The agents of Chaos are at it again.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is the brutal sequel to the retro-inspired FPS boomer-shooter of the same name, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun.
Can Malum Caedo overcome the warp? This time Mal isn’t alone. With help from a Sister of Battle, Nyra Veyrath, will they be able to purge the heretics from existence in the name of the God Emperor of Mankind?
Only in death does duty end.
Malum does not even get a break after defeating the Legion. Developed by Auroch Digital with publishing being split between Big Fan Games and Devolver Digital, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 takes place directly after the end of Boltgun.
Boltgun 2 takes our champions across the universe in pursuit of the demonic demigod Vashtoor the Arkifane.
Boltgun 2 allows us to play as two very different playable characters.
Malum Caedo (voiced by Rahul Kohli) is everything you would expect from a Sternguard Veteran of the Ultramarines. With his trusty Boltgun and chainsword, Mal plays as a grounded powerhouse with a heavy chainsword dash that is devastating to smaller units.
He is kitted out with frag grenades and a more “standard” array of weapons. Shotguns, rocket launchers, grav cannons, and more health and faith (armor) than Nyra, Malum Caedo is your no-fuss shoot things in the face kind of guy.
Nyra Veyrath (voiced by Alanah Pearce), on the other hand, is a little different.
Unlike Space Marines who carry their Primarch’s gene-seed and undergo surgical organ implantation to become super soldiers, the Sisters of Battle, or Adepta Sororitas, are just regular, unaugmented human women chosen for their exceptional faith. The Adepta Sororitas will often use flame weapons to bathe their enemies in the warmth of the Emperor.
Nyra Veyrath has got increased movement speed to almost glide around the battlefield (my guess is to simulate their “wings” given to them through faith), equipped with a blade and bolt pistol; Nyra’s loadout is more based around flame weapons. Hand flamers, heavy flamers, melta guns, really anything that will engulf enemies in righteous flame.
I played most of the 8-ish hour campaign with Nyra, and it was a blast. Toward the end of the game, the difficulty ramped up, and there were tough times within a couple of areas. My guess is due to my lack of faith in the corpse Emperor. But that is a conversation for another time.
Travel to Never-before-seen Worlds. And Purge then of all life.
Auroch Digital understands what it means to be 40k. Take the most over-the-top death and destruction and double it. Hell, triple it if you want. Giant factories that span the planet’s surface, living biomass ships, impenetrable jungles, you name it, we are going there and killing everything.
The over-the-top scale of action fits perfectly into the first-person boomer shooters of the past. As you travel through vast areas obliterating everything that moves, you travel a branching campaign and can choose between side missions and unique levels or just push through the main story.
Mal and Nyra share the main campaign; it might have been nice to see a different perspective. Mal is gun-blazing while Nyra takes a little more strategic approach, but this is such a tiny blip on such a gorgeous experience.
“There is no innocence, just differing levels of guilt”
Boltgun 2 expands on what made the original great. The action never stops. There is absolutely zero downtime. You go from one intense action piece to another. The level of power fantasy is yours to choose too, slay through countless enemies without breaking a sweat, or pump up the difficulty to Exterminatus, where one wrong move or charging in half-cocked will end in death. There are dozens of accessibility options as well, giving you even more customisation on your play style.
Boltgun had us fight against the Black Legion with a sprinkling of Daemons of Tzeentch & Nurgle. This time almost everyone is here. Tzeentch & Papa Nurgle return with not only daemons, but marines twisted by the warp. Noise and Plague Marines shred guitar solos and toxic gas at you while the armies of Khorne and Slaanesh hit the battlefield with berserkers who want to wear your flesh as a hat, rush towards you, and the sexy daemonettes of the lord of lust, pleasure and self-indulgence try to seduce you to their ranks.
Things can get rather chaotic during some of the bigger battles, and I more times than not gunned down anything that moved, including the guardsman helping me.
My only gripe, and this isn’t just with Boltgun 2, but most Warhammer 40k games, can we fight something other than Chaos? There are so many unexplored enemies of mankind that would make for an excellent story.
The greatest addition to Boltgun 2 is the inclusion of the map. This makes traversing the maze of hallways a bit easier, as well as keeping track of the collectables you have found.
“I am Faith, and Duty, and Hope.”
The art direction of Boltgun 2 fits with the gameplay so well. The 2d character models both look pixel art and modern at the same time. Their movement is flawless, and how everything stays 2D on a 3D plane makes the game feel “retro” without ever losing its modern gameplay loop.
The atmosphere is enhanced by the audio and soundtrack. The thumping of ever so subtle metal background music ramps up while the big battles are happening, then dampens to background noise almost unnoticeably, while the thump, thump, thump of bolter fire drowns out the screaming of the dying. Whoever designed the sound effects for the heavy flamer needs a pay rise. You can almost feel the heat from the sound it’s spewing out, amazing!
While both Malus and Nyra are voice-acted, they don’t say much by themselves. If you press ‘Y’, they will utter a hardcore line about faith or purging or something grim, which breaks up the screaming. The story is told through written dialogue from a floating servitor head that follows you around, commenting on the weird stuff that is happening. The things it says are actually quite funny, and I found myself chuckling at how stupid it was.
Performance
I played Boltgun 2 on the Xbox Series X, and it ran flawlessly. There were no audio dips, no weird lagging or frame drops. Zero crashes, and at one point I had the game open and playing for at least 6 hours in a single session, and still nothing. This seems like it shouldn’t be a problem, but lately I have been noticing it more and more that after a certain time, games would lose sound effects or it would become choppy and crash, requiring a full reset to get things back to normal. That never happened. Everything ran exactly how I would expect it to.
Verdict.
Auroch Digital has yet again done the universe of Warhammer 40,000 justice. Boltgun 2 is a fantastic addition to the Story of Malum Caedo, and with the addition of Nyra Veyrath and her different approach and loadout, there is a lot of replayability. Boltgun 2 doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but it doesn’t need to. The formula for running and gunning is what is advertised, and it’s exactly what we got. I absolutely adored my time with Boltgun 2, and any fans of Warhammer or Boomer Shooters will not be disappointed.
Boltgun 2 was reviewed on Xbox Series X. Gamer Social Club would like to thank the devs and publisher for the code.
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