Recent reviews by Iceborg

The short version: I would only recommend this game to those who either like old-school shooters and have played most of the others out there, or who really enjoy WH40k and are willing to put up with an ok shooter. Otherwise, wait for a sale, or seek out a better shooter like Dusk, Ultrakill, or Cultic.

Boltgun is ok. Not great, not bad, but perhaps priced a bit too high for what it is. It does earn a place among 40k games as one of the better ones if you are looking for something in the setting. I would say it's recommended on any significant sale however.

To explain, Boltgun is obviously going after the boomer-shooter style, aesthetic, and feel similar to Doom, Quake, etc. etc., but consistently falls short in levels, weapons, secrets, and enemies.

This is possibly best seen in the levels, which begin a bit small and uninteresting, but eventually open up into large sprawling areas with plenty of the Warhammer gothic inspired detail about, and yet the game rarely encourages exploration if you are well supplied and is in DIRE need of either a map system, or better indication for where to go. Many paths look the exact same as one another, and the skull that follows you around serving as your guide/companion even will highlight the way to go a handful of times in the game however these feel more like devs putting in patches where playtesters became lost rather than redesigning that portion of the level. The most complex Boltgun's levels get, are using colored keys to section off areas that feels about as good as FireWarrior. I know it's a staple of the old games this genre seeks to emulate, but it really hampers the more impressive looking areas such as a giant elevator and a molten river when you're only interested in the next Red/Purple/Yellow key. Possibly worst of all, there's basically no reason to actually comb through these levels as there's little to find. No special scenes that add to the story, no real easter eggs not even early weapon pickups.

Just secrets. And each secret you'll find is just a power up that you'll have for that level alone. These power ups are fine enough, more melee damage, more damage overall, max ammo, etc., but being the only secrets in the game only exacerbates the level issue. Unless you're specifically going for the "find all the secrets" achievement, you're never going to backtrack through the level to find them, because you'll quickly realize they're all just power ups. Sometimes these "secrets" are floating in the middle of an arena also. It seems like a real missed opportunity to not add in any art, early weapons, hidden sections to a level or shortcuts, or even special enemies.

The enemies in general begin to drag toward the end of the game. You'll have seen every type by the halfway point, and there's never a really creative use of them. One point even has some build up with a warning of escaped aliens, only to give you another boss you've fought at least 3 times by this point rather than anything new. The game will spawn most enemies in with a glow, spread around the map in waves for the arena, and while I'm not a giant fan of the monster closet style of adding enemies, this feels like a step down from that most of the time. Especially for something 40k themed. No transports or vehicles to drop enemies off, no drop pods or marines jumping in, just enemies teleporting in with the same glow, or standing around before you arrive. That last point is especially strange for a boomer-shooter as it, combined with the occasionally large levels, reward the player for stopping to take long range potshots to clear enemies ahead of time for a large chunk of the game. If you're far enough away they won't even react. The best part about the enemies in Boltgun if they generally adhere to being distinctive at a glance, mostly through color pallet. However some similar enemies who behave differently may be easy to mix up, like the Chaos Space Marines (Tough guy in medium armor that can generally be ignored) and the Aspiring Champions. (Slightly more health than the last, but rushes into melee to hit significantly harder.). The worst offender is anything Nurgle, as they're all green and round, looking roughly the same at different ranges save for the biggest and baddest holding a bell, and all of these should be engaged by different weapons.

And speaking of weapons, they're again, alright. The titled boltgun/bolter feels alright and sounds nice, this team having taken the cue from Space Marine to have the audio change just before you run dry to tell you to reload. I appreciate the thought that went into that, as well as the toughness system which modifies the damage you do depending on how strong your weapon is, and how tough your target is. Peppering an armored target with a shotgun won't do much, but taking an anti-armor weapon to something squishy will do extra damage. This is possibly the most interesting thing the game does, and seems to be part of the reason people find some of the weapons lacking.

The shotgun in particular is far weaker than most similar boomer-shooters, really putting it into a role of crowd control for the weakest enemies, but also just weak enough and slow enough that the bolter can really do the same job. I've seen others compare the plasma gun to Doom's Rocket Launcher, though it lacks the same punch, has a low rate of fire and projectile speed, and overheats if you fire 6 shots in a row. While this makes it more accurate to 40k, it really feels like this should have replaced the reload system, or it should hits a little harder, perhaps with lingering damage. The chainsword serves as your only real form of melee (beyond a dash that's really not needed), and is so short ranged and weak that you'll often use it for the lunge it provides more than killing. The game encourages you to finish enemies with it, but there is no benefit for doing so, and by the time you can kill them with it another 3 shots from your weapon would have done so in half the time. Perhaps worst of all the game lacks anything like a BFG, while the universe it's pulling from has nearly any flavor of them you could want. The closest is a weapon with an interesting concept that does more damage to enemies with more "mass", but still only ends up as another weapon for tougher enemies. Really a large AOE or high single point low ammo weapon would have really been interesting. Like a single shot LasCannon put in the place of another power up. The heavy bolter is amazing and probably carries the best feel, if not punch, of the lineup.

Considering everything above, Boltgun can be fun, especially if you're looking for a decent game in the 40k setting. Just know that it's a little lacking from similar games in the sub-genre, runs a little long for it's variety, and isn't worth scouring the levels for anything interesting beyond the next key. It feels like a little more attention from the devs could have made this game great, but it's certainly not bad either.