"Hit Pause" - Boltgun

 Load up your Boltgun and unleash 

the awesome Space Marine arsenal 

to blast your way through an explosion of sprites, 

pixels and blood in a perfect blend of Warhammer 40,000, 

frenetic gameplay and the stylish visuals of 90’s retro shooters.

- Steam

Hello all,

I don't really talk about many video games on The Art of Caesura, outside of mentioning what I'm gaming at the moment at the bottom of most posts. I don't want to draw the focus too far away from painting and playing with miniatures and I also feel a bit of extra pressure writing such posts because video games enjoy much broader and more thorough online coverage than miniature painting does so it is more difficult to add something new or find my own voice.

All that being said, I have gone into a bit of depth about some video games - but I have tended to keep them miniature-related. Over the span of 3 weeks, a few years ago, I did some posts on Storm Ground, Necromunda: Underhive Wars, and Necromunda: Hired Gun. Each of those posts delved into an area of those games that I really enjoyed, rather than being a review per se (of which you can find many online as I mentioned above). Today's post is no different...

Boltgun by Focus Entertainment. I got to play a bit of this at Warhammer Fest, and a month and a half ago we received a 25% off coupon from Warhammer Plus (which brought it down to under 15 euro), so I took the plunge. 

It has been an instant injection of nostalgia for me. In many ways it is Doom 2 reskinned for Warhammer 40k with modern quality-of-life elements added. And I love it. 

I played so much Doom 2 in my youth on our big box PC. My dad even programmed in a shortcut where if you held down "shift" while the computer was booting up it would immediately launch Doom 2. I think I still remember all the cheat codes: Iddqd, Idkfa, Idkfa, Idclip, Idclev...anyway, so my comparison to Doom 2 with a 40k skin is basically everything I could have wished for. 

Now, it does do a lot that Doom didn't, so today I want to list some of my favourite things about Boltgun:

1) Aesthetic:

The retro pixelation is so well done, but even more than that, every sprite in the game is based very closely on specific miniatures. The attention to detail is incredible: all of the cultists are based on real minis, there are blue horrors with and without beaks, there's the sassy nurgling with helmet...There are so many moments of "hey, I recognize that!" - it's all just spot on. 

For the idling animation your character takes out and starts reading a sacred tome (the Codex Astartes?)

2) Sound:

Guns and enemies sound like you would expect them too, the bolter sounds chonky and the Heavy Bolter...whoa boy. 

You even have a "taunt" button where Rahul Kolhi (who voiced the protagonist) will shout appropriate warhammer threats.  

I even love the sound of your heavy frame stomping down the corridors or landing from a jump - it really gives a sense of weight (so much so, that if you land on a weak enemy - or hit them while you are charging - they will explode!)

3) Callbacks to Doom:

Exploding barrels are prominent, enemies caught in crossfire will attack each other, small healing items can take you above the "max health" that medpacks refill (like blue potions in Doom), your armour is another resource, called Contempt, that you gain from killing demons (very thematic), you can run, you have a chainsword (like Doom's chainsaw). 

4) Forging New Ground:

Boltgun knows what type of game it is, and it does that very well. But, it does not shy away from new features that enhance the gameplay rather than just being tacked on for complexity. There is a jump button, you can mantle over terrain, you can charge, you can mash the chainsaw button while hacking through an enemy to keep the attack going (much like Gears of War). There is also a nice little addition of Strength / Toughness; each enemy has a toughness value listed beside their health and each gun has its strength listed beside it's ammo. If your strength is greater than the enemies toughness, the shot will deal more damage etc. Simple but effective. 

I'm only about half way through Boltgun, but as you can see, so far I'm having a blast. 

Have you had a chance to try it out yet? Let me know in the comments below.

See you next week on The Art of Caesura!

Gaming: Boltgun

Watching: The Meg 2: The Trench

Next Week:

Happy birthday to me!