Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - W40K boomer shooter

[Jenkem]

I feel like there's some deepseated codex hate for boomer shooters, for reasons that I'm not aware of.

what's even more telling is how they will often proclaim "just keep playing DOOM WADS"

editor's note: the doom modding community is 85% trannies

curious

 

[Morenatsu.]

Real men play normal Doom without source-ports or custom wads.

 

[Great Deceiver]

DUSK is great

And saying Doom and Quake are better fps than X because "you can download hundreds of awesome crazy wads", is effectively the equivalent of saying "Skyrim is one of the greatest RPG's of all time because you can play Enderal instead"

No one ever said that. Doom and Quake campaigns are orders of magnitude better than anything in this middling "boomer shooter" genre - there are very, very few exceptions. What people have been saying is that even random .WADs are better, because they are.

 

[Great Deceiver]

editor's note: the doom modding community is 85% trannies

 

[Jenkem]

DUSK is great

And saying Doom and Quake are better fps than X because "you can download hundreds of awesome crazy wads", is effectively the equivalent of saying "Skyrim is one of the greatest RPG's of all time because you can play Enderal instead"

No one ever said that. Doom and Quake campaigns are orders of magnitude better than anything in this middling "boomer shooter" genre - there are very, very few exceptions. What people have been saying is that even random .WADs are better, because they are.

Plenty of people said that.. as someone who frequents every boomer shooter and adjacent thread on this forum there's a large collection of people that seem to be stuck on Doom/Quake .wads in what amounts to a grognard fashion. They will complain if a game does new things and isn't trying to ape [insert specific 90s shooter here] and insist "these devs just don't get it." They will ALSO complain if a game attempts to be more similar to the classics and say "why would I play this when I could just play DOOM?" Even if it's literally a total conversion running on GZDOOM, which is what they claim to want, they will dismiss it as "just a doom wad."

I don't trust most of them anymore because one of the prime examples of this was Curratum, who would claim to like FPS games and then proceed to shit on every one of them in some fashion and act like they were all complete dogshit and beneath such a hardcore gamer as himself.. then I saw him on the steam forums and clicked his profile and this nigga has put 300+ hours into the COD Modern Warfare 2 remake.

 

[Lemming42]

I must indeed be extra edgy, since when I'm seeing a post where someone rightfully criticizes these games and then names Ion Fury or Amid Evil as exceptions the only thing I'm thinking is "bruh, those are shite, too".

I'm not sure I could qualify why exactly I liked Ion Fury so much; I thought the maps were mostly very good and felt similar in design to Blood (the exceptions being those big outdoor areas early on, which are shitty and boring to play). Enemy and weapon variety was good, albeit quite limited. The multi-shot mode on the pistol was also a really cool feature, the kind of mechanic that could easily have gone wrong but ended up working perfectly. A really important part of Ion Fury is that it also looks visually appealing; some of these games just look utterly repulsive (Amid Evil being one, funnily enough) but Ion Fury looks like they were actually trying to make it look as good as possible with the technology available, just as 90s devs did.

As for Amid Evil, I like it in spite of itself - the levels can be pretty dire at times and it slips often into shitty arena stuff but the combat mechanics just worked for me, and all the weapons felt fun to use.

Good call on Overload. I always forget that one because in my mind I don't class it as a throwback shooter, though I'm not sure why - maybe because it looks graphically good rather than looking like shit as most of these games do, or maybe because Descent doesn't quite register in my head as being an FPS even though it objectively is one.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Looks very standard... ugly graphics that aren't authentically 90s nor appealing by modern standards, big arena-y maps where enemies just surround you and you run around switching between weapons to blast them. nuDoom with shit graphics. Looks sort of like Prodeus in a lot of ways.

If throwback shooters have taught me anything it's that I vastly prefer the corridor-based design of Wolf3D/Doom/Marathon/etc to big arenas.

Is this confirmed by someone that played it? I was interested in the game but then I saw this atrocious arena design and it killed my boner instantly. If it's like Doom 2016 I'm not touching this with a 10 foot pole.

 

[Sjukob]

And saying Doom and Quake are better fps than X because "you can download hundreds of awesome crazy wads", is effectively the equivalent of saying "Skyrim is one of the greatest RPG's of all time because you can play Enderal instead"

Do you really think so?

Doom and Quake both have excellent foundation, that is their original content - weapons, enemies, items, mechanics etc. That foundation alone is better than most of everything that has been done since then, and on top of that it's easily modable, allowing it to reach even greater heights with the help of enthusiasts. Saying that Doom and Quake are better that other FPS is not the same as saying that Skyrim is one the greatest RPGs of all time, because Skyrim has shit foundation and any fan made content is built on top of that foundation. It's why many people say that you can't fix Skyrim with mods, because it's foundation is just trash, even Enderal is spoiled by it to a degree. Yet nobody in the right mind denies that Doom is a great game at it's core, and quality wads only improve something that is already good.

It's for the same reason people have been playing and modding games like these (Doom, Quake, Thief, Jagged Alliance, X-COM etc) for years, not only because they are modable, but also because their foundation is so good.

 

[randir14]

Looks very standard... ugly graphics that aren't authentically 90s nor appealing by modern standards, big arena-y maps where enemies just surround you and you run around switching between weapons to blast them. nuDoom with shit graphics. Looks sort of like Prodeus in a lot of ways.

If throwback shooters have taught me anything it's that I vastly prefer the corridor-based design of Wolf3D/Doom/Marathon/etc to big arenas.

Is this confirmed by someone that played it? I was interested in the game but then I saw this atrocious arena design and it killed my boner instantly. If it's like Doom 2016 I'm not touching this with a 10 foot pole.

It has arenas but it's not as arena-heavy as Doom. From what I've played so far there's one or two arena sections per level and they're split up by regular sections where you fight through enemies as you explore.

 

[HansDampf]

Judging from the videos, this looks like a standard checkbox boomer shooter. And I hate that term, but I'm using it here because it looks so uninspired.
Ion Fury is one of the better ones. Looks fantastic, but is also held back by lots of micro issues (enemy design, limp weapons, jankiness, inflation of secrets).
Overload is indeed the best of these retro FPS games but is largely ignored, even by retro FPS enthusiasts, for some reason. Dust off your joysticks and play Overload, especially if you like Descent.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I don't trust most of them anymore because one of the prime examples of this was Curratum, who would claim to like FPS games and then proceed to shit on every one of them in some fashion and act like they were all complete dogshit and beneath such a hardcore gamer as himself.. then I saw him on the steam forums and clicked his profile and this nigga has put 300+ hours into the COD Modern Warfare 2 remake.

Eh, he was giving out hot takes in the vein of "the first game to feature diarrhea-inspired graphics, amid evil, looks amazing!!!" like candy while posting walls of utterly ass-looking screenshots again and again. I also remember him praising every other "quake-inspired" shooter that obviously had nothing to do with quake in any way, shape or form. But yes, if you want to treat most codexers seriously, not looking at their steam profiles is an important thing to remember.

I'm not sure I could qualify why exactly I liked Ion Fury so much; I thought the maps were mostly very good and felt similar in design to Blood (the exceptions being those big outdoor areas early on, which are shitty and boring to play). Enemy and weapon variety was good, albeit quite limited. The multi-shot mode on the pistol was also a really cool feature, the kind of mechanic that could easily have gone wrong but ended up working perfectly. A really important part of Ion Fury is that it also looks visually appealing; some of these games just look utterly repulsive (Amid Evil being one, funnily enough) but Ion Fury looks like they were actually trying to make it look as good as possible with the technology available, just as 90s devs did.

I didn't really play Ion Fury all that much, it bored me very quickly. But, in that short time, it managed to check most boxes on the "why fps faux-revival is as bad as the crpg one" list:

- being a de-facto mod for an old game peddled at a non-insignificant price
- utterly drab enemy cast (super important thing that can make or break a shooter for me)
- poorly designed difficulty, where actually fighting something is very easy, but the game constantly utilizes repeated, samey "ambushes" to drain your resources
- level design maybe not horrible, but rarely interesting to look at and explore

And so on. I guess the weapons were OK-ish and the game did kinda feel like an old shooter and definitely looked like it, so there's that.

Good call on Overload. I always forget that one because in my mind I don't class it as a throwback shooter, though I'm not sure why - maybe because it looks graphically good rather than looking like shit as most of these games do, or maybe because Descent doesn't quite register in my head as being an FPS even though it objectively is one.

That's exactly the thing I'm talking about - Overload looks and handles like a modern game that also plays and feels like the old ones which inspired it. This makes it unique, since most other attempts never clear the "should actually feel like playing a game from the nineties" bar and then think that looking like crap=old school on top of that.

 

[Fedora Master]

Why is this 2.5D boomer shooter almost 5gb?

 

[Morenatsu.]

Why is this 2.5D boomer shooter almost 5gb?

if you play it in vr then you would have 2.5D in two eyes therefore it's 5D and therefore 5gb

 

[Louis_Cypher]

 

[Jenkem]

Played the first few levels on the Exterminatus difficulty and it wasn't really that difficult but of course only fought cultists and chaos space marines and still early. I assume it will get harder later on when daemons start appearing and other chaos shit. The boltgun shreds cultists even on the hardest difficulty which is nice. I think higher difficulties add more enemies and increases the damage done to you so definitely should be the way to go. Still feels like a power fantasy though and is pretty fun, especially if you are a 40k fan. Probably the best 40k FPS ever made (lol) I will withhold judgment until I play it properly and finish it but first impressions are that it's a fun 40k game. It feels like Space Marine but as an FPS, and the story is pretty much a sequel/continuation of that game (same forgeworld, referencing the events of the game, there are people going after the inquisitor's power source, etc.) Looking forward to playing it for real after I finish up HROT.

There are also sliders for the pixelization and 'retro palette' which I think is color dithering or something and an option to turn off bloom, still lowres textures on things but it is able to clean up the image a bit if you're into that.

 

[toughasnails]

I don't trust most of them anymore because one of the prime examples of this was Curratum, who would claim to like FPS games and then proceed to shit on every one of them in some fashion and act like they were all complete dogshit and beneath such a hardcore gamer as himself.. then I saw him on the steam forums and clicked his profile and this nigga has put 300+ hours into the COD Modern Warfare 2 remake.

Isn't this why he abandoned this place though? I think that someone in the graveyard thread wrote how he asked for his account to be deleted because some of the locals started stalking him elsewhere online...
Not that his habits sound too different that those of most other regulars around here. What was his playtime in Fallout 4 and Cyberpunk?

 

[DJOGamer PT]

And saying Doom and Quake are better fps than X because "you can download hundreds of awesome crazy wads", is effectively the equivalent of saying "Skyrim is one of the greatest RPG's of all time because you can play Enderal instead"

Do you really think so?

Doom and Quake both have excellent foundation, that is their original content - weapons, enemies, items, mechanics etc. That foundation alone is better than most of everything that has been done since then, and on top of that it's easily modable, allowing it to reach even greater heights with the help of enthusiasts. Saying that Doom and Quake are better that other FPS is not the same as saying that Skyrim is one the greatest RPGs of all time, because Skyrim has shit foundation and any fan made content is built on top of that foundation. It's why many people say that you can't fix Skyrim with mods, because it's foundation is just trash, even Enderal is spoiled by it to a degree. Yet nobody in the right mind denies that Doom is a great game at it's core, and quality wads only improve something that is already good.

It's for the same reason people have been playing and modding games like these (Doom, Quake, Thief, Jagged Alliance, X-COM etc) for years, not only because they are modable, but also because their foundation is so good.

Dude, c'mon I think you understood my point

When objectively examining or comparing the quality of game design in two games, it is unfair and dishonest to claim one is superior because there's mods out there that elevate it above the other

 

[sser]

Solid game. It has one level design mistake though in that the mobs don't seem super able to navigate their way to you. So you end up in some legitimately massive, 2+ tier arenas and there's just some dumbo monster somewhere and you have to X-Com-style bughunt it down to keep the arena going.

Overall, I like the pace of the game. It can be as breakneck as you want it to be, without leaning hard into that zoomer adderall shit that Doom Eternal became. There's some real 'speedrunning' potential, as the mobility is very high and you can often get to places you shouldn't with a little ingenuity.

Played the first few levels on the Exterminatus difficulty and it wasn't really that difficult but of course only fought cultists and chaos space marines and still early. I assume it will get harder later on when daemons start appearing and other chaos shit. The boltgun shreds cultists even on the hardest difficulty which is nice. I think higher difficulties add more enemies and increases the damage done to you so definitely should be the way to go. Still feels like a power fantasy though and is pretty fun, especially if you are a 40k fan. Probably the best 40k FPS ever made (lol) I will withhold judgment until I play it properly and finish it but first impressions are that it's a fun 40k game. It feels like Space Marine but as an FPS, and the story is pretty much a sequel/continuation of that game (same forgeworld, referencing the events of the game, there are people going after the inquisitor's power source, etc.) Looking forward to playing it for real after I finish up HROT.

There are also sliders for the pixelization and 'retro palette' which I think is color dithering or something and an option to turn off bloom, still lowres textures on things but it is able to clean up the image a bit if you're into that.

Nearing end of Act 1 and it does get steadily harder.

Difficulty does pull in another weakness, though, which is that arenas might be littered with items and ammo and what not, but often it's best to just straddle an area and turtle up. On the harder difficulties you have less incentive to zip around the field unless you're looking for the powerups.

 

[Fedora Master]

Played a few missions on Hard.

Looks alright although the cultists turn into brown blobs visually most of the time.
Not a Boomer Shooter, more like a demake of nu-Doom honestly.
Music is alright but the gold standard for 40K music is still Chaos Gate and Mechanicus.
Feels too easy on Hard.
AI is dumb as bricks and will get stuck in doorways.

 

[His Dudeness]

I like shooting at things I know like chaos terminators.

Good game to play for like 40 minutes and then be done with it.

 

[Dayyālu]

I'm curious, does it keep the promise of having a "oldhammer" ambience, like 2ed bright colours and contrast?

It's silly, but by now the deluge of retroshooters has kinda exhausted me and if I play something it's for ambience and nostalgia. Gotta love the bright green bases and bright bluey/yellow of old 90ies Ultramarines.

 

[Trithne]

It's... fine. Played 3 ish missions last night. It definitely apes DOOM '16, but I enjoyed DOOM '16 for what it was so I'm okay with that. Weapons feel nice, and the oldhammer aesthetic is nostalgic for me. The AI is dumb as a box of hammers though and that kinda ruins it a bit.

As for the general thread of BoomShoots are shit if they aren't DooM/Quake, eh. I want to see devs tinkering with the possibility space more than just making a game that already exists. That's probably Boltgun's biggest weakness, it really is just a 40k themed DOOM '16 demake. Personally I want to see more things like what I've played of Cultic.

Also the wife asked if I could play anything other than a "toilet seat marine", as that's how she interprets the Ultrasmurf logo. Sadly it seems not. Bet there'll be DLC for that.

 

[Vic]

just saw this on steam, been a while since I played a shooter and this one looked cool

 

[Great Deceiver]

Prodeus is a lot better than this.

 

[T45 Paladin]

It's kind of fun to be honest. Just get it on a well discounted sale.