A few years back, a friend introduced me to a mod for the original Doom simply titled Brutal Doom.  It took everything that was great about the original game and then added many modern-day bits and pieces to make the experience something new and exciting. Some may say that reloading or having to actually aim vertically ruins it, but it’s on a short list of my favorite fan-made games of all time. I’ve been hoping for a console port or for someone to take the framework and make something new out of it, and that’s exactly what Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun looks and feels like.

If you’re like me and have little knowledge of the Warhammer universe outside of the various video game entries over the past few console generations, don’t worry, the narrative is relatively thin and focuses on the Space Marine Sternguard who is tasked with killing everything and anything in his way. Guided by a floating skull, you’ll work your way through various settings, finding those token color-coded keys while clearing a few hoard-style rooms and seeking out the exit. It’s a straightforward run-and-gun experience that doesn’t ask you to be a subject matter expert or to put a whole lot of thought into your actions.

The gunplay is the main attraction here and it delivers on mostly every level. There are a total of eight weapons to collect with all of the FPS staples included, in addition to an unlimited chainsaw that will turn most of the low-level enemies into giblets within seconds. As you proceed you will find that each weapon is geared to battle it out with specific enemies, and managing the limited ammo capacity is largely going to be one of your greatest challenges. The combat itself isn’t too taxing thanks to the somewhat lacking AI, as the enemies tend to stand around in a stagnant position until attacked, and even then, some will just stand there and take it like an abused single mother who thinks Kyle is the best she can get and the holes in the drywall are perfectly fine. Even on the harder settings, I only ran into issues battling it out with specific enemy types, such as the ghoul who floats around shooting flames out of its hands, essentially blinding me as I tried to weed out of the smaller enemies who were just mild annoyances, as well as what appeared to be a doppelganger of my Space Marine, just playing for the enemy team. Luckily, you can save pretty much whenever you want, as often as you want without penalty.

The game controls extremely well, with aiming and hit-boxes working as expected, and the ability to grapple ledges making the often awkward FPS platforming doable. As someone who finds the typical weapon wheel to be a bit clunky in most cases, I loved the ability to swap weapons on the fly using the D-pad; if I had my way, there would be a law surrounding this that going against would be a violation of the Geneva Convention. Literally every action felt intuitive and this was a downright joy to play from start to finish, even when I was having my ass handed to me in later levels.

Historically, I’ve had some issues with modern-retro shooters that have been released over the past few years due to the way the enemies and assets look like paper cutouts in the 3D space, which isn’t an issue here. The developer Auroch Digital managed to add depth to every single asset, avoiding this pitfall entirely. The enemies start to feel a bit stale toward the midpoint due to a slight lack of variety, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying myself. The same can be said for the level design; while they are often huge, sprawling maps with loads of secret areas and alternate pathways to find, they start to blur together by the endpoint. Additionally, I did find a few areas that went entirely too long without any enemy encounters that felt off due to being a game that heavily focuses on shooting.

There were a few minor issues that held this game back from being perfect for me – the biggest being the autosave feature. It’s great to have one and most of the time works as it should, but I lost some progress a few times thanks to the game choosing to save at the absolute worst time, like when I was mid-jump in one of the many platforming segments that just so happened to be over a bottomless pit that I wasn’t going to make. I have also experienced a few soft locks, as well as the occasional framerate skip, primarily when I throw a grenade at the wrong time.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is easily one of the best shooters of 2023, and if you’re a fan of the genre, this is a bargain-priced game that will offer a solid 8+ hours of entertainment. There are a small number of minor issues, but if you like running and gunning, this is an easy game to recommend.

9 out of 10

Pros

• Controls Extremely Well
• The Throwback Visuals Look Outstanding
• Solid Run and Gun Gameplay

Cons

• Some Poor Autosave Locations
• Lacking in Enemy and Environmental Variety
• Poor AI

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was developed by Auroch Digital and published by Focus Entertainment. The game is available on NS, PC, PS4, PS5, X1, and XSX. The game was provided to us for review on Xbox and played on an XSX. If you’d like to see more of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, check out the developer’s site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

 

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