NECROMUNDA: HIRED GUN Review: A Basic Shooter, Just In Warhammer 40k

PC Review Code Provided by Streum On Studio

Have to say that what my initial impression was on what Streum On Studio was developing isn’t quite what I ended up getting with Necromunda: Hired Gun. The trailers their publisher, Focus Home Interactive, shared showed a more “Me and my dog, taking jobs and shooting guns” type of attitude and experience. Turns out it is a bit more basic than that and the dog is more like a call-in companion that helps minimally. Even with that bit of a letdown, the game isn’t bad at all, just not quite what I was expecting.

Story

Living within Warhammer 40k’s most infamous hive city, Necromunda, everybody finds their own way to make a living. For you, that’s as a hired gun. Take contracts from those within your circle and complete the jobs for some easy money. Who knows? You might even find yourself learning a thing or two from them while you’re working for them.

Gameplay

Starting out they show you the controls through a sort of end-of-mission sequence where you meet up with some guys you were working with and then go through the level. Once you complete this tutorial level where things go badly for your partner, your character complains a bit in an explanation of why you usually work alone. It also ties in how you get upgrades yourself as you don’t do so great at the end of it and end up being saved by a doctor that uses robotics to fix you up. This was a nice intro into the game that gave reason to even the more ridiculous side of the mechanics with lore reasoning.

After being introduced to the people within the safe haven, including the shops for upgrading yourself, weapons, and the dog, you will be able to start choosing contracts. I suggest starting with campaign missions because the side missions unlock a wider variety once you complete more areas of the game. More variety contracts also mean a better chance of getting ones that are really worth the time and effort to complete. You will have to start with easier missions before it starts unlocking the harder tier ones as well, but essentially the further you are in the campaign, the better.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, the biggest letdown was the dog companion system. I was expecting to have that dog follow me around the majority of the time and just help with enemies as I start to get surrounded. That isn’t what we got though. Instead, you can call on your dog with a squeaky toy, and using his senses the enemies within a radius of you will be highlighted to let you know where they are. As for what he will do to help you - he will take down one enemy and only the one enemy that you highlighted when you called on him.

Your arsenal is able to be hand-picked by you, once you collect enough weapons to have a variety of options. Other than your main gun and handgun, you also have some aid items with you. There is the grapple that has two quick uses, a health kit for healing, stim shots that revive you once you die so you don’t have to restart the mission, and a few other things that are optional but up to you to set up prior to the start of the mission.

Guns can be customized before a mission as well. Other than purchasing upgrades for it at the shop, you can add attachments you find in the field. These could be grips, muzzles, little lucky chains for a small boost, and more. You also get charms to choose from as well, but those go on your character and not the weapon.

When you complete a mission, this is where you can earn a bit more money or collect some goods from the mission. You will be shown a menu that has all the different things you collected in the mission. You have a limited inventory, but here you can bring over all the items you want to keep and put them in your inventory. Anything you don’t take is automatically sold for further profit towards the overall contract payment.

Graphics

When I started out, the game had my settings auto-set to their lowest point. Even after I raised everything to the High setting, the game still looked really fuzzy and pixelated. That’s when I realized they had a resolution bar and raising that it raised the game’s clarity. On high graphics with full resolution, the game really does look great and a fascinating take on this dark hive city.

I have to give props to how wide of a range they have the settings for graphics though. This can be the biggest hindrance to some players from being able to play this game and they have it capable of being so low that you would think it was an early 2000’s game. Almost anybody’s computer would be able to run this game with this variety and that is just not something you see often enough.

Sounds

When it comes to the sound effects, everything was pretty much what you expected it to be. But the music choice was where they put some effort in. In battle, the music gave off a heavy Doom-type vibe as the heavy drums and guitar would play. Outside of battle, the music was almost calm with an err towards caution.

Replayability

Thanks to how wide a variety of customization options there are and the constant stream of new contracts to pick up, there is definitely plenty of replayability to this game.

What Could Be Better

If you are going to include a dog companion, just let that dog be my actual companion to the game. Instead of a summoning type option, I would rather have to give my dog commands. Things like “follow, sit, stay, attack” would be much more preferred than just “Come on out. Thanks now go back home.”

The pre-mission setup was a bit rough to work with and could have been made to be more user-friendly. Choosing which of my guns to go out with and such took a bit to figure out, which can be frustrating when you spend most of your money upgrading a gun and then can’t seem to equip it for the next mission.

Conclusion

Necromunda: Hired Gun plays like a knock-off Doom game set in the Warhammer 40k universe. It is a basic shooter with high-intensity action scenes and waves upon waves of enemies to kill no matter where you go. While that is entertaining in its own right, I was hoping for a bit more variety in the gameplay options. At least it had plenty of variety in the game mechanics and the levels were all really well designed. Still, it is a game I would recommend to fans of FPS titles, especially if you are a fan of the Warhammer 40k universe.