Unsealed.
If you’ve played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 beyond the campaign, perhaps dabbling in the superb PvE Operations, you might be wondering which of the seven available classes is the most popular. Well, wonder no more, because to coincide with the game’s two-year anniversary, publisher Focus Entertainment has revealed all the juicy details.
In a post on its forum, Focus revealed that Tactical was the preferred class in PvE during the last year, picked 44.4 million times. This is ahead of Bulwark in second, Assault in third, Heavy in fourth, Vanguard in fifth, and Techmarine in sixth.
Looking at the image above, you might be left wondering, what about the Sniper class? It's mysteriously absent from the list. Space Marine 2's ranged damage specialist has a Camo Cloak ability that lets him turn nearly invisible. Is Sniper "cloaked" in the image?
Alas no. I asked Focus what happened here, and was told the team wanted to focus on the top six PvE classes, and Sniper came in just behind the Techmarine with 20 million times picked. Poor Sniper! I would have thought the Techmarine would have been in last place due to it being a DLC class, but it just goes to show how unpopular Sniper is (or should we say how popular Techmarine is?) that it finds itself in sixth place.
The thing is, the Sniper is actually a powerful class, but it's certainly not as accessible as the others, and can be fiddly to get the most out of. While it can dish out huge damage to single targets, Space Marine 2 is at its core about getting stuck in and smashing tons of enemies. The Sniper sort of feels out of place.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Techmarine Screenshots
Bulwark being near the top doesn’t surprise me at all, given it plays a pivotal role in keeping your group of Space Marines alive with its recovery and healing abilities (also it’s just damn cool, yes I am a Bulwark player). But why is Tactical top? There are a few reasons. It has access to melta weapons, which are amazing in this game, as well as the boss-melting Pyreblaster primary weapon. But the key here is the Tactical’s signature class ability, the Auspex Scan, which is used to reveal and heavily debuff enemies in a targeted area. This is a game-changing ability, particularly on higher difficulty levels, and for many players an essential part of any high-level PvE group.
So, Tactical wins out, even though I’ll always favor my beloved Bulwark.
Most-played classes in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2:
Tactical: 44.4 million times picked
Bulwark: 40.1 million times picked
Assault: 33.3 million times picked
Heavy: 30.4 million times picked
Vanguard: 27.4 million times picked
Techmarine: 22.3 million times picked
Sniper: 20 million times picked
While there are some clear winners on this list, I think Space Marine 2 does a decent job of making each class viable at most difficulty levels. Part of the fun of this game is trying out the various classes and their special abilities, so it’s certainly a good thing that you can get by with any combo most of the time.
This time next year the list may be slightly different, given Space Marine 2’s Year 3 roadmap includes the Apothecary class for early 2027. It will be interesting to see if it can nudge ahead of the Techmarine when the dust settles.
Meanwhile, developer Saber recently admitted that the Chaos enemies are harder to fight than the Tyranids in Space Marine 2, and confirmed plans to do something about it.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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Source: IGN Games