The demo for Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus 2 is a tantalising slice of what could be the next great Warhammer strategy game

The first Mechanicus is one of those often overlooked gems in the world of Warhammer videogames. Creative turn-based strategy design and brilliantly sharp, funny writing elevate what could have been just another XCOM imitator.

So it's lovely to discover that Mechanicus 2 is shaping up to be even bigger and better. Playing the free demo currently available on Steam, I'm really impressed with how the core strategy has evolved.

In the first game's Adeptus Mechanicus vs Necron battles (think weirdo religious cyborgs vs ancient alien cyborgs, if you're unfamiliar), the key was a resource called cognition. Harvested from terminals and pillars in the environment, it was used to fuel special abilities and extra movement, but was shared across your whole team, forcing careful decision-making.

For the sequel, that system's been ramped right up. Now, cognition is generated by units directly in ways that define their role on the team. Lumbering melee servitors, for example, grant you a point every time they take damage, while your Skitarii rangers instead generate one every time they shoot someone from far enough away.

As Harvey pointed out in his Mechanicus 2 preview last year, the result is a tactically interesting puzzle that also essentially tutorialises itself, even for those who aren't familiar with these units at all. Servitors are rewarded for taking damage, so anyone can intuitively understand that means they're your meat-shields, protecting your more vulnerable units with their bulk. Equally those rangers are being rewarded for finding a good firing position and doing the long-range sniping they're best at.

It makes it more accessible, but it also creates a greater sense of your units as specific tools in your arsenal. Another twist of this sequel is that you now have a leader unit on the field, a hero with powerful weapons and abilities, but also a significant drawback—if they die, you lose the mission. Your other units, meanwhile, are easily replaced, encouraging you to use them to protect and support their boss and, if necessary, die to do it.

Miserable minions being treated as expendable by their cruel overlords? That's Warhammer baby. But it's also a refreshingly different feel to most other tactics games, which often base their progression on carefully preserving even the lowliest soldier. That can be great, fostering an emotional connection with your underlings—but it's fun here to feel like you can go all out, aggressively pushing forward to get maximum value out of each one's role.

And that goes double for the game's new second faction. This time you can play the Necrons themselves, who are not only just as callous about the survival of their troops, but can actually bring back casualties at key moments thanks to their reanimation protocols.

Their sinister selection of units creates a whole different strategy puzzle to play with—and rather than earning cognition, the Necrons instead unlock new abilities over the course of each battle as they deal damage to enemies.

It creates an interesting rhythm to fights. Early on, you want to get some big hits in to start charging up, but then as the fight progresses, you gain more options, slowly opening up a more complex tactical playground. Meanwhile, specific units play with the mechanic in interesting ways.

The Flayed Ones, for example, deal extra damage to already wounded targets, but aren't tough enough to stand up to a long melee exchange. So do you hold them back in the first round, hoping to swoop in later to finish off key targets like the enemy leader? Or do you rush them in early to get some hits in and boost your other units even if it means they'll be cut down?

It's all shaping up to be really interesting—and an overall more polished feel, with a cleaner UI and sharper animations, also helps in making this feel like a big, exciting step forward for the series.

The only area of the demo that leaves me uncertain is that something does seem to have been lost in its writing. Where the first one brilliantly mined humour and atmosphere from the banter between its bizarre group of adepts, so far this one focuses on just one, who seems to have none of their unique quirks.

Instead, the focus is more on fleshing out the dynamic between them and the Necrons, and giving those xenos scum a bit more chance to shine. There's definitely interesting stuff to explore in the relationship between these two ancient, arrogant, and diametrically opposed cyborg factions—hopefully past the sequence in the demo it'll sink its teeth into that more.

If the final game can stick the landing on that, and further develop these already engaging tactical battles, this could be the next great Warhammer strategy game—and hopefully, this time, a bit less overlooked.

You can still check out the free demo for yourself on Steam.