N is for... Necromunda: Hired Gun

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Game Information

Developer:	Streum On Studio	Date Started:	06/02/2025
Platform:	Steam	Fresh Play / Continuation:	Fresh Play
Genre:	FPS	Time Played:	9 hrs
Theme:	Warhammer 40K	Date Finished:	28/02/2025
Difficulty Rating:	Average (Some Fights harder than others)	Recommendation:	Yes

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I first came across this game when I saw my brother playing it on his Discord channel. I saw enough to get interested in it, but not nearly enough to know what the game was about. Then, as luck would have it, I would later get it in a Humble Bundle.

After I started the game, my brother would then reveal to me that the developers of this game were the same ones who gave us E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy, and I was surprised and also a little worried. E.Y.E was a game I played cooperatively with my brother, and while the combat was decently fun, the story was so convoluted that even after reading an in-depth explanation of it, I STILL have no clue what the game was about.

After he told me that they were the same developers, I did start seeing some similarities between the two games. Nekromunda Hired Gun wasn't an exact copy, but you could see where it came from, like with the augments, the hub area, the gritty textures, and even the way the enemies ran in single file.

One of the reasons I was looking forward to this game was that it was a fast-paced, first-person shooter. I didn't realize HOW fast-paced until after I started playing it myself. I've heard the pacing is similar to Doom and Doom Eternal, but I haven't played either title, so I can't confirm. But the way you dodge, slide, and wall run, kinda reminded me a bit of Sairento

I did know that this title is based on the Warhammer 40K universe, but I don't know nearly enough of the lore to identify much. At least, the game can still be enjoyed without the knowledge of the Warhammer 40K lore to back you up.

The pacing of the game wasn't the only thing I liked about the game. Some sections of the levels allowed you to tackle them through multiple approaches. Sure, they did eventually culminate into a single point to progress, but until then, it made things interesting. I could charge ahead and kill everything in sight. Or I could use my grapple to stay up high and pick people off.

Admittedly, sometimes I did need to change my approach depending on the enemies, but it still felt like there was some versatility to the combat. I will say, though, that I completely forgot about using my abilities, having focused more on gunplay and melee takedowns, and I barely used my dog companion. I only ended up using the dog in the latter half of the game because I suddenly remembered there was a key bind to summon them.

I cannot say that the game didn't have its share of problems. At times, I was frustrated when the game would crash on me. It wasn't even without warning. It generally happened when I was trying to upgrade my augments. Sometimes the menu would work; othertimes it would freeze. It got to a point where, in the last level, I was happy with my current setup and didn't bother getting any further upgrades, especially since it crashed three times in a row.

One other thing I didn't like, which sadly is similar to E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy, was the plot. Most of the time, I had no clue what was going on. At least the story is a little more coherent than E.Y.E. was, but it still had me scratching my head at points. At least the gunplay was fun.

An example I can give of how unclear it sometimes was is in chapter 7, you head into a mysterious ruin to look for something and also answers. What you find instead are nightmare creatures - weak but very quick and very silent. When you left the area, I wasn't sure if I found what I was looking for because I was too busy fighting off these creatures. But maybe those were them, and they would be important later in the game. Nope. They never appear again. No, wait, ONE creature appeared in the last chapter and then never again.

If it weren't for the fact that the combat was enjoyable and the levels weren't really drawn out, I probably would have gotten bored with the game. So for me, the saving grace was the fact that I was more than happy to go in, shoot some things, and move on.

The game does offer some side jobs, and I did try one of them, but because it was just a means to get extra cash and probably items, I didn't really bother with them. I preferred to focus on the main campaign.

I would still recommend this game to people, but I wouldn't recommend it at full price. For me, the game helped kill some time in the mornings just before I started work, but it wasn't enough to really hook me where I was looking forward to setting some time aside for it.

Between it and the PS5, I ended up choosing the latter more often than not.

But I did get through it in the end, and I can dust off another game from the backlog. Now onwards to O for... Original War.