Higher Toughness enemies will take less damage from low Strength weapons, and vice versa – it even preserves the extra effectiveness from having your Strength be double or higher your target’s Toughness. If you want to play effectively, you have to match your weapon to the target – just like Warhammer, your weapons have a Strength value and your enemies have a Toughness value. It’s turn-your-brain off fun, but it isn’t mindless fun. Accompanying the guns is your trusty chainsword, and a selection of frag, krak, and (occasionally) vortex grenades, for solving problems that won’t solve themselves. Each one has a distinct role, and you’ll find yourself constantly switching weapons as new targets pop up. What are you killing these various Chaotic enemies with? The iconic boltgun, of course, but a variety of other weapons too – Warhammer classics like the meltagun and plasma gun make appearances, as do more esoteric weapons like the grav-cannon and volkite culverin. Pink Horrors are particularly cute, as they split into two Blue Horrors on death – as the song goes, Horrors are pink, Horrors are blue, where there was one, now there are two! It’s got all the hallmarks of modern boomer shooters while bringing its own Warhammer charm to the table, with solid enemy variety across the three strands of Black Legion Chaos Marines and their Cultist followers, Tzeentch Daemons, and Nurgle Daemons. Credit: BernhardtĬombat is tight and frantic, feverish at times, as you shoulder-charge, chainsword dash, and sprint-jump across arenas whilst raining down bolt after bolt after bolt onto your enemies. And my friend, this game does that perfectly.Ĭhainsawing mooks is mandatory. You’re playing this game because you want to switch your brain off, enter the Gaming Zone, and absolutely fucking eviscerate the enemies of Mankind. There’s environmental storytelling in regards to the failed defence against Chaos, and the seeping corruption in the form of Tzeentch Weirdness and Nurgle Smelliness.Īs you can clearly see, the environment tells the story of Tzeentch being owned.īut that’s not why you’re playing this game. At the end of every chapter, you get a cutscene, and the only other story you get between the cutscenes are the maps themselves and some flavour text from the Servo Skull that assists you throughout your rampage, pointing out your next route and the need for a red key to open a red door, and occasionally chiming in with humorous observations. The game is split up into three Chapters, with a half-dozen or so levels in each, covering your adventures and misadventures on Graia.

You’re hunting a McGuffin ( the McGuffin from Space Marine 1, I think) and you’re racing against the forces of Chaos to do it. I don’t want to downplay the plot, because there certainly is a plot, and it’s… there. You relieve this frustration by picking up your chainsword, revving it, and screaming ignorant shit as you launch yourself across the map towards the nearest Chaos Cultist whose only major crime was existing within the same postcode as you. You are the only one of your battle-brothers to make it to the planet, and you’ve lost your boltgun on the way, and boy, you are pissed about it. Thanks to an errant drop pod insertion that handful turns into just one Space Marine, which is you.

Something fucked up is happening on Graia and the Inquisition have gotten a handful of Space Marine Sternguard Veterans to deal with the problem. Pictured – a gorgeously rendered cutscene. You’re immediately thrown into Boltgun with some classic Warhammer narrative, with gorgeously rendered cutscenes. Its levels are packed tight with arenas littered with enemies for you to destroy for the Emperor (and for Ultramar, and for Captain Lieutenant Titus, and a whole lot of other things that Rahul Kohli will shout if you press T or your console equivalent) with an array of weapons ranging from your humble, yet highly effective, boltgun, to the esoteric and advanced volkite caliver. It’s fast-paced, precise, and over-the-top while still presenting a challenge to the player (should they wish it to). Josh: Are you the type of crusty geezer who thinks Warhammer peaked five editions ago? Are you the grizzled lobster who thinks all media made after the year 1999 lacked that spark that made it special?īoltgun is an homage to the boomer shooters of yesteryear, infused with modern twists that we’ve come to expect in the space.

Josh and Bernhardt take a look at how it plays, and whether the iconic weapon lives up to its top billing in the game’s title (hint: it does). It’s a crowded market out there for boomer shooters with retro aesthetics, and for Warhammer-based licensed games, and here comes Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun to launch a drop pod assault right into the middle of that particular Venn diagram.

Wizards with guns lobster