Boltgun Review On Xbox

BoltGun is a 90’s styled retro first person boomer-shooter set in the Warhammer 40k universe. Play a battle-hardened Space Marine on a perilous mission across the galaxy, as they battle against the Chaos Space Marines and daemons of Chaos. All reviews (unless stated otherwise) are based on the Developer/Publisher providing myself with a review code, which i am grateful for, but does not influence my outcome.

The premise is that a you are the impenetrable space marine that has have been sent to a planet suspected of heretics that need to be purged. Shoot, shred and slice the worst heretics, across the planet in abid to bring the emperor’s light to all who stand against you.

The game boasts a devastating arsenal, a brutal melee attack, visceral combat with a homage to the retro 90’s shooter, but with stylish visuals and a fluid, modern FPS gameplay all set with 3 chapters of about 24 levels.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there options for Subtitles sizes and you can re-map the buttons for your controller. There is also an accessibility tab will allows you to turn on and off invulnerability, head bobbing and screen shake. This will a ideal for those that may find certain areas difficult due to mobility or visual issues.

Gameplay

For those not familiar with Warhammer 40k, it is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop and due to its popularity, has been ported its way over to pc and consoles in various iterations for the last 20years. Now I’ve been a Warhammer fan for years, and have made various models from the franchise.

The biggest issue with Warhammer 40k, is that there isn’t exactly a swath of first person shoot-em ups, and those that exist are muddled in terms of gamers reaction. There has been Warhammer 4000: Fire Warrior, SpaceHulk: Deathwing, Necromunda: Hired Gun, and finally most recently Warhammer 40k: Darktide. Most got a mixed reaction and I’m probably the one of the few people who actually liked Warhammer 40000: Fire Warrior.

You see it takes a knowledgeable team to understand the lore of 40k and translate it well to a fun shooter. And this is where Developer, Auroch Digital have stepped in with their latest attempt. The game has been confirmed to be linked In lore and timescale, to the highly underrated 3rd person Warhammer 40000: Space Marine, who’s sequel should be out this year.

The game starts off with you, as battle-hardened Space Marine Malum Caedo, being dispatched to the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of Graia, to investigate some concerning potential taint. As is always the case, the Ad Mech have been running experiments that have predictably gone awry and helped the dreaded Chaos invade. You get into your dropship with your team and go ready to purge this filth. But like all good stories, a botched landing leaves you as the lone survivor in abid to cleanse the forces of Chaos, armed with an devastating supply of powerful weaponry.

The core tenants of any classic boomer shooter is, gunplay, level design and atmosphere, and it’s the gunplay im starting of with first. You start of with your trusty chain sword that will highlight a enemy and then lunge you forward to them, as you then brutally cut them in half. If they have a bigger health pool than expected, you can spam the attack button to keep the chainsaw going and whittle down their health, in a even more brutal fashion.

Of course no Warhammer 40k is complete with out the iconic Space Marine Bolter which the games title takes reference too. It when you get this beauty, the game then show off its true brutal, enjoyable and engaging gameplay, to its fullest. Your soon be sidestepping, fire arm juggling and slicing enemies in half, in such regulatory, your only thought will be to see what horrors you can bring to the next enemy.

One of the first things newer players will realise is that there is no upgrade or perk system as new games, like to showcase. Mostly because, in essence you are already perfection, as the god emperor intended. You will plow your way through enemies using the finest weapons that 40k can offer.  From heavy Boltgun, shotgun, Plasma gun and even the Meltagun, each bringing a new pain to your foe. Few heretical beings will be able to stand up to what hell you will bring down on them.

Now whilst there isn’t any perks or upgrade system, that isn’t saying there isn’t anything to transform your weapons. Hidden power-ups will change the weapon your holding ammo type. You will get a much more dangerous, but limited option, like Kraken ammo, before returning back to its original ammo type.

These are best saved for harder foes as your basic ammo is more than enough to deal with weak enemies. Basic enemies go down in one or two shots in a beauty explosion of death, coating the area in buckets of blood and heretical gibs. Bigger enemies like the Chaos Marines will take more hits, but switching weapons on the fly and combining your chainsaw attacks, will make swift work of these too. End bosses are probably your toughest foes whos health bar often stretches the entire screen, but with the powerful arsenal at your hands and a devastating void grenade, these too can be short work.

Speaking of health bar, in true boomer shooter fashion, your health bar doesn’t replenish over time. Instead, each level is filled with both health and armor pick-ups for you to grab, strewn about the landscape, ready to be used when needed. Amour is called Contempt here and is a perfect example of the lore being utilised to its fullest, because lets face it. If you don’t have contempt for the god emperor enemies, are you even a space marine?

Graphics

The games visuals are superb and are a blend of 2D sprites alongside 3D environments, which hold a good steady framerate. But I did see the odd slowdown in random locations as if it was loading the next section in, but these were far and few. A nice touch is the ability to choose how pixelated you want your visuals to be to ensure that true retro aesthetic.

But its the level design, where the game really excels though. Unlike the modern day shooters and their corridor-linked or open world layouts, Boltgun goes back to basics with its key-card finding to progress, but also adding some nice extra touches to keep things fresh.

They are generally labyrinthine like levels, similar to dungeons in their scope and depth. However, as you start to make your way through the levels, you soon realise verticality is also heavily emphasized, with often enemies or hidden power-ups being in what seem to be unreachable locations. However with your run, jump and mantle animation, areas of higher scale are soon open to you as you scramble up and leap off ledges to the next location. And these locations look gorgeous too, with a variety of zones being plentiful in their variation, showcasing off some of the very best visuals, I’ve seen of the 40k world in a long time and making them a joy to explore.

Like the original shooters it tries to emulate, there are no maps you can turn on, it has pre-set enemies around each corner, and tons of secrets, for you to just happen upon. Enemy variation is also plentiful with your basic heretics, traitorous Heretic Astartes, the Chaos Space Marines, alongside Daemons of Tzeentch and Nurgle and The Lords of Change and Plague. For those worried about the 2D sprites, it really doesn’t matter,  when you are slicing, and exploding your way through them in true gory fashion.

Visual detail touches to the weapons also provide a nice extra feedback to the player and worth their weight in gold. For instance the Heavy bolter, when firing, will slowly push you back due to the recoil it gives off. All of this makes the game sing and for those of us who grew up with the original classics, will bring a tear to our eyes with nostalgia.

Sound

The game is voiced, and the voice actors do a superb job with the limited voicework available. The best by far, is the taunts you can pull off when ever you feel, simply by pressing the Y button. There is some fantastic one liners regardless of if you know the 40k world lore or not, and being that its Rahul Kohli, a Warhammer fan himself doing it, sheer perfection.

There’s some in-level narration that comes from the little Servo-Skull that floats alongside you, but it’s presented via text in the upper corner rather than voice over, which for me, made it easy to miss until the battle was over.

The atmosphere of the game is off the charts and sound design here pulls well above its weight. You truly feel weighty in your space armour, simply by the quake sounds underneath your feet as you walk. Shotgun shells hitting the floor after a reload are pitch perfect, the thunderous beefy sounds of the boltgun hitting squishy flesh are a choir to the ears. Combine this to the doom inspired metal soundtrack, thrashing about as you, as you mow down heretic after heretic, just brings the biggest smile to my face.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Boltgun is a "Must Own’’.

The best way to describe Boltgun is if Warhammer 40k had a baby with the Original Doom. The game wears in influence like a badge of honour with its use of retro visuals, your usual color-coded keycard hunting to progress, and its simplistic over the top brutal gameplay. In a world of ever complex and blending of the shooter genre, its great to go back to an old school world of fun and simplicity. Thank Auroch Digital for that, as…it…is…glorious.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £17.99 or approx. $22 and depending on skill and patience would give you about 9+ hours worth of gameplay. With hidden items to find, and the games sense of fun, I can see people playing this over and over again. 

I really can’t recommend this game enough, if you are retro fps fan, buy this. If you’re a boomer shooter fan, buy this. If you’re a Warhammer 40K fan, buy this. I want more of this and when I’m not playing this, I’m thinking about playing this. Let’s hope there is DLC coming because I so want it.