Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus 2 preview – It’s so good, Trazyn might come and steal it

We are living in a Golden Age of Warhammer 40,000 video games — after years of drowning in shovelware, gem after gem has been gracing our screens. At the spear point of this trend stood Bulwark Studios and Kasedo Games’ Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, which was released in 2018 and has arguably impacted the entire IP by making the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necrons more popular than ever before. Its soundtrack has become the blueprint for anything 40k since. 

For any sequel, these are large boots to fill — but by the Omnissiah, Mechanicus 2 looks to be even better than its lauded predecessor.

Having seen the game at Gamescom 2024, I returned to Kasedo Games’ booth in Cologne this year to check the progress the studio made.

Probably the biggest difference between the original and the sequel is scale. The Ad Mech and Necrons are fighting over an entire planet now and both factions will be playable instead of only one. What’s more, the conflict is starting to pull in other armies: Earlier this year, the involvement of the Leagues of Votann was announced, marking the faction’s video game debut. In Cologne, I get to see the setting’s darling boys – the Space Marines – enter the stage.

Without spoiling too much, the Iron Hands support the Ad Mech in a campaign mission, which tasks your forces to hold off a massive Necron assault. Your own forces protect the right flank, while the Space Marines position themselves on the left. By rights, you’d expect the AI to barely hold out until you secure your flank and can sweep in for the rescue, but as the battle is kicking off, I quickly have to recalibrate my expectations — when the Space Marines are on the screen, you don’t get to be the hero, no matter who you are.

This mission, essentially, is a demonstration of the power difference between the Astartes and anything you control. The Necrons keep missing or dealing no damage to the Space Marines, while they die in droves whenever the Astartes blink in their direction. Seeing my confusion, a laughing developer clicks on a Space Marine and shows me his exhaustive list of abilities.

“They literally have every trait we could possibly give them,” the developer explains. “It’s nice to be able to show off the power of a Space Marine in comparison to a non-Space Marine. They really are here to save the day.”

While the Ad Mech units might be weaker, they have plenty of tricks up their robes. One of the core differences between Mechanicus 2 and many other turn-based tactics games is a lack of initiative order. When it’s your turn, you get to choose freely which of your units gets to act — a major decision that feeds into a myriad of synergies and combos you can set up to defeat your enemies. “It really encourages you to think tactically about which units you want to activate in which order,” the developers explain.

Both playable factions make use of a unique resource to power themselves up during combat, shaping their playstyles. Mechanicus’ original Cognition mechanic was reworked. You gain the resource by fulfilling certain conditions in battle, with each unit having its own requirements for generating Cognition Points. Once you have enough of them, you can invest them to power up your hero characters and activate their Canticles, which provide party-wide buffs.

The Necrons’ counterpart, Dominion, is generated by dealing more and more damage, bringing a sense of escalation to the battlefield. As your Dominion Level rises, it unlocks party-wide buffs. “It encourages an aggressive playstyle, but also shows their incredible resilience,” the devs say.

Combat is something I already saw in the previous year, though, including new mechanics like the line-of-sight-blocking and destructible cover. A completely new element in Mechanicus 2 is the planetary strategic layer.

The planet you’re squabbling over is “divided into regions and over the course of the campaign you’ll expand your control over these regions and defend them,” the developers explain. Every region provides either main missions connected to the story’s progression or side missions with more generic goals. Completing these missions is the primary way of procuring resources.

This layer is also where the customization of your forces happens: You can swap the abilities or equipment of hero characters around, level up their skills, and expand or alter their retinues.

The asymmetry between the Ad Mech and Necrons is kept intact on the strategic layer, as both factions can make use of different mechanics. The Necrons, for example, can unlock Dynastic Resonances through equipping certain combinations of Command Protocols and Relics. Large tech trees hold additional characters, units, upgrades, items, and abilities, giving players lots of flexibility when it comes to expanding their forces throughout a campaign. 

Here, too, we find a lot of interesting decision making. Using Eminence Points as the Necrons, you can either buy upgrades for your heroes or expand their available unit roster, emphasizing individual strength or the power of your army. Keeping things accessible, the developers allow players to reset their invested points at any time, so experimentation is very much encouraged.

Likewise, the Adeptus Mechanics features very in-depth character customization, allowing you to shape their playstyles heavily. Their tech tree is divided into thematic branches, one focusing on mechanical units, one on the more biological units, and one on general bonuses.

Fans of the tabletop game will be happy, as the game pretty much offers the entire available infantry roster from both factions.

While the Necrons don’t derive any direct benefits from controlling territory, the Tech Priests can build forge-temples to acquire more Requisition Points, an important resource for them. They’re forced to play whack-a-mole with awakening Necron tombs on the planet as well, hurrying from crackdown to crackdown, if they don’t wish to be swept away by the Infinite Empire’s might.

Alongside combat missions, the war map contains narrative assignments. Basically, you send a character away for a couple of turns to work on a task, gaining rewards and additional story intel in return. “It does mean that this lord is occupied for a while and can’t be used in missions,” the developers warn.

When you go into missions as the Ad Mech, you can select beneficial Stratagems to aid you, but this comes at the cost of raising the enemy’s Vigilance level, which may grant them bonuses and additional forces — a question of risk and reward.

Full of interesting decision-making, attention to detail that’ll make 40k fans swoon, and crunchy tactical combat for veterans and genre newcomers alike, Mechanicus 2 could hardly do more to make me excited for it. The only other thing I need to know is a release date, as though I might humbly serve the Infinite Empire, I don’t have the immeasurable lifespan of a Necron or a Tech Priest.

“We’re saying this year. Hopefully this year. Touch wood before the end of the year,” is all the developers can say on the topic.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus 2 is planned to be released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S in 2025.

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