Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 wastes no time hooking you into its blistering, blood-soaked world. Seriously, there are only a few minutes of speedy exposition before you're sent diving through a battered spaceship, hurling bullets and slicing rogue enemy agents to pieces – all while shouting sanctimonious battle cries as innards slosh against the tarnished metal flooring. With a breakneck pace and plenty of pixelated gore, it's clear developer Auroch Digital isn't messing with the magic in this first-person shooter sequel. Instead, the team has elevated the original's frantic run-and-gun style with boosted enemy counts and demanding level objectives that'll have you shouting 'For the Emperor.'
Boltgun 2's story kicks off with a literal bang; your ship is destroyed at the hands of the Great Daemon Vashtorr. Hungry for revenge, you respond (somewhat reasonably by Warhammer standards, might I add) by launching a brutal intergalactic campaign, fighting through bile-filled swamps to demonic dwellings, frozen facilities, and beyond. Joined by a sassy Servo-skull companion to guide you through the crimson haze, your mission is all about survival, clearing out hordes of vicious heretics while collecting enough ammunition and health kits at a cadence that's unapologetically old-school. It's repetitive by its very nature, and the story can feel a bit like Warhammer word salad at times. Still, thanks to the mesmerising enemy designs and level variety, as well as the breakneck pace, it's easy to enter a flow state of slicing and dicing through some of Games Workshop's most imposing baddies.
There are four difficulty options to work through, ranging from Low, where your health is bolstered and your damage increased, to Exterminatus, which is about as terrifying as the term would imply. For those looking for more control, you'll also have your pick of game-modifying settings like the ability to disable head bobbing and screen shake, or toggle on invulnerability, too. While I opted to play on the recommended Medium difficulty – with the campaign taking around eight or so hours per protagonist – it's nice to see Boltgun 2 accounts for all kinds of player preferences here.
While there's a lot to shout about, my favourite new feature in Boltgun 2 is the addition of a second playable character. Joining the first Boltgun's Space Marine Malum Caedo is the badass Sister of Battle, Nyra Veyrath. While both are fanatical in their devotion, as often heard in their intense, toggleable taunts, the major difference between them lies in their combat styles. Where Caedo is akin to a hulking mech kitted out with a buzzing Chainsword and frag grenades, Veyrath is much more nimble, wielding a Powersword and hefty Melta Bomb. They feel pleasantly distinct in both their personalities and weaponry. Initially, I was enamoured with Veyrath's Fervent Slide attack, which lets you blitz forward and bisect any fodder in your way, but in playing Caedo's campaign, I was equally enamored by his Chainsword Lunge, which felt more decisive and controlled, great for dealing with squishy hordes. All this to say, there really is no wrong option when choosing your warrior, and the thrill of playing as either adds to the replayability of Boltgun 2, further emphasized by the campaign's branching level options.
As you complete levels, you'll make cartographical choices throughout Boltgun 2's campaign to determine your path forward. Alongside a few optional side missions, there are specific battle locations you'll have to choose between as you advance to the big finale. On my first playthrough as Veyrath, I had to choose between dropping into a dense rainforest overrun with blight or working through a fortified beachhead with enemies hidden in sandy trenches. While I initially opted for the former, it was energizing to know that on a second playthrough, not only could I choose an alternative character with a unique loadout, but I would also have entirely new levels waiting for me.
This dynamism extends into Boltgun 2's mission objectives, too, which often have you descending into a scourge-filled hellhole to manage a few rounds of gladiatorial combat and heroically escape. It sounds familiar on paper, but each level has tricks up its sleeve. In one location, I was blowing up blood tanks to weaken a Daemonic construct, and in another, I was working my way down a vertical chamber, breaking through panes of ice to drop enemies into the blades of a whirring fan. The surprising diversity of what you're tasked with does a good job of keeping progression fresh, mitigating the dreaded shooter fatigue from setting in.
That's not all, though, as each map has location-specific quirks to consider. Alongside Purges, which occur periodically and lock you into areas until you've painted the floor red, certain combat conditions introduce more complexity. This time around, you aren't always alone in battle, and are occasionally joined by friendly soldiers who help keep morale high and serve as convenient meat shields when the moment arrives. Additionally, there are plenty of physical hazards, from flaming pools to thick fog that clouds your vision. These moving parts not only amp up the chaos but also create ingenious cover for Boltgun 2's well-hidden collectibles: the combat-buffing Secrets and collectible Seals.
Though for all its guts and glory, Boltgun 2 unfortunately suffers from a handful of technical issues. Enemies can occasionally forget they're in a holy war and wander around idly like NPCs. While hardly a threat to survival, it does take you out of the action to see a roughed-up creep dawdling. Elsewhere, the infamous Purges sometimes wouldn't end, and despite killing every heretic, I found myself stuck waiting for an exit to unlock… but it never did. The movement isn't completely airtight either. It's suitable for dancing around a combat arena or jumping between and scaling platforms, but it can feel slippery when tackling the more ambitious platforming challenges that arrive in the latter half of the campaign. Though it's a list of annoyances that can give cause for concern, these issues are by no means dealbreakers when set against the slick shooting and spectacle that's so distinctly Warhammer.
I have to hand it to the art team at Auroch Digital because beyond the frenetic combat, Boltgun 2's strongest asset is by far its retro aesthetic. I've spent hundreds of hours toiling over miniatures and painting intricate details to make them pop, so perhaps I have a soft spot for these characters, but Boltgun 2 captures that digitised figure look with sharp precision. The way they appear and move fits the nostalgic boomer shooter dressing perfectly. And, while it's hard to pick favourites, I can't deny that the visually assaulting Daemonettes and the towering, beast-riding Bloodcrushers were particular standouts, their violent animations and vivid palettes both delightful and terrifying. If you pay attention, there's personality embedded in almost every character model, too. As you approach them in battle, you might notice a Tormentor flicking a knife around or a tiny Nurgling mooning you mid-attack. These kinds of fine details aren't necessarily essential and could easily be overlooked, but their incorporation speaks to an attention to detail at the core of Boltgun 2 that makes it such a compelling extension of the Warhammer universe.
The atmosphere is further heightened by adrenaline-bolstering, context-specific barks that your chosen protagonist can let off at the tap of a button. Rahul Kohli delivers an impressively commanding performance in his reprisal of Caedo, and Alanah Pearce's Veyrath is fittingly vicious. Similarly, I enjoyed the writing behind the aforementioned Servo-skull, my eternally irreverent companion who would lighten tricky combat situations with lines like, "Blood Ingress detected in the ocular module." It's one thing to engage me with combat; it's another to get a genuine laugh out of me – and Boltgun 2 manages to do both.