Author: Game Infliction

Few video games in history have cribbed more of its foundation from the Warhammer universe than the original Doom. The landmark ’90s first-person shooter was filled to the brim with titanic demonspawn, disemboweling shotgun blasts, and sweaty comic-book machismo — not unlike the goliath space marines in the grim darkness of the far future. So it’s fitting that Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is such a dogmatic tribute to the tenets of vintage, id Software-hewn monster slaying. The latest entry in Games Workshop’s digital empire aims to take us back to a happier age: a time of 2.5D sprites, gelatinous blood splatters, and level maps dotted with secrets, keys, and ammunition pickups. The 90s are back, baby. John Carmack would be proud.

You are a Space Marine, a superhuman race of militant intergalactic zealots, who scorch across the universe to eradicate all of the forces who wish ill upon the Emperor of Mankind. After a brief expository overture, Boltgun discards all of its narrative precepts and gets right down to business. Your space marine is dropped into the opening level equipped solely with his quintessential Gears of War-esque chainsword; with one right click, you’ll saw a hapless chaos demon in two. Your hero will unlock an ever-expanding arsenal as they make their way through the gauntlet, the particulars of which will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s ever conquered Mars or Hell. Soon enough, you’ll be mouse-wheeling between a shotgun, a plasma gun, and the titular bolter, all of which are capable of reducing your enemies into a misshapen pinkish lump.

Boltgun isn’t taking any inspiration from the modern drift of first-person shooters. Players aren’t going to find any RPG meta-progression, open-world stat grinds, or quasi-MMO multiplayer mandates. This is a video game that could’ve easily arrived in 1996, and. Boltgun eagerly leans into those tenets with its art style. This is an old-school PC experience, replete with paper-thin enemy models, static death animations, and color-coded keys and doors. But that vintage ideology has been souped up by 2023 engineering, like a 1958 Jaguar converted into an EV. Boltgun might play like Doom, but id Software certainly wasn’t drumming up the gory particle effects and psychedelic bullet trails that fill the screen in developer Auroch Digital’s firefights.

After an hour with Boltgun, I can safely say that the action comes together beautifully. This is not a shooter about making tough tactical decisions. The space marine is big, beefy, and generously durable — he compels players to switch their brains off — so I found myself absorbing a ton of punishment as I eviscerated any who stood against the glorious Imperium. Boltgun gets increasingly unhinged when the bullets start flying and the corpses start rupturing. Every inch of the terrain is smeared with bright, crimson blood, to the point that it becomes difficult to remember, exactly, what you were aiming at. Trust me, I mean that as a compliment.

Of course, Boltgun is going to need some interiority if it wants to be truly memorable. I love a fabulously phantasmagoric gore binge as much as the next person, but I have also played enough indie, stylized shooters to know that flashy viscera is not enough alone to carry a product across the finish line. We might be in luck, though. I noticed a few tips in the game’s loading screens that made reference to different damage types, which apparently are more effective depending on whatever is currently occupying your crosshairs. While I didn’t play enough of Boltgun to make those strategic calls myself, that does sound like a step in the right direction. It brings to mind Doom Eternal, a game that delivered all of the rapturous slaughter of its mother franchise, while still encouraging some genuine mindfulness as we plotted out our murder sprees. Ideally, Boltgun will match that same thoughtfulness as our catalog of weaponry slowly enlarges and the demons in the path grow more treacherous.

Barring that, Auroch Digital has managed to teleport all of us into an alternative universe; one where id scored the Warhammer license at the peak of the ‘90s. Time travel is possible. I have just the low-res chainsword to prove it.

It’s very easy for disabled people to feel betrayed when a game lacks proper accessibility, and rightfully so. How can studios expect us to celebrate these innovations and victories if we still can’t play their games? But if there is one lesson I’ve learned from personally playing and professionally critiquing some of our favorites, it’s that major developments should be celebrated, even if that means potentially missing out on brand-new experiences.

When I write, I tend to avoid including my own perspective, aside from reviews. I’ve always felt uncomfortable discussing personal stories, especially since I share a space with over 400 million disabled players, each deserving to highlight how the games industry is helping or failing them. But in some instances, I think sharing personal stories is almost cathartic and crucial when exploring the necessity of accessibility. So, for this month’s Access Designed, I’m breaking my rule to tell you about my growth and evolving understanding of accessibility as a disabled player.

My birthday is in March – March 19 to be exact. Throughout my 29 years of life, I’ve gamed on just about every system. From handhelds like the Game Boy Advance to my current PC, I familiarized myself with some of the best games this industry has offered.

As a young child, I never had restrictions. Despite living with a neuromuscular disability – Spinal Muscular Atrophy type II – the muscles in my hands and fingers were strong enough to allow me to play across a variety of consoles. My relationship with my disability and games was incredibly black-and-white. I either played until I needed my older brother for assistance, or I would just return a game to my local store if the barriers proved to be too much for my hands. And before my disease progressed, I rarely needed to research new releases. That is until the release of the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, when the reality of my limitations became more prevalent.

I met my current and closest friend group within the halls of Nacht Der Untoten. The fast-paced action of running from and gunning down Nazi zombies introduced new challenges that transcended beyond Call of Duty: World at War. For the first time in my gaming life, I was unable to fully utilize a controller. Not only did the shape and size of the 360 pad prevent me from reaching crucial buttons like triggers, the actuation force for the LS and RS buttons was far stronger than anything I’ve experienced. Before I told my friends about my disability, I consistently fabricated excuses as to why I was unable to sprint, use melee, or even aim certain weapons like bolt-action rifles. And for a time, I even believed my own lies. I didn’t want to accept my weakened state as a product of my disability, especially as it impacted my only form of independence.

Appreciating Accessibility

World at War acted as an accessibility awakening. I was unable to simply abandon the game that my friends obsessed over without risking losing the ability to play with them. So I began scouring through the options hoping to find a specific control scheme that would suit my needs. Unfortunately, nothing worked. It took my brother taping a popsicle stick to the back of my controller, allowing me to effectively use both triggers. It was a unique solution for a unique problem, one that still didn’t fix everything and angered me. World at War could not provide its own answers.

Rare and Microsoft are celebrating the fifth anniversary of Sea of Thieves, but the developers are also looking out toward the horizon for the next five years of the live service pirate adventure.

In an article on Xbox Wire, Xbox revealed that the Sea of Thieves team at Rare recently sat down to plot out the next five years of the game.

“I think 10 years of Sea of Thieves will feel like a long time – but also, we’ll blink and be there,” creative director Mike Chapman said. “And I still think we’ll have unfinished business when we get to that point.”

The Sea of Thieves team is apparently discussing ideas for smuggling mechanics, rewards for protecting other players from griefers, and a mechanic for “painting” screenshots. The development team’s mantra is “Players Creating Stories Together”, and this wide vision has the team feeling like they’ll never run out of ideas, as long as players are there to experience them.

There are some other interesting stories in Xbox Wire’s celebration of Sea of Thieves. The developers revealed that the original pitch for Sea of Thieves starred secret agents instead of pirates, and that they “ripped up our roadmap” after launch and changed the approach to the game’s content updates.

Sea of Thieves has seen tons of content updates since its initial launch in 2018. From collaborations with franchises like Pirates of the Carribean and Borderlands, to last year’s randomized three-part quest, there have been plenty of seafaring adventures for players to sink their teeth into.

We re-reviewed Sea of Thieves in 2020, calling it “a pirate fantasy sandbox with an enormous amount of things to do, made unpredictable and exciting by the addition of other players.” The game also made our list of the ten best co-op games.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.