Necromunda: Hired Gun

Oh boy. This game is a very mixed bag. The good first. There are some really cool levels in here and just designs in general. I love the underground premise and I got vibes of Arx Fatalis, something that very few games ever do. There's a lot of variety to the guns. Some are good, others like the lmgs just suck. Lots of variety in abilities something I wish I invested in early on. Now the bad. The gameplay, at least on console, is dogshit. The aiming is finicky with little to no ability to fine-tune it. Then there is the controls. Almost evening is customizable but apparently they got the design lead from Lost Planet on here to give square 3 inputs. Reload, execute and activate. So I want square to reload but have R3 be the melee execute like every other game. Can't do it. It would be fine to have reload on R3 but it also means you'd have to hold R3 when you need to hit a console which is just awkward. On top of that you have very convoluted inventory systems as well as other upgrade systems. Nothing is explained at all. Then there is the fact no medkits drop in the game, you can only buy them. The ammo system also makes no sense. I found myself having maxed out ammon for the pistols and sniper but barely any for the assault rifle. The health Regen system is also just bad. I found myself just doing executions because it was easier than using the guns. Overall this game was a slog. I have to think this plays way better in PC and then it would definitely be a much better game there. As for consoles I can't recommend it at all.

Necromunda hits all the right spots: fast-paced combat, a variety of weapons, brutal 40k setting, gore, and excellent movement options. In the middle of a level when the gameplay hits its stride, it feels right at home with DOOM 2016 and RAGE 2. Unfortunately, it's severely lacking in polish.

 The most obvious shortcoming of Necromunda is the sound design. The environmental sounds are all too muted. I would be standing next to some infernal piece of machinery with gears grinding and steam seeping out of the cracks and hear only the faintest sound in one ear. This is an everpresent issue in all of Necromunda's levels, but it's most obvious in the hub world you return to after each level. Unfortunately it ruins some level of immersion. The metal soundtrack is actually really appropriate and fun to listen to, but it doesn't play anywhere near often enough. More fights deserved a metal backdrop, and the post-mission menu is completely devoid of any music whatsoever, ruining the flow and momentum the level had created.

 Voice acting in Necromunda is actually really great, but the dialogue system makes it *crawl*. There's an awkward 1-2 second pause between the delivery of every line, canned animations, and sometimes you aren't even centered on the character's face when you talk to them. Speaking of animations, the animation quality varies pretty wildly. When it comes to machinery and tech, the animations are great. Some of the main cast even have decent animations. But most of the character/humanoid animations are choppy, and could have used another couple passes of polish.

I was ultimately disappointed with the RPG aspects. It felt less like I was customizing my merc and more like I was just upgrading my stats. Upgrades would have worked better if they were worked into the story (like the hookshot was), but instead it's "spend all your money on upgrades after every mission." Gun customization is great, but looting chests for a 3-star version of your favorite weapon was not fun. Practically, all upgrades were just stat bumps, with no real changes to the gameplay.

 Some other minor complaints: the UI is a bit clunky, the scoring system is heavily biased towards headshots, and you have a mandatory sidearm that can't be upgraded. The end-game is pretty dry, but there's plenty of replayability on harder difficulties for the challenge (and loot) if you're into that kind of thing.

 Overall, I really enjoyed Necromunda. It's a flawed game, but it gets the most important parts of the moment to moment gameplay right, and nails the 40k hive-world aesthetic. I would recommend it to fans of Warhammer 40k or fast-faced arena shooters, but probably at a bit of a discount.