You can now replay the Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 story campaign missions, using your custom Operations mode characters and all of their upgrades, thanks to a new mod by professional game developer Tom Braithwaite. Wargamer tested the new mod prior to launch, and we can confirm – it’s as cool as it sounds.
Braithwaite, Wargamer, and a completely unprepared Playstation player who got matched with us, all loaded into mission five of the Space Marine 2 campaign with our Operations characters. Everything worked: the mission accepted our characters just fine.
Our custom PVE Space Marines all functioned in the mission perfectly. We were able to use our SM2 class abilities, zipping around with the Vanguard’s grapple, or turning the Sniper invisible. We could also pick up the SM2 weapons lying around the level, even if they weren’t part of our class loadout.
If you want to grab the mod right now, you’ll find it on Nexus Mods. Installation is easy and reversible: you need to rename some of the official game files to disable them, and then add the mod file to the same directory. Delete the mod file and revert the names to remove the mod. You can follow Braithwaite on Twitter to keep up to date with future developments.
Braithwaite is a professional game developer who has worked on titles including Crackdown 3, Sniper Elite, and Sea of Thieves, and he’s very impressed by how stable the systems powering Space Marine 2 are: “it should be really easy for their team to add new Operations”. It’s heartening to hear that the Space Marine 2 post-launch roadmap is on a good footing, and that some of the ideas fans are clamoring for in the official community site may be easier to realise than we anticipated.
At the time we tested the mod with Braithwaite he was doing last minute tests, “seeing which missions break everything, and disabling those for selection”. There are some limitations to what the mod achieves. The cutscenes always depict Titus and his squad, not your custom Operations characters, similar to how turning on the “helmeted” setting doesn’t have any effect on cutscenes.
Functionally, the mod loads in a story campaign mission within the wrapper of an Operation, but as those files don’t have all the same trappings not all of the functionality is preserved. At the end of the mission you’re not awarded any experience, something which seems to break the “confirm” button on the mission end screen, meaning you need to wait for it to time out. While we were playing, Braithwaite mused that he might be able to get it to award at least a little XP for killing enemies.
Braithwaite says he’s been a Warhammer 40k fan “since the moment I first saw a Space Marine in 1998!”. He started modding games with Republic Commando and Gears of War in 2005-2006, then “moved on to creating Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 maps”. He was “one of the first to mod the original Space Marine”, adding “packs that let you play as different Space Marine Chapters in the campaign”.
That’s not the only Warhammer 40k game he’s modded before: “a fun project from the Dawn of War II days was a mod porting the T’au Empire onto the Imperial Guard animations”. That’s since been adopted by a “bunch of larger total conversion mods”. “It’s great to see how much the community can build on each other’s mods”, he adds.
For Space Marine 2, his most popular mod is “Unlock All Armors”. This “saves people a lot of time grinding operations just to unlock new helmets and armor sets”. He says “people with jobs, families, and limited time” appreciate the shortcut, but “once you remove the mod, everything locks up again, so you still have something to aim for long-term”.
He’s already made some custom cosmetic mods, such as the Dark Angels hood, above, and a full set of heraldry for the Raptors. Another project he’s working on is “getting Titus to rock his full Mk8 Deathwatch armour throughout the campaign”. That’s “ been a fun challenge which I haven’t cracked yet!”
Braithwaite is conscientious about the impact he will have on the game: “I’m always making sure that the mods I create add to the experience for players, without taking anything away from others”. He’s intentionally “not releasing anything that could break PvP or disrupt the game for anyone else”. He adds “I believe it’s important to respect the balance the developers have created and to give players new ways to enjoy the game, rather than detract from it”.
Of course, with a burgeoning modding scene, certain things become inevitable, such as a Thomas the Tank Engine mod. “I’d say it’s only a matter of days before someone makes that happen!” Braithwaite jokes.
“For me, modding feels a lot like converting miniatures”, he says. Like any good Warhammer fan he collects far too many Warhammer 40k factions, but says “what I love most is making each model unique—a true labor of love”. For him “modding games is the same: it’s about tweaking, pushing the boundaries of what’s there, and adding a personal touch”.
If you loved the campaign in Space Marine 2 and want more story as well as more gameplay, we highly recommend you check out our guide to the best Warhammer 40k books. Our chums at PCGamesN also have a great guide to Space Marine 2 builds to help you crack your co-op and PVP loadouts.
Source: Wargamer
