Nailcrown's twist on dynamic gore will surprise you, but it's a boomer-shooter for the ages

As a lover of dark fantasy, I fell thoroughly under the spell of Nailcrown when I played it at Gamescom last month.

This Doom-inspired boomer-shooter gave me notes of Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls, and Warhammer, all wrapped up into one explosive package.

The story begins with your necromancer brother, who drags you into his twisted plans of domination by planting your soul into an undead husk. In a game where dying is all but guaranteed, this serves as an excellent plot point, as should you perish, your soul can be simply ripped out and thrown into another vessel till the work is done.

Once I was set loose (and gotten used to mouse and keyboard controls), I barrelled into hordes of rotten soldiers wielding swords and shields, which made me feel instantly empowered considering I was equipped with a shotgun, minigun, and a selection of melee weapons.

I was anything but overpowered though. As I confidently mowed down enemy numbers, I found it odd that so many of them were left standing, until I realised the genius and depth of Nailcrown’s take on combat.

Nailcrown’s twist on the boomer-shooter formula is one for the ages

Over the years, I’ve grown so accustomed to first-person shooters that aiming for the head just comes naturally at this point. However, I landed several headshots on the fiends before me only to see them essentially walk off their injuries.

In the fantastical world of Nailcrown, having limbs is entirely optional it seems, as it didn’t matter how many I removed, they just kept marching forward.

Each encounter felt like a duel with the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

After enough punishment, they do go down and stay down, but that initial surprise added so much flavour to a genre that’s been tried and tested for decades.

Combined with my lack of ammo, I couldn’t afford to just let bullets fly with no rhyme or reason. My onslaught had to be fast, but tactical. It was a shake-up I greatly appreciated.

An arsenal that’d make Doomguy blush

Adding further depth to the combat were the weapons themselves. Each gun has its own primary and secondary ability. A good example is an unlockable gun from later in the game, which I was shown after my demo. It’d fire a concentrated bolt of lightning forward, or alternatively an orb of energy that’d explode on contact.

While each weapon packs its own unique punch, you’ll also need to think logically about which gun will take down your current foe the quickest. If the weapon is explosive, it’d probably do wonders against basic shielded enemies, or if they’re strutting around in armour, that lightning gun from earlier would be useful too. You can even electrify pools of water to take down several enemies at once.

The environment is a huge part of the sandbox. It’s not only filled with secrets that can be used to upgrade your character, but it’ll also impact what weapons can be used. An example given to me was any gun that uses gunpowder. For added realism, these weapons won’t work if you find yourself wading through water.

Nailcrown is a super impressive boomer-shooter that I can’t wait to play again, and the best part is it’ll support co-op in addition to single-player.

It’s the most-anticipated game on my Steam wishlist for the time being, though at the time of writing, there’s no release date just yet.