The Boltgun is a finely crafted symbol of destruction wielded by those loyal to the Emperor. It’s a straightforward and somewhat standard gun, but it turns those against the Imperium into heretical mush. Warhammer 40K: Boltgun 2, like its predecessor, understands the power of this weapon enough to turn it into a subtitle as if it were a mission statement. Said directive means this game is filled with punchy weapons, but it’s also indicative of its simple nature that makes this boomer shooter rather bland.
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Its bland qualities are deceptive, as Boltgun 2‘s destructive protagonists and booming weaponry yield a solid first impression. The titular Boltgun gibs just about everything it touches in just a few shots, and the massive sword or chainsword can carve up Nurglings into goopy messes. The beefy sound design and way in which the controller vibrates with each step reinforce what kind of power an Ultramarine or Sister of Battle possesses.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Guns sound punchy and turn enemies into red mulch | The constant rush of enemies and limited toolkit mean gunplay gets repetitive quickly |
| The default difficulty is too easy, while the harder settings only lead to frustrating chaos | |
| Its two characters don’t feel that different from one another |
Warhammer 40K: Boltgun 2 Grows Stale in Record Time
But committing so hard to the fantasy of being an all-power weapon of the empire means there’s very little friction to speak of in Boltgun 2. Many of the damned beasts in its expansive bestiary turn to red paste in just a few shots. Health and armor pickups litter the battlefield around almost every piece viscera, so any damage taken is often quickly reversed. Players are almost never pushed to actually think and engage with the game, as holding down the fire button is usually sufficient enough to carve a path of destruction straight to the credits.
There are so many enemies in each stage, too, and their sheer numbers illustrate how graceless Boltgun 2 is at its core. Instead of well-crafted encounters where enemy numbers are carefully calculated to yield the best and most rewarding gunfight, scores and scores of grunts pile in and die without much of a second thought. There’s next to zero need to prioritize certain threats — don’t expect to rush toward any Arch-vile-like menaces — and its mechanics aren’t deep enough to master. Both of the main characters are limited by shallow tools that don’t do anything special or have any unique properties. As such, there’s not much of an incentive to do more than shoot.
Because gunning these demons and cultists down is so mindless and a constant, running past most battles becomes all too tempting and is quite easy to do; the sheer number of enemy spawns even seem to downright encourage it. The aforementioned deep bench of foes is mostly wasted on mind-numbing chaos that is little more than flashy violence set to a surprisingly muted soundtrack (aside from Mick Gordon’s one banger that gives a tantalizing hint at what could have been). A more deftly designed shooter would have foes that had unique weaknesses or required different approaches and had a collection of intricate mechanics with different functions. DOOM has persisted because of its layered design, and despite Boltgun 2‘s obvious affection for that 1993 classic, it has only possesses the most skin-deep assessment of id Software’s masterpiece.
Boltgun 2‘s Two Heroes Don’t Add Much Variety
Ratcheting up the difficulty doesn’t solve these dilemmas, either. The jump from the suggested setting to the next hardest one is extremely steep where players are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of bullets and hordes of deadly sword-wielding goons. There’s no room to breathe. Whereas the middle difficulty makes players feel like the ultimate Ultramarine, anything higher makes them feel as if they are a naked caveman with a pea shooter. This demonstrates how clogging levels with a ton of foes is bad for both extremes in difficulty: When it’s too easy, they are useless clutter, but when it’s too hard, these deadly drones make even getting around a frustrating nightmare.
A lot of Boltgun 2‘s problems were prevalent in the first game, too. It was a repetitive experience that had little value outside of its novelty as a Warhammer 40K-themed boomer shooter. Boltgun 2 seemingly attempts to mitigate this key shortcoming through branching level paths and two characters, but they don’t make the game deeper or meaningfully add variety. Players are still doing the same thing in each level, so the backdrop matters little. And the two main characters, aside from their weapon arsenals, are almost functionally identical; a slide isn’t much different than a shoulder charge, after all.
Boltgun 2 is fundamentally just a repetitive and hollow first-person shooter with meaty effects that only briefly distract from its many inadequacies. Thoughtlessly blasting through the galaxy’s worst is functional but rarely designed to be much more than that. In a genre filled with throwbacks that meaningfully build on what has come before, Boltgun 2‘s mundanity is even harder to justify. The Emperor should demand a little more of his most devoted subjects, especially ones on their second tours.
A PS5 copy of Warhammer 40K: Boltgun 2 was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Did Boltgun need a sequel? What other genres should Warhammer explore next? Tell us your answer in the comments.
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