Necromunda: Hired Gun

Necromunda: Hired Gun checks all the boxes that should make a single-player first-person shooter tick, but its flawed execution and an ugly Warhammer 40K paint job give you few reasons to stick with it until the end. It’s functional and has a grappling hook that’s alright to use. But its tedious, unsatisfying combat, janky animations, and AI that’s prone to mess up all test your patience without offering any tangible reward. It misses out on making you feel like a bounty hunter – bada...

Games Workshop has found success with an impressively wide range of video game genres, and yet, there’s never really been a great first-person-shooter set in the Warhammer universe. A bit odd considering the franchise’s obsession with giant guns! Enter Necromunda: Hired Gun, the latest effort from Streum On Studio, who previously tried (and largely failed) to do the Warhammer shooter thing with 2016’s Space Hulk: Deathwing.

If I were reviewing this game on multiple platforms it would be a nightmare as it’s obvious that PC was the lead platform by a mile. There is a lot of potential and if a good amount of time has passed since release I’d suggest you look up the patches that have come out along with the discourse online to see if things have been fixed. As it is now this is a broken mess of a game, and I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone on Xbox or Playstation consoles. I really hope they fix it up though because I’d love another run-through with a properly working version of this game.

Necromunda: Hired Gun is an enjoyable dive into the grime of Warhammer 40,000's most corrupt city. But all of the incredible atmosphere in the world can't hide its rough edges.

Necromunda Hired Gun has a wonderful setting that every 40K fan will undoubtedly adore. But outside of that, unless you are a really hardcore 40K fan, Hired Gun is a really tough sell, at least on console. Too many performance issues, followed with bugs and inconsistent textures make this one experience you may want to skip on, which sadly is a bummer, because the gameplay itself is rather quite fun when it works. You’ll likely find the PC version is be far superior, but for you console players out there I would highly suggest you wait for a substantial performance and bug patch to come out. T...

Necromunda: Hired Gun does have redeeming qualities. The movement is great, the gunplay feels good, and the environmental design is stellar. There's simply a legion of issues on both the design and technical fronts working overtime to hold it back. If you are willing to overlook Hired Gun's many problems and massive amounts of jank you'll likely have a great time blasting gangers to bloody bits. But, I won't fault you for waiting on a sale or sequel instead.

And so, Necromunda often oscillates between a brilliant indie gem and a frustrating mid-tier game. Some moments, it’s the best Warhammer 40,000 action game - as you mow down enemies and watch their skulls explode to its rocking tunes, and look stylish doing it as you chain grappling hook shots and double-jumps. Other times, you miss a major story beat because an important character’s audio mix was too low, or feel like you’re pixel-hunting for enemies like it’s Warzone.

A fairly fun bullet-hell shooter frustrated by under-realised features and missed narrative opportunities. Ultimately, Hired Gun falls into a pitfall all too common to Warhammer adaptations: that of only ever feeling skin deep.

Some good warhammer 40k vibes can be found here but there’s just a bit too much going on in Necromunda: Hired Gun. The fast-paced FPS gameplay needs refining and is constantly slowed down by the RPG elements which in turn are not allowed to shine through the FPS aspect. I actually think this setting would lend itself more to a Skyrim style RPG more so than a first person shooter but this is what we got and I am actually a bit gutted that I can’t like it more than I do.

At the end of the day, Hired Gun is a mediocre first person shooter where the cons far outweigh the things that make it fun. You would do best waiting for it to go on a deep sale if you really feel the need to explore this part of the Warhammer universe.

Necromunda: Hired Gun comes this close to being a good game. It takes heavy inspiration from one of the best FPS games on the market, but with an uninteresting narrative, clunky graphics, uneven performance, and a litany of undercooked ideas. Necromunda: Hired Gun is hard to recommend, even at its budget price tag. You might find yourself having fun from time to time with it, but those moments are simply too short to recommend putting up with the rest of the game.

You can hardly blame Streum On Studio for trying to make the next DOOM Eternal. With shooters very few and far between this early on in the PlayStation 5 generation, the developer had the opportunity to leave its mark with a fast-paced FPS that picks up right where id Software left off last year. It even had the Warhammer 40,000 license to go alongside it, despite the universe being a turn-off for some. However, Necromunda: Hired Gun categorically fails to capitalise on quite literally anything it had going for it. On its own, it's a bang average shooter. When the cracks start to show, the gam...