Written by 
“Where’s my Neo-Volkite pistol, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2?” was my perhaps slightly ungrateful reaction upon booting the action game up after the previous patch. “I didn’t even know what a Neo-Volkite pistol was until five minutes ago, but now this whole game is trash until I get one!.” As promised in the roadmap, the last big update added a whole new Operations map, complete with a gargantuan new pseudo-boss in the form of a hierophant bio-titan. It did not, however, give me my beloved pistol. It’s fine. It’s in now, along with a few, less Neo-Volkite updates to other weapons.
Patch 4.5 – which you can read about in detail here, if my whimsical summaries aren’t fucking good enough for you – indeed adds the Neo-Volkite pistol. It’s a new sidearm for the Assault, Vanguard, and Bulwark classes, and it’s described as “a powerful thermal ray weapon.” As per the above trailer, it differentiates itself from other weapons by firing a continuous beam of hot. I’m a big supporter of any gun that makes me press the triggers less, especially if I’m already hammering the parry button like a maniac.
Alongside the pistol, there are also a few tweaks to other weapons. These include:
Plasma Incinerator:
- Slightly reduced amount of heat generated by normal and charged shots for versions:
Master-Crafted – Alpha
Salvation of Bakka – Alpha
Gathalamor Crusade – Alpha
- Fixed a bug that would cause several versions not producing heat at all.
Bolt Sniper Rifle:
- Fire rate increased from 50 to 60 rounds per minute.
- Headshot bonus increased from x2 to x2.5.
Occulus Bolt Carbine:
- Scope added
- Headshot bonus increased from x1 to x1.33
Bolt Carbine (SMG):
- Adjusted damage falloff curve: Base damage increased by 50% for the first 10 metres, after that, the damage drops to the original pre-patch value.
Auto Bolt Rifle
- Max ammo increased by 1 magazine for each version.
There are also a few bug fixes, but that’s more or less it for this one. We’re still due some new enemies next year, and based on the correct consensus that the brick spongehouses of Tzeentch aren’t all that fun to fight, I very much hope we’ll eventually get some orcs. Space Marine 2 is great, but god knows it could use just a crumb of levity.
If you’re capable of enjoying a thing while simultaneously enjoying critique of said thing (i.e. a functioning adult), you might enjoy Edwin’s excellent deep dive on the progressively limited portrayal of the Space Marine.