This article contains spoilers for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
While developing Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2, Saber Interactive used to have internal conflicts about what to include in the game because some team members feared they would alienate more casual players if they packed in a lot of dense 40k lore.
This fear isn't unfounded as, judging by the game's runaway success, there are plenty of players who played Space Marine 2 that don't have a great interest in the 40k setting. After all, the genre of 'killing hordes of enemies with friends' is a popular one regardless of the setting.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick and game director Dmitriy Grigorenko recounted some of their battles over various aspects of the game. A particularly contentious topic was the inclusion of Demerium, the setting for the game's final level Dawn's Descent where you need to go and liberate an Adeptus Mechanicus facility on the planet's surface.
As it turns out during the level, Demerium is actually a Necron tomb world. In other words, one of many planets where an ancient alien species lies underground in stasis, and as you can imagine, they've been...