Heads-up: Space Marine 2 has a photo mode and it rules

I’ve been playing Space Marine 2 during its early unlock period, and while it’s a shame the campaign is balanced for co-op—expect a lot of objectives you have to complete while under attack and with AI allies who suck at keeping enemies off your back—it’s still a blast getting stuck into hordes of tyranids. There are so many waves of them it’s like a full degustation, and the finishing moves make it look like you’re cracking open the shells of ornery lobsters.

One good thing about playing Space Marine 2 solo is that I can spend as much time faffing about in the photo mode as I like. Bring up the menu and press F to access it and you’ll find the usual set of tools for lining up your own dioramas, including the option to change the marines’ facial expressions. Now, in every screenshot I take, Titus and his squad are gurning like pros.

It also gives me an opportunity to capture the scale of the setpieces. You’ll frequently step out of a building onto a battlefield where a battalion of soldiers is dying in the mud, tanks are bombarding an incoming swarm, and the air is thick with lasfire. They look like games of Warhammer 40,000 in progress, seen from table level, and I pause the action to hop into photo mode each time.