I want more multiplayer games like Space Marine 2, not Concord

I’ve felt a bit of whiplash following Concord’s shutdown this week. Not only is Sony launching the excellent single-player Astro Bot the same day Concord is going offline, but we’ve just gotten another multiplayer game that’s already a hit. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is available now for those who bought the special editions of the game.

Space Marine 2 is a sci-fi shooter with a story campaign, co-op, and competitive modes. It’s quaint but feels like a throwback to the era of multiplayer games that birthed series likeGears of War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Where Concord felt derivative of other modern live service games with its structure and presentation, Space Marine 2 feels refreshing by taking inspiration from another era of multiplayer. It’s one of the most fun multiplayer game I’ve played since Helldivers 2.

Finding the multiplayer hook

It’s not surprising that live service games like Concord have fallen into design clichés. Fortnite and Overwatch are successful in part because of how they’re structured, so if you’re chasing their success, it’s a safe move to copy what they’re doing. It still helps to have some original ideas to back that all up, and that’s one of the main areas where Concord faltered. From its menus to the content on offer, Concord felt like most other active live service games right now, aside from the fact that it eschewed having a battle pass.

While Concord had a few different modes, they all fell into expected hero shooter tropes. That was it, as Concord featured no campaign or PvE content for interested players to sink into. That’s not uncommon with most new multiplayer-focused games, leaving Concord feeling paltry. It was a one-trick pony; the problem is, we’d all seen that trick many times before. The apathy that caused played a critical role in the game’s failure, leaving me yearning for a shooter that felt different from its peers.

Enter Space Marine 2, a game that feels fresh by feeling old-school. In the 2000s,