Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Early Access is live, and your ride to the front is on sale

There haven’t been a ton of new shooter games to fall in love with this year, but one of the big ones — Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 — has finally arrived. This highly anticipated sequel to the original 2011 classic puts players in the heavily armored boots of the Imperium’s Ultramarines and pits them against seemingly endless swarms of alien Tyranids, resulting in bombastic Gears of War-style gameplay that’s as action-packed as it is intense. It’s out on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 officially on September 9, but preordering the Gold or Ultra Edition actually lets you jump in now with Early Access — and as luck would have it, all versions of the game are already on sale for some cool discounts. Specifically, the Standard Edition is just $51.99 at CDKeys (down from $59.99), the Gold Edition is $77.99 at CDKeys (was $89.99), and the Ultra Edition is $85.99 at CDKeys (originally $99.99).

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Launch Trailer – YouTube

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Of all the various Warhammer 40,000 games that have been announced and released in recent years, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is perhaps the most exciting of the lot. Interest in the game was strong when it was first announced back in 2021 at The Game Awards, and it’s only grown exponentially over time as its release date has approached. All of that hype has resulted in an explosive Early Access launch at the time of writing that’s been fueled by waves of positive reviews, and the game is poised to blow up even more once its full September 9 release date rolls arounds next week.

A sequel to the first Space Marine game that was released 13 years ago, Space Marine 2 is very similar to Gears of War in that it’s a thrilling third-person shooter that challenges you to overcome overwhelming odds, with the brutality and visceral nature of Warhammer 40,000 warfare on display front and center. Notably, much like this year’s Helldivers 2, the game allows you to take the fight to the Tyranids with friends in co-op play, though its missions are less open and have a campaign-style structure.

On top of three-player co-op support for Space Marine 2’s story campaign, there’s also a dedicated co-op mode called Operations that gives you the opportunity to play through something of a follow-up campaign with your fellow Ultramarines. Additionally, PvP lovers will find a home in the the 6v6 Eternal War game type in which the Imperium’s loyal soldiers attempt to beat back encroaching Chaos forces.

Admittedly, I’ve never really been a huge Warhammer 40,000 fan, and can’t speak to the game’s quality directly (though I’ll probably pick this up anyway, because I love co-op shooters). My colleague Samuel Tolbert, though, adores this universe, and played through the game to write up our Space Marine 2 review earlier this week. In his words, “smashing through Xenos has never been more cathartic than in Saber Interactive’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2,” and most other reviews echo similar sentiments. With that in mind, it’s safe to say this is one of the best PC games and best Xbox games to play right now if you’re a Warhammer fan and someone who likes shooter games.

Given how huge this game is and the fact that it hasn’t even been fully released yet, I was pretty surprised to see these deals for it that knock the price down a full 14%. I doubt there will be better discounts on it for a good while, and if you’re looking to pick up the Gold or Ultra Edition to play it now in Early Access, you may as well save some money.