For my second Warhammer in two weeks, I demoed Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, a game that should be better than it is. I enjoyed Warhammer Survivors much more. The Poncle-alike knows what it i and doesn’t change much from the original. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 feels like its been cobbled together using a Doom and Quake template creator, then further ruined with combat encounters that devolve to just throwing dozens of enemies at you like a child who doesn’t know how to make sophisticated superhero fights.
There’s a section in the demo where you have to destroy waves of enemies, and it becomes so overwhelming that I thought someone or something was going to come in and obliterate everything. That didn’t happen. I died twice and ended my time.
I met Malum Caedo again after my time using him in Vampr—excuse me, Warhammer Survivors. If I enjoyed anything about the ridiculous last section, it’s that I enjoyed slashing through multiple enemies with Caedo’s chainsaw fun.
Shooting and movement feels fine. That seems to be the most consistent attribute of these Boomer Shooters. They’ll nail the movement and the shooting and let everything else fall by the wayside. For a lot of people, that’s just fine. For many people, Boltgun 2 will probably be just fine. I purposefully reject fine. If the game can be better, then I’m going to demand that. Boltgun 2 could absolutely be better.
What’s with the pixelated graphics? There’s a strange inconsistency with the textures. Some look very smooth with pixelated edges, and others look like blocks of muddy colors. This is a look that works for a brief moment. It is eye catching because there’s not much on the market that looks quite like this pixelation. But it’s not endearing, it doesn’t improve anything, it doesn’t make the game feel grungier, it doesn’t make the blood any more or less brutal. Why is it necessary? I don’t see the stylistic choice. This looks like a texture, not a purposeful limitation—the reason why Doom or Quake look that way. It’s not making the game better. I’m not immersed when I have to squint to see the details. Why pour effort into making enemies have details if you’re just going to pixelate it to the point it looks like bipedal oatmeal?
If you watch the video, I enter the settings more often than I’d like. I’m sure that’s annoying. I don’t blame you. I decided to use a gamepad because I’d been sitting straight up at my computer all day. I wanted to sit back in my chair and relax. The initial sensitivity setting for the gamepad was out of control. Games with gamepad support, but don’t actually care about how it feels is almost as pointless as putting in the game at all. It feels as bad as Overwatch. That game is so bad it’s what made me learn mouse and keyboard. I thank God that happened, but if I don’t feel like being upright for five hours, make some controls that feel good from the beginning. I shouldn’t have to tweak every deadzone setting to get it right. Those settings are for minor tweaks, not total calibration.