In the grim darkness of the far future, there is ‘more’, as Boltgun 2 builds upon the excellent foundation of the original to place the series in the top echelons of boomer shooters. The Finger Guns Review.
2023’s Boltgun was a revelation. While we’ve had plenty of first-person shooters set in the Warhammer 40K universe over the years, like Darktide or Necromunda, Auroch Digital’s boomer shooter struck a unique tone. Fast paced, gory, retro-styled, while benefiting from modern day design philosophies and with a deep understanding of what makes the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium so popular, and still firmly pressing its tongue into its cheek, it remains a fan favourite.
It’s no surprise then that the Bristol-based developer gets to strap on the power armour once again with Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2. Can lightning claws strike twice? Is this a bolt(gun 2) from the blue? Enough with the bad puns. Let’s get into the gory details.
“With me, my brothers (and Sister)”
Spoiler warning for the original game in case you didn’t finish it – Malum Caedo returns for Boltgun 2. The pesky forces of Chaos are up to their old tricks again, only this time they’ve infected a whole system of planets. The game begins without much context. This is the 41st Millenia after all; there is only war, so any preamble would just be blood, guts and bullets regardless. After a brief but pretty pixel art cutscene, we’re straight into the action. Chaos forces have invaded the Imperial Fleet battleship carrying Malum Caedo. That’s going to be the last bad decision they will ever make.
Our favourite Ultramarine veteran isn’t so alone this time either. While you’ll meet a myriad of NPC’s this time around – entire squads of Death Korps of Krieg will fight and die alongside you – there’s something a little more interesting in Boltgun 2. Another of the Emperor’s forces has entered the fray as a playable character. Nyra Veyrath, a Sister of Battle, can be selected as your combatant, and comes with her own gameplay style and arsenal of weaponry.
Malum Caedo is still the chunky powerhouse you’ll have come to love in the first game. With chainsword in hand, he’ll stomp his way through cultists and demons while blasting away with a shotgun that rivals Doomslayer’s boomstick and Plasma Rifles. Nyra Veyrath brings a subtly different approach. Her powersword doesn’t stick to enemies like Malum’s chainsword does, giving you a bit more free rein to quickly slice and dice Chaos Marines. Her arsenal of unlockable weapons ventures into the staples of the Sisters of Battle too. Flamers and melta-guns make crowd control a little more fun, as you can turn everything in front of you into a hot mess. Dare I say it: while playing as Malum Caedo was incredibly fun, Nyra’s weaponry and mobility make her a more interesting prospect to play as.
Regardless of which hero you choose, the mission is still the same: kill the heretics and carve a way to face Vashtorr the Arkifane, the source of this recent surge in Chaos. Don’t expect any narrative depth here – there isn’t any, and Boltgun 2 didn’t particularly need it either.
“Let the galaxy burn!”
Boltgun 2 offers a lot more variety in terms of the environments you’ll be battling through than its predecessor. Through the campaign, you’ll be hopping from planet to planet, careering ahead as you chase down the Master of the Soul Forges. From Nurgle-infested jungles to blood-covered fortresses home to the forces of Khorne, an Underhive where Chaos has taken root to an oil-rig-esque research station, there’s a lot of diversity to the battlefields this time around. They’re all presented in a gorgeous retro art style reminiscent of the old-school Doom or Quake titles, or Duke Nukem 3D.
What’s more, you won’t be able to play through everything that Boltgun 2 offers in a single campaign run through. At certain junctions, you’re forced to make a choice of the next level that you tackle. Some of these missions are optional (but seriously worth playing – the Imperial scrapyard full of Thousand Sons was one of my favourite levels), but choosing others will close off a different path forward. Eventually you’ll reconvene at a point later in the game to continue the ‘narrative’, but for 3-4 levels, you’ll be taking a different path to some players.
With the increase in environment types comes a much bigger rogues gallery. Almost all of the enemies from the first game make a return, but the forces from all of the main Chaos gods are expanded here. What’s most impressive about this rogues gallery is how the developers have really honed in on what they are as characters and have moulded how they fight around that.
For example, the Khorne Berzerkers: focus all of your firepower on a single one of these Chaos Space Marines and you’ll likely put them down relatively easily. Spray and pray, however, chipping off only some of their health and they’ll get their “Blood Surge” ability from the tabletop game. This makes them lightning quick as they hone in on you, and they take less damage, making them a much more dangerous prospect.
These design strokes are shown throughout the enemy design in Boltgun 2, meaning you have to take a divergent tactic to tackle each enemy type. It shows a deep appreciation of the source material, and displays an impressive skill by the developers to translate that into satisfying first person shooter gameplay.
From Novoza to Erythine, And every battle I get in…
The spirited game design expands beyond just the foes you’ll be mowing down, too. It’s persistently prevalent in the level design. While there are a few levels that could be described as ‘kill corridors’, simply throwing wave after wave of Chaos at you to prevent you from reaching the end gate or required key (such as a runaway train), there are far more levels that demonstrate some inspired design decisions that shape challenging yet deeply gratifying gameplay.
Take an early level called “The Trenches” for example. To look at, you’d say it was the digital recreation of some of the massive tabletop battles you might have had in the Games Workshop stores. Broken buildings everywhere, bullets flying across a massive battlefield as huge artillery guns blast overhead. Wide open spaces are covered by pillboxes that’ll mow you down if you attempt to simply cross the no-man’s-land, making battling through trenches the safer option – but turning every corner might mean coming face to face with a Terminator. It generates this constant feeling of low level tension when playing Boltgun 2 on anything higher than the Normal difficulty.
I won’t spoil it but a later level, aptly named “Vicious Circles”, is one of my favourites ever in a boomer shooter that I feel sits alongside the greats in the genre. It’s a level designed to mess with your head, and feels so very at home in the Warhammer 40k world.
More so than most other boomer shooters out there, Boltgun 2 also does set pieces particularly well. One early example is when you’re awaiting pickup to exit a level, and suddenly you’re surrounded by hordes of enemies that trudge out of the sludge around you. There are elements of platforming sections here too – I imagine these will be a bit love/hate with some players, but only one is mandatory for progression, with the others acting as hiding places for the game’s secrets and collectables. Some sections venture into horror territory when the lights go out and you’re venturing through pipes where enemies can drop onto you at any time. Later, you’ll be battling some iconic Warhammer 40K foes in multi-stage boss battles that feel incredible to overcome. The variety on offer here is impressive.
If I had to criticise any element of the design of Boltgun 2, it would be the final boss. After waging all-out war in some impressive ways throughout the Boltgun 2 campaign, the final battle feels a little disappointing. That’s not to say it’s bad – it’s far from it – but compared to some of the challenges you’ll have faced elsewhere, it doesn’t feel like a step up in complexity or challenge.
…my heart is pumping for Boltgun 2
As Boltgun 2 performs excellently with its broader design choices, it truly is with its moment-to-moment gameplay where it truly shines. Exemplifying the fast, frenetic energy of the likes of Doom, you’ll constantly be moving, constantly bearing down on some new threat, constantly keeping an eye out for enemies you know will drop health or Will (the game’s version of armour). It is never not fun to strafe around groups of enemies as they pepper you with shots, only for you to turn them into a pile of bloody chunks with a few shots of your massive weaponry. It’s hard not to just nod and smile at how gratifying it all is.
You won’t be nodding along to just the gory ultraviolence on screen either. The game is backed by a suitably grimy industrial-meets-Doom-metal soundtrack that underpins the action on screen and sets the tone during the quieter sections. While it’s not a soundtrack that you’ll likely be rushing to listen to on Spotify, it’s an excellent complement to the gameplay.
That gameplay might seem daunting to some players, but it’s clear that the developers have taken a lot of strides to make Boltgun 2 as accessible as possible. If you’re ever lost on a level, a button press will ping your current objective and show a line on the floor showing the way to progress towards it. There’s also a comprehensive accessibility menu that can accommodate players who want to play the game without the challenge. There’s no need to remember cheat codes like DNKROZ to activate God Mode. You can simply turn these on in a menu. Using these will defang the game’s more tense moments, but if you’re worried about taming the forces of Chaos but still want to play Boltgun 2, these options will facilitate that.
The final point I want to discuss about Boltgun 2 is the brilliant sense of humour it conceals behind the grimdark-focused frenetic gunplay. This humour is delivered almost exclusively by the flying servo-skull that follows you throughout the game. This little wise-cracking shadow acts as a guide, but also passes comment on your progress, which is dry and fits with the vibe of Warhammer 40K. For example, when using a massive artillery cannon to blast open a door, this floating skull will chirp “Door: Opened”. In another section, while roaming halls covered floor to ceiling in skulls, the servo-skull will stop, point at the wall and say “Skull detected”. These little self-deprecating comments add a little cheekiness to proceedings that juxtapose the mass murder you’ll be completing elsewhere.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is out now for PC, PS5 (review platform), Xbox S|X and Switch 2.
Developer: Auroch Digital
Publisher: Devolver; Big Fan Games
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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