The Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 release is so close (September 9th), making the wait ever so painful. The game is bringing many new things, making it ready to redefine and expand the franchise to a whole new level.
One thing the developers at Saber Interactive are paying full attention to and carefully implementing in the game is the ability to customize and paint the Marines. Sometimes, players’ imagination runs too wild, the same struggles once faced by the Call of Duty franchise.
Space Marine 2 Wants to Avoid Making Any Mistakes With One Mechanic
For years, Call of Duty has offered players a plethora of options for customization variety. One of these features was the ability to personalize clan tags and banners. However, this backfired as some players began using those tools to spread hateful and offensive messages, resulting in the removal of the feature.
Space Marine 2‘s developer Saber Interactive knows this as well. In a recent interview, creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick shared details about the game’s development process and future updates. When asked about the level of freedom players will have in painting their armor. Hollis-Leick replied:
People abusing the system and doing all kinds of crazy things. We approached it as in, if this were the tabletop and we were miniature collectors… what would we want to be able to do with this? We want to paint them the way we want to paint them.
This shows that the game will still feature a whole lot of customization for players, but it seems like they know what happened with Call of Duty and are approaching this feature with caution.
It appears Saber Interactive will not give complete freedom for clan tags and banners, instead they have opted for a system that restricts the scope of player customization.
If the studio decides to take a cautious route it will serve as a proactive measure to prevent the players from misusing the feature for creating offensive or inappropriate content. The Warhammer community is dedicated and passionate enough that they will report the player trying to spread a bad message.
Saber Interactive Needs to Balance the Creativity
The concern of the Space Marine 2‘s creative director shows a broader issue in the gaming industry, where developers have to try and balance player creativity. Otherwise, a safe and inclusive environment for a game can be disrupted very easily.
Nowadays, the games have to implement a more thoughtful strategy that not only aims to provide a fun and engaging experience for every player, but also doesn’t allow players to open the door to potentially abuse the system.
Saber Interactive wants to give freedom to players to explore their creativity as the game is based on the Warhammer 40K series, which has miniature toys for fans to color. However, it has to set clear boundaries and implement safeguards otherwise seeing a repeat of Call of Duty is possible.
In the end, players are waiting for September 9th to finally be able to play the game and see what freedom they have on the customization.
What feature in Space Marine 2 are you most excited about? Tell us in the comment section below.
