Dakka, it doesn’t matter how much of it you have, you always need more. We needed more dakka here at GameHype and Rogueside have provided it.
Shootas, Blood and Teef is a 2D waaagh and gun shooter obviously set in the Warhammer 40k universe, and has a deeply rich plot…not deep to say an Aeldari farseer but to an Ork, it’s essentially War and…well war, if an Ork were to read it certainly wouldn’t be a book with peace in the title.
You are one of the boyz and you have a rather fetching hair squiq (a hair piece in non-ork terms) but da (the) boss wants it, so he takes it, then kicks you overboard. Naturally, you don’t take this well, time to march off and get your Squig back. Luckily you land in the hive city of Luteus Prime. Now, if it’s not obvious already Rogueside know their green skins, the tone and humour of the game is immediately apparent. Orks are fun, they’re kinda silly and most of all they are violent. Shootas, Blood and Teef leans into this so heavily that you simply can’t stop enjoying yourself while playing it…for the most part.
Gameplay revolves, well, actually it doesn’t, it’s a 2D linear shooter, you move across the screen killing whatever gets in your way, humies (humans), bugs (Tyranids), beakies (Space Marines) and other Orks who all deserve a good krumpin. You move with one stick and aim with the other, it feels awkward at first as you aim the long white line that sticks out the end of your weapon, but its easy enough to get used to.
As we already know, Shootas need Dakka, and the game offers a decent array of it, pistols, shotguns, machine guns, special weapons, each with a different mechanic attached. Do you want a bolt pistol to powerfully blow the heads of grunts or perhaps a plasma pistol that will make quick work of a commissars shields? Rogueside even inclueded a take on the ‘Gets hot’ rule, fire your plasma weapons for too long and you’ll start to take damage, it’s a nice bit of attention to detail that I appreciated.
The end of each section of the campaign has a boss, now, I won’t spoil what they all are as it’s rather enjoyable to uncover them for yourself, but discovery is about the only enjoyable part of these fights. All of them apart from the games final boss are bullet sponges with huge healthbars, there’s almost nothing to them aside from just spraying dakka at them until the health bar depletes. Take the games first boss, a Baneblade, now let’s ignore the idea that a single (or up to 4 boyz in co-op) could take out a super-heavy tank. It’s so mechanically uninteresting that it just becomes a frustrating chore each time you have to restart the battle because you didn’t perfectly time your jump as the tank attempts to ram you.
I’ll give the game credit for featuring a varied array of enemies as previously mentioned but again they fall into the same issue as the boss fights, it’s just dakka them all until they fall down. As far as Ork strategy goes it’s pretty much spot on I guess (aside from the Kommandos, obviously) but it does become dull eventually.
Rogueside did add some variety in terms of picking your Ork, you can choose between any of the big Orky clans Deathskullz, Evil Sunz, Bad Moons and Goffs, it’s cool but just changes the look of your character and doesn’t impact gameplay at all. Picking your ‘class’ does have small gameplay impact, you can choose between being a flash git, weirdboy, beast snagga or a storm boy. The beast snagga for example has an explosive spear you can throw, whereas the stormboy naturally has a rocketpack to quickly maneuver across the battlefield, it’s not a huge impact at all but can make a difference at the right time.
While the core gameplay could be described as simple and or dull and its both at times the teams love of the Waaagh is clear. It’s this that kept me engaged and looking for more teef, with which to buy more dakka, to deliver more krumpin. Shootas, blood and teef is perfectly Ork, and this is why I’d say it’s worth picking the game up. In fact, the credit song, this track alone makes slogging through the dull bosses worth it. I was somewhat deflated as I defeated the final boss but the credits had me smiling like a squig and head banging like a Goff rocker and ready to play through the game again.
A review code was provided by Rogueside.