The spawns and hellfire attacks really only come in if you pick the wrong symbols. If you stick to the right ones it's a pretty simple fight. It is the one place where randos who don't know the mechanics can absolutely ruin a run though and I really wish the tutorial button for this included an option to make the wrong choice so people might learn.

Porphyr Shield pistol skins as compensation for the cancelled beta are being sent out now by Focus.

Whoops, wrong 40K game thread!

Bit annoyed that whenever I pick an ops to play solo the game switches it to another without any warning or prompt.

Loving the Bulwark a lot, more than the Tactical. Not super ideal in every situation, really struggling against Zoanthropes due to the AI doing diddly damage against them, but really enjoy this one, managed to get to level 9 playing it solo thus far.

Yeah, the private mission switch thing is super weird. I have no idea what's going on there other than it being an obvious bug. It doesn't ever happen in public games.

I've maxed out the Bulwark and Heavy and really enjoy both to the point I'm not sure what I want next. Currently doing a bit of work on Assault and Tactical and they're fun but less my style.

I've been having a great time playing. PvP is actually not too annoying, seems a little more refined than space marine 1.

I'm enjoying the operations, just levelling up my tactical marine currently. I need to get to level 3 difficulty to unlock those purple upgrades for weapons. Myself and a couple of pals played the first mission last night and got rinsed about halfway through.

I find it a little amusing that they went for the "firstborn" naming conventions as it were rather than daft Primaris ones. I guess to make sense to non-tabletop players!

My only issue is the loading times, for whatever reason it takes 8 minutes to load me into the game. It was worse before that patch they did recently. Then a couple of minutes each time I load a mission. Don't see why it does when comparable spec games run much better. I know my PC isn't great but it's not dreadful.

I love the game. I've got Tactical, Assault, and Vanguard up to level 25. I don't much care for the other classes. I would have liked Bulwark were it not for how weird parrying is with that class. I can do it just fine with any other kit, but the parry windows on Bulwark are just weird. I think Sniper is very effective but just not my style. Heavy not having a melee weapon is an instant turn off for me. I have way too much fun mixing it up in close quarters.

In regards to the load time complaints, I must agree. I play this on PS5. There is no reason this machine can instantaneously load the massive, gorgeous photo realistic environments of Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima and yet take such a long time booting up the tiny arenas of SM2. I think it's just poorly optimized. Not a deal breaker, but certainly obnoxious.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
I would have liked Bulwark were it not for how weird parrying is with that class. I can do it just fine with any other kit, but the parry windows on Bulwark are just weird.

Parry is based on the Defense stat. Were you playing with a Block weapon? I find myself pretty spoiled once I unlock Fencing weapons.

There also seems to be something odd about the Bulwark perk that creates a damage pulse when you parry (not the one that drops a shock area, the one at level 10 I think). When its on, the damage pulse seems to break enemies out of the gun strike, making it feel like you're missing the parries constantly. If you've gotten that far, try switching it back to the level 2 perk in that column that makes you more durable when your armor is gone and see if that helps.

I have a spare bolt pistol skin key for those interested, works on all platforms.


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Preview of what's to come:




The new enemy is.. Heirophant bio-titan!

And the Bulwark will receive a unique Dark Angels themed skin set, which will hopefully also include a custom banner. ??

Love it, looking forward to Horde mode. I hope we get things like sentry guns and artillery for that.

Been enjoying the game quite a lot. I feel like it could have been optimized better for loading times and servers and stuff, but it has been fun.

So I've only put about 10 hours into SM2 so far, which honestly is far less than I expected this far into release.

The campaign was fine but somehow felt long but also short at the same time?
The final boss was just annoying, it felt like I was just rolling around waiting to shoot at a hovering enemy while doing more rolling to dodge attacks.

Operations is OK but it just feels lacking with the number of missions.
I'm not enjoying PvP but then I didn't enjoy it in SM1 either so that's kind of just par for the course.

I like the level of customisation, what I don't like is paint schemes being locked behind having to play more of the game.
Doing it for armour doesn't bother me that's just how armour progression works but the fact I had to progressively unlock colours, and then emblems for a Chapter and not just have a selection of badges and colours irritated me.

I'm sure it's something I'll pick up every now and then but it's not something I'll put hours and hours into.

6/10

If you run the trails for the different classes you can unlock most of what you need to buy customization stuff. You get enough resources progressing naturally that you don't need to horde it, but I do really wish you got something when you fail a mission as it can feel really punishing early on when you get the XP to unlock perks but not the resources to buy them.

New mission and difficulty released today. Looking forward to taking on the Bio Titan!

Ah yes, we be hunting something good tonight.