Warning: The subject of this review contains depictions of graphic violence and pixelated gore. Reader discretion is advised.

Science said it couldn’t be done, and yet here it is. Auroch Digital first turned Warhammer 40,000 into a retro-style boomer shooter in the form of Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, and now they’ve turned that boomer shooter into Typing of the Dead with Space Marines. What we’ve got here is Warhammer 40K: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance, or as I’m going to (somewhat facetiously) insist on calling it, “Warhammer 40K: The Obnoxiously Long Title.” Words of Vengeance is quite short and mainly serves as an advertisement for the upcoming Warhammer 40K: Boltgun 2, but it’s still really enjoyable in its own right.

I would ordinarily be much more likely to take issue with any game being so short and turning into an ad for another game at the last moment, but I can’t fault Words of Vengeance for either of those things since it’s free to play and was unexpectedly released. In Words of Vengeance, you play as a Space Marine called Malum Caedo, who you also control in Warhammer 40K: Boltgun and its upcoming sequel. Movement, jumping, and reloading your Boltgun are all handled automatically, thus leaving your hands free to focus on slaying your enemies by typing aggressively at them.

Each enemy you encounter in Words of Vengeance has a word or phrase appear above them when they first show up on-screen. You need to accurately type whatever text that is as quickly as possible to slay them. To make this easier, Words of Vengeance doesn’t require you to type spaces, capital letters, or punctuation because “there’s no time for accurate grammar!” Given my tendency to call games out for those sorts of mistakes in in-game text, I must confess that I instinctively cringed upon reading that. I quickly forgave Words of Vengeance for that particular sin, however.

Each letter you correctly type fires one shot from your Boltgun at the enemy whose corresponding phrase you’re currently typing. Each shot seems to briefly stun its target, thus giving you a bit of a window to avoid taking damage if you make any typing mistakes. Smaller enemies will sometimes appear suddenly. You deal with these via quicktime events, which usually only require you to type one letter. End-of-level bosses usually combine both typing full phrases and single-letter quicktime events to defeat them. You won’t have to fight many bosses because Words of Vengeance only contains three levels in total.

You can replay each of those three levels as much as you like on any of the four available difficulty settings. I played through the entirety of Words of Vengeance in under twenty minutes, according to Steam. The differences between each difficulty setting, combined with the fact that you can replay levels to improve your score regardless of difficulty, give Words of Vengeance a decent amount of replay value. That’s not a bad deal for a free-to-play game that was unexpectedly “shadow dropped.” I’m willing to forgive Words of Vengeance for boldly advertising Boltgun 2 because of things like that.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my concerns about Words of Vengeance from an accessibility standpoint, however. If you have difficulty typing both accurately and quickly, Words of Vengeance will likely give you trouble. That being said, my disability affects my dexterity and levels of individual control over all my fingers, and I still did pretty well with Words of Vengeance’s core gameplay loop. I have a rather strange typing style because of my disability. That wasn’t much of a hindrance, however, especially since I’ve never tolerated any of that “home-row typing” nonsense that’s enforced in schools.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance

Free

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Enjoyable setting and core gameplay loop.
• Decent replayability.

Cons

• Disappointingly short campaign.
• Core gameplay loop presents potential accessibility concerns.