There’s always been something uniquely compelling about the Adeptus Mechanicus within the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe. Their obsession with sacred machinery, cold logic and ritualistic augmentation gave the original Mechanicus a personality few strategy games could match, and Bulwark Studios wisely avoids throwing that identity aside in pursuit of scale. Instead, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II expands the conflict outward, framing its tactical battles around a larger planetary war between the Mechanicus and the awakening Necron dynasty of Vargard Nefershah. The result is a sequel that feels broader in scope while still retaining the oppressive atmosphere and techno-religious flavor that made the first game memorable.
What immediately sets Mechanicus II apart is its dual-campaign structure. Playing from both perspectives isn’t just a cosmetic change where units are swapped around, because the Mechanicus and Necrons approach combat in radically different ways. The Mechanicus still leans heavily on positioning, synergy and resource management through Cognition Points, rewarding careful planning and tactical restraint. The Necrons, meanwhile, feel far more methodical and relentless thanks to their reanimation abilities and more aggressive battlefield manipulation. This asymmetry gives the campaigns a welcome sense of variety, especially over the course of a lengthy strategy game, and it also strengthens the narrative by showing the same conflict through opposing ideological lenses.
The tactical layer itself remains the heart of the experience, and for the most part it delivers exactly what fans of the original hoped for. Battles are dense with meaningful choices, environmental interaction now plays a larger role and the expanded unit variety gives encounters more strategic flexibility than before. Terrain destruction in particular adds a more dynamic rhythm to combat, especially when the Necrons begin tearing through cover that the Mechanicus depends on for survival. At its best, Mechanicus II creates tense encounters where careful movement and ability timing can completely shift the momentum of a battle. However, some of that tension starts to fade later in the campaign once upgrades and resources begin to accumulate more freely, making certain encounters easier to overpower than they perhaps should be. A few boss fights also lack the endurance and complexity needed to fully capitalise on the game’s excellent combat systems.
Outside of combat, the planetary management systems add welcome strategic depth without turning the experience into a full-blown grand strategy game. Capturing regions, defending territories and managing resources helps create the sense of an escalating war effort rather than a disconnected series of missions. That said, the campaign structure can occasionally feel more rigid than expected. The original game’s dungeon-like exploration elements have been streamlined in favor of a more direct mission flow, and while this helps pacing in some respects, it also reduces part of the mysterious atmosphere that defined the first Mechanicus. There’s less of a feeling that players are descending into forbidden ancient tombs and uncovering unknowable horrors piece by piece.
On PlayStation 5, the control scheme generally translates well to a controller, particularly during combat where unit selection and ability management remain intuitive even amidst busier encounters. Menus can still become cluttered once larger armies and more complex upgrade trees come into play, and there are moments where navigating submenus feels more cumbersome than it likely would on PC, but overall the console adaptation avoids many of the pitfalls that strategy games often stumble into when moving away from mouse-and-keyboard controls. The pacing options and combat readability also help keep larger battles manageable on a television screen.
Visually, Mechanicus II captures the grim industrial majesty of Warhammer 40K remarkably well. The contrast between the rusted machinery and incense-soaked architecture of the Mechanicus against the sterile metallic tomb worlds of the Necrons gives the two campaigns distinct visual identities, while character models and battlefield effects bring a satisfying sense of scale and brutality to combat. The illustrated narrative sequences remain especially striking and help reinforce the oppressive tone of the setting. If there’s a criticism to level at the presentation, it’s that some environments begin to blur together over extended play sessions and a handful of technical hiccups – including occasional UI quirks and uneven audio mixing – slightly undermine the otherwise polished experience.
The soundtrack, however, once again stands among the game’s greatest achievements. Guillaume David’s score returns with the same eerie fusion of choral chanting, industrial percussion and synthetic dread that made the first game’s music so memorable. Combined with strong sound design and excellent voice work for key characters, it gives Mechanicus II an atmosphere that few strategy titles can rival. In the end, this sequel doesn’t radically reinvent its predecessor, but it doesn’t need to. Bulwark Studios has instead produced a larger, more ambitious follow-up that deepens the tactical systems, broadens the perspective of its conflict and remains deeply committed to the unsettling identity of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Some balancing issues and structural simplifications prevent it from fully surpassing the original in every respect, but Mechanicus II still stands as one of the stronger strategy adaptations Games Workshop’s universe has received in years.
Score: 8.1/10