‘Necromunda: Hired Gun’ Review
Warhammer 40,000 is an immensely popular tabletop game. You probably know it, it’s the one where you paint the little figures. It makes sense that video games are a perfect virtual medium for long-time fans and for people looking to dip their toes into the universe. I know absolutely nothing about Warhammer, I assumed it was all goblins and space marines but Necromunda looks like the heavy metal offshoot and I’m all in for that.
Taking place on Necromunda in its massive Hive City, Hired Gun has you play a mercenary tasked with avenging the death of a gang member. This spirals into you being brought into a gang war.
Watch the launch trailer below:
Oh I’m sorry, did you want more of a synopsis? I mean, that’s all the info you really get. The plot opens up explaining the lore and as an outsider, it perked me up a little bit. Then the game throws you into this doomed mission and expects you to care about what happens, which I didn’t. Then the real story begins and I hope you like exposition dumps and can keep track of nonsense gang names and generic plot arcs you have no input in because that’s all you get. Seriously, there are maybe three characters you can talk to and you just stand there statically, as characters spout utter nonsense. I will admit that this may mean something to die-hard fans, but it was just banal to me. No pay off at the end and no reason to be invested, and since you pick a generic character, you don’t even feel like you’re piloting anything resembling a person. A shame, but hey, it’s a shooter so let’s jump to the gameplay.
Necromunda: Hired Gun bills itself as a ‘Shooter of Old’, you know the type, Quake, DOOM etc. Now, I was late to the party for this genre but I appreciate that, when done right, these games can be a ton of fun. Hired Gun certainly starts off decently enough. It keeps up with the fast pace of DOOM 2016 and the core gun-play is totally competent. The arsenal of weapons is pretty much what you expect and they all work well. The decision to go towards loot based pickups as opposed to set weapons you upgrade is a miss though. There is a character upgrade system and while it’s bare-bones, it works. The health system is solid too, kill an enemy and regain health and you have a rechargeable shield. Simple and, once again, it works. Borrowing from Dead to Rights, Hired Gun also gives you a dog companion..sort of. It’s a cool-down item to use. Useless in combat, but the dog pings every enemy on the map. The highlight of the game is the grappling hook, you get it early on in the game and it adds a lot of mobility. So in all these aspects, Hired Gun is fine.
