'It Was Just Straight Up False Advertising' — Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's $5 Voice Pack DLC Sparks the Game's First Really Big Backlash Since Launch

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2’s long-awaited patch 12.0 launched this week, and with it came the new playable class, the Techmarine (check out the patch notes here if you want to know what's included). And while fans are having fun getting to grips with this new Astartes, Space Marine 2’s first ever voice pack has sparked a backlash.

The $4.99 Chapter Voice Pack 1 includes 450 re-recorded voicelines and a unique Space Marine Head cosmetic for each of the following Space Marine Chapters: Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Black Templars. It’s only available as a standalone purchase, and is not included in either the Season Pass 1 or Season Pass 2 (much to the annoyance of some fans). But it’s the way these new voice lines are incorporated into the game that has caused a “mostly negative” Steam user review rating for the DLC.

It turns out that equipping a DLC voiceline will revert to the class’ default voice when interacting with objectives, like when searching a Cadian’s body for codes in Inferno. This was unexpected and, in gameplay, a jarring switch. It means the Ultramarine standard voice lines still play for all the dialogue related to interactive elements within missions, so your Space Marine’s voice will flip flop back and forth, which feels awkward and janky.

Meanwhile, some players feel misled by the 450 re-recorded voicelines number on the Steam page. Most believe this number includes re-recorded voicelines across all languages, not just one.

“I have no idea where they got the 450 voicelines from, it mixes with the standard voice lines when doing operations and it sounds dead silent during the mission because there is no banter,” reads one negative review. “So far the only the difference that is noticeable is that emotes are different. The description seems very deceptive, I am very curious to find out where they got 450 number from.”

“I am insanely DISAPPOINTED!” reads another. “I've tested the Blood angels voice and I was disappointed that his lines were 80-90% what Vespasius [Vespasius is a Jump Pack Assault Intercessor of the Ultramarines Second Company and leader of Combat Squad Talasa] is just saying besides a few lines. FINE, maybe the writers aren't there anymore. But WHY IN THE EMPEROR'S NAME are the Ops voices not changed???? Check for the Inferno missions, on the part where your obtaining codes for the dead guardsmen, THE BLOOD ANGEL VOICE BECOMES LITERALLY VESPASIUS AGAIN WHEN HE DOESN'T GET THE CODE OR WHEN HE OBTAINS THE CODES!

“Not to mention there are no voices for the helmet versions yet! I'm wearing a helmet and my Blood Angel voice sounds like he doesn't got one! MAN I'm disappointed!”

Another disgruntled fan said: “Such a low-effort underwhelming DLC. Each of these voices lock you out of character banters, objective dialogues are spoken by the original character's voice actor through the vox instead the one you spent $5 on. Adding to the laziness, some voice lines are the same as their vanilla counterparts (ex. the Space Wolf sharing almost all of his reload alerts with Decimus) to the point where you're even questioning if you changed voices altogether. Something that Saber doesn't mention is also how after selecting a voice for a character, you can't revert that decision unless you spend 400 accolades to buy it back. Another complaint is how every single one of the faces presented in this DLC is the most unfazed depiction of stoicism in the galaxy, no expressions or lip sync whatsoever, just pure unadulterated void in each of their eyes. On a positive note however, each voice has different lines for every special ability, showcasing yet again how class locking is a moronic idea in PvE games.”

It’s a similar situation on the Space Marine subreddit, which is currently littered with complaints. One redditor posted a screenshot of a successful refund on the DLC, saying: “The voice pack is just not a worth the money. Not only was it underwhelming but I almost feel like it was just straight up false advertising. No mission dialogue? No banter between brothers or even not finding data on a Guardsmen? They gave us the option to equip the voice pack and keep our helmets on, but there is no helmet filter for the voices either. I’m a Black Templar fan and to my dismay, it seems like a lot of the voice lines are reused ones from Assault.

“I know they’d have to add voice lines to every new and existing mission, but that’s what you should be paying them to do. Why would they not go all the way and just release the pack at a higher price ? I’m not trying to be hateful, this game introduced me to the 40k universe and got me hooked. I love this game, I have sunk so many hours into it. That being said I’m just sad this didn’t meet the expectations that a lot of the community had.”

“Waiting to see if Steam will refund mine right now,” said another customer. “I did earlier. I hope Saber is getting slammed with refund fees for this nonsense,” another said. “From day one I've been telling people: it’s 700 lines in seven languages for three characters. So around 30 lines per character,” another said. “Saber did an abysmal job managing expectations. Telling people the amount of lines including all language versions is like measuring your dick and including the length of your spine.”

The upshot of all this is that what should have been a positive time for Space Marine 2, with all the cool new additions that came with patch 12.0, is instead perhaps the first meaningful community uproar the game has faced since its record-breaking launch in 2024. Space Marine 2 has been a huge success for Focus, developer Saber, and Warhammer owner Games Workshop, and is credited with leading an army of new fans to the hobby. It's so successful that Games Workshop has made Titus, the game's protagonist, the poster boy of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game. Space Marine 3 was announced as in development soon after Space Marine 2 came out.

So this DLC backlash is a rare misstep for Saber and Focus when it comes to Space Marine 2, but it will no doubt fuel concern some already have that the priority for both now is the development of Space Marine 3. IGN has asked publisher Focus Entertainment for comment.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.