Warhammer 40K Shootas Blood and Teef Review (Switch)
Summary: Overall Warhammer 40K Shootas, Blood and Teef is a very enjoyable romp, if you want a good solid game to get someone into the series I don’t think you can go wrong with suggesting this title.
4.2
Arcade fun
Warhammer 40K has always been something that I have looked upon from a distance, always feeling a bit overwhelmed and unsure where I should start. I have tried a few of the Warhammer video games before, mainly the Total War Warhammer series and Space Marine. I still haven’t found MY Warhammer game until now…
Shootas Blood and Teef has a more cartoony animated style to the 40K universe then most people would be used to. But it actually suits this style of gameplay, being a hybrid of Twin Stick Shooter, Action Platformer and side scrolling Run and Gun. Now we see many games attempt this hybrid style and it normally ends up with an unwieldy mess but Rogueside have managed to meld together all these elements into a tight and fun experience that does not overstay its welcome.
Story
Shootas Blood and Teef starts with you as an Ork being the first wave of a “green tide” invasion force onto a humanoid planet. Whilst shooting out of your ship your Warlord decides to steal your Hair Squig and boot you down onto the planet surface. Now you as a one Ork wrecking machine must DAKKA as many enemies to lead to success and hopefully you will become the new Warlord.
Gameplay
As stated early this game is Twin Stick Shooter and Run and Gun primarily, think Contra X Metal Slug. Like Metal Slug you have up to four characters to choose from each with their own gameplay style. Along the way you collect Teef which can be used as a currency to purchase new weapons and upgrades. This can be vital in your ability to continue in the game as the levels progress the difficulty ramps up.
Many enemies and enemy types are there to stop you which add variety and challenge and sometimes annoyance as you die and get used to it especially on harder difficulties you will die a lot. But thankfully Rogueside has eased this issue by adding plenty of well placed checkpoints which means you do not lose too much progress when you die.
Boss battles are really the stand out gameplay loop and just like any good shoot em up the bosses are LARGE and varied this is where I did find most of my deaths spawned from but after a few tries, (maybe more but we can keep this between us) you start to learn the patterns and weak points. Every death felt like an improvement from the last which in this type of game and with higher difficulty is much appreciated. Nobody enjoys dying to some BS but if you are able to see where you went wrong and learn the patterns and find the health squibs you will always come out on top.
Visuals and Audio
Now this is where I feel I may come across some disagreements. I personally found the Cartoon/Arcade game look to be charming and felt that it fitted in well with the genre of game. Longtime fans of Warhammer 40K may feel this is too cartoony and not dark and gritty enough, but in my opinion if they give this game a fair shot they would come to enjoy the detailed sprites and especially the large over the top bosses.
On the flipside no one can deny that Shootas, Blood and Teef has an excellent Metal soundtrack that keeps up the pace with the game and you could easily find yourself transforming into your hidden metal head and head banging your way through this game.
Along with the visuals and music Rogueside have added plenty of charm and immersion in the voice acting I have been reliably told that the voice lines and the misspelled subtitles are very much in character with you being an Ork and hearing Kill with more DAKKA is a amazing as I yet again explode another puny human into oblivion!
Controls
Now the controls can be a bit hit or miss. Some of the decisions made for the default layout is confusing especially if you are playing with the Nintendo Switch joy cons having jump on a shoulder button is confusing especially as most 2-D games used the tried and trusted face buttons normally A or B. Thankfully you are given the option to change these in the settings, which is great but I really would prefer Rogueside to reconsider their default settings.
Being a Twin Stick style shooter with the right stick controlling direction of fire can take a bit of getting used to, but once you are in the groove shooting and exploding bosses and enemies you forget about that hardship and become fully immersed.
Downsides
Shootas, Blood and Teef whilst being for the most part a very enjoyable game it does have some strange downsides that can be quite confusing as to why they are there. The most egregious being the long load times between levels for a game that is running on cartridge or off a SD card if played as a downloadable title it’s unbelievable that we are in 2022 and getting these long load times. Sometimes hitting into the 10-15 seconds time span.
The other major issue is actually the way audio, especially the music can sometimes randomly cut out and I did experience one instance of the audio making a static buzz, of course this should be a relatively easy fix and I hope it will be addressed in a small patch in the near future.
Final Thoughts?
Overall Warhammer 40K Shootas, Blood and Teef is a very enjoyable romp, if you want a good solid game to get someone into the series I don’t think you can go wrong with suggesting this title.
The value of this game being around the £16 pound mark makes this a good budget title and it being a short game makes it easy to drop in and out of, whilst it is a shorter title it has plenty of replayability for those who like to get their money’s worth.
To Purchase, please visit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1HTD61F
https://www.iningames.com/games/warhammer-40000-shootas-blood-teef/
https://store.strictlylimitedgames.com/collections/warhammer
https://gamesrocket.com/eu/Warhammer-40-000-Shootas-Blood-and-Teef/
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