Field guide · Heavy boomer shooters & melee lunges

Games like Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun: heavy boomer shooters on PC

By Ekin, a solo developer in Istanbul (Whale Development Studios), maker of Iron Curtain Call. Published 8 November 2026; every price, release date and platform below was checked on 8 November 2026 against the US Steam store and the sources at the end.

Heavy close quarters gunplay and shattered clockwork guards in Iron Curtain Call
Iron Curtain Call combines 2D hand inked enemy animations in 3D arenas with heavy melee kicks and parries. Free demo on Steam.
The short answer

The ten heavy shooters at a glance

Players who loved Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun are usually chasing a specific kind of weight: chunky 2.5D sprites inside modern 3D arenas, guns that sound like artillery, and a melee charge or parry button that lets you close the gap across a crowded room. As a solo developer in Istanbul building Iron Curtain Call, I put together this guide to the ten PC shooters on Steam that match Boltgun’s heavy gunfeel, sprite craft and aggressive melee.

If you want Boltgun’s exact mix of 2.5D pixelated sprites and modern dynamic lighting, play Prodeus ($24.99). If you want heavy armor, shields and close quarters melee finishers, play DOOM: The Dark Ages ($49.99) and DOOM Eternal ($29.99). If you want a melee charge built directly into your movement, play Turbo Overkill ($19.99, free demo on Steam) and ULTRAKILL ($29.99, free demo). And if you want heavy dual wielded steel, parries and kicks against 2D hand inked rubber hose rubber hose enemies in 3D arenas, try the free Steam demo of my game Iron Curtain Call (releasing 11 March 2027).

At a glance

The ten heavy shooters at a glance

US Steam store prices, release dates, platforms and free demo availability checked on 8 November 2026.
GameVisual & sprite styleMelee & gunplay hookFree demo on SteamUS priceOut
Iron Curtain CallMy game2D hand inked rubber hose rubber hose in 3DParry, kick, grapple & dual wieldYes, free: Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutesNot priced yet11 March 2027Free demo since 28 October 2026
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun90s pixel sprites in 3D Gothic arenasHeavy Bolter & Chainsword lungeNo$21.9923 May 2023
Prodeus2.5D sprites with modern particle goreQuad barrel shotguns & community mapsNo$24.9923 September 2022
DOOM EternalHigh speed 3D arena spectacleChainsaw, Blood Punch & MeathookNo$29.9919 March 2020
DOOM: The Dark AgesDark fantasy heavy Slayer armorShield Saw parry, throw & flailNo$49.9914 May 2025
Turbo OverkillCyberpunk neon arena carnageChainsaw leg slide & twin magnumsYes, free$19.9911 August 2023
ULTRAKILLLow poly retro machine speedProjectile parry, ground slam & WhiplashYes, free$29.993 September 2020Early Access
DUSKnineties Quake low poly horrorDual shotguns, sickles & strafe jumpingNo$19.9910 December 2018
Forgive Me Father2D hand drawn comic sprites in 3DMadness skills & heavy occult arsenalNo$19.997 April 2022
HROTeighties Czechoslovak brutalist low polySoviet shotgun, lightning gun & kicksYes, free$19.9916 May 2023
Game by game

Each game, how heavy its weapons feel and how it compares to Boltgun

Each card covers what the game shares with this guide’s theme, how it plays and its verified US Steam store facts on 8 November 2026.

Iron Curtain Call

My game

Play it if you want my game.

Like Boltgun, Iron Curtain Call places expressive 2D character animations inside full 3D combat arenas, trading pixelated Chaos cultists for hand inked rubber hose rubber hose tin soldiers in a sixties Cold War Soviet puppet regime. You close the distance with a grappling hook, parry incoming attacks, boot clockwork guards into stage hazards and dual wield heavy vintage steel.

Developer and publisher
Whale Development Studios
Out
11 March 2027
Free demo out
28 October 2026
On Steam
Windows and macOS (demo on Windows, macOS and Linux)
US list price
Not priced yet
Demo
Yes, free
Gameplay trailer · 1:00 · Twelve chapters in sixty seconds. YouTube · Video page

Download the free Steam demoPlay 60 seconds in your browser, no download

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

Play it if you want the warhammer 40k benchmark.

Auroch Digital’s Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun nails the fantasy of being a two ton Space Marine moving at boomer shooter speed: every footstep thuds, every Bolter shell has a micro delay before detonating inside its target, and revving the Chainsword pulls you straight into melee range.

Developer
Auroch Digital
Publisher
Focus Entertainment
Released
23 May 2023
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$21.99
Demo
None on Steam

Prodeus

Play it if you want the closest 2.5d twin.

If you loved how Boltgun renders flat retro sprites under modern volumetric lighting and screen shaking explosions, Prodeus is its closest visual and mechanical sibling, complete with a built in level browser.

Developer
Bounding Box Software Inc.
Publisher
Balor Games
Released
23 September 2022
On Steam
Windows and macOS
US list price
$24.99
Demo
None on Steam

DOOM Eternal

Play it if you want chainsaw & blood punch loop.

Boltgun’s purge arenas (where a Servo Skull locks the doors until every heretic is dead) come straight from DOOM Eternal, where you saw demons in half for ammo and shatter armor with Blood Punches.

Developer
id Software
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
Released
19 March 2020
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$29.99
Demo
None on Steam

DOOM: The Dark Ages

Play it if you want heavy tank slayer & shield saw.

Where DOOM Eternal made you a fighter jet, DOOM: The Dark Ages shares Boltgun’s heavy "iron tank" weight: you plant your boots, parry green projectiles with the chainsaw toothed Shield Saw and crush demons with an iron flail.

Developer
id Software
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
Released
14 May 2025
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$49.99
Demo
None on Steam

Turbo Overkill

Play it if you want chainsaw leg vs chainsword.

If your favourite button in Boltgun is the Chainsword charge, Turbo Overkill builds a chainsaw directly into your leg so every slide carves through crowds of augmented street gangs. Free demo on Steam.

Developer
Trigger Happy Interactive
Publisher
Apogee Entertainment
Released
11 August 2023
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$19.99
Demo
Yes, free

ULTRAKILL

Play it if you want aggressive melee healing.

ULTRAKILL rewards point blank aggression more than any other shooter on Steam: you heal only by bathing in fresh close range blood and can punch your own shotgun pellets to make them explode. Free demo on Steam.

Developer
Arsi "Hakita" Patala
Publisher
New Blood Interactive
Entered Early Access
3 September 2020
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$29.99
Demo
Yes, free

DUSK

Play it if you want gothic cathedrals & dual shotguns.

By its third episode, DUSK trades rural barns for floating Gothic cathedrals and eldritch horrors that feel right at home next to Boltgun’s Chaos shrines.

Developer
David Szymanski
Publisher
New Blood Interactive
Released
10 December 2018
On Steam
Windows, macOS and Linux
US list price
$19.99
Demo
None on Steam

Forgive Me Father

Play it if you want 2d sprites in 3d arenas.

Like Boltgun and Prodeus, Forgive Me Father populates 3D levels with expressive 2D enemy sprites, swapping pixel art for hand inked comic book cultists and cosmic monsters.

Developer
Byte Barrel
Publisher
Fulqrum Publishing
Released
7 April 2022
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$19.99
Demo
None on Steam

HROT

Play it if you want brutalist concrete & heavy iron.

Solo developer Spytihněv’s HROT pairs oppressive concrete architecture with punchy Soviet firearms and a swift boot kick, and has a free demo on Steam.

Developer and publisher
Spytihněv
Released
16 May 2023
On Steam
Windows (demo on Windows)
US list price
$19.99
Demo
Yes, free
Where my game fits

Where Iron Curtain Call fits if you loved Boltgun

I built Iron Curtain Call around the same hybrid of 2D character art inside 3D arenas and aggressive melee:

2D hand inked characters in 3D stages. Where Boltgun uses nineties pixel sprites, Iron Curtain Call uses rubber hose rubber hose ink animations for every clockwork soldier and ministry boss.

Parries, kicks and grappling hook lunges. Instead of a Chainsword, you close the gap with a grappling hook, parry incoming shots and kick enemies into stage hazards.

Free Steam demo on Windows, macOS and Linux. You can play the free demo on Steam right now or test 60 seconds in your browser with zero download.

Questions

Questions players ask about games like Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

Which games like Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun have a free demo on Steam?

Four games on this page have a free playable demo on Steam right now: Iron Curtain Call, Turbo Overkill, ULTRAKILL and HROT.

What is the closest game to Boltgun’s 2.5D sprite and 3D arena style?

Prodeus ($24.99) is the closest pixel sprite match, while Forgive Me Father ($19.99) and Iron Curtain Call use hand drawn 2D character animations inside 3D arenas.

Which heavy boomer shooters run on macOS and Linux?

Iron Curtain Call (free demo) and DUSK ($19.99) support Windows, macOS and Linux on Steam, while Prodeus ($24.99) supports Windows and macOS.

What PC and indie games are coming out in 2027?

More than one page can hold: Steam shows a lot of PC and indie games with a 2027 date, and dates keep moving. What we checked on Steam on 7 November 2026 are the shooters and the Mac action games, in two dated lists: upcoming FPS games and upcoming Mac games. Iron Curtain Call, our own cartoon noir shooter, is due 11 March 2027 on Windows and macOS, and its free demo is on Steam now.

What games release on 11 March 2027?

Among the shooters we checked on Steam on 7 November 2026: Blood of Rations (11 March 2027) and Iron Curtain Call (My game, 11 March 2027). We only checked shooters, so this is not the full set for that day; Steam’s own Coming Soon page has the rest.

What is a good new single player FPS I can play for free right now?

Iron Curtain Call has a free demo on Steam (Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutes) and a free 60 second browser trial with no download. It is a single player cartoon noir shooter, and it is our game, so weigh that. For other free shooters, our list of free FPS demos on Steam holds the best rated ones.

Sources and when we checked them

Every release date, US list price, platform flag and demo entry on this page was read from the official US Steam store API and Wikipedia/Wikidata on 8 November 2026.

  1. Iron Curtain Call, Steam store page
  2. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Steam store page
  3. Prodeus, Steam store page
  4. DOOM Eternal, Steam store page
  5. DOOM: The Dark Ages, Steam store page
  6. Turbo Overkill, Steam store page
  7. ULTRAKILL, Steam store page
  8. DUSK, Steam store page
  9. Forgive Me Father, Steam store page
  10. HROT, Steam store page
  11. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Wikipedia
  12. Prodeus, Wikipedia
  13. Doom Eternal, Wikipedia
  14. Doom: The Dark Ages, Wikipedia
  15. Ultrakill, Wikipedia
  16. Dusk (video game), Wikipedia
  17. Forgive Me Father, Wikipedia
  18. Shooter game: Boomer shooter, Wikipedia

Try Iron Curtain Call free on Steam or in your browser

Download the free Steam demo on Windows, macOS or Linux, launch the 60 second browser trial with no install, or wishlist Iron Curtain Call ahead of 11 March 2027.

Download the free Steam demoWishlist and Follow on SteamPlay 60 seconds in your browser, no download