Space Marine 2 released into Advanced and Early Access on Sep. 5, but some PC and Steam players are having issues with a Blank Screen or Black Screen appearing when they start the game.
This bug is fairly common, and has some pretty simple fixes. So whether you’re struggling with the Epic Games copy or Steam copy of the game, we’re here to help.
How to Fix the Space Marine 2 Black Screen on Start-up Bug
Image Credit: Saber Interactive
We encountered this frustrating bug ourselves when first starting the game, but luckily were able to troubleshoot it quickly enough to solve all the issues. First off, you’ll want to double check a few programs in the background aren’t running.
For instance, if you’re a Steam user make sure Epic Games isn’t running in the background when you initially start the game. This is because the crossplay system will require the game to run its own instance of Epic Games, so this can affect start up.
Next, you’ll want to try changing the launch settings. In Steam, you can do this by right-clicking the game in your Library and entering “-windowed” (no quotes) into the Launch options. This was the solution that worked for us, but we can continue troubleshooting for those still struggling.
In Epic Games, you can do the same step by going to settings, looking for your Space Marine 2, and checking the last checkbox “Additional Command Line Arguments”. “-windowed” (again no quotes) is the argument you need to enter here as well.
If this doesn’t work there’s a few steps you can follow:
Restart Steam or Epic Games, and then your PC if that doesn’t work.
Run the game with as few elements in the background as possible. That means no browsers, and if you’re willing, turning off things like anti-virus software, at least for now
Reinstall Space Marine 2 and make sure it’s installed correctly.
Reinstall Easy Anti-Cheat. The game uses Easy Anti-Cheat for its AC system, and existing copies (from games like Apex Legends, etc.) can affect the install of Space Marine 2’s version of this.
Make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date!
Finally, it’s important to know that on first launch Space Marine 2 loads very slowly, even for top of the range computers, especially if you’ve not installed it on an SSD. The first time startup will involve the game installing drivers, shaders, etc. As a result, the game will take a while to setup. So the game might not be broken, just loading slowly.
We hope this fixes your issues, and enjoy Space Marine 2!
Leave a Reply