I really enjoy many aspects of this game but genuinely feel that for an iconic gun in a Space Marine game, the bolter looks and feel so underwhelming compared to the one in Darktide.  In Darktide, you can hear the "Poow! Poow! Poow!" and see the impact of the shells. I would be afraid to stand in front of that bolter. In SM2, putting power level aside, there is just such a lack of visible impact to the weapon. It hits with a 'tuk tuk tuk' like some infantry m16 or H&K smg. 

Come on, developers, for the Emperor's sake, please put some oomph into the Bolter, the most iconic weapon in the 40k universe.

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ksygamer70 wrote:

I really enjoy many aspects of this game but genuinely feel that for an iconic gun in a Space Marine game, the bolter looks and feel so underwhelming compared to the one in Darktide.  In Darktide, you can hear the "Poow! Poow! Poow!" and see the impact of the shells. I would be afraid to stand in front of that bolter. In SM2, putting power level aside, there is just such a lack of visible impact to the weapon. It hits with a 'tuk tuk tuk' like some infantry m16 or H&K smg. 

Come on, developers, for the Emperor's sake, please put some oomph into the Bolter, the most iconic weapon in the 40k universe.

lol

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ksygamer70 wrote:

I really enjoy many aspects of this game but genuinely feel that for an iconic gun in a Space Marine game, the bolter looks and feel so underwhelming compared to the one in Darktide.  In Darktide, you can hear the "Poow! Poow! Poow!" and see the impact of the shells. I would be afraid to stand in front of that bolter. In SM2, putting power level aside, there is just such a lack of visible impact to the weapon. It hits with a 'tuk tuk tuk' like some infantry m16 or H&K smg. 

Come on, developers, for the Emperor's sake, please put some oomph into the Bolter, the most iconic weapon in the 40k universe.

What're you talking about? In darktide, the majority of the enemies are corrupted humans. Have you seen what the bolter does to humans in the chaos missions? They fucking explode into red mist

if you want to complain about something, complain about how they do not sound right. The bolt carbine for instance sounds like a considerably smaller caliber weapon. They don't have the booming sound such a huge shell would have, especially when it's rocket-propelled.

In what 40k world does an Astartes need 3-6 bolter body shots to take out a tyranid puppy? Almost a whole clip to put a warrior in exec state? It's an explosive rocket bullet.

Always keeping in mind the lore, it is mentioned that the caliber used is .50, so the sound would be around what we can hear in the following video:

https://youtu.be/kvpAWorrdwA?si=1cQg7ElXIfEJbuUB

As for lethality, it is amply described in the dozens of 40k novels with expressions like the following:

Bolt rounds easily pierce human-sized bodies, even if they are lightly armoured. After passing through several bodies and losing speed, the round can explode on impact with the last one, or embed itself in it, and explode, either way, the result is the same.

In the case of a bolt round against an armoured target, such as another space marine, it is quite inefficient, the power armour protects them against this round* except if it hits flexible parts of the armour, such as the joints of the limbs, where it will embed itself and produce the same effects as in the case of the previous paragraph, but remember, a space marine can continue fighting even if he loses a limb. 

For these reasons, we find in the armoury of the empire plasma or fusion firing weapons, designed to penetrate the most resistant targets, in the same way that energy combat weapons (sword, fist or hammer) have their niche in all this, because bolter fire is not enough to finish off heavy targets. 

*At the beginning of the Horus Heresy, a type of armour-piercing ammunition was designed and began to be produced, but the traitors took all that material for themselves.