This iz it, boyz (and girlz). Rogueside's
Warhammer 40,000 Shootas, Blood &
Teef (2022) iz here and imma going to play it. WAAAAAGGGH!
I reckon there's no proper title logo on the main screen. So i took this cover art from the official website which looks bad blood. You probably know the premise Warhammer 40,000 (or shortened as Warhammer 40K). It's dark RPG with space theme. Usually it revolves around Space Marine which is human faction with some science divine magic. You probably have seen Warhammer 40K Space Marine infantry: the one with bulky armor, helmet with full cover, big assault rifle or automatic handgun or even chainsaw. That's the one. They're kind of like DoomGuy but with bigger armor and presumably more religious. But there's some Warhammer 40K that centered around Ork (which originally is Space Orc). One of them is this game.
I'm avid fans of Orc race like in Warcraft 3 for example. So i have no interest in playing Orc Must Die. Conversely, i really want to play this. First time i know Ork is from playing Warhammer 40K Dawn of War which i admit more complex and difficult than Command & Conquer Generals but i quite like it. I like everything about Ork. Their rowdy accent. Their violent nature yet quite comical sometime. Their crude weapon and they love to loot or cannibalize any technology from their defeated enemies, especially human's technology.
I look up a bit from Warhammer 40K wiki and it said that apparently Orkz are the most successful species in whole galaxy, outnumbering every other intelligent starfaring species including human. That fact simply warms my heart.
So i immediately go with Story mode and start from beginning. I like the description of each difficulty option. Easy, is da easy mode, for gretchin (is smaller subspecies of Orkz, kind of like Goblin and doing menial task like befitting low-class individual) or humies (Ork's term for human). Hard, for da real Warlords! Normal, is the way Gork (or Mork) intended. Gork and Mork are the Gods of The Orks. Gork is brutal but cunning. While Mork is cunning but brutal. Get it? :)
Ok. Here's more detail information about those Ork's twin gods. Gork is revered to simple-minded Orkz. While Mork is the patron deity of Orkz with more intelligence such as thinkers, creators, and shamans.
Then, we're into the lobby where you can customize your loadout, clan (which only for color custom's sake), and class. There's 4 classes that you can choose from. 1) Flash Git, probably the standard class. He has perk of not consuming ammo when shooting in certain (unseen) chance and his bomb is molotov cocktail. I reckon he's excellent for those who like rapid firing because of the chance of not consuming ammo. 2) Weirdboy, is kind of shaman class and good for crowd control. Specialized in stunning enemies with either his melee attack or bomb. 3) Beast Snagga Boy, is like of hunter or beast master. His melee weapon is throwing spear with timed bomb tied on it. It's good for sniping or set explosive trap for incoming enemies. His bomb is squig (little red critter with voracious teeth) with pack of dynamites tied on its back. The squig will bite enemies and explodes when dying. It's good for deadly distraction. 4) Stormboy, equipped with rocket on his back which makes his dash goes further and can set enemies aflame. His bomb is cluster bomb that spawn smaller bombs when explodes. Probably the most conventional bomb/grenade.
When i played the Demo version, i picked Weirdboy. While on test run, i picked Beast Snagga Boy. So i pick the most standard class: Flash Git for now. But don't worry! I will demonstrate all of the classes.
It all began with usual Ork huge invasion lead by Ogruk Gutrekka on planet called Looteus (the correct pronunciation is Luteus)...
...for oil to make Ork's vehicles run. Is this some kind of political satire? I let you decide. When i read the wiki, i found out that Ork can use oil from certain kind of squig, to fuel their vehicle. But i think oil taken from deep ground of Luteus is more convenience to get than milking squigs one by one.
I like the cardboard scheme in this story section, that probably showing how Ork is not so bright in storytelling besides using funny simple word. For example: to make vehicle runs is replaced with go vrrooom.
Meet the narrator and also the protagonist Gargaz, shooting his gun while riding on one of the Ork boomer plane. Judging by the decoration on his back, he's from Bad Moon clan which is said to be the richest Ork clan (but not so good at combat at least compared to other Ork clan).
Then Gutrekka himself comes in,
grab Gargaz's hair and kick him out of the plane. Gutrekka has all the might
and power but he's jealous to Gargaz for having that spiffy hair. There's
5-part comic on their discord server, telling the event before this where Gargaz
get that hair and save his life!
 |
| Comic 2 out of 5 |
Gargaz's wagon hit a mine and killing his friends, including the original owner of the hair. It kills the leader of imperial guards troop that ambush Gargaz and Co. At first, i though the hair has Ork "magic" property that makes it sentient. But when i read article about squigs on wiki, apparently the hair is hair squig! This variety of squig has long hair running from its tiny body and a pair of pincers in place of a mouth. If you look closely (like very close), you can see the hair has white eyes. It kill the commissar by biting him right in his neck artery. With the leader dead, the rest of imperial guards scared and flee, leaving Gargaz alone. The hair hates human and conversely love Ork. So that's why the hair doesn't attack Gutrekka when being grabbed.
Ok, enough of lore stuff because we're into the game now! The control is pretty standard for modern game. W, A, S, and D to move or crouch. Left mouse button to fire my gun and R button to reload (strangely there's no reload instruction in this tutorial section). Space bar button to jump. I have double jump ability from get-go! Scout_apexofjump02.wav
Here we can have a good look on the common type of squig. They're round and red. They're the main source of food for Orkz. When i pick them (and eat them with satisfying crunchy sound), my health is refilled by 50%. They run and jump wildly. You can shoot them to make them stay still (and dead).
Dodge roll iz for weak humies! We orkz dash through enemies and make them hurt! I'm not sure whether during dash, i'm invulnerable to damage or not. To be honest, i seldom dash and prefer jumping like caffeinated grasshopper when dodging enemy's attacks. Like in Gunforce or Metal Slug, you can walk through enemies harmlessly but be careful when they're about to swing their axe or stab their knife to your torso.
Demoman_laughevil01.wav. I clean that humie head off! So there's benefit to aim for their noggin. I notice there's Ork and imperial guard engage on deadly duel that last for quite eternity. So i take my leave.
The tutorial tells me to select weapon via weapon wheel (like in Sword with Sauce) by pressing tab but i am rebel git. I prefer choosing my weapon with number keys like in classic Doom or Bioshock 2.
Press Q to WAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH for limited time! During Waagh, i'm invincible and i automatically firing my gun in successive manner. Heavy_specialcompleted05.wav
Hey! What the freak! I'm also Ork like you, stupid git! Looking at the lore, turns out Orkz fighting each other is common, often to prove their righteousness and power. Fine, you will get headshot!
Then i stumbled upon large arena where i have to kill a lot before a path revealed. I like this gauntlet section.
This is funny. I have no problem with this gauntlet section when i play demo version or test run. But i died here. Oh, i see. I burned myself with my own molotov bomb! Usually the average/standard class is good for beginner or whatnot. I have to revoke my opinion on Flash Git as standard class because you can get yourself killed by your own bomb! You have to be very careful when using it. Luckily, there's respawing totem nearby.
Hey! Back off, gitz! I'm trying to open this door by holding E button for quite forever and being defenseless while i'm at it. If i play this game with multiplayer feature, i have less hard time in this section.
I find this Mek Shop where you can buy various weapon and hats? What's this, Team Fortress 2? You don't necessarily go to here to buy stuff because you can access to Mek Shop from main menu or Checkpoint.
So far i have Slugga (handgun), Shoota (assault rifle), and boomstik (shotgun). This shotgun is fairly powerful and...Oh no! He has shotgun too!
Oh boy! Look at those large squig on the roast! Looks tasty and juicy. :P
Apparently my melee weapon is chainsaw. I thought it was going to be choppa (axe) which is the standard melee weapon for Orkz. But with this chainsaw i can still kill this git that try to interrupt my valve turning activity. So i can't complaint.
After more walking and krumpin' humies and Orkz alike...
I stumbled upon this awesome heavy metal concert which also another gauntlet section. But i'm in this difficult situation: 3 enemies with shotgun come at me while i have this double barreled shotgun that i bought on test run. Rough mathematics on this situation is: 2 barrels shotgun versus 3 shotguns. I'm still outnumbered. Besides, this double barrel shotgun is not as great as i thought would be.
I can tell that this is the worst double barrel shotgun in gaming history. I mean sure it can fires twice shot compared to regular shotgun but the bullet grouping spreads too wide that it becomes less efficient. I feel like 2 shots of the regular shotgun can take out the regular enemies, at medium-close distance. You though using the double barrel shotgun, i only need one shot of it to do the same thing but no! I still need to fire it twice to take out regular enemies. Moreover, double barrel shotgun's ammo size only 4 as opposed to 6 in regular shotgun. So i feel like double barrel shotgun is not worthy to buy. I think that's because regular enemy's hitbox is too small for all those double amount of double barrel shotgun's shells to fit. Maybe if i have to get very close to those enemy i can maximize the damage output but note that in this level most of them are armed with either knife/axe or shotgun. So it goes without saying that you better deal with them from safe range rather than up close. Or maybe the double barrel shotgun is better use against larger enemies. There will be one later on.
After the gauntlet section, first boss appears and it's Boss Nob. It's not nob like in noob/newbie. But it's shorter form of Noble. Nob Orkz is the second in command after Warboss/Warlord. This nob will either get in close and try to chop me using choppa or shoot me from distance with shoota. Should you need health refill, there's some squig running around the arena. Speaking of the arena...
...once you enter the arena, you will be greeted with the theme metal song complete with the vocal. The double barrel shotgun probably the worst in gaming history but the music for the first boss is certainly the best in gaming history! Note that this is metal song plays for the very first stage boss and it's really rocking! Spoiler: the boss fights went downhill from this point, sadly.
Now that i defeated their boss nob, these orkz are now my boyz and they eager to help me get my hair by attacking human's city there that presumably has some ship to get to Gutrekka's plane.
This time, i'm Stormboy and i bought new handgun: shokka gun. So we storm the human's city while we got shelling. This is like playing Medal of Honor Allied Assault on Operation Overlord except me and my boyz are Orkz. Thankfully, i can see exclamation mark that indicates the spot on the ground will get some mortar shell. Unfortunately for my boyz, they can't see it so all of them are dead by mortar blow. So i'm going in solo as per usual, again.
By the way, i wear imperial guard
helmet for snarky remainder that i'm still humie, afterall.
I manage to infiltrate human's premise alone. I very like this feature where i can dismantle a mounted gun, take it to anywhere, and use it against my enemies. I like the ability to dismantle a mounted gun in Crysis 2 and i love it here too. Unfortunately although it's powerful, the dismounted gun has limited ammo and there's no way to get additional ammo of it, forcing me to discard it immediately once it's empty.
I replaced the shoota with bolta
which is assault rifle that fires exploding bullets. It's said that it's piracy
adaptation from Space Marine technology. Its clip size is 10 as opposed to
stock shoota which is 30 but it's dramatically more accurate or narrower bullet
grouping. Plus the bullet explodes! How can you resist this assault rifle? It's
arguably the best assault rifle in the game.
Krumpin' more empii-real guards later...
Then i encounter this light tank. If you play to this spot in first time, there's rocket launcher nearby and this tank serves as target training for your newly acquired bazooka. I imagine small bullet is not efficient against armored enemy but i haven't proven it. The explosive assault rifle is pretty efficient against this sub-boss. The rocket launcher deals bigger damage, sure. But the reloading time is fairly long and the ammo capacity only 1.
I was hoping that shokka gun will works as well as the plasma handgun on Doom 2016. It is indeed work well for light sniping but the time to charge the gun is quite long to reach maximum range and power. However if the opponents don't die by it, they will stunned instead. Speaking of sniping, there's sniper behind me ready to shoot my back of the head.
I found another mounted gun and also box full of teef (the correct pronunciation is teeth). We got shootas, blood (from Orkz and humies alike), and now teef! They're presented like in title! Teeth are currency for Orkz, like literally their teeth. It's natural if some Ork feels need more earning, they can just beat out other Ork's face for their teeth. Simple and brutal. That's the Ork's way!
This is what i told you about larger enemy. I don't know (or more like don't care much) about the lore behind that giant human with second head on his shoulder. Activating Waagh while wielding shotgun seems the best bet against him but bolta works well too.
I thought the large guys only wield giant machete but no. This one has machine gun. Good for him, i guess.
Then i slay mortar operator with melee from behind. Reminds me of M.I.A. Sadly, i can't take the mortar with me. :(
So Stormboy wield rocket hammer (like actual live rocket welded on a stick) which he smashes it vertically and produce explosion. Demoman_positivevocalization04.wav.
Then Gargaz meet commissar on heavy tank. The commissar is angry because of Gargaz's trespassing into human's territory and Gargaz replies with barely good deal. It goes without saying that Orkz are not good at negotiation.
Thus second boss fight ensues. The tank switch its shooting between machine gun and main cannon. The former tracks me but can be avoided pretty easily. While the latter is just straight shot. You also need to watch for falling debris that drop on area with exclamation mark. Overall, it's not hard boss fight. There's also constant-spawn of red squigs, and quite often they jump to my position so i can heal without much effort.
Turns out there's second phase. The tank lose its weaponry but still can put up a fight. If there's horizontal arrows, the tank is about to charge at indicated direction.
When the tank isn't about to charge. Debris will fall on indicated ground, again. Plus there's soldier and sniper ready to take potshot at me from above. The main idea is you switch between rokkit launcha and shoota during this boss fight. Or you can be lazy like me, just stick to bolta.
Next stage takes place in sewer because why not? [average-mushroom size sarcasm]
I regret picking Weirdboy class because this mutant crocodile is immune to stun! Medic_sf12_badmagic10.wav
Fine! These blasted crocs deserve sum rokkit! Waaghaha! Look at that dead croc stumbled so funnily! Another entertaining thing in this game is the physic of dead bodies. Kind of like ragdoll or whatnot.
At the entrance of this sewer,
you will get the last weapon: flamethrower. Then you can buy its variants which
is continuous weapon with no ammo but with cooldown restriction. I bought this
lightning gun that generates lightning gun that jump from enemy to enemy. It's
quite worth my teeth collection.
Not only you can get access to Mek Shop, Checkpoint totem also allow you to change your loadout. Here's the example of weapon stats. The crosshair symbol represents accuracy (and can also mean bullet grouping). The bullet symbol represents projectile speed. While the explosion symbol represents the damaging power. The explosion symbol replaced with fire or lightning symbol depending on weapon that you highlight. This gitseeka missiles has one more point on speed but less point on power, compared to stock rokkit launcha. However the former has homing projectile.
After even more Krumpin' crocs, rats, and humies later...
What's this thing? It looks like Xenomorph but not really. It likes to hide or appear on sewage pipe. It's not easy to defeat because it can only do clawing. Ok. I look it up about Genestealer. It's from race/faction of Tyranid. I forgot that Tyranid also in Warhammer 40K Dawn of War. My bad! Back then i only play as either Ork or Tau Empire faction.
After killing that genestealer, i'm stumbled upon this factory. This time, i'm Beast Snagga Boy with these squigs as bomb. The bomb mechanism is kind of like pet or summoned beast. The squig will go to enemies, chomping them and when the beast about to die, it explodes! Brilliant!
That black liquid is flammable. If you give it some fire from flamethrower, it will generate big fire. Oh, right. It's oil. I forgot that we came here for oil. My quest for my hair squig gets the best of me.
I think this section is the most tricky platforming section. What's with jet flame on each platform and there's bottomless pit. Not to mention there's enemy above try to shoot me while i navigate this obstacle.
After venturin' further into oil factory...
Now i'm fighting strange human with 2 giant mutants. Since the mutants are another giant enemy with melee attack, they're not hard to dispatch. Once they're gone, i can deal with the surgeon-looking human with less problem.
After that boss fight, Gargaz stumbled upon this sacred chamber of Tyranid with creepy statue and entire cultist. He's not good at bluffing. I mean look around you, Gargaz. You're surrounded and you're just alone.
Obviously, he hands over the boss fight to me. The blasted git. The Patriarch here can develop shield that i have to whittle it down first before i can send the real hurt to the boss. Enemies with force shield is quite the problem in this game, for example commissar. Because by the time i manage to break their shield, my weapon is empty and they have chance to generate another shield. Maybe i should switch weapon instead of reloading when the time is come, maybe.
When The Patriarch's health low
enough, he will retreats to recuperate himself and sends his followers to fight
me. That routine happens like 3 time before he's dead. You may find the wave of
his followers is horrible waste of time but to me it's chance build up my
Waagh! meter. I forgot tell you that Waagh! meter will increase when i attack
or kill foes. Obviously killing them, will boost the meter further. Waagh! can only be activated once the green bar is fully filled.
After The Patriarch is killed. His followers begin to scream in agony and run away, ignoring Gargaz completely. Because this is video game, The Patriarch's lair is crumbling down. Gargaz said "It wasn't me" then he also run away. Obviously Gargaz don't know the tradition of villain in Video Game: "Thine lair/base/castle will also fall, if thee fall"
But unlike in other video game where the hero/main protagonist is automatically safe from crumbling villain's lair. In here, Gargaz leaves the escape from doomed refinery to me. He just all boast and angry but it's me who do all the hard work. This section is immediately engulfed in flame and if i survive that falling debris will finish me off. What should i do here? Turns out i must pick Stormboy and dash as soon as possible then i'm in safety but not for long. I have to keep moving.
I manage to escape the crumbling lair by exploding stack of thousand explosive barrels and blown out in process. So the imperial guards don't like Tyranid giant, good to know. I think i stop the article here.
Rogueside's Warhammer 40,000 Shootas, Blood & Teef (2022) iz da best. Waagh! / 10...
Let's cast aside of my inner Ork, for a bit. Rogueside's Warhammer 40,000 Shootas, Blood & Teef (2022) is interesting spin off of Warhammer 40K franchise. It's 2D shooter platformer. Surprisingly, everything in this game is corresponding with the lore: Waagh!, hair squig, the classes, the enemies, etc. The developer clearly did their homework well. On to the gameplay. It's fun casual shooter. No big penalty upon death. You just kicked to last checkpoint which is distributed quite frequently throughout the level. That's rather generous. The health squigs can be found pretty easily running around. I think there's only one occasion where i need the squig badly but i can't find any. The cursor moves quite slick. The hitbox's detection is pretty accurate. The theme music is flashiest, baddest, and gittiest! While other music is fairly good.
Now onto the flaw. I feel like the game is overly long and quite monotonous here and there. The reason why i feel that most likely because i'm avid fan of Metal Slug. Every game on that SNK's franchise can be finished within an hour. An hour and a half, top. Some people say they can finish the game within 2 days and they want more. I respect that, though. Probably the reason why this game feels more boring compared to the well-known SNK 2D shooter, is the lack of armored enemies. That big guy with indestructible shield doesn't count, though! That big guy is just straight not fun. In this game, combat vehicle only reserved for boss or sub-boss. On the other hand, Metal Slug sends you dozens of Girida-O, Di Cokka, Melty Honey, Eaca-B, Nop-03 Sarubia, R-Shobu, M-15A Bradley, or MH-6J Mashknell like no tomorrow. Fighting myriad of enemies with melee weapon or gun that eager to walk up to me can make the game boring pretty fast. At least there's some sniper or mounted gun operator once in a while. Put more combat vehicle or soldier with jetpack can fix that, i reckon. Another thing that Metal Slug have that probably can make the game more interesting is limited ammo. I think in demo, shoota and boomstik have limited ammo and i can find their ammo if i search the level fairly diligently and i think it's fun. Besides with limited shoota and boomstik ammo, you have more reason to use melee attack or slugga that -if i remember correctly- is unlimited from demo version. Even though i can understand the developer make those shoota and boomstik unlimited for the sake of player's easiness. Speaking of weapon, the arsenal is fun as heck. Well, except the double barrel boomstik that straight terrible. Not to mention, the reloading time is noticeably longer than when using regular boomstik. Another problem is the lack of purchasable thing. If i have bought all the weapon (hats are optional to buy completely, obviously), what's the other use of teeth? Luckily, teeth can be found pretty easily and -i think- respawn upon replay. My suggestion is health upgrade, increase Waagh! duration, increase maximum bomb capacity (the standard is 3), or increase clip size of each weapon category (except the continuous weapon because it has cooldown system instead of ammo count).
I saw at the store page, Warhammer 40,000 Shootas, Blood & Teef (2022) gets a lot of very positive reception, even with some flaws or bugs. Maybe the critics are biased because they're Ork fans. But who am i kidding? I'm also Ork Fans. The game is acceptable as it is and i love it! Hopefully, the developer will make improvements in future. I think i can recommend you to play this game in multiplayer but keep in mind that there's some friendly fire such as explosion from Beast Snagga Boy's spear or Flash Git's fire bomb. Weirdboy is noticeably undercooked because his capability to make enemies stunned doesn't work for every case. Maybe if he can heal some health for himself and his team, upon successful melee hit. Weidboy will be more useful. As for Stormboy, maybe his jet dash can burn allies as well. There's some problematic potential in multiplayer, i see. But again Orkz are no strange to hurt each other. :P
