Space Marine 2 does an impressive job representing the ‘stompiness’ of the Astartes in video game form. It turns out the developers used Warhammer 40,000’s greatest fan-film as a reference point.
The fan-film in question is Syama Pedersen’s Astartes, an impressive animation widely considered the best representation yet of Warhammer 40,000’s iconic Space Marines.
Astartes does a wonderful job of getting the weight and the surprising agility of a Space Marine across without them devolving into farcical Buzz Lightyear territory. The atmosphere is perfect, the action intense, and the Space Marines themselves devastating.
Syama Pedersen did such a wonderful job with Astartes that Warhammer 40,000 owner Games Workshop hired him to create a sequel exclusively for its subscription offering, Warhammer+.
In an interview with IGN at gamescom 2023, Saber Interactive creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick namechecked Astartes as his favourite reference point for the look of the game's Space Marines.
“He got the sound of them walking down those corridors… ker-klonk, ker-klonk-ker-klonk… but when they move it’s straight away like they’re predatory animals," Hollis-Leick said.
Saber Interactive also met with Jes Goodwin, the renowned artist who designed the original Space Marines, to get an understanding of the science fiction underpinning an Astartes’ armour.