Space Marine 2's unpopular patch prompts fans to protest on Steam. Developers promise a course correction within a week.

After a major overhaul this month, Arrowhead has started to hit the mark again. Space Marine 2's problems are reminiscent of the ones that plagued Helldivers 2 this year.

Saber Interactive released an update late last week that retooled the difficulty of Operations, the game's multi-player mode. On the plus side, players can enjoy a brand new Operation, praise the Emperor, as well as the new difficulty mode. The difficulty mode is unpopular for two reasons.

This difficulty, named "Lethality", limits the number of Ammo Crates per player and reduces your armor regen if your friends are not nearby. Although these things technically make the game more difficult, artificial scarcity of resources in a game where you're slaying hordes isn't a great idea. The classes are designed for different ranges, so it's not advisable to use them. The Sniper is designed to... well, snipe.

The ammo crate issue also applies to Ruthless, the difficulty tier below. It is accompanied by a unilateral reduction of 15% in player armor. Combining that with some nerfs in boss-killing strategies, you have a recipe to disaster.

The community response is similar to that of Helldivers 2 in that the attempts to increase the difficulty completely clothesline the playstyles of players and limit them to a set of meta-appropriate categories, or else they suffer annoying damages sponges:

Why are they forcing players together? How would this work for a team consisting of vanguard, assault and sniper? One player writes on the subreddit of the game, before noting how one operation requires the team to be split up. MrTactician, who is appropriately named, sums up the situation pretty well in the same thread:

"In a PvE-game, players HATE suddenly being worse off without their fault, it doesn't feel right. Please be careful when you release the next patch. I don't want another Helldivers disaster because the balance team believes that we are enjoying ourselves in the wrong manner.

This has also led to a small review bomb on Steam. The spike is still noticeable, even though it's not as big as the massive hits Helldivers 2 had back in the day. The game has received 2,431 negative reviews between October 17 and this writing. One player with more than 100 hours of experience writes about the new'stay in the group' mechanic.

This is one of the most confusingly inappropriate approaches to increasing difficulty that I have ever seen. It ignores the core pillars that make up the combat flow of the game and seems to have implemented in a state where confusion reigned. The developers seem to have forgotten that certain classes were designed to be played differently from each other."

Saber Interactive has thankfully acknowledged that there is a problem. According to the publisher Focus Entertainment, "We carefully read your feedback regarding the most recent patch... We're actively working with another one that includes balancing fixes." It should be released next week." If the studio's schedule is followed, it will likely be Thursday. However, it's possible that it could be earlier.

It's a bit of a puzzle to see history repeating itself in yet another horde-shooter game. Helldivers 2 taught me that you can't balance a game about killing aliens by making the players feel restricted. It'll end in tears. In a Space Marine, where you are supposed to be a genetically modified super soldier with three lunges--being a bit OP is a part of the fantasy. Here's hoping Saber Interactive is able to correct the course without the months of drama Arrowhead experienced.