Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a first-person shooter created by Auroch Digital and published by Focus Entertainment, taking a retro-style approach like older games such as DOOM, but it’s set within the Warhammer 40K universe.

Fans of old 90s-style shooters will love Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, even if you have no understanding of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. You load in as a Space Marine with a chainsword, which is basically a sword-shaped chainsaw, you turn the first few enemies into a paste before receiving the fabled Boltgun, and then you can let bullets fly in this chaos-filled title. There are a total of three chapters that are broken up into eight segments, and most levels will have parts filled with action, but others will be rather slow, and there is no real helpful navigation system throughout. There isn’t really much of a story – the opening scenes tell you that you’re helping with an investigation, and that seems to be where the story stops and the chaos begins.

Do you want guns? We got guns. Other than the default chainsword and Boltgun, also known as a Bolter, you can unlock some other amazing guns from the 40K universe, with a total of seven guns to be unlocked, and you will have a hard time picking your favourite. From a Meltagun that fires a super-heated beam that melts enemies to the Grav-Cannon that gets stronger the longer you shoot it, the weapons can definitely leave a room covered in blood as you destroy everything in your path. You can also find secret items located around the levels, and these can offer players things like special ammunition and enhanced weapons, so it pays to explore the missions thoroughly.

While dispatching enemies with god-tier weapons is fun, there are also three types of grenades you can use. There’s a basic Frag grenade, used against infantry, a Krak grenade, which is used for armoured targets, and my personal favourite, the Vortex grenade. As you throw this, it opens a vortex that will pull everything into it, making short work of bunched-up enemies, or reducing those pesky large health bar types quite a bit, but user beware, it will damage you also if you are too close.

The graphics were intended to give a retro-shooter feel, so the enemies are 2D sprites, and they’re very copy and paste. This isn’t a bad thing. I enjoy my retro games and they did a great job in making the 41st millennium into a retro environment, and with how quickly you are clearing traitors and heretics, you don’t stop to notice. It also follows the old-school feeling really well. Weapons and reloading animations were done well, and none of the level designs felt like they were out of place, sticking with the grimdark themes, and not straying when designing the levels.

There were plenty of enemies located in the mission areas, and the boss encounter actually felt like a great accomplishment, particularly after seeing that I had cleared the level. There was no lackluster ending either. It was just a chaotic hell-storm of a fight that made you look back at the adventure you had. The enemy types had a great mix of long-range and melee-based attackers as well, they didn’t just over-flood segments with one of each. It was a great ratio of types thrown into combat.

The audio is filled with gunshots and the stomps of the Space Marine’s boots. There is some very grimdark and appropriately Warhammer-like background music, and the action and gunfire felt spot on, except for the Grav-Cannon. The longer you fired it, the more it sounded like a cat screeching at me. There isn’t much in the way of spoken lines, with most of your instructions being delivered by robotic-sounding syllables and text. Our protagonist has a couple of spoken lines when using the taunt command, so you’ll have the occasional “Purge the Heretic,” or “For the Emporer!” when you are charging into a fight, or if you accidentally hit the taunt button like I did a few times. It was a nice addition.

The difficulty settings for the game do support Easy up to Extremely Hard, but there are also some accessibility options that I found while turning off vibration because I found it to be very intense. You’ll find helpful options like infinite ammo and other fun features that might help younger or less-abled players enjoy the bullet-hell that little bit more.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a great love letter to classic 90s shooters, but it still offers what fans of Warhammer 40,000 want, and it’s easy for players who have no idea about the series to jump in and enjoy the game. The chapters are a great length, and for the achievement hunters out there, the list might be a little short, but it offers quite a fun experience while completing them.

Written by: Shane Walsh