Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 review

Back in 2023, I had the opportunity to review Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. The TLDR of that review is that Boltgun is a fun shooter with visceral feedback that has a deep understanding of Warhammer 40K’s aesthetics, systems, and character design. At the same time, it failed to communicate vital information to players, recycled boss fights too many times, and underserved its melee combat. Well, I recently got to play Boltgun 2, and they’ve essentially solved all of these problems WHILE refining what made the first game great. 

The last game followed Malum Caedo, an Ultramarine who had to stop the Chaos Sorcerer Tumulus Samael from completing his plans to take over the Forge World, Graia. This time around, you can play as Malum, or switch things up with Nyra Veyrath, a Sister of Battle Celestian whose speedy movement and precise sword strikes contrast Malum’s tankish nature. Malum still has his Obliterating Charge ability, turning him into an unstoppable force and scaling in range with how long you hold the input. His explosive is a frag grenade, nothing fancy, yet entirely reliable. Then there’s his much-improved chainsword, which still allows him to grapple to enemies, but now if you cut down a larger foe, they’ll drop more health and shields, thus adding some reward for your risk. Finally, there’s his health regeneration ability, with higher difficulties having a lower health cap. Overall, Malum is quite similar to the first game, but with a stronger charge and more polished melee. 

Then there’s his nimble counterpart. Nyra’s movement ability is Fervent Slide, which allows her to rapidly pierce through low-level enemies, killing them instantly with her Power Sword. It can also be used to knock larger enemies into map hazards, but you’ll want to make that play carefully, or you’ll be joining them. Fervent Slide can be jumped out of, launching Nyra and slowing time. Pair this with her already fast base movement speed, and you have the potential to pull off some cool tricks. Her explosive is the Melta Bomb, a powerful incendiary explosive that’s so hot that it rends the air around it upon detonation. It takes a little bit of time to arm and throw, but it deals massive damage and can either be remotely detonated or left alone on its short timer. Finally, there are her basic Power Sword swipes, which will one-shot smaller enemies, and her sword lunge, which deals substantial damage to most of the middle-ground units. Nyra can also regenerate her Faith (shields) passively, much like Malum can with health. Whoever you choose, you’ll be up against the forces of Chaos once again, this time led by Vashtorr the Arkifane, a demonic patron of engineers, crafters, artisans, and scientists. What exactly he’s up to, I will not say to prevent spoilers. 

While the first Boltgun took place mainly on one planet, Graia, this installment takes players across a few different worlds and ships, all with greater level diversity than the first game. Overall, I played 23 missions over 10 chapters, with everything from the dense jungles of a Nurgle-infested Death World, to a massive Khorne stronghold with rivers of blood, to a secret base on the ocean floor, to the wretched streets of the underhive, and even Vashtorr’s own ship, the Ark of Omen. I said I played 23 missions, but in total there are 33. You see, unlike the first game, where playing through levels was linear, Boltgun 2 allows players to choose branching paths to select where they go next. If you’ve completed the whole game, you can go back and play through it all again with the other character, play through certain levels using level select, or go into the accessibility menu and toggle an option that lets you play every level, even the ones you missed. It’s easier than ever to explore levels with the new map and semi-new navigation system. There were a lot of complaints in Boltgun regarding navigation, so later on in the game’s life they added an optional objective hint button that guides you via a yellow dotted path. This feature has made a return for Boltgun 2, plus they added a map with multiple levels of elevation. When combined with the superior map layouts in Boltgun 2, any concerns I had regarding navigation have vanished. 

It really has to be said that the devs over at Auroch Digital have outdone themselves with the level aesthetics. I praised them for this back in Boltgun, but Boltgun 2 just takes it to another level. The first level has us watching ships fly into the massive hangar of a Dauntless-class cruiser while under duress, as a battle between Kriegers and the forces of Chaos rages across the massive structure. Not a single level in this game disappointed me, always impressing with their grand scale, faithfulness to the franchise, or world interactivity. That last point is something I especially appreciate about Boltgun 2.

There are plenty of hazards that you can use to your advantage, like crushing pistons in factories, giant pipes that expel toxic bile if you shoot a button above them, hostile flora that snaps like a flytrap, or a good old-fashioned pit, perfect for knocking enemies into. At one point I was fighting a Forge Fiend, a tanky, slow enemy with high damage output. I had the rocket launcher equipped and noticed that my missile took out a supporting pillar after firing at a lower-level enemy. I probably could have dumped a ton of ammo into the Forge Fiend, but I decided to see what would happen if I took out every pillar. It was a task that the Forge Fiend itself seemed eager to help with, as its own attacks also damaged the pillars. After the last one fell, the structure collapsed in on the thing and killed it instantly. I felt rewarded for thinking outside of the box and engaging with my environment. 

The environmental engagement now extends to secrets, another aspect of the first game that I critiqued. In the first Boltgun, secrets came in the form of power-ups, many of which were directly in your path or slightly obscured in an arena. This often resulted in me either finding “secrets” with ease, or finding timed power-ups at the end of fights, thus rendering them almost useless. Boltgun 2 divides secrets between the now much better-placed power-ups, as well as hidden Purity Seals. A power-up may be placed in a very visible spot, but with no clear path to it, thus adding exploration as another layer to your combat encounter, beyond just fighting enemies. Other times you’re just flat-out rewarded for interacting with the level, like by shooting the chains that are suspending a storage crate, sending it crashing to the ground to reveal a buff. Then there are the occasions when the game just wants you to have a good time. One thing I love about Boltgun 2 is how it will say, “Here’s an infinite ammo boon and an oil platform full of explosive barrels and nurglings, dig in!” 

My favorite boon has to be the Blessing of the Omnissiah, which gives a unique buff to whatever weapon you’re wielding when you pick it up. This can be enhanced range, greater damage, or a play on a weapon’s unique mechanic. For example, Nyra has a crossbow, the Condemnor Bolter, that has a chance to fire blessed bolts, dealing substantially more damage. The Blessing of the Omnissiah makes every bolt blessed for the remainder of the level. Fun tip: When Nyra stabs an enemy with her sword during a lunge attack, they get stunned—as one does when they’re pierced by a weapon surrounded by an energy field. If you backpedal and jump the moment after your blow lands, it will send you bounding backwards through the air. I like to combo the powerful initial stab and following airtime with a bolt from an Omnissiah-blessed crossbow, allowing me to one-two knockout a decent number of enemies. 

It seems like the developers put more care into placing boons and Purity Seals. For example, rather than finding a damage buff that lasts 30 seconds at the end of a battle, you’ll find a munitions boon that restocks your ammo, a much better match for the situation. The Purity Seals require some real effort, and I rarely found them. They won’t be too much of a hassle, as there’s only one per level, but they’re definitely a fun collectable to hunt for. 

Along with improved visual and gameplay diversity for levels, Boltgun 2 also features a host of new units from the Forces of Chaos, including new Slaanesh units. Slaanesh’s Daemonettes move with such speed that they’re trailed by an afterimage—a great touch to show such a trait. Their crab-clawed pincers are always snipping at your heels. Then there are the Noise Marines, who fire sonic blasts at the player, with other stronger ones emitting pulsing noise barriers. Slaanesh also brings the Emperor’s Children’s Tormentors, with their powerful beam weapons and pink armor schemes with touches of green. Naturally, these entities won’t always play nice with other factions. At one point, the forces of Chaos were openly fighting each other, and I got to come in and sweep both sides away. Auroch has once again nailed their representations of Chaos. 

Boltgun 2 has also upped its boss game. One of my critiques of Boltgun was that you had to fight the same bosses over and over. This entry does a much, much better job with variety, as well as the design for boss encounters. You may still fight a Lord of Change, but not six of them. A great unclean one might appear, but it’s not in some random area; it’s in a central chamber with three other chambers around it, alternating which one it peers into. One of my favorite bosses was probably the Lord of Skulls, a large Daemon Engine with a Great Cleaver of Khorne on one arm, a cannon on its left, and more weaponry embedded in its torso. The massive automaton is still bound in a factory, giving you an opportunity to dismantle it piece by piece. 

This brings us to the most important question: what weapons do you have to tear into these new enemies and epic new bosses? Well, Malum and Nyra share some weapons, as well as the newly added (and much needed) weapon wheel, but their arsenals are largely different. Malum has: a bolt gun, plasma gun, shotgun, frag cannon (grenade launcher), melta gun (basically a flamethrower that ramps up as you fire it), heavy bolter, volkite caliver (focused energy beam), missile launcher, and grav cannon (a gravity-manipulating beam that deals heavy damage and can drag enemies). It’s a great kit, with plenty of variety in presentation and function. On the other hand, Nyra has: a bolt pistol, condemner stake thrower (crossbow), flamer (flame thrower), storm bolter (full-auto bolter), melta gun, heavy bolter, plasma pistol, multi-melta (melta with more barrels), and heavy flamer (big flamethrower). Can you see the problem here? There are three types of bolters which function a bit differently, as well as four heat-based weapons that also operate similarly. This all leaves the condemnor and plasma pistol to pick up the variety slack, which, to their credit, are fun weapons, but that’s a heavy burden for two weapons. While certainly not a bad kit, I wish Nyra had a little more variety. 

There’s also the elephant in the room for those who played the first game. Auroch has removed the strength/toughness system from the game (mostly). In Boltgun 1, every enemy had a toughness rating on their health bar, and every weapon, a strength rating. As you could probably guess, you wanted to match or exceed the enemy’s toughness rating with your weapon’s strength. This was a feature ripped directly from the tabletop, and it did a good job of showing you which weapons countered which enemies. Back when I previewed Boltgun 2 and listened to a presentation by the devs, they said that parts of the system were still in the game. Now enemies have no toughness numbers, weapons have no strength numbers, and I’m slightly confused. If there’s still a system behind the scenes, then having no numbers to communicate strength or toughness just deprives the players of useful information. 

Make no mistake, the gameplay still feels great! It’s still visceral, gory, and impactful, but at times I wondered if I was playing optimally. I played through the game on Hard difficulty, which took me just shy of 9 hours to beat as Malum (according to Steam), give or take some time idling. While the game wasn’t consistently challenging, there were key points that accounted for most of my deaths while playing, and I feel like the strength/toughness numbers would have helped me overcome them. Once again, it by no means ruins the combat; it just leaves questions. I was having a blast carpeting the floors of every arena in the guts of traitors and warp-entities, sloshing through their remains to find secrets, and charging down whoever remained with the newly-improved melee system.  

In my opinion, Auroch has outdone themselves with Boltgun 2, delivering their original visceral combat and faithfulness to the 40K aesthetic, all while improving practically every aspect of the game, from navigation to level interactivity and secrets, and creative boss fights. While the removal of the strength/toughness system might be a little disappointing, as is Nyra’s kit, I’ll wipe my tears with a dismembered Daemonette pincer and go back to having a blast slaughtering The Archenemy.