Video games have always treated guns with a certain reverence, from the wicked grin of Doom’s marine when he picks up the shotgun, to the pornographic customisation options of modern Call of Duty. Warhammer: 40k Boltgun takes this to its absurd logical endpoint. In the opening level, your hulking space marine discovers the titular firearm on a literal altar, a chorus of angelic voices chanting as you pluck the weapon from its pedestal. “A Holy Relic!” burbles your accompanying servo-skull as you lock and load. “The Emperor Provides!”
Warhammer 40k: Boltgun reviewDeveloper: Auroch DigitalPublisher: Focus EntertainmentPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out 23 May on PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.
It’s a fitting introduction to Boltgun’s eponymous weapon, not just because the game revels in the excess of both 40k and mid-nineties shooters, but also in how it reflects upon its strengths and, by association, weaknesses. No other weapon is afforded such treatment, which is appropriate because no other weapon is as good. Boltgun’s boltgun is the virtual firearm perfected, so innately satisfying that it blows away the game’s own power curve alongside the hordes of daemons you’ll slaughter with it.
Unlike how it introduces its signature firearm, Boltgun doesn’t stand on ceremony getting you into the action. A brief cutscene summarises the situation. The Adeptus Mechanicus has picked up strange readings in the forge world system of Graia, and dispatches you, along with a small team of other Space Marines to investigate. But your team is killed in the initial drop, leaving you alone to battle a rapidly developing incursion by the forces of Chaos.
Visually, Boltgun derives from the Doom and Duke Nukem school of polygonal environments and sprite-based enemies. The game it most strongly reminds me of, however, is Star Wars: Dark Forces. This might be partly down to both being licensed shooters, but it’s also evident in how they use comparatively basic visual techniques to present a galaxy of vast scale. Of course, Boltgun’s technical limitations are only affected, meaning it can infuse the 40k universe with the grandeur it warrants. Across your adventure, you’ll explore sprawling gothic cityscapes and gigantic industrial complexes, where the roiling fountains of molten metal are as much a threat as the enemies clawing at your armour. They may not be as detailed as Darktide’s Tertium, but Boltgun’s maps are every bit as colossal.