Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef Preview

WAAAAAAAAGH! Time to get your shootas boyz, we got a thieving git called Gutrekka, what stole sumfing off us. Who wants a scrap to help get it back?

Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is a charming 2D side-scrolling platformer that places you in the shoes of Gargaz Teefgrabba, a simple Ork that was happily conquering Luteus Alpha as part of the massive Waaagh Gutrekka. However Gutrekka felt the need to pilfer our poor Gargaz’s hairsquig and boots him out of the mega-bommer. After scrapping through the remains of a voidship, Gargaz arrives at a Goff settlement and the start of our demo.

Equipped with three guns — a Slugga (pistol), Shoota (machine gun), and Boomstikk (shotgun) — along with three Stikkbombs and a melee attack, you battle through waves of assorted greenskins in your quest to recover your hairsquig. Defeating enemies allows you to build up your Waaagh meter which allows you to go on an unstoppable rampage for a limited time, automatically shooting whatever weapon you have equipped, at a higher rate of fire. Do be careful though as there are plenty of environmental hazards that can harm you, even the fallout from your own Stikkbombs will take some health off your bar. Thankfully the game does seem to be generous on health-giving creatures, conveniently marked with a health icon, but be prepared to run after these as they will bound around the level.

Some sections have you locked into the area until a certain number of enemies have been defeated, and some have a blocker that requires interaction — such as needing to turn a wheel to shut off the gas that is feeding what can only be described as an oversized bunsen burner — in order for further progress to be made. The demo then culminates in a battle with Boss Nob on the same stage as an Ork metal band, which has also been providing the backing track for the entire level and had me bopping in my chair the whole time. Sadly, only this one level was available to play in the demo but it was enough to appreciate what will come upon release.

The controls are fairly simplistic, both controller and keyboard and mouse options are available for players to use and both work very well. One aspect that did take a while for me to grasp was the whole dropping down a platform, as the down key + jump needed to be pressed before I could descend. I’ll admit, my old brain didn’t quite make the connection for a few moments, but that’s totally on me and not a mark against the game.

The cartoon artwork style definitely works here and complements the tongue-in-cheek take on this side of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The team at Rogueside have certainly created a fun game here and I do feel the introduction of cooperative play will just bolster that feeling. While online or couch co-op play is not available in this demo, it’s still enough to whet the appetite. You can even check out a few minutes of gameplay right below these words.

Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is set to release within 2022; Summer 2022 if the demo screens are to be believed. So don’t delay, wishlist today!