Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

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Ultramarines haters after playing Boltgun and Space Marine made with mematic Oh, my God. I get it.

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About

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a boomer shooter video game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe that was released in May 2023. The game, inspired by other retro FPS titles like Doom, has players take on the role of Malum Caedo, a Sternguard Veteran Space Marine tasked with retrieving the "Power Source" from Chaos Sorcerer Tumulus Samael. The FPS received largely positive reviews upon release and inspired numerous memes and works of fan art online referencing the game and its characters.

History

On May 10th, 2023, a gameplay trailer was released for Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. The game is a self-described "boomer shooter" and the first Warhammer: 40k game to follow that specific genre, garnering over 696,000 views on the IGN YouTube^[1] page in three weeks (shown below, left). On May 23rd, an official launch trailer was then posted to the same YouTube^[2] channel, garnering over 98,000 views in a week (shown below, right). The game was released that same day on Steam and all major consoles.

Online Presence

In the days leading up to the game's release and shortly after, members of the Warhammer fandom began posting fan art and content about the Boltgun. On May 22nd, 2023, the day before its release, Twitter^[3] user @rdzdoodles posted a piece of art, writing, "Less than a day… I can't wait ;_;," garnering over 6,000 likes in a week (shown below, left). On May 23rd, the same Twitter^[4] user posted another piece of fan art, writing, "I say, #Boltgun feels like exactly what I wanted, anticipated, AND MORE," garnering over 19,000 likes in a week (shown below, right).

bolbgun he so cool... woaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa @rdzdoodles

waaa... giant blueberry! You are too weak to carry it. It is no toy, little one. ов see how the Emperor protects? pass me another, battle sister. IND 1 rdzdoodles I will show you how it works. MAN TUN TAX

On May 24th, Redditor u/ErnoCor posted a screenshot of the player taunting a Nurgling enemy to the /r/Warhammer40k^[5] subreddit, garnering over 6,100 upvotes in a week (shown below).

Σ 250 56 5 NURGLING Chaos filth! G 0 F BOLTGUN STR4 125 21

On May 27th, 2023, Redditor u/TheLurker1209 posted a meme to /r/grimdark^[6] that gained over 11,000 upvotes in five days (shown below, left). On May 30th, Redditor u/Fact_Donator posted an I Get It Now meme about the game to /r/grimdark,^[7] garnering over 7,000 upvotes in two days (shown below right).

Meme / Fan Art Examples

Nooo, you can't destroy thousands of heretics by yourself! Ha-ha! Bolter goes RA-TA-TATA 2

Friendship ended with DARKTIDE Now BOLTGUN CR "WASHANNIE” BOLIGUN WARHAMMER WARHAMMER DARKTIDE DARKTIDE

Reception

The game received generally positive reviews following its release, with a 74 percent average critic score on Metacritic^[8] and an 8.6/10 rating from players as of June 1st, 2023.

In its review (seen below, left), IGN^[9] awarded the game a 7/10, writing, "Retro-shooting and fast-paced arenas suit the Warhammer 40K setting nicely, but Boltgun falls short of greatness because its ideas peter out too quickly. Some good level design and nice environments make up for a lack of variety." YouTuber^[10] Skill Up gave the game a positive review, calling the game "one of the great success stories" regarding 40k games (seen below, right).

The game was largely praised by many in the Warhammer fandom. On the game's release date, Redditor u/nurielkun posted to /r/Warhammer40k,^[11] saying "Boltgun is the best 40k game since first Dawn of War," garnering over 3,400 upvotes in a week.