Review: Necromunda: Hired Gun

Welcome to janky looter shooter town, now with no inventory management! The game is really fun though. 

Alright, let's get the mechanics out of the way. Your character is a bounty hunter in the underhives of Necromunda chasing a mysterious figure who is shaking up things that shouldn't be shaken up. It's just a man (or woman) and his (or her) loyal dog against legions of gangers and, uh, other foes. During your explosive adventures, you level up and gather money and gear, and spend the money on more gear. You can buy new weapons, upgrade your weapons, upgrade your bionic implants... or upgrade your hound's bionics.

Who's a good boy? A nightmarish abomination of a bionic dog, but still a good boy!

You get really strong ridiculously fast, so the enemies must scale up as well. A couple missions in, and already every Escher ganger has a plasma gun, Orlocks line up with heavy weapons, and Goliaths jump pack towards you with thunder hammers. Fortunately your implants heal you if you inflict damage (?!) so the game is basically shoot your gun on full auto while double jumping and grapneling around trying to avoid as much damage as bionically possible. Also call in your dog. Keep your plasma ready for the big guys. And use your spells (bionic abilities) as often as possible. Also do as many melee kills as you can. Generally use every cooldown as much as possible, by which I mean mash them buttons.

The critiques are all mechanics-related. Jumping around walls and stuff was mostly just a way to get out of bullets' way, although some missions use it as mandatory getting around the map. I didn't like that.  Falling into lava is insta-death. The game is kinda short; I guess it expects you to play the random side missions, but I didn't. Lots of great stuff hidden in your bionic abilities; by the time I learned to make the most of them, the game was over. And I was over it; no replay here. Inventory management is a hot mess. A looter shooter really needed something better.

Alright, on to the good stuff.

The town/hub where you go in between missions looks great. All the vendors and NPCs are colorful characters in line with the environment.

The bartender/rumormonger goes by Wildsnake Priestess, after the best type of liquor served. The second best is called, Second Best.

For upgrades and stuff, you visit an array of trust worthy vendors.

The un-interactionable NPCs change every time you're there, and they're having a chat based on the latest ruckus you caused.

When you go out, it's more of the same, as expected. Industrial landscapes, with lots and lots of grimdark. Some large, open spaces...

Others are claustrophobic.

Obligatory corpsepiles.

And this guy who had a rough day.

Random acid lake.

And of course the corpse starch is prepared in a giant flaming vat with a skull shaped mixer.

There's also some cheeky references to the deep lore.

Did I mention the melee kills? There's something visceral about going about with a knife, using throwing knives or cinematically shooting your enemy in the face, all the while big guns blaze around you. You are also invincible while the animation lasts and you get quite the health boost.

The story is somewhat convoluted but it all unravels in the final mission.

This guy is supposed to be a known character, but I never read Necromunda novels, so whatever.

In the end, you get two boss fights. One that is actually interesting, with the guy teleporting all over and me emptying all my magazines trying to catch him; and one that is the same as the previous bosses, i.e. go in, slow down time, empty magazine in face, jump away, wait for the cooldown, repeat.

Overall not bad, definitely worth one playthrough, but not more.