If there is one thing I expect from a game with biologically engineered super soldiers clad in hulking armor, it would be that when they hit something, I fucking feel it. After playing the initial missions of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II (2024), the only complaint I have so far is how it feels to hit enemies.

For some odd reason, and this may just be me, I don’t feel the power of this hulk-like soldier I am controlling when they hit something. I know it happens; I see it on the screen but don’t feel it. I realize that this is a particular grievance. This is probably too specific and nitpicky, but I expected the melee combat to be very different in SM2.

Melee combat is almost global in video games. Outside of story games or maybe dating sims (One of them has an ass-smacking mechanic; I just know it.), there are not very many games out there that don’t in some way allow you to walk up to another character and lay into them. The basic melee attack is a fundamental part of gaming combat, but we rarely think about it; we rarely think about it in the real world, for that matter, even though we are mildly obsessed with the topic.

In the English language, there are over fifty verbs and idioms for one person striking another. Here are just a few: hit, punch, slap, smack, strike, bash, clobber, pummel, whack, thump, wallop, belt, slam, deck, sock, uppercut, cross, hook, jab, kick, backhand, swipe, crack, spank, swat, cuff, bludgeon, butt, hammer, blast, lay into, lay a hand on, knock out, give a black eye, tko, land a blow, take a swing at, beat up, go to town on, cold-cock, put the hurt on, whale on, sock it to, knock their block off, knock the stuffing out of, let someone have it, give someone a whooping, pop one’s cork, bust a cap in, and open a can of whoop-ass.

Hitting someone is the most basic form of violence we know, and it is an innate power that we are born with. Babies less than a year old understand they can inflict pain on a caregiver or destroy an object when they want to. Ask any parent to recall the first time they scolded their child, saying, “Don’t hit!” Before they learn to communicate with language, hitting and crying are the only ways children can express their distress to the caregivers around them.

We have known instinctively for our entire lives what it means to hit someone or something. Of course, we all reach a point where we learn, or at least should have learned, that hitting others is wrong. In an ideal world, people shouldn’t hit other people unless it is consensually for sport or in very particular circumstances, such as defending someone who can’t protect themselves or sucker-punching a Nazi. Of course, you should never sucker-punch a Nazi… always punch them straight in the face like a good American. (Obviously, this is satire. Never hit another person.)

My point is we understand hitting so well that we know when it feels right or wrong, even in a video game. I can think of countless examples of games where melee felt guttural and meaty: Doom Eternal (2020), Halo Infinite (2021), Helldivers 2 (2024), Hunt: Showdown 1896 (2024), Mortal Kombat 11 (2019), and God of War (2022). Compared to SM2, there’s a noticeable difference. In these other games, you can feel how the punches land. It’s hard to describe precisely what factors are at work here to make the melee so immersive. The animation, sound design, visual design, and player controls are timed so that the feedback the player receives activates their instinctual responses. I wish this would be revisited in SM2; the game would benefit from another pass in this area.