Space Marine 3 is Officially in Development

[Kommisar_K]

What I'm wondering (and I'll admit I have not yet watched much of the videos concerning the new development) is what they're planning to do for a main character. Titus has been the MAN so far but imho there's only so many times you can demote him before it starts to get old. Not to mention the fact that we now have Captain Titus & Friends as tabletop miniatures. Somehow I don't feel like they'll want to put Captain Titus into the game again, though I could be completely wrong. 

 

- In SM1, he's a captain. Then he gets demoted and stuffed in a stasis coffin for x years. 

 

- SM2 he's a Deathwatch 'team leader' and is promoted to lieutenant upon reinstatement to the Ultramarines. 

- Post Secret Level Titus is now a Captain again, and he's responsible for overseeing essentially the biggest operation in 'modern' Ultramar.

 

So what I'm trying to say here is, it could be very difficult to fit Titus back into the SM series. He's kind of moved beyond that. He's got his own upgraded mini and a role that imo severely reduces his ability to go on long sidequests like what we'd probably get in a videogame. To put Titus through another fall/redemption arc would feel a bit samey, already a problem with the SM games. Plus his in-game model might require a bit of reworking to move about as a player character, which I dare say GW will be loathe to approve given their current desire to market official models. 

 

Anyway, I'll stop there. Ultimately a lot of this is just wild theorizing by a kid who hasn't really done the homework. Basically, I think there's a  chance we might see a different protagonist in Space Marine III, and I'm excited to see who that might be. Forgive my rambles. 

[Indy Techwisp]

10 minutes ago, Kommisar_K said:

What I'm wondering (and I'll admit I have not yet watched much of the videos concerning the new development) is what they're planning to do for a main character. Titus has been the MAN so far but imho there's only so many times you can demote him before it starts to get old. Not to mention the fact that we now have Captain Titus & Friends as tabletop miniatures. Somehow I don't feel like they'll want to put Captain Titus into the game again, though I could be completely wrong. 

 

- In SM1, he's a captain. Then he gets demoted and stuffed in a stasis coffin for x years. 

 

- SM2 he's a Deathwatch 'team leader' and is promoted to lieutenant upon reinstatement to the Ultramarines. 

- Post Secret Level Titus is now a Captain again, and he's responsible for overseeing essentially the biggest operation in 'modern' Ultramar.

 

So what I'm trying to say here is, it could be very difficult to fit Titus back into the SM series. He's kind of moved beyond that. He's got his own upgraded mini and a role that imo severely reduces his ability to go on long sidequests like what we'd probably get in a videogame. To put Titus through another fall/redemption arc would feel a bit samey, already a problem with the SM games. Plus his in-game model might require a bit of reworking to move about as a player character, which I dare say GW will be loathe to approve given their current desire to market official models. 

 

Anyway, I'll stop there. Ultimately a lot of this is just wild theorizing by a kid who hasn't really done the homework. Basically, I think there's a  chance we might see a different protagonist in Space Marine III, and I'm excited to see who that might be. Forgive my rambles. 

 

Inb4 Space Marine 3 doesn't focus on Ultras at all and is actually just Deathwatch vs multiple Xenos factions.

[Nephaston]

20 minutes ago, Kommisar_K said:

- Post Secret Level Titus is now a Captain again, and he's responsible for overseeing essentially the biggest operation in 'modern' Ultramar.

 

So what I'm trying to say here is, it could be very difficult to fit Titus back into the SM series. He's kind of moved beyond that. He's got his own upgraded mini and a role that imo severely reduces his ability to go on long sidequests like what we'd probably get in a videogame. To put Titus through another fall/redemption arc would feel a bit samey, already a problem with the SM games. Plus his in-game model might require a bit of reworking to move about as a player character, which I dare say GW will be loathe to approve given their current desire to market official models. 

 

Him being a captain now could actually add some interesting bits of story telling and (unlikely) maybe even some management gameplay; Just the list of possible characters he might have to wrangle will include; two lieutenants, a champion, an apothecary or two, a techmarine or two, a chaplain (you know who), our buddy Gadriel as ancient, old man Metaurus as command squad sergeant, his gaggle of four humans who each have to wrangle different duties, and whatever poor sap will be the planetary liaison for whatever campaign we end up doing.

Having to manage the company and the moods of his direct subordinates could honestly be fun, but would probably be out of scope, so I'll settle for standard gruff men disagreeing with each other on how to kill the xeno, purge the heretic, and so forth, until they all come together in a manly last stand before snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

[DemonGSides]

If they had you doing a meta style almost X-Com but without the actual fighting gameplay to send out other strike teams to do things that could influence your campaign in later levels would be a cool way to keep Titus but also still have him slaughtering.  Make it less "One team against the planet" that the past two games have been (I know the 2nd game visited multiple planets, but it's not like you ever saw much of other SM besides their charred corpses or a quick cameo for a single part of a level) and make it "We are taking the fight throughout the 500 Worlds" or whatever the campaign is, and show the Imperium actually waging an aggressive war as opposed to just trying to hold the line.

Could be fun!

[Blissful Brushes]

Depending on when the release is I wouldn’t be surprised if we get Blood Angels as the main protagonists as they’re the flower of 11ed. That gives you Orks as the obvious bad guys but opens out a lot with Chaos too and maybe interesting mechanics around black rage and whatnot as a temporary buff. Possibly librarian shenanigans too.

 

BT would be fun but I imagine they’re just a bit too on the nose for GW to try

[Ammonius]

1 hour ago, Indy Techwisp said:

 

Inb4 Space Marine 3 doesn't focus on Ultras at all and is actually just Deathwatch vs multiple Xenos factions.

If only! Imagine if you play a Deathwatch Captain, get some customization options at the start like a few different faces and origin chapter shoulder pad, and get to play "your dude" through the campaign. NPC's could refer to you by rank or "Brother" so voiceovers wouldn't be too weird. Instabuy.

[Lathe Biosas]

I can only hope there is a Malum Caedo mode, where the I can solo the game without allies and kill.... everything! 

[Xenith]

3 hours ago, Xenith said:

Zombies in toxic commando, eh? Experience with hordes that keep getting back up again and coming at you? 

 

I'd say that's necrons 100% confirmed. 

As an addendum to that, they had issues difficulty scaling with more than 3 playing together and enemy numbers the engine could handle. I wonder if fewer, harder to kill enemies would let you work in squads of 5?

[Magos Takatus]

The chaotic gremlin in me wants them to let Titus assume his duties off-screen and make the protagonist Leandros. Imagine the temper tantrums! 

 

Personally, I think I'll be happy with just about anything with the storyline as long as we don't get another Chaos "secret" antagonist. Between Dawn of War and Space Marine, I am so damn tired of that move. It's not like it makes me angry, but it makes me bored.

 

Heck, if DoW 3 started off with a Chaos invasion and it turned out the Aeldari had manipulated the two factions into fighting each other it would be a plot twist at this point.

 

I think some of the coolest moments of Space Marine 2 were the parts of it that weren't space marines, like seeing the Cadians engaging the Tyranids with their armoured vehicles and stuff like that. It gave the game real scale so that it wasn't just dudes in power armour suplexing each other. Don't get me wrong, some of those set-pieces were great, but the variety really elevated the game for me.

[Jukkiz]

59 minutes ago, Xenith said:

As an addendum to that, they had issues difficulty scaling with more than 3 playing together and enemy numbers the engine could handle. I wonder if fewer, harder to kill enemies would let you work in squads of 5?

if you´re ever stuck in small spot on any map in sm2 while playing PvE missions on harder difficulties,  you will surely know the pain where couple of harder enemies can mean automatic mission failure. 

There´s quite funky difficulty curve in sm2 and usually it´s only rewarded with proper teamwork

[Craig]

6 hours ago, Jukkiz said:

I really wish we could get other side stories, not just loyalist ones. Sure Titus is now well known character but come on 2 of the games are chaos sided so why not give us chaos story from their point of view

Would love that. Playing as a chaos aspiring champion seeking the head of captain Titus to gain the favour of the gods. Sign me up please.

[Mmmmm Napalm]

I don't think they'll leave Titus behind  as the campaign protagonist given his popularity, but he might share the spotlight with more characters (beyond just two co-op buddies), a la Halo 2. they could be another group of ultras or perhaps a different chapter. 

 

but I think it's also just as likely he and his companions will be the sole playable protagonist for the single player campaign. 

Edited September 11 by Mmmmm Napalm

[Adeptekon]

Will need to have real time PBA and squad command.

[twopounder]

On 3/13/2025 at 12:58 PM, Redcomet said:

Hell yeah.

 

But not surprising giving the popularity of 2. And it will take years before 3 is done.

Not necessarily. Depends on how much it diverges from 2 and how complete the state is. SM 2 was pretty bare bones on release. 

[Mmmmm Napalm]

my hopes and concerns for sm3 relate to the classic dilemma for sequels in our age of dlc and post-release content; that being the incorporation of the improvements and content from SM2's DLC into SM3.

 

SM2 has come a long way since release, with many additional customization options added and restrictions removed. Then there's weapon options like power axes, etc. It would be a shame if SM3 launched without many of the chapter icons and such added to SM2 post-release. I suppose it's inevitable that it will, but one can hope. 

 

The game director has, in several community updates and Q&A's, implied that the customization system will be overhauled so as to be more detailed and granular which is good.

 

I'm also curious as to what they'll do for enemies. necrons seem a given to me, I'm not terribly interested in orks. to me the chaos enemies that seem more likely would be something like World Eaters, where the marine level enemies have more specific gameplay behaviors (rushing at you to engage in melee). I'm not particularly interested in seeing Nurgle stuff, they're such a frequent go-to for chaos enemies and their whole "unyielding and difficult to kill" thing doesn't sound fun, or rather it overlaps with what the necrons would have going for them as someone else said.

 

with standard CSM I think the dilemma would be depicting an enemy npc that's supposed to be just as capable of versatile and adaptable combat behavior as the player characters are in the context of the setting. I think that's why they went with TS in sm2; I imagine it's easier to design an enemy npc around something like a Rubric Marine.

 

I think craftworld eldar are out, as they really don't have "chaff" enemies to fight. drukhari might be an option given that they have the horrible haemonculi stuff on top of the dark eldar raiders and wyches. the latter might not be as fun to fight tho considering they'd be fast and agile and not very big.

Edited Monday at 07:22 PM by Mmmmm Napalm

[Nephaston]

18 minutes ago, Mmmmm Napalm said:

I'm also curious as to what they'll do for enemies. necrons seem a given to me, I'm not terribly interested in orks. to me the chaos enemies that seem more likely would be something like World Eaters, where the marine level enemies have more specific gameplay behaviors (rushing at you to engage in melee). I'm not particularly interested in seeing Nurgle stuff, they're such a frequent go-to for chaos enemies and their whole "unyielding and difficult to kill" thing doesn't sound fun, or rather it overlaps with what the necrons would have going for them as someone else said.

 

 

Necrons definitely became easier to adapt to the formula, especially with the recent additions of more canoptek enemies; Macrocytes could make for easy equivalents to termagants and would permit for a scenario where you'd have fewer warriors who'd skew too much of a ranged threat akin to venom cannon tyranid warriors. Though it also depends on, if they do necrons, will it be a scenario where we play on a tomb world just ahead of awakening, or maybe one in the throes of the flayer virus, which would permit for greater amounts of flayers to help skew it more towards melee. Necrons could also get away with re-using human enemies like guardsmen and cultists via mind-shackle scarabs.

 

Other xenos factions will probably struggle to fit neatly into the formula (unless they change the formula) outside of necrons, nids, and orks, so I personally wouldn't mind if they also kept nids around in addition to any other faction, seeing as nids can be anywhere in the galaxy without much setup beyond maybe a recolor.

 

Inevitable chaos marine enemy faction being WE would definitely be easiest of the cult legions, though I could also see a case for EC, though they currently lack cultists or beastmen on tabletop. Undivided would offer the most design space between all marine choices and mortals especially with some oddballs like negavolt cultists, fellgors, renegade guard, or maybe just outright stealing the occasional cult unit thanks to the nature of warbands to mix more freely. 

 

 

[Indy Techwisp]

23 hours ago, Nephaston said:

 

Necrons definitely became easier to adapt to the formula, especially with the recent additions of more canoptek enemies; Macrocytes could make for easy equivalents to termagants and would permit for a scenario where you'd have fewer warriors who'd skew too much of a ranged threat akin to venom cannon tyranid warriors. Though it also depends on, if they do necrons, will it be a scenario where we play on a tomb world just ahead of awakening, or maybe one in the throes of the flayer virus, which would permit for greater amounts of flayers to help skew it more towards melee. Necrons could also get away with re-using human enemies like guardsmen and cultists via mind-shackle scarabs.

 

Other xenos factions will probably struggle to fit neatly into the formula (unless they change the formula) outside of necrons, nids, and orks, so I personally wouldn't mind if they also kept nids around in addition to any other faction, seeing as nids can be anywhere in the galaxy without much setup beyond maybe a recolor.

 

Inevitable chaos marine enemy faction being WE would definitely be easiest of the cult legions, though I could also see a case for EC, though they currently lack cultists or beastmen on tabletop. Undivided would offer the most design space between all marine choices and mortals especially with some oddballs like negavolt cultists, fellgors, renegade guard, or maybe just outright stealing the occasional cult unit thanks to the nature of warbands to mix more freely. 

 

Imagine they make the main Xenos enemy Necrons but specifically just Crypteks and all their Canoptek buddies.

[Jalleo]

If they do necrons it better be the secret antagonist that kills the chaos bad guy as you go to stop them in SM3. Make it seem like you are getting close to the end but its actually the midpoint of the campaign. It should start off with Orks and a dying remnant of a nid tendril on a mostly lost area of the 500 worlds Titus needs to retake.

Edited Tuesday at 07:47 PM by Jalleo