Space Marshals 2

Genre: 2-Stick Shooter / Stealth

Players: 1

.

Review:

Space Marshals 2 is a 2-Stick Shooter with Stealth elements released on mobile devices in 2016 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game has you hunting down jail-broken prison convicts in a Western-tinged futuristic setting on an alien planet. Much of this review will look like my review for Space Marshals 1, as the two games are very similar in just about every way… save for one, the new Solid Snake-style stealth kill move. I’ll talk a bit about this one further on in…

The presentation in Space Marshals 2 is decent, but nothing special, making use of 3D visuals from a top-down perspective. This is backed by a subdued soundtrack that fits well with the Western and Stealth themes of the game.

As for the gameplay here, this is mostly pretty good, and the emphasis on stealth really pushes players to think through their approach to taking down enemies to ensure that they’re not fending off multiple enemies at a time, a situation that’s likely to cause you to take damage. Plus, the game rates players on how well they get through an area without dying, while taking out as many priority targets as possible, rewarding weapon and armor upgrades for good performance. Skins are now unlocked by finding items hidden in levels.

Okay, now for the big change in Space Marshals 2 – stealth kills. On its face, it may not seem like much – sneak up on an enemy when they aren’t looking your way and you’ll automatically get them in a chokehold. Remain uninterrupted by damage (from other attackers) for a few seconds, and you’ll take out that enemy permanently without firing a single bullet.

The stealth kills may seem like a small change, perhaps even an obvious one, but this one change adds a lot to the stealthy strategy of the game and gives players one more option that expands the gameplay possibilities here.

Having said that, this game still has many of the same issues as the first game – the camera is a bit too zoomed-in to the action, and players can be targeted by enemies off-screen, which can be frustrating. Also, cover is extremely important in this game, but you’re not given the best indication which cover is full-cover, which is half-cover, and which isn’t cover at all. Also, while the core gameplay here is fun, this game can get a bit repetitive at times.

While Space Marshals 2 may only have one significant change from the first Space Marshals, and it still has all of the first game’s major problems, that one change is a great enough addition that it makes Space Marshals 2 a significantly better game. There’s still a lot of improvement that can be made (and hopefully we’ll see a Nintendo Switch port of Space Marshals 3 to bring some of those improvements). Still, even with its issues, Space Marshals 2 is a solid 2-Stick Shooter and a superb Stealth game that fans of both genres should definitely consider trying.

tl;dr – Space Marshals 2, like the first game, is a 2-Stick Shooter with heavy Stealth elements that has you hunting down escaped criminals as a spacefaring Western-style marshal. This game has the same good and bad qualities as its predecessor, but the addition of a new stealth kill mechanic, the one major change in this installment, adds an excellent new element to the game that makes it significantly better than its predecessor. If you like Stealth games or 2-Stick Shooters, Space Marshals 2 is well worth a look.

Grade: B

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are MB, Andy Miller, Johannes, u/RamboFox, Exlene, Eli Goodman, Ilya Zverev, and Stov. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}