Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef

Based on my shaky math, Warhammer 40.000: Shootas, Blood, & Teef is the 300th Warhammer game to be released in 2018. It’s an enjoyable, if short, campaign in a 2D co-op shooter with a few competitive multiplayer modes and an air of over-the-top chaos that made me grin.

A very brief cutscene involving gunfire, shouting, and a betrayal sets the tone for the campaign, but the plot itself is completely ridiculous. The game’s basic but clean visuals and excellent heavy metal soundtrack contribute to its upbeat mood. You and your friends (up to a maximum of four players) will battle various enemies from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It took me about four hours to complete the campaign as a big, dumb, angry Ork, fighting rats, men, orks, tanks, sewer monsters, and more. It was enjoyable for a short period of time, and I could see myself replaying it with a friend at least a couple of times, despite its brevity.

The majority of the game’s replay value comes from completing missions and collecting Teef currency, which can be used to purchase new weapon and character customization options in the Mek Shop. This is available at any save point or from the game’s main menu. You start out with only a pistol and shotgun, but you quickly unlock a machine gun, flamethrower, and missile launcher as you progress through the game. Numerous variations exist for each of these firearms, most of which use fire or electrical charges to deliver their blows. Many of the firearms can be unlocked after a single playthrough. However, if you’re the type who likes to get everything out of a game before putting it down, the abundance of downloadable cosmetics may keep you coming back.

After completing the story mode, you can choose from a few different multiplayer modes. Unfortunately, I was only given access to a single review code, so I wasn’t able to put them through their paces. However, I figured that if I could use two controllers to battle myself, that would suffice as a diversion. It’s not Towerfall 2, but it’s more than a throwaway extra feature. The player-versus-player action can be had both offline and online.

The game’s controls are satisfying to use aside from pinpoint accuracy. You can double jump by pressing the left trigger twice quickly. Your melee attack is the Right Bumper, and your gunfire is controlled by the Right Trigger. I’ll get into the specifics of melee attacks for each class shortly. You can use the grenade you have equipped by pressing the Left Bumper, and you can switch weapons quickly by holding the Y button and pressing it again. The X button reloads your weapon, the A button interacts with your surroundings, and pressing in both analogue sticks at once activates your “WAAAGH!” One’s WAAAGH super metre is directly proportional to the number of times one’s shots successfully kill their respective enemies (which you control by aiming with the Right Stick). For a short period of time (a few seconds, depending on the weapon equipped), you will deal a tremendous amount of damage. This will allow you to quickly make short work of even the toughest groups of enemies. Class archetypes are based on special melee and grenade attacks, but otherwise the system is fairly simplistic. You have your big brutes, your spellcasters, and so on.

Movement feels great and the game controls well overall. My only complaint is how difficult it is to accurately aim at faraway enemies when using weapons like your rocket launcher. Aiming didn’t feel great even when using a mouse, and something about the acceleration on the right stick makes it feel off. It wasn’t deal-breakingly bad, but it did aggravate larger disagreements. You’ll face off against Tanks, Mutants, enormous humans, and more in the final boss fight of each level. Even on Normal difficulty when I was playing by myself, the final few gave me a good kick in the rear end. You’ll find checkpoints frequently throughout the game, and if you die you’ll be sent back to the most recent one.

Graphically I think the game looks great. It doesn’t break any new ground in terms of technology, but it looks good and moves fluidly. For the most part, I tested this on PC, and my system consistently delivered well over 200 frames per second. However, there were a few crashes whenever I tried to tab out and back in again. This is the kind of game that gets the “that looks like a flash game” comment because people have forgotten how clumsy and unnatural flash games used to be. Not Gears 5, but I liked the visual style.

The game’s music is a major selling point. Power through each level with the help of heavy metal riffs and a decent vocal track during one boss fight. The never-serious voice acting, which is full of war cries and thick British accents shouting about vengeance and a desire for Teef, pairs well with this. All in all, the sound effects are satisfactory, though I did notice that during some of the more intense battles, my headphones caused some of the action to become distorted.

Shootas, Blood, & Teef for Warhammer 40,000 is a hilarious, exciting, and happy video game. It has a firm grasp on its identity, embracing its goofy, humorous nature. The music is incredible, but I have no idea how much it will cost because the Xbox store page isn’t up yet and you can only add it to your Wish List on Steam. If you can play co-op with it and it costs around $20, I’d say it’s worth it. WAAAGH!