There have been quite a lot of video games based on Warhammer 40,000 over the years. In the 1990s we had Space Crusade and Deathwing, then in the 2000s we had Fire Warrior, and the wonderful Dawn of War and its increasingly ambitious yet bug-riddled expansions. In the 2010s we had Space Marine and its excellent sequel, but there was, I don't know, something missing. Given that 40K is a setting in which eight foot tall superhumans with almost comedically destructive arsenals demolishing hordes of baroquely ugly monsters while running around at impossibly high speeds (i.e. like Doomguy, Duke, Ranger, Lo Wang, Kaleb, or other such protagonists), most of the 40K games were, well, all a bit, well, missing something. Basically, there was never a proper FPS about being one of the Emperor's Angels of Death.
Until 2023, that is, when THQ published Boltgun. Yes, it's a boomer shooter. Yes, it's based on 40K. And yes, you get to be in first person a Space Marine and purge xenos, mutants, and heretics from an ecumenopolis of gothic cathedrals and industrial installations. And like all the best 40K media, it doesn't take itself totally seriously.
So. In the grim darkness of the far future, you are Malum Caedo, a battle brother of the Ultramarines chapter (yes, I know, #NotMySpiritualLiege, but you have no choice but to be a son of Rowboat Girlyman, but you are a proper beakie marine no less) and you are sent down to a forge world named Graia with your squad to purge Chaos incursions from same. Unfortunately due to the perils of the Warp and lots of AAA fire, all your compatriots' drop pods crash and they die, leaving you as the only member of the chapter able to carry out the Emperor's will. Oh, well almost. You also have your skull drone servitor, who is named Incommodus and has a Ph.D in stating the bleedin' obvious. Unlike certain other boomer shooters, such as Ion Fury or Wrath, it uses a modern engine, but with low poly sensibilities and sprite based enemies as well as a "retro" settings menu that lets you add things like CRT filters, lower the colour depth, pixellate, and suchlike.
Your job? Rip and Tear for the Emperor!
Gameplay? It's a boomer shooter. You run around at enormous speeds, collect a hyperspace arsenal, look for secrets in labyrinthine levels, and try to find the exit. It's also got a touch of Doom 2016 about it in that there are usually once or twice per level a "purge" sequence where you enter a large arena-type place and waves of enemies teleport in and you can't escape until they're all dead. Like all boomer shooters, it has a rake of weaponry that you can obtain and put to use. Interestingly, the game uses the Strength and Toughness system from the tabletop game. Weapons with S higher than each enemy's T will do bonus damage but the other way round and they only take scratch damage.
- Chainsword. The bread and butter. Unlike most shooters' emergency melee weapon, this actually has a use. You can hit a key to charge the enemy currently in your sights and you'll automatically whip this out and get to stabbing. It does very heavy damage but there are some enemies who have even stronger melee weapons. Useful mostly for taking out low level and glass cannon bad guys.
- Boltgun. Satisfying to fire, accurate, and damaging. It will purée cultists but struggles with armoured targets such as Chaos Marines.
- Bolt Shotgun. This is my boomstick. Bang! And the Pink Horror is gone. Useful mostly for dealing with high HP but squishy targets like lesser and middle tier daemons.
- Plasma Gun. The rocket launcher equivalent. Penetrative, damaging, but slow firing and just as risky to you if you get caught in its blast. Best used on greater daemons, high level Chaos Marines, and bosses.
- Heavy Bolter. Goes through ammo like Lizzo used to go through flaming hot Cheetos but most Chaos Marines and daemons have no chance against this.
- Meltagun. See Bolt Shotgun, but sets fire to things and does damage over time.
- Vengeance Launcher. Powerful but dangerous. Portable cannon that launches sticky bombs in an arc. Either use it to create a minefield against oncoming hordes or stick as many as you can to bosses.
- Volkite Caliver. Sort of a cross between Doom's plasma rifle and Quake's thunderbolt.
- Grav Cannon. The BFG. Basically a black hole gun. Use sparingly because ammo is very scarce.
There's various upgrades you can get and buffs for the various weapons such as Mechanicus special ammo types for the boltgun, the Machine Spirit powerup which upgrades one of your weapons permanently until the end of the current level, and also grenades which can be thrown with the middle mouse button or whatever you bind it to. Most Machine Spirits are hidden in secrets. I personally like to apply them to the Heavy Bolter if I find one.
As for what you will be using the above on, well, enemies fall into four main flavours. Cultists are squishy and pathetic mostly and you can even gib some of them by running into them at speed, but the ones armed with plasma guns can hurt you badly if they blindside you. Daemons range from small and annoying like Nurglings through significant threats like Pink Horrors (which split into two Blue Horrors if not gibbed) and Screamers, to evil big fuckers like the Exalted Flamer and Greater Plague Toad. Sorry but they're all Tzeentch or Nurgle daemons for some reason. Then there's Chaos Marines. These warriors of the Black Legion are always dangerous; even the standard Chaos Marine can damage you badly both at range or in melee, and Chaos Terminators are worth expending your plasma or vengeance rounds on. But the biggest threat are the Chaos Champions. These bastards are bigger, tougher, and faster than you and get right up in your face with twin chainaxes. Worse, if you kill them but don't gib their corpses, after a few seconds they'll resurrect as Chosen Champions who are even worse. If you get cornered by one of these you're 1000 percent dead. Then finally there are bosses. The Lord of Change is a huge daemon of Tzeentch that teleports around, summons minions, and can drain your health by looking at you. The Great Unclean One is a massive bullet sponge that spawns plague toads and Nurglings in massive numbers. The final boss is the Chaos Sorcerer who has been responsible for all this mess, and he has both the armoured might of a Chaos Marine and the cheap as fuck attacks of the daemons. Sometimes earlier bosses appear as mid-bosses in later episodes. I will be honest, the Lord of Change reappearing as the mid boss in episode 2 made me rage quit for quite some time.
It may have occurred to you that Boltgun doesn't take itself completely seriously. And rightly so. 40K is just too grimdark to take seriously. But this kind of leans into the ridiculousness in the best possible way. For instance, the name of you, the protagonist? Malum Caedo? That's Latin for "I kill evil." And you skull drone servitor that gives oh so helpful advice like "Warning: chaos present" when there's a load of frickin' daemons bearing down on you? Its name, Incommodus? That's Latin for "inconvenience." On top of this, hammering the Y key has your character's ceramite-clad finger shout war cries and taunts at the enemies like "I am an angel of death!" and "I am the point of His spear!" and similar. The voice actor they got to do it has a slightly Brummie accent. Atop this, in line with the Space Marine maxim "my sword is hatred, my shield is disgust, my armour is contempt," in Boltgun your armour rating is literally called Contempt.
And yet despite this, I'm afraid that Boltgun is not my favourite boomer shooter. For a start, the level design can be sometimes an exercise in annoying the player. That Lord of Change battle? Yeah, that's astride gantries over bottomless pits. The "purge" sequences with the arenas are kind of annoying because it's more an exercise in hopping around like a maniac. And frankly, there's only so many gothic industrial plants you can be in before it gets a bit samey. Compare and contrast the heavily themed episodes of Amid Evil or the interactivity and destructability of Ion Fury, and Boltgun kind of gets a bit lackluster at times. A lot of the enemies are cheap as well. Chaos Champions particularly, because unless you can pick them up early and fill them full of plasma rounds they will corner you and you will end up being chopped to pieces, and then you have to waste more ammo gibbing them. I mean, it's good that they're trying to make it nice and tough like classic boomer shooters were but it sometimes feels like fake difficulty rather than something you have to tactic your way around.
Still, recommended, simply because it fills a much needed gap in 40K media. And remember, playing on Easy difficulty is heresy.
(IN24/24)