HIGH Hitting a huge group of goblins with the wand for the first time.

LOW The final third feels like a letdown.

WTF The musical mid-game box battle.

With a return to their mid-’90s roots, first-person shooters have had something of a renaissance in recent years. These retro-styled titles are a welcome shot of adrenaline for a genre that has long become tired and stale. Chop Goblins is the distillation of this genre down to its most potent elements.

With an average playthrough lasting only 30 minutes, there is no room for Chop Goblins to slow down. Upon starting a new game, the first thing I notice is the music. Synth-heavy and bizarrely upbeat, the soundtrack has me bobbing my head as I blow away goblins in time with the tunes. This emphasis on rhythm creates a sense of urgency – in reality, there is no time limit, but I can’t shake the feeling that I need to move as fast as I possibly can.

Theoretically, Chop Goblins is a run-based shooter with an emphasis on achieving the highest score possible – but I’d be lying if I said maximizing my score multiplier is what propels me through each level. That propulsion instead comes from the very intentional design decisions, both in the visuals and gameplay.

To call the aesthetics utilitarian may be something of an overstatement — textures are basic to the point of being boring, barely registering as I dart through. Rather, the developer has focused on lighting to
differentiate each stage. While the details blur together, a castle corridor bathed in blue or hard white sun on marble columns stand out clearly in my mind. This offers a sense of visual identity for each section without the cost of high-res textures or assets – I’m moving too quickly to notice the details anyway.

The enemy design, on the other hand, is more noteworthy. While still decidedly lo-fi, careful attention has been paid to ensuring each enemy type has an immediately recognizable silhouette and easily-readable move-set. With flailing arms, big bulbous heads full of teeth and pitch-shifted voices, the titular goblins provide ripe targets as I blast my way through their lilting cries of “Chop! Chop! Chop!” Each level offers a new enemy type, steadily increasing in difficulty and capability.

Forgoing the randomized procedural generation typical of run-based games, Chop Goblins instead relies on carefully-crafted enemy encounters, hidden rooms, and alternate routes to keep subsequent playthroughs interesting. As I fly forward, there are multiple paths, and I choose without thinking as I make steady progress, rarely feeling lost or having to double back. Suddenly the walls around me are gone. I see a gaggle of goblins in the clearing ahead and a carefully-aimed shot hits a gas can. There’s an explosion, and for a moment, I can breathe as the world slows down for the first time since hitting ‘New Game’ and bloody chunks float suspended in the air.

Set pieces such as this emerge organically from the violence around me, providing strategic opportunity, shock and humor. However, some incongruous design decisions in later levels slow my progress.

For example, there are nominal attempts at puzzles that feel out of place – these rarely require more than simple environmental observation, but with a runtime of 30 minutes, they prove an unnecessary distraction from the otherwise insistent speed. Additionally, Chop Goblins crescendos early with the final stage feeling redundant and anti-climactic. However, the overall experience is so brief that I barely have
time to register the complaint.

Scope is a critical part of any project, and Chop Goblins understands this perfectly. By setting their sights modestly and emphasizing speed and tone, the developer manages an almost perfect execution of their vision – there is no waste, and every element keeps me engaged in its mad rush.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

— Ryan Nalley

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by David Szymanski. It is currently
available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 2 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game
was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Violence. The enemies are all fantasy based (monsters and goblins) and while there is plenty of blood, it’s low fidelity and non-realistic. When killed with an explosive enemies will explode into chunks of blood, but it’s all presented in a light-hearted cartoony fashion. There is a ‘Kids Mode’ setting which cuts down on the blood and changes the color to green – this also removes the chunks of blood when a goblin is blown up.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. The only spoken dialogue in the game is in the form of random phrases from the enemies and is not represented visually. The enemies are constantly making noise, and while playing without sound I did notice the enemies to be more difficult to locate, particularly in more complex levels. All other sound effects have an accompanying visual cue. All narrative information is conveyed through text boxes preceding each level and is not spoken aloud. The in-game text cannot be altered and/or resized. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls. Additionally, all analog inputs (left and right sticks and triggers) can be calibrated individually to account for sensitivity and
deadzones.

HIGH Frenetic and infectious shooting.

LOW The main story.

WTF Pen and Teller-spoofing characters?!

Although it might seem odd now, today’s heavily-populated looter-shooter genre didn’t really exist before 2009 — a mere 14 years ago. It was the first Borderlands that introduced the joy of combining RPG skill trees with millions of guns featuring randomly generated stats, played from a first-person perspective and with cell-shaded visuals to boot!

However, three more years had to pass before that concept came into its own, and for many, it was Borderlands 2 that had the most impact by selling around 30 million copies in total and spawning dozens of DLCs and well-received spin-offs like the Tales From the Borderlands series and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Another big part of what made Borderlands 2 such a smash was the writing. While it’s full of loud characters that vex the player with politically incorrect shout-outs, at the center lies a gem of a story with Handsome Jack, the antagonist, widely considered one of the best-characterized villains ever.  As such, Borderlands 2 continues to rock to this day. 

After that triumph, it took seven years for Gearbox to prepare a full-on sequel (not counting Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) and a proper continuation of the story. While Borderlands 3 runs on a new engine and is wider in scope than the others, I ultimately feel that it does not live up to the legacy of its predecessor despite the fact that it introduces several welcome gameplay changes. 

For one, now we can fast-travel from almost anywhere in the world, which addresses a recurring low point of the franchise — players left with nothing to do after finishing a side-quest in the semi-open world. Our traversal options have also evolved, allowing us to quickly vault over ledges, stomp the ground from mid-air, and slide for a few seconds if we press crouch while running, allowing us to quickly pepper any passerby with bullets from below.

Managing loot in Borderlands 3 is a breeze, due to how items of the highest class are clearly marked on the mini-map as soon as they drop, making them impossible to miss. Plus, for the first time in a Borderlands title, there’s a way to safely deal with stationary explosive barrels thanks to how we can melee and displace them in a jiffy. Finally, the world status surrounding the player is easier to decipher in an instant thanks to a red hue communicating the “alert” status of nearby enemies.

Regarding gameplay, Borderlands 3 doesn’t do anything substantially different — and that’s a good thing! The guns remain snappy, all of the four classes’ skill trees remain tantalizing to explore, and enemies can sport several types of shields and armor that we must methodically strip with the right kinds of weaponry. It’s all as engaging as ever, and my muscle memory kicked in within minutes.

On closer inspection, however, there are a few changes that might send returning players on a fruitless chase, so I’ll list a few of them here. For example, ‘slag’ as an element is completely absent in Borderlands 3, and so is ‘explosive’. In their stead, we have radiation (which can temporarily turn enemies against each other) and cold (capable of freezing enemies solid) as elements, alongside the returning fire, corrosive and shock damage types. Weapons that heal the player for a percentage of the damage done are also almost nowhere to be found, but this is mitigated by skill trees being more optimized toward solo play.

Another noteworthy change is that enemies now behave less erratically. Many found Borderlands 2 to be annoying due to foes’ tendency to dart behind cover while retaining dead-eye precision, leaving no way for the player to score a second-wind kill before they bled out. Moreover, flying enemies rarely appear in Borderlands 3, and when they do, they are far less vicious than anticipated. 

With all that said, playing Borderlands 3 is simply not as exciting as the others. Too many areas are filled with the same enemy types pulling the same tricks over and over again, and coupled with the too-generous rate at which rare loot drops, stomping through the main storyline is a less memorable, less challenging affair than I hoped.

The writing also takes a drop in Borderlands 3 as well — it’s not exactly the same team as those who penned B2 and it shows.

While the story mode is meaty and framed as a globe-trotting adventure, I ended up waiting and waiting for it to serve up a long-overdue notable moment. To be fair, B3 really, really tries to tug at the heartstrings by setting up one tragic scenario after the other, but those attempts are simply not as good as what we got last time. The end result is a story that comes off as toothless overall, unable to leave a lasting mark, especially for returning fans of this franchise. 

Regarding performance on the Switch, I’m glad to say that it isn’t an issue in the slightest. The game runs surprisingly smoothly, maintaining a 30 fps pace 90% of the time, and while the visuals are not on par with other versions, it’s forgivable since the Switch fits in a pocket. Regardless of my feelings about the content, Borderlands 3 is another one of those ‘impossible’ Switch ports that shouldn’t work as well as it does!

All in all, Borderlands 3 still delivers a looter-shooter from the studio that invented looting-shooting in the first place, and anyone hungry for frenetic combat and tons of guns will find plenty to love here. It may not have the same pull as Borderlands 2, but coming in second to one of the best that’s ever been is still a great place to be.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, XBO/S/X, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch Lite. Approximately 40 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. About 30 minutes were spent in co-op with other online players. NOTE: This version allows for only two players to share a session at one time.

Parents: This game has received an M rating from the ESRB and contains Strong Language, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Sexual Themes. The official summary reads: This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of a Vault Hunter engaging in combat missions while traversing through planets on foot and in vehicles. Players explore new planets, interact with characters, and accept missions to kill specific enemies or obtain objects/information. Players use pistols, machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers, and explosives to kill enemies in frenetic combat. Battles are highlighted by realistic gunfire, cries of pain, and frequent blood-splatter effects. Some weapons cause enemies to explode into blood sprays and body parts. Stylized environments depict further instances of violence and gore: severed heads on spikes; a human corpse on a spit fire; a giant grinder emitting body parts and blood; a birthday cake decorated with severed fingers. The game contains some sexual material, mostly in the dialogue (e.g., “Looks like someone won’t be getting a pre-coital foot rub”; “…I wasn’t always the smokin’ hot six-stroke sex engine I am today”; “I’m talkin’ sex stuff! Two rounds if I’ve got the juice.”). The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” appear in dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: There are a slew of options regarding the color of health bars, the reticle, the UI, etc. We can also alter the size and opacity of the dialogue boxes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Every line of dialogue is accompanied by written text, and I found the font size to be easily readable. I opted for semi-transparent text boxes, which seemed to work best for me, though several other options are available too. Sound is completely unimportant for playing and enjoying this game since there are no audio-only cues for incoming attacks. In my view, this is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game offers a controller diagram and the controls are remappable. The default scheme is similar to the other looter shooters — the shoulder buttons and bumpers are for aiming, firing, throwing grenades and activating abilities. The face buttons are for crouching, jumping, switching weapons and interacting with the world. The sticks are for moving the character and camera.

HIGH Fast, frenetic action featuring enough guns to choke a camel…

LOW… except when it forces undercooked horror sections down the player’s throat.

WTF Would it hurt to signpost objectives and pathways more clearly?

Trepang2 is an early ’00s-style throwback first-person shooter which begins with our hero, Subject 106, whiling his days away as a prisoner on a military black site. These cads don’t even have a Netflix subscription available to help pass the time, forcing him to watch boring old videos of nukes going off on loop. Enough is enough, and when he’s sprung from captivity by unknown forces, Subject 106 decides that it’s time for a little payback. ‘A little payback’ in this case naturally translates to ‘killing hundreds of people’, so let the good times roll!

After a short stint through the tutorial mission where Subject 106 learns to live, love and kill again using the game’s expansive arsenal of deadly modern-day weapons such as assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns, players will be spirited away to a different hidden military base where they can hop into a chopper and fly across the globe to whichever hotspot is full of baddies that need a good killing, hopefully culminating in taking down the corporation that imprisoned him and solving the cryptic command to ‘break the cycle’ he’s constantly assailed by. He might even find out who he really is along the way.

…Because amnesia. Always amnesia.

During combat, Subject 106 is a capable little supersoldier. He can slow down time whenever a breather’s needed, or slide into a chameleon-style stealth mode to flank or surprise his foes. Grabbing enemies as human shields is simple, as is booting enemies into the air and emptying half a clip into them before they hit the ground. Later on, Subject 106 can dual-wield most weapons including full length shotguns — which, after finding the required parts, can then be modified to light bad guys aflame. It’s as insane as it sounds with incendiary buckshot filling the screen when enemies caught in the middle spontaneously ignite and burn to ash.

So far so good. Simple, unpretentious setup and bloody gunplay aplenty. Trepang2 does a good job with the basic premise of having players slice through enemy military units like a hot bullet through soft human kidneys, but unfortunately it begins to buckle under some of the peripheral design.

See, Trepang2 isn’t just a military shooter. It’s also a spooky paranormal horror experience!

Cue way too much walking down empty corridors while less-than-scary happenings occur around the player. Some of the jumpscares are laughably bad, and while the overall project is intended as an homage or sort of spiritual successor to the F.E.A.R. series, maybe they should have ditched this particular aspect on the grounds that it’s almost completely ineffective.

Getting back to the killing everyone in sight thing, I found myself ignoring most of the available combat options. It’s not possible to aim down sights with most firearms, and while there is aim assist, it doesn’t seem very strong. This leads me to think that Trepang2 was very much built with PC players using a mouse and keyboard in mind, and the console/controller experience was an afterthought.

It may admittedly be a skill issue, or perhaps I’m too used to the generous assistance in other games, but I’d often fail to do what I planned during firefights whenever I decided to get fancy. For example, I’d slide kick ever-so-slightly to the side of an enemy. I’d riddle the area just behind a moving mercenary with gunfire as he very slowly strafed away. I’d jump kick a wall instead of someone’s face.

In the end, after screwing up enough attempts to pointlessly look awesome, I often resorted to simply activating slow motion, running straight at my enemies and pulling the trigger until they were dead. Certainly not as cool as slide kicking some dude into the air, priming one of his grenades and hurling the poor bastard into a cluster of his similarly doomed buddies, but at least this tactic always worked when I needed it to.

Enemy behavior can be strange too. They’ve clearly been tasked with creating an intense and chaotic atmosphere, so they’ll scream and fire pointlessly into the walls if need be. They also revel in endlessly strafing sideways and running away from the player in many instances, which unfortunately robs the combat of intensity — having a loud, booming soundtrack shattering the player’s ears while wondering where the last couple of enemies are hiding creates significant tonal dissonance.

More damningly, navigation in each stage can be absolutely lousy with lots of identical doors, corridors and little direction as to which of them progresses the mission. During one side operation I completed my main objective then ran around blindly wondering where the hell I was supposed to go under extremely heavy fire, while in another I wandered aimlessly for ages after dismissing one potential route thinking it led outside the house I’d entered. Turns out it actually had a small hatch hidden away, leading further into the level. It’s remarkable that such linear design still had me getting lost or backtracking completely by accident.

It may sound like I’m focusing on the negatives too much here, but much of what I enjoyed about Trepang2‘s premise was ultimately undercut by its various weaknesses. What initially seems like a promising concoction of bloody firefights, psychic superpowers and absolute bedlam suffers from poor pacing, muddled direction, odd enemy AI and controls that are more suited to a mouse and keyboard than a controller. When it works as intended brief flashes of brilliance are tucked away in the combat, when taken as a whole it winds up being a fairly middling experience.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Trepang Studios and published by Team17. It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language. The official listing reads: This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of an escaped soldier (Subject 106) on a mission to destroy a corporation that imprisoned him. Players traverse a corporate facility and use pistols, machine guns, shotguns, and explosives to kill enemy soldiers in frenetic combat. Battles are highlighted by realistic gunfire, explosions, and slow-motion effects. Some attacks result in dismemberment and/or decapitation, with body parts and large bloodstains depicted; players can also inflict severe damage on corpses (i.e., post-mortem damage), resulting in body parts exploding and remaining on the ground. The words “f**k” and “sh*t” are heard in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized and they’re pretty dang small. It should be largely playable without sound, though locating certain enemies without their audio cues may take a little longer than usual during the mop up phase of each encounter.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

Witchfire is a roguelike first-person shooter with a fantasy theme. Its world is under attack from witches and his holiness the Pope has sent witch hunters to deal with them with magic and firearms.

Players take control of a hunter, and like many other roguelikes, must go through the same level over and over, upgrading their equipment and abilities to the point that they can finally defeat that level’s boss and unlock the next one.

Witchfire offers a few semi-open world maps that need to be unlocked one by one. Players can wander around the maps, cleansing the area of the witches’ minions and gathering perks and upgrade points that will make their weapons and magic more powerful.

The nice thing about this open world is that the boss fight is available right from the start, so players can go for it whenever they feel ready. They can also return to their hideout using portals found across the land, or continue gathering resources more at the risk of death and total loss. This risk-reward system is quite similar to most Soulslikes in this way, and I appreciated it.

However, my favorite parts of Witchfire were random events and calamities. The random events might be a lost soul or a cursed place that works like an arena or miniboss fight that rewards extra resources. In calamities, players have a limited time to reach a specific point, but if they fail, a horde of super-powerful enemies will hunt them down. There’s also a recurring, roving miniboss called Warden that searches for the player — it’s a bit like Mr. X in Resident Evil 2.

In terms of gameplay itself, combat is focused on gunplay and the use of magic is limited. Three guns and two types of magic can be equipped during each run. The guns are nothing out of the ordinary — just the same sort of rifle, shotgun, and SMG combination seen in most titles. There are different types of spells to use, magic takes a relatively long time to recharge and I generally forgot to use it in combat.

Unfortunately, while Witchfire manages to find its own identity in terms of theming, when it comes to gameplay it feels and plays like so many other titles out there. On the plus side, Witchfire is still in Early Access, meaning the developers still have time to polish things up and add some spice.

Currently available in Early Access on the Epic game store, no official release date has been announced.

HIGH Shodan is an outright creepy antagonist.

LOW The lack of guidance isn’t inviting to new players.

WTF There’s a gorilla-tiger hybrid!

System Shock is a remake of the 1994 first-person sci-fi classic of the same name. I had never played the original, but I was familiar with some of its spiritual successors, such as Bioshock. What I discovered when visiting this source material was that it’s a wonderfully moody experience, but one that also was confusing to navigate.

In System Shock, we play as an unnamed hacker meant to disable the ethical controls on a space station’s AI (named SHODAN) in exchange for an operation on said station. Predictably, this is a bad idea, as six months after recovering from the surgery, the hacker finds themselves face-to-face with the results. SHODAN has released a bioengineered virus which has either killed or mutated the station’s crew, and also turned the station’s robots against humans.

The experience is a lonely one, as the only interaction with other characters is via sparse comm chatter, and most of it is SHODAN antagonizing the player. Otherwise, the only company to be had comes from the legion of mutants, cyborgs, and robots hunting one down at SHODAN’s behest.

In combat, there are a variety of weapons to challenge the ever-increasing opposition, such as a wrench, an assault rifle, and even a rail gun. Most have alternate ammunition that can be switched in with the press of a button, dealing more damage to either biological or robotic targets as appropriate. However, System Shock imposes strict inventory limits on the player, so it becomes important to manage limited space — I had to be strategic with what I could carry. Thankfully, if players need to drop ammo or other items that aren’t useful at the moment, there’s a storage bin that can be summoned, or they can simply be dropped on the floor — they’ll still be there later.

System Shock has other gameplay elements besides combat to contend with, such as puzzle-solving, and hacking.

One task that players must usually complete on each floor is to hack a computer via a first-person, free-form shooter offering a full 360 degrees of movement. These hacking sessions challenged me to keep an eye on every possible direction while advancing forward and destroying connections that would open doors or bypass security in the physical space.

There are also puzzles to solve on each floor, such as rearranging pieces on a grid to make them form a pipeline between two nodes, or using wires to provide just enough power to a junction box.

Fortunately, the developers have included menus that can set the difficulty of all of these systems right at the beginning, which can help new players from getting overwhelmed by specific aspects. Similarly, veterans can custom-tailor their desired experience to be as difficult as they’d like it. I enjoyed being able to tinker with these settings, particularly with hacking, as it can be disorienting when moving around in all directions.

However, despite being able to set combat difficulty, the enemies in System Shock were still punishingly hard to deal with, even on the easiest combat difficulty.

Ammunition is plentiful, but as mentioned above, enemies require specific types of ammo to be brought down faster, and they simply became bullet sponges as the game went on. As such, I always found myself at a disadvantage, since health items were few and far between, and resurrection stations (which act as respawn points) were even more sparse. A poorly-timed death can result in both massive backtracking and an unskippable game over cutscene.

Another thing that disappointed me was how few quality-of-life measures were implemented in this title from nearly thirty years go.

For example, much of the text is difficult to read at times — particularly in menus — due to its small size.

Each level of the station is also a labyrinth, and it’s tough to reliably find one’s way through the twists and turns. Trying to find a specific location is even tougher. As such, the map should be better at helping the player understand where they are, but virtually nothing is labeled.

Another serious issue is that no objectives are available, even in the menu. With no obvious goals to pursue and only a few clues from audio logs, I found myself aimlessly wandering until I stumbled upon an elevator to the next level or into one of SHODAN’s many traps.

Controller support felt like a secondary concern. There are many minor issues with it, such as such as incorrectly-labeled button prompts — a button press meant to go back one screen pushed me out of the menu entirely, while it worked perfectly with the mouse.

System Shock is haunting and lonely, has an expertly-crafted oppressive atmosphere, intense combat, and a strong sense of immersion. Unfortunately, the obtuse nature of the campaign makes it to navigate and generally understand what to do. Returning vets may appreciate the upgrade, but I suspect that new players like myself will feel excluded and put off by the steep difficulty.

Rating: 6/10

— Justin Grandfield

Disclosures: This game is developed Nightdive Studios and produced by Prime Matter. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 24 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is rated M by the ESRB rating with the descriptors Animated Blood and Gore and Animated Violence. There is no description of the subject matter on the ESRB website, but this game contains numerous dead bodies, human viscera, body horror, and other disturbing imagery, as well as some discussions of suicide by some characters that will not be suitable for young audiences.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game offers subtitles, and can be toggled off or on in the options menu. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Subtitles are toggled on by default. In-game menus and text can be difficult to read at times. No closed captioning is available for audio cues in the environment. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game’s controls are remappable for the mouse and keyboard controls, as well as the controller bindings.

For The Emperor

HIGH Turning thousands of enemies into various forms of gooey spray.

LOW No map. Too many “Purge” sections

WTF Why don’t they ever send my Space Marines some friggin’ reinforcements?

For the first level of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, I was an unstoppable killing machine dispensing justice to any filth opposing the Emperor. Encased in my impenetrable armor and wielding the iconic, eponymous heavy pistol, I felt powerful. 

When the second level began, I realized my armor was more penetrable than I’d imagined and that I was significantly more stoppable than I’d thought.

Boltgun tells the story of an ill-fated detachment of Space Marines sent to exterminate the forces of Chaos on a distant world.  As is usual in these types of first-person shooters, issues arise and only one Marine is left available to single-handedly lay waste to the foes of the Emperor and stop a nefarious plan to… do something with a giant wormhole and an ultimate weapon? 

I’ll admit I didn’t pay much attention to the script, as I was often too busy running and gunning to follow the plot.  That’s not to say the plot is uninteresting – it’s filled with deliciously pixelated cutscenes and some fantastic voice work from the cast, especially Rahul Kohli as our protagonist, Malum Caedo.  I frequently overused the dedicated taunt button just to hear him spew venom at his nearly limitless opponents.

Players familiar with retro first-person shooters will feel right at home with Boltgun’s control scheme.  Players guide Caedo through varied environments while hunting for keys to allow progress to the next section where another key awaits, and so on until the level exit is found.  Along the way, switches must be operated to open doors, activate machinery, and perform other, unspecified functions.  Seriously, there were a number of activation points scattered throughout that appeared to do nothing at all.  Granted, they may have opened up secret passages to hidden troves of goodies, but since I never found those, I may never know. 

Blocking our hero’s way are the denizens of Chaos, from slimy Nurglings (always satisfying one-shot kills) up to nigh invulnerable Chaos lords and others of their demon-bred ilk. 

While alone, Caedo has access to some of the most powerful weapons known to the Empire, from the aforementioned boltgun to heavy repeating rifles and enormous plasma cannons capable of vaporizing all but the largest foes. 

Despite the high-velocity ranged equipment available, my favorite was the melee-based chainsword.  Activating this beauty in the vicinity of an enemy causes time to slow and locks onto the nearest victim, completely eviscerating lesser enemies, and doing substantial damage to any others foolish enough to stand in its path.

Considering that Space Marines are supposed to be walking tanks bristling with weaponry, it’s a little ironic that our hero has to spend most of his time running, dodging, and jumping to avoid incoming fire, as standing toe-to-toe against even some of the weaker enemies is a one-way-ticket to loading a save. Fortunately, he’s equipped with a the usual sprint ability found in just about every FPS, along with an extra dash that allows him a burst of speed to batter foes as he runs past (or through) them. 

Overall, Boltgun‘s map designs were varied, and I was particularly taken with one level inside a reactor where I had to keep climbing to escape rising molten coolant while also blasting foes as I scrambled to safety. Unfortunately, Boltgun tends to jam in a few spots, lessening the enjoyment to a degree. 

First, the developers offer no maps, which is unforgivable in 2023, especially since FPS titles going all the way back to Doom have maps as a core feature.  I spent far too much time backtracking trying to find a door I may have missed (perhaps activated by one of those switches I never figured out) or wandering aimlessly looking for the next objective. 

More egregious, however, are the too-numerous “purge” sections.  Upon entering certain spaces, the words “Purge the Enemy” appear on screen, and baddies begin to teleport onto the field in increasing numbers and difficulty, usually leading to a boss battle against an enormous bullet-sponge who can spam area attacks while more cannon-fodder enemies appear. 

The first time, it was novel and enjoyable, but just about every time afterward was a chore.  On top of this, communications would often come through during these pitched battles, but they were nearly impossible to focus on because I was too busy fighting for my life to read them. 

Despite the rough patches, Warhanmmer 40,000 Boltgun remains impressive.  It’s fast, action-packed, controls well, and is (mostly) a joy to play. With just a little tweaking and a few adjustments, this could easily be one of the all-time greats.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Auroch Digital and published by Focus Entertainment.It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4/PS5, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 19 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore and Violence. This is a retro first-person shooter in which players assume the role of a space marine investigating a planet invaded by demons. Players use a variety of machine guns and shotguns to kill hordes of stylized, pixelated enemies (e.g., demons, cultists, enemy marines). Combat is fast-paced, highlighted by frequent gunfire, explosions, and blood-splatter effects. Enemies often explode into low-resolution gore/viscera, and one weapon (chainsaw attachment) can result in up-close blood-splatter/chunks of flesh.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All dialogue is completely subtitled, as are all skull companion messages and in-game communication.  Enemies may spawn/attack from offscreen, using only audio cues to alert the payer to their whereabouts.  Players with hearing issues will be caught completely unaware by these enemies and most likely will take damage that could potentially otherwise be avoided. As such, this game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. Keyboard bindings are completely remappable for all controls.  Gamepad controls are locked.

HIGH Perfect rhythm shots at x16 combo level.

LOW Boring boss fights and narrative.

WTF Amy Lee’s divine vocal work.

Beat Saber, Rez and Rock Band are but a few of the well-known rhythm games that have profoundly touched many in the gaming industry. Metal: Hellsinger does not touch the gamer in a similar way — instead it seizes upon their heart and attempts to pump as much adrenaline and fear into it while giving just enough serotonin to keep them coming back for more.

For anyone who’s played the recent Doom titles, the idea of slaying thousands of demons in hell while rock and metal music plays in the background is nothing new, but what if combat in Doom had musical rhythm, and my ability to follow said rhythm made my weapons more powerful and faster at reloading?

Ladies, gentlemen and demons, welcome to Metal: Hellsinger.

Metal: Hellsinger is a first-person shooter/platformer that skews towards bullet-hell in boss fights. Movement is fast and furious, requiring the player to be constantly moving, and dashing at just the right time for invulnerability is crucial, as it’s not possible to dash constantly. It even throws active reloads into the mix!

However, matching the timing of my shots with the rhythm of the music is what Hellsinger is all about, and it’s essentially the difference between racing with or without nitrous in a driving game. The more perfect-in-rhythm shots I hit, the louder the music gets, the more damage my bullets deal and the higher my score multiplayer goes.

Metal: Hellsinger shines when two dozen demons are in pursuit and the player hits three or four shots in perfect rhythm, causing the music and vocals to ramp up. The swell of the audio accompanying the player’s rampage is utterly euphoric.

There is a decent amount of variety in weapons, enemies and their attack patterns that goes beyond differences in aesthetics and health bar size. Players will find beasts like the aptly-named giant Behemoths, pesky Stalkers who can go invisible for short periods and Lesser Seraphs who can fly and deal significant damage if approached for close combat. The Shielded Cambions are the most aggravating, though. Their inconsistent movement patterns and propensity to keep firing while being completely protected by their shields demands patience and trickery.

Unfortunately, while the enemies are fine, boss battles are a weak area for Metal: Hellsinger because these fights are only challenging when the main foe calls upon minions to cause distractions and pad out the length of a skirmish. When going at it one-on-one, there’s no real challenge posed to anyone who’s been paying attention to perks and upgrades,.

So now we come to the biggest aspect — the music. The soundtrack in Metal: Hellsinger is so well-tuned to the weapons and arenas that it’s possible to get perfect rhythm shots off by letting the music guide the gameplay. Further, each weapon has its own rhythm, syncing with different firing and reload speeds. This makes Metal: Hellsinger a perfect candidate in the replayability department, not only for the sake of achievements/trophies, but for the sense of discovery the player feels when having to adapt a new shooting strategy that fits a new song while using a new weapon and still dispatching enemies effectively.

If there’s any weak aspect to Metal: Hellsinger, it’s the plot. The player is a soul that does not belong in hell but ends up there anyway. For reasons beyond their comprehension, their voice was taken away from them and now their main objective is to get that voice back. Naturally, the best way to recover one’s voice is to make demons in hell scream in agony as one kills them on the way to the big bad.

The story is narrated by the cheesiest cowboy voiceover imaginable — real ’80s Hollywood Western stuff. It’s an oddity given the setting, and can be grating as the campaign goes on. This narrator and his terrible one-liners are unfortunately a harbinger of the failings to come when analyzing the narrative in Metal: Hellsinger. The premise is ill-explained and the motivation for moving forward is so paper-thin it’s embarrassing. Clearly the developers spent their time on gameplay and sound design, and then left the story to whatever intern was available to slap something together.

While not perfect in all areas, the craft on display in Metal: Hellsinger is a testament to the beauty and precision that a focused project with a great vision can yield.

— Patricio do Rosario

Disclosures: This game is published by Funcom and developed by The Outsiders. It is available on PS5, XBX/S and PC. This game copy was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Xbox Series X. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T. Contains Violence, Suggestive Themes, Crude Humor, Blood, and/or infrequent use of Strong Language. There are depictions of blood and violence, both at close range. There is also a generous amount of use of Tobacco in-game. That said, as a point of comparison to others in the genre, I feel it is milder than both Doom and Wolfenstein from recent years.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Metal: Hellsinger offers visual prompts for players who might not be able to hear the beat. My experience with the sound off was a bit disorienting because I spent a bit too much time looking at the sides of the screen (where the timing markers scroll by) as opposed to the whole screen, but I would guess it would be less noticeable with practice. Based on this, I would say that the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls are remappable.

HIGH The visual style is totally on point.

LOW The rigid weapon restrictions become irritating very quickly.

WTF Yes, Cindy Aurum’s awesome. That’s a weird reference though.

Stand up straight citizen, it’s time to step into the immaculately-polished shoes of one of the most fascist police forces in videogame history. Freedom of personal expression is extremely frowned upon in this town, so if anyone ventures outside with even the slightest hint of non-conformist sartorial stylings, the police will be immediately unleashed to ‘fix’ their external appearance via force if necessary… and force is usually necessary in a First-Person Shooter.

Wait, FPS? And it’s called Fashion Police Squad? What a coincidence!

Still, these brainwashed, unkempt goons don’t seem to mind that they essentially have no rights at all when it comes to how they dress and present themselves in public. Also, they’re all bastards who attack anyone with ‘better’ style sense. Hipsters on scooters rudely careen around the place trying to mow everyone down, ‘Karens’ (their term, not mine) constantly complain and kick up a literal stink, and inelegantly-dressed job applicants rush around while hurling their CVs at everyone in sight.

Now, where Fashion Police Squad separates itself from most shooters is that every enemy has to be dealt with in a certain way — not killed, mind. Sure, murdering people for having the wrong color of socks could be darkly hilarious, but also even more morally bankrupt than forcing them to toe the line by force when it comes to fashion.

Someone’s suit looking a little baggy? Sew it up with a machine gun needle called the Tailormade. They’re not looking vibrant enough? Blast them with a paintball shotgun until their fashion sense pops instead of their skull. Baggy pants breaking the dress code? Remove that belt, officer, and… brutally whip them until they’re suddenly looking great?

Look, I didn’t claim that any of these policing methods make sense. I’m just pointing out that using the wrong weapon in combat will be utterly ineffective at curbing a lack of pizzazz. Using a paintball gun on someone with loose pants isn’t only a deeply questionable act, it also doesn’t take care of the problem. As a result, players need to zip around combat arenas making sure that they’re using the right weapon for the job — and it’s a mechanic I’m not entirely convinced of, if I’m being honest.

Sure, Doom Eternal also had enemies with weaknesses to certain approaches. Lobbing a sticky grenade into a Cacodemon’s mouth or sniping the turret off an Arachnotron would greatly weaken these opponents, but the difference was that other weapons were still effective. That’s not the case in Fashion Police Squad, meaning that battlefields with a variety of enemies require constant gun juggling and repositioning to get clear shots at the right target.

In theory it sounds fine, and an interesting twist on simply pointing and shooting. In practice… well, it’s fairly limiting and noticeably less satisfying than getting a minigun out and turning everything into chunks.

Then come the special functions where our character’s belt allows him to swing across gaps, and a water gun that allows him to shoot the floor to move faster and take longer jumps. Again, interesting ideas, but ones that don’t add much to the experience.

The pacing’s not handled well either. Main character Sergeant Des and his partner Haley are always getting in touch with one another to yak about fashion, share their concerns about the rise in fashion crimes and unload a bunch of mediocre puns. Constantly. The radio clicks to life an absurd amount of times per mission, and everything screeches to a halt while they hash out their thoughts. A recent post release update introduced a desperately needed ‘skip dialogue’ feature which is an absolute blessing, but there’s still no way to excise these conversations completely.

On the other hand, one area where FPS absolutely shines is in its overall look. The devs have gone for a faux-retro style which at reminds me of a particularly vibrant PlayStation One game without the technical limitations of the time. For those old enough to remember, imagine something like Duke Nukem mixed with The beautifully cartoonish Misadventures of Tron Bonne, and it looks awesome.

I’m conflicted about Fashion Police Squad. It’s a great-looking title with mechanics that may not be to my personal taste but are at least fairly unique. However, I found playing became a bit of a slog as time passed, and that didn’t change as the difficulty ramps up in later levels — instead of getting more tense, it simply becomes more tedious due to cramped level design and continually swapping to the correct weapons in chaotic situations.

Fans of ’90s-style retro-shooters might find Fashion Police Squad‘s offbeat and quirky approach to the genre to their liking, but there’s already a lot of stiff competition in the genre — it’s interesting, but flawed approach simply doesn’t measure up to the others already strutting on the catwalk.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Mopeful Games and published by No More Robots. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is not rated. Nothing in it should cause too much offence though, enemies aren’t massacred en masse but instead made stylish through shooting them with fashion accessories.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. All dialogue and story events are displayed in text format. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. There are audio samples that indicate where enemies are coming from and these do not come with visual cues. Unfortunately, this means it is not fully accessible — it should still be fairly playable, but since the damage indicator doesn’t show where attacks are coming from, it can take longer to figure it out without sound.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

HIGH Gore Kills are a nice idea.

LOW All the good features from previous games are gone!

WTF Whose idea was it to ship with just seven weapons?

I was introduced to Shadow Warrior franchise with its 2013 reboot. It was a fast-paced FPS with a katana — how awesome was that? The second installment was even better, adding semi-open world elements and 27 types of guns! After loving both of those, I was all-in on the third, but now I wish I’d never played it…

Shadow Warrior 3 picks up where players were left off in at the end of Shadow Warrior 2 — an ancient dragon is freed and protagonist Lo Wang is trying to kill it. That’s basically the whole story, and unlike the earlier instalments, SW3 has no plot twists or back-stabbing allies to spice it up. Lo Wang’s jokes and comic relief were the only thing that made the narrative more bearable. The campaign is also as brief as the plot, taking me only around five hours to complete on the highest difficulty setting.

So, beyond a dull story, where else does it go wrong? Too many of the features that made past games so good are now inexplicably gone.

In contrast to SW2, the campaign is completely linear, and the side missions offering entertaining things like enchantments, mods, or weapon dealers are now gone.

The looting mechanism that gave Shadow Warrior 2 a Borderlands-like feel is gone. Killing enemies no longer rewards the player with new weapons and equipment, and weapon elemental damage is both available solely through upgrading and tied to specific weapons, so there’s no longer any ability to change things up.

The combo system for the katana is also gone. Previously, there were combos for specific situations, such as a 360-degree slash that hit enemies grouped around Lo Wang. Without them, the katana is now just a button-mashing melee weapon that can use some elemental attributes when heavy attacks are activated.

Also cut are the weapon types and abilities. Shadow Warrior 3 has only seven weapons and 12 passive skills with a single combat ability — a huge downgrade as SW2 boasted 27 different weapon types and more than 40 skills, four of which were active combat abilities. Worse, the seven weapons we do get aren’t a great fit for the combat here. Most encounters have the player facing off against numerous enemies in relatively closed environments, yet the only weapon that can be used for crowd control is a grenade launcher that needs a reload after every shot! For a franchise that’s ostensibly about shooting and slicing through enemies, Shadow Warrior 3 falls short on its arsenal.

This leads me to another big issue — a lack of motivation to keep fighting. Besides the limited weaponry, the game forces players to kill every single demon in an area before letting them access the next part of the level. Since killing enemies no longer provides loot or XP there’s little incentive, so this task starts to feel repetitive and forced.

While there’s no doubt that Shadow Warrior 3 has lost a lot, it’s not all subtraction since Lo Wang does have some new abilities. Gameplay is now more focused on platforming with a new wall-running ability and a grappling hook. The hook can be used on enemies as well, bringing them closer for melee kills. A nice idea, but I rarely felt the need to use the option.

Shadow Warrior 3 also puts more focus on environmental damage. There are explosive barrels all around the world and many combat arenas have trap mechanisms that Lo Wang can activate to take out groups of enemies such as trapdoors. Beyond that, Lo Wang can use “Gore Kills” — these are executions that temporarily arm him with the weapons of the enemy. For example, Gore Killing an ice-shooting demon gives Lo Wang the demon’s eyeballs, functioning like a freeze grenade. Some Gore Kill weapons are one-time use, while others can be used for a few seconds. They add a bit of variety to combat, but since their use is so brief and limited, the joy is short-lived.

While the new formula of Shadow Warrior 3 offers a few minor positives, they’re far overshadowed by the numerous absences — fewer weapons, simplified combat, a more linear world, a too-brief campaign, and more. It’s a strange and unexpected step backwards for a series that I had previously enjoyed so much. The dialogue might still be filled with Lo Wang’s jokes, but compared to its predecessors, the joke is definitely on Shadow Warrior 3 this time.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Flying Wild Hog and published by Devolver Digital. It is currently available on PC, XBO, and PS4. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 5.5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The ESRB rating is M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mild Sexual Themes and Strong Language. Definitely not for kids here, it’s filled with violent combat and gore, including things like enemy limbs being severed and heads exploding. The protagonist also makes sexual jokes and uses foul language as well.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game has subtitles. They can be altered. No audio cues are necessary for playing, so this game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game’s controls are remappable.

HIGH Inspired architecture.

LOW Issues with performance and random crashes.

WTF Finishing Hardcore with no autosave on…

Developed by two-man team BleakMill over the course of three years, Industria is a first-person shooter set in an alternate future, in a timeline which feels inspired both by steampunk and aesthetics of Eastern Europe during the Cold War of the late ’70s and early ’80s.

The story sees young scientist Nora on the hunt to discover what fate befell her missing husband. In doing so, she ends up in an alternate future where the artificial intelligence project the couple was working on, named ATLAS, has taken over. The AI is in full ‘Skynet’-mode (see: Terminator) and will stop at nothing to eradicate all human lifeforms. As a result of its actions, Nora is the only human around for the entirety of the adventure.

While it’s refreshing to see an ordinary protagonist who doesn’t behave like an elite soldier or superhero, this choice to use a ‘normal’ person ultimately makes little difference as Nora doesn’t seem to question things or doubt herself — she just starts using weapons immediately and gets to it.

As our antagonist is an AI, of course Nora’s enemies will be of the robotic kind — most will attack physically, and only few of them will shoot. Foes are many and resources are scarce, even though it is possible to explore and find more ammo and health vials in crates and furniture. Personally, I didn’t have problems with scarcity of ammo, except right at the very start when I was stuck using the initial pistol. While there are enough enemy types to keep things varied, from mechanical dogs to mannequin-like automatons, none of the designs are particularly memorable.

Apart from the first-person combat, Industria offers a puzzle involving electricity and valves in the first 20 minutes of play. One would reasonably expect to find others later, but instead it ends up being the only one. The rest of the campaign’s puzzles are mostly about dragging crates around to use for jumping, so no minds will be taxed here. Despite the poor puzzles, the combat is solid and since Nora is not capable of withstanding more than a couple of hits, tension always runs pretty high.

While its mechanics are… fine?… where Industria shines is in its marriage of architecture and narrative. Tthe steampunk setting suggests a world where there is much to be explored. Unfortunately, the narrative develops along cliché lines by asking the player to read notes laying around and talking to an unknown person via radio — both things which have been done by countless titles, countless times before. On the plus side, the voice actors are particularly good.

Industria‘s best aspects are its solid combat and beautiful architecture. While this might not be enough for other titles, these things do carry its 4-5 hour runtime, and by not overstaying its welcome it remains engaging enough until the end.

Disclosures: This game is developed by BleakMill and published by HeadUp. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game is not rated by the ESRB, but it contains violence. Even though most of the enemies are robots, given the abundance of guns and shooting and the quality of the narrative, I would recommend it at least to a teen audience.

Colorblind Modes: There are several colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game features subtitles for all spoken dialogue. Text can be resized and the on-screen duration can be modified as well. There are some audio cues from the enemies, but the subtitles help in that regard.

Remappable Controls: Being a PC FPS, the game is designed to be controlled with a combination of keyboard plus mouse — using WASD to move the character and the mouse to look around and shoot, while Q is used to replenish health and E to interact with objects. The controls are remappable.