That’s one doomed space marine

New Warhammer games feel like a weekly occurrence. It feels like everyone has the license to breed new ideas in the universe and for the most part the games are quickly forgotten. Boltgun finally takes the franchise where it needs to be and that is in the boomer shooter category. Yes, so many people hate that term, but when I said it, you knew exactly what I meant. Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun is an unapologetic love letter to PC shooters from the 90s. It is fast and visceral and rarely tries to be something it isn’t. This works incredibly well and creates the best game in that universe for action fans since Space Marine.

The story is paper thin with players assuming the role of a Space Marine Sternguard. He is a pretty silent protagonist who is on a mission from the inquisition to pretty much just kill everything. Most of the “plot” is told through a floating skull who basically just makes comments on the world around you. It knows what it is doing and does it well. The game focuses on killing and rarely stops to tell a story. The missions are broken up into episodes and chapters complete with a breakdown screen at the end of each one akin to Doom.

MSRP: $21.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $21.99

As with any game of this type, weapons play the largest role. There are standard pistols and shotguns of course, but your marine is also equipped with a chainsaw that can be revved up for maximum carnage. This mechanic is so satisfying as it homes in on enemies and turns them into pixelated gobs of goo. The Vengeance Launcher from Space Marine also makes a return and it is a welcome one. There are also a host of ranged weapons such as a plasma gun all of which feel incredibly satisfying to use. The gun play just feels impactful and that is a necessity in these types of games.

The campaign itself is broken into levels much like a Doom game. Each episode has several of these for a total of around twelve missions to conquer. It isn’t an overly long endeavor though as I was able to plow through it in around ten hours. It does have great pacing as the game starts off as a power fantasy with enemies gibbing into pixelated messes early on and enemies in later stages adding more tactics that require the player to use their weapons and ammo accordingly. This is the type of game where repetition and difficulty increase are paramount. Getting better and tackling the harder difficulties is addictive and the game never overstays its welcome.

Visually this is exactly what you expect with tons of pixels on the screen constantly. There are options to tone down the excessive retro look, but I really loved it more than the smoothed out look. The game runs fantastically on Series X with nary a hint of slowdown. Guns feel and sound fantastic and the raw carnage just pops on a proper sound system or headphones. This game is chunky in all the right ways and I absolutely loved the look and feel of everything. It is an immensely satisfying experience from top to bottom.

While there are hundreds of Warhammer games out there, few of them really stand out among the pack. Boltgun is one of those games and even non-fans of the universe owe it to themselves to check it out. It is visceral, addictive, and paced extremely well. The array of difficulty options offer up something for everyone and it has some of the best weapon feel of any of these types of games out there. I cannot recommend this game enough for anyone looking for a good time blowing up pixelated baddies.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.