burial rites for the exiled and forgotten. what else can i do to save these people?

painterly in a way that eludes a lot of similarly inclined first-person shooters, genuinely really striking images presented here and accompanied with an eerie soundscape. it’s shackled to linearity both in rhythm and in how it opts to supply the player with resources, which admittedly may not have earned it the warmth it deserved back in 2009, but there’s an appreciated pointedness to its pace which perfectly accompanies its relatively short runtime. frankness is ultimately its greatest asset; most of the nonlinearity here is deployed through the vignettes comprising its narrative, portraying the north wind’s genuine tragedy with a leanness & brevity that underlines the humanity of its limited cast. as your journey shifts from something seemingly corporeal to metaphysical and impressionistic, it is this comfort with being construed as folkloric which allows its final moments to not only register as meaningful, but to provide this unexpected & poignant catharsis. really loved it.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun: A clone of DOOM that doesn't deliver anything really unique outside of its Warhammer 40K paint job and even that is forgettable at times. Mostly competent but lackluster, it can feel like a slog and won't be remembered as a standout of the self-described boomer shooters.

Really, to sum it up: the game is fine, probably the picture-perfect definition of “average”. If you wanted a Warhammer game, it's not here, this is just a reskinned, slightly modernized DOOM. If you like DOOM, you'll probably enjoy this game, but there isn't much new for you here to see. If you came here for the atmosphere of 40K, it's there, but not as much as it is in something like Darktide.
There are some nice touches, like your heavy, metallic footsteps that can make you sound like a sprinting Abrams tank; your armor is called Contempt; the idling animation will have your marine consulting the Codex; there's a dedicated taunt key that'll have your space marine shout insults at the heretics. It would be nice if he did some of the taunting all on his own, as actually pressing the button to insult computer enemies is sort of a hollow gesture. Just spitballing, but maybe at the end of one of the numerous Purge sections, he talks some hard-earned smack? Oh well.

If the newer DOOM games have taught us anything, it's that exceptional music can help elevate “old” gameplay to ridiculously high levels. In Boltgun, the music is barely there. The main menu theme reminds me of the ambient music that played while you chose a track in Guitar Hero III or maybe the intro to a Bon Jovi song. During gameplay, you'll barely hear any jams playing at all. Sometimes there'll be single syllable chants every so often over a light beat. I've read online “Just put on the DOOM soundtrack,” as though that's not indicative of a pretty big problem with Boltgun. You may as well do that, as the sound effects of Boltgun's weapons aren't that impressive and there's zero monologue/dialogue you'll miss.
Listen to this track and tell me it isn't instant atmosphere, setting a clear tone. Darktide is known to have its fair share of issues, but music isn't one of them. Music can do a lot and its near-total absence is heavy, here.

The quality of game and its deservedly low price point reminds me of those Xbox 360 Arcade games, though towards the higher-end (in quality/competence) of them. I think they make it pretty clear to not expect very much, and so I didn't, yet I still feel sort of disappointed. It's hard to feel like a hardened space marine when my largest boss enemies manage to get stuck on the environment, standing still and waiting for me to slowly snipe them to death with my boltgun or plasma rifle, while they do little to nothing. The game tells me my weapon absorbed the machine spirit, but I'm not feeling it.
This may out me as a total moron, but I found myself getting lost in a lot of maps easily. A lot of the map design seems needlessly convoluted and when combined with the art style that can easily blend everything together into a pixelated blur, it can turn your brain to mush.
Lesser enemies shooting at me nonsensically did add challenge to the gameplay, but I felt like it made zero sense in the context of the game. Some shots were aimed right for you interspersed with shots aiming arbitrarily. Add four or five guys doing this at the same time and you don't really know how to move in that area without taking some hits. I think my opponents randomly flipping the switch between “competent” and “Stormtrooper” is a weird way to add difficulty, and ultimately, one I didn't really care for. I also cannot overstate how much I HATE Nurglings and the choice to just overload you with them (especially in the last fight? Seriously?) is a horrid one.

If you ask me, this game is repetitive, overstays its welcome, and just isn't that interesting. While its Warhammer 40K aesthetic is pretty good, it isn't a super strong coaxer. When I was finished with the first chapter, I had actually hoped it was over. I'm not entirely sure what it's missing, here, but it's obvious something is wrong. I don't think I can really recommend this game, though if you like “boomer shooters” to death, maybe this is worth checking out. Just don't expect anything great.

You can feel the game try to emulate RE4 and RE7 (two of my favorites in the series) but can't really do either of their strengths well.

RE4's action and mostly linear levels were offset by the ways you could approach combat and how creative the enemy variety and level setups were. You had to reposition, aim at knees or hands or heads depending on the scenario. There were not many choices and optional routes because the combat was all the choice. Your inventory being big was OK because crafting materials like herbs took up space in your inventory and you had to manage all that by combining and rearranging. RE7's survival horror and different routes meant that ammo was scarce and you would almost always constantly be barely clinging on to life. Because of limited inventory space, you would always have to choose. "I have some chem fluid. Do I use it to make health or more ammo? If I have more health, I will be safer. But if I have more ammo, I will be able to defend myself." You also had to backtrack around the house and surrounding areas so much that you would get accustomed to it and the enemies that were there. You could choose to clear it now and use up your bullets or dodge them for now and get rid of them later, at the risk of later being a worse time for you (like if you had no bullets or health at the time.) Exploration was also rewarded because the keys needed for progression were hidden everywhere. You go explore this room and find an unassuming object that you will put in the box. When stuck on a puzzle, you think "remember that random object from 2 hours ago? I wonder if I can somehow use that to solve the puzzle." Both of these games were fantastic in their own way, and they couldn't be more different. I was skeptical when I heard it was like a mixture of the two.

As an RE7 survival horror game, it fails because you are constantly given ammo and crafting supplies and weapons and inventory space and practically everything you need. I never ran out. Key items not only took no inventory space but were also basically always right around the corner. If not, they are just given to you on the linear path you take. There's this illusion of exploration but what really is happening is you get chased by the enemy into this room where you find the key and Ethan says "I wonder if I can use this statue head to open that statue head hole key at the coordinates 37.6460, -115.7507." Theres no way you could fail to find the statue and wander around the vast castle, looking for a key or something to progress. No, you get the item. There is ONE time in the final area where you have to backtrack to create the key but that's about it. In fact, that final map (factory) is the only good one in this game. Multiple floors, backtracking, different keys, unique rooms, and it may be surface level but at least these enemies need specific shots to the weak point. But other than that, you need a key, you'll find one in the room right next door. The puzzles are dead simple. But that's how it was in RE4. And it worked for that game. Why? As I said, the combat was super interesting. How's this game's combat? eh...

The pistols you get are reliable. The shotguns are pretty good. The reload animations are satisfying. You get cool weapons for exploring optional areas. All the weapons are good. So what's the problem? The enemies and the enemy variety! Village moved from zombies and mold people to werewolves to try something new but these are just hairy zombies. There's nothing interesting you can do with the combat. You can't shoot a TNT wielding Ganado's hand and detonate the bomb killing the crowd around him. You can't shoot the kneecap of a dude and then suplex him. Just shoot them wherever until they die. The AI is so braindead and the enemies are so weak that you could just shotgun and stun them so you could move on. Near the end, the enemies started getting armored but of course, they have big, glowing weak points on their chests. And since you can run and gun and Ethan just doesn't seem to get tired, they're not a threat either.

So, it fails at making you fight for your life in survival horror. It has no interesting puzzles and it's as linear as a non-bendy straw. There are no choices and the only reward for exploration are optional treasures. The combat isn't challenging or deep, the enemy variety is extremely lacking and the bosses are spongy and repetitive. You can play the game on autopilot. How about the story?

It's pretty good! I like the setup of saving your baby and the 4 lords have cool personalities and I liked it. And Ethan is the best protagonist since RE4 Leon. Such a great character.

Endless one-button manual and like 5 moves total makes for a pretty worthless combo trick game. The level design doesn't lend itself to interesting exploration when points of interest are sparsely dispersed over plain fields. The music feels lifted straight from beats to relax/study to radio, and even stylistically it's been one-upped this year by Hi-Fi Rush. I mean it's very much aight still, but is this really what JSR fans were craving? For every edge to get sanded off to frictionless, gentrified state?

Tired of motherfuckers in Olathe telling me, always in the bar, Brad Armstrong ain’t bout this, Brad Armstrong ain’t bout that, they say that fella don’t be putting in no work. SHUT THE FUCK UP! Y'all fellas ain’t know shit! All ya motherfuckers talk about "Brad Armstrong ain’t no hitta Brad Armstrong ain’t this Brad Armstrong a fake." SHUT THE FUCK UP! Y'all don’t live with that guy. Y'all know that guy got caught with buddy, Shootin fireballs at Rando guys and shit. Fella been on probation since fuckin, I don’t know when! Motherfuckers stop fuckin' playin' him like that! Them mutants savages out there! If I catch another motherfucker talking sweet about Brad Armstrong, I’m fucking beating they ass! I’m not fucking playing no more! You know his party roll with Terry Hintz and them.