One of the coolest things about the Warhammer 40K universe is that because of its many races, lore, and the people behind it, it can be melded into any kind of video game genre. We mean that literally, as the titles under its banner have been everything from regular shooters, co-op adventures, side-scrolling free-for-alls, and more. But with the upcoming Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, the team will do something different yet again. They’re taking things “old school” by giving the modern franchise a retro feel so you can wipe out enemies in the style of the original FPS classics.
On the PlayStation Blog, the lead designer at Auroch Digital, Grant Stewart, broke down the many elements of the game, as well as revealed the game’s release date of May 23rd! Oh, and they dropped a gameplay trailer for the title too.
One of the things that the team at Auroch Digital is doing in reference to the old-school classics is having enemies randomly show up so you can shoot them in their own way, of course.
“On top of plenty of classic locations with enemies diligently hand placed, there’s also areas where waves of heretics are dynamically spawned by an intelligent system to seek the most exciting positions to challenge the player.”
So much like those games of old, you’ll be in for the fight of your life and want to pay attention to everything around you so you don’t get caught off guard.
You might have also noticed that the game’s visuals differ from the “crisp” modern graphics of other titles. That’s because Warhammer 40K: Boltgun will further embrace its roots by doing a special fusion of graphics to make it look unique:
“Unlike the fully 3D models used for characters and objects in modern video games, retro games used “sprites”, two dimensional lists of pixel colors that represented flat images. As a modern game emulating those vintage aesthetics, Boltgun uses a hybrid system taking the best of modern technology and slamming it, pixels first, into the old ways.”
Is it a bit “much” for Auroch Digital to go this far to make a modern game feel retro? Not really. They’re simply doing what they feel is best and doing what they love to make a shooter like the ones they played when they were young.
So check out the trailer to see how much they put into the game and prepare for its release next month!
