Warhammer 40K: Boltgun

[Dogg Thang]

I’m currently playing through this on Steam Deck and adding a first play thread for some impressions. This is a 40K-themed ‘boomer shooter’, a term I’ve only recently learned - basically a sort of old school shooter, Quake-style. And that’s exactly what this is. It has powerful guns and you run around mowing down enemies across what have turned out to be very large levels. It is pixelated and has a retro look, although interestingly some of this is a filter that you can turn down to make it look smoother. I think it looks pretty great. The colours are vibrant and the Warhammer dressing is pretty beautiful. And there is plenty of variation across the levels and things to see.

The game is simple to play. Run around, kill everything, pick up keys for a door and move on. Sometimes the screen goes red and you are swarmed with enemies - this is a purge. When the first one kicked in, I must admit I had a sense of dread, thinking I might hate that but, actually, they work pretty well and aren’t too tough. They mostly require being fast and playing aggressively, at least that’s working for me.

It’s a lot of fun. I’m playing on medium difficulty and I have died a few times but it has never turned frustrating - at least not yet. A few enemies are real bullet sponges and I do find myself wishing they’d go down quicker.

There isn’t much interactivity in the levels, and I would have loved to see more. A few screens can be shot but I haven’t seen much else. There are even lots of crates around that can’t be smashed - ammo instead is left out in the open. Apparently there are secret doors but I haven’t seen any. I have found secrets but they have just been me wandering somewhere I thought I was supposed to go. And I guess that’s been one of the only source of frustration - the levels can be very large and there is no map. After a purge, it’s very easily to forget what direction you were going and that can mean a lot of wandering. And one level involved portals and I spent ages caught in a loop there and ended up having to watch a walkthrough video to see how to progress.

That has really been the only negative so far. I’m just enjoying plowing through these levels, feeling very powerful and mowing everything down. Oh, it’s also very bloody but it’s old school pixel gore so not off putting like some more modern games. It’s just fun.

So I’m liking it!

[Asura]

Sounds great! I think I'm going to get it this week, as apparently it runs fantastically on the Steam Deck.

[Dogg Thang]

Sounds great! I think I'm going to get it this week, as apparently it runs fantastically on the Steam Deck.

It runs great on the Deck, yes.

[Asura]

It runs great on the Deck, yes.

Gah I hit reply too soon. That was meant to be followed up by I've heard the Switch version runs at 30fps and is best avoided if you've got any other place to play it.

[CMcK]

I’m going to wish list this on the big boy consoles and see which one offers it in a sale first. Sounds like good fun.

[fuse]

This went on sale digitally recently so I picked it up and had it ready for a quiet moment. Started it yesterday and can definitely see the appeal - you stomp about with a really satisfying weight, the weapons feel satisfying and powerful, and it all moves about at a solid pace with some fun ways to speed up the way you plow from one set of enemies to the next.

Would agree that navigation is one of the few downers, and that even after about 4 missions I've already caught myself running back on myself, getting lost in fairly identical-looking corridors, but I'd be lying if I told you I never caught myself doing that in Doom either. A little sad there isn't a Deathmatch option too, but I can see that trying to balance that as a game mode when your character's meant to be this much of a badass would probably eat into the power trip and turn it into something else entirely.

Think I saw some listings for physical versions coming later this year as an FYI.