Now you may wonder why we have another 40k Boltgun piece up, and that’s a pretty good question. Dan obviously did the initial review and after talking to him, as well as a few others who have subsequently finished the game, it was clear we had a lot of similar opinions (which you can read in his review here) but also vastly different experiences with this game. So here is my “not a review but probably reads like one” view of 40k Boltgun – the best take on a boomer shooter, on console, for a very long time.
Boomer shooters are back baby! With the genre seeing a massive resurgence in the PC indie space, it was only a matter of time before some of the bigger boys wanted to join the party. Not only that, but with the internet still in a one sided love affair with Henry Cavill, Warhammer and the 40k universe seems to be getting a lot more attention as well. So what could be more natural than putting players in the boots of a hulking great space marine and letting them blast bits off all and sundry?
The Warhammer table top games have been backed by a rich lore for decades. We’ve got books, YouTube animations and a wealth of video games of varying quality. For me, the issue has always been that devs have focused on recreating that table top feel. RTS titles always got close to approximating those big scale battles, and Space Hulk Tactics was a great take on the board game. However, they’ve always made the marines out to be these slow lumbering tanks when in reality they are aggressive and agile much like Halos Spartans. Scenes have been painted, and stories told of the various Space Marine chapters wading into battle, chain swords in hand, decimating all who stand before them and here, with Warhammer 40k Boltgun we finally get to live out that power fantasy.
Right off the bat, I need to say it – if you were here for story, sorry, but there ain’t much to see here. Channeling those old school shooter vibes has had all the focus here, and its mostly been a success.
Placing you in the well worn battle armour of Malum Caedo, an Ultramarine firearm specialist, you are tasked to go find a dohickey. That’s it. Go to various places and track down the thing to stop the Chaos Marines from making a scene. It’s apparently set immediately after the first Space Marine game from a few years back and is meant to be a sort of side story before we get the proper sequel in the near future.
Over the three chapters, each containing 8 levels, you’ll see all of the usual grimdark metal hallways as well as a desert area and a smelting plant filled with molten liquid metal that can kill in an instant. Whilst the locations change, your objective largely remains the same – try to kill every mother f’er in the level, find the secrets and get out. Simple, but most importantly, oh so fun…
You might only start with a chainsword but you’ll quickly gather a kinda crappy shotgun, meltaguns, gatling guns, plasma cannons and an outrageously fun gravity cannon that wrecks everything. And then there is the titular Boltgun – the 0.75 caliber, explosive round firing standard side arm of any self respecting Space Marine. This thing is a beast that rips basic enemies to shreds with a few rounds, reducing them to piles of gibs that litter the level. Even the fully armoured chaos forces are no match for this hell spitting force from hell. Each weapon does have its strengths against particular enemies, so experimentation is encouraged. Impacts feel powerful, explosions are meaty, the chainsword rips things in two in a satisfying fashion and your enemies will literally paint the walls, floor and ceilings. There’s a disturbing sense of glee in all of the carnage.
Warhammer 40k Boltgun is also fast! The game highly encourages you to close the gap with speed and a hail of gunfire. This wasnt immediately clear and I spent a lot of time circle strafing and dodging projectiles, but, over time it became apparent it takes far more inspiration from Doom 2016 than the original in its gameplay loop. It wants you remaining mobile, agile and adapting to the situation as you sprint and leap about the place. Empty a clip into the biggest enemy as you charge it down, exploding minions with your shoulder barge then hammer the left trigger, cutting whatever is in front of you into ribbons, all whilst you cackle like a maniac on your couch. The combat is wonderfully snappy and engaging. With all the effects firing off, it really does make you feel unstoppable as explosions go off all around you and enemies crumble to bits.
Oh and what a bounty of villains we have. The entry level scrubs can be exploded into a fine mist with a few well placed shots, as can the really annoying little jumpy buggers you meet later on but there are bigger challenges. There’s the main Chaos Marine variants – the standard boltgun dude, the Terminator and then the champions. Champions man, bane of my life for ages. Every time you put one down, the bawbag gets back up! Not only that but he’s faster and takes more damage. And those guys can wreck. They are absolutely not down to party. They’re the sweaty dudes in PvP. No worries though, just get those swines to half heath and then chainsaw them until you’re sure they aren’t moving. A few beasts also make an appearance and are generally bullet sponges.
Then there are the bosses. Big bullet vacuums with a ton of mobs but plentiful ammo, armour and health lying about to keep you tooled up. On regular difficulty, the numbers are manageable and it puts up a good fight. It keeps you on your toes with boss phases and just the right amount of other distractions for your crosshairs. Only one has a cheap hit-scan attack – and annoyingly you’ll see them more than once – but overall they’ll push you to test the limits and will happily punish you if you get too bold.
These fights usually occur in multi tiered arenas with plenty of cover and help break up the constant running through corridors. I fired on invincibility and tried one of these fights on the highest difficulty and it was hilarious. The feeling of power was incredible but I have no idea how anyone could do that without the cheat cos the game becomes a bullet hell shooter instead. More enemies, bigger health pools. It was a war of attrition but it was helluva good fun.
One other point about weapons before I move on and I briefly touched on it before. These things fire projectiles, so it is perfectly possible to dodge incoming shots. Also, there’s is a pretty generous aim assist that never gets in the way when playing on controller. I never felt at any time that the assist was being obstructive and it made the gunplay feel tight. After the recent Redfall default control nightmare this felt glorious to play.
As this is a boomer shooter, expect it to occasionally be challenging. It’s here where the game offers a suite of accessibility options. Want to see the game but finding some parts too tough? Pop on invincibility or unlock all the levels and move on. Motion sickness? Sharpen up the retro filter for a cleaner look or turn of head Bob and screen shake. There’s even a handy little buddy bot called the Servo Skull who provides hints and directions, points out pickups etc. He even comes with 3 levels of assistance depending on how much help you think you’ll need. Traditional accessibility options such as font size and colourblind options however, are nowehere to be seen. The team do have to be commended for making the content itself easily available rather than expecting every player to ‘git gud’ in order to enjoy the game and see it to completion.
Now there are a few points we’re I have conflicting opinions to Dan. I kinda knew what I was getting into with a boomer shooter. Lots of corridors, keycards, lots of shooting and bosses. I enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay and with the combat being so satisfying, I was hooked. There are enough nooks and crannies to explore that it doesn’t feel as linear as it is, and going off the beaten path will yield secrets that buff weapons.
Level design could be odd though. Most of the time the route was pretty clear with the main route being marked out with yellow paint. However, it had a weird habit of dropping in random mazes that just padded things out as you ran in circles for 5 minutes looking for the route you’ve missed. One contentious point will be the maze Dan mentioned. I had no problem with it. Other than me not seeing a very obvious platform on my first few attempts, the way was pretty clearly marked. Few of the levels were memorable but they were fun shooting galleries.
Some of them are beautifully designed with gothic architecture meets industrial styling being the dominant theme. The canyon/desert area was nice and bright and a neat change of scenery and the refinery glowed with white hot liquid metals all surrounded in gantries. The pixilated style of the enemies and the maps really shone here with a pretty nice lighting model. Everything really pops, however the screenshot don’t really do it justice and everything looks so much nicer in motion. It’s just a shame there are occasional hitches and hiccups. Some of the early levels saw microstutter and I dint know if this was due to the autosave feature (checkpoints are great by the way) or due to loading, but it happened often enough to become irritating. It did clear up as I got further into the game as well.
All that leaves for me to say is that Warhammer 40K Boltgun beautifully blends old school presentation with modern control sensibilities to deliver the bang I’ve been missing. It borrows the right things, from the right games and presents a compelling package for any 90s FPS fan. The booms are loud, the visuals are top notch and it moves so well. There’s a heft to the movement but there’s speed. Combined with the solid gunplay, it turns everything into a ballet of blood and bullets. I thoroughly enjoyed my 15+ hours with the campaign on normal. I even went back to play random bits with invincibility turned on at max difficulty for a laugh. Great news is you can play that way and still unlock the achievement for finishing on max difficulty! Anyways, I loved it. Go buy it.