For whatever reason, I slept on the original Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. There were plans to return to play it at some point, but for whatever reason that never happened. This brings us to now, when I in fact did get the opportunity to play its sequel, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2. This is something I rarely get to do: approach a sequel with no preconceived notions for what to expect. So, this is a good thing because damn, does the game leave a lasting impact.
Boltgun 2 is a boomer shooter in nature and arguably the closest take on the genre to transport you back to the days of floppy drives, feeling incredibly close to Doom. This isn’t fully analogous; the game brings its own personality and vibe to the mix, standing on its own. If you are a fan of the classics, though, you could do so much worse than this one. You get the retro pixel sprites against the 3D level designs, giving you a flat feeling of your weapons and corpses that flip around as you run past them. This is complete with chunks of pixelated viscera as you blast them all to death.
The most significant difference from the first game, at least in what I have been told, is that this game introduces a second playable character to play the campaign with. The campaign itself remains relatively unchanged between the two, with the same levels and moments of extreme chaos, but the characters actually feel nothing alike. It starts with you meleeing enemies with either a chainsaw or a sword, then you start picking up the character’s collection of vastly different guns. There are also alternative paths to take, so you can’t fully experience the game in one round.
You have a choice between a space marine-type character and a battle sister. They both can move around the spaces of combat with ease, which is necessary given the sheer number of bullets you are dodging and how many enemies are running straight at you to rain down bladed death. This said, the battle sister is for speed, with the Space Marine having this lumbering effect, which is pretty lore-accurate. The biggest example of this difference is having the sister do a slashing slide to gain distance and deal damage, while you can charge and smash with the Marine.
Outside that switch, the story is pretty light, with only a few high-quality pixel panels to give you the most minor of explanations that some villain is threatening you. You need to travel across planets to kill the heck out of him. Because of this, though, Boltgun 2 is probably one of the best options for a new player to get into the series. It has all the darkness, all the moral ambiguity, and all the violence, with very little of the franchise’s 30+ year history to get in the way of a good time.
Stage design is also among the best features since it is complex, or at least less than just run-and-gun; it did give you obvious goals, even if those were attempting to find keys. And these are well designed too, even when they are more simplistic. In one of them, I was slowly guiding a tank to be built in a factory. With each part being added, a horde of enemies started swarming while I was blasting away, and that tank was being built. Each new part required a new key to power the machine, so I jumped up along the walls to high platforms to get those keys, return, and start shooting again.
Another stage saw me in some kind of factory with lava everywhere. As you progress, you keep raising that lava, making a more complex traversal along what you can still reach. I do enjoy that stepping in the fires doesn’t just instantly kill you, even if stage hazards give you this weird delayed damage effect. This can be annoying to factor in when you are in the middle of a conflict. A later stage where you are ducking and weaving oncoming trains is worse since, at a few points. While keeping these monster creatures off me, I would tap one coming right behind me only to drop within an inch of death. This makes me easy pickings.
The worst aspect, though, is that levels can be confusing to navigate even with the start menu map that you can access. A few areas have that Doom-esque similar texturing regardless of where you look, or two platforms leading up on both the left and right of you in a perfectly symmetrical room. If you backtrack, there is a possibility you get attacked by newly spawned enemies. So, that might be enough to convince you to go the wrong way because you are actively participating rather than just walking a path of bloody chunks.
Where I really hit the apex of BoltGun 2, though, is in the purge moments, which is when you get locked right where you are, and every door opens to throw as many enemies at you as the game possibly can. There are these little bunny guys that run at you in hordes, lumbering mechs, and standard guys with machine guns. Now mix all of that in a big pot, and you have a purge. I was flying around, jumping from point to point while unloading my guns, swapping between them, and running for my life.
The whole thing never wants you to leave the fray either. Every time you eliminate an enemy, you are picking up health and shield packs consistently. And the most frantic this barely makes, because enemies can drain you as fast as you can pick them up, which can occasionally cause the pacing to slow down as you attempt to stay alive, which can be frustrating. When the entire thing plays at its best, there is this feeling you get that one might describe as euphoric. It is insanely good.
Then you get to the guns, which mix everything up more, though you should be familiar with what to expect. I played my first run as Sister Nyra, who starts with a dual wield of her sword and a heavy pistol. The later, heavier weapons will make the sword vanish from the animation, but you NEVER have a point where you can’t gun your way into a conflict and then slash your way out. Grabbing a flamethrower later on, you get to watch the pixels running around on flames. Something you might follow up with a plasma gun to make sure that all the king’s horses and men can’t put them back together again.
Where the combat stumbled a bit was in the combat with the big bads at the end of each planet area. Now, in fairness, these are fun fights, especially earlier ones, which just involve shooting; there are a few, though, that require you to hit my glowing weak point. The problem is, given the graphics of the whole thing, hitting those weak points can be frustrating as you try to get an angle. If the enemy throws smaller enemies at you constantly, then that makes it even harder and more frustrating.
There can be this floaty nature to the gunplay, given the speed of it all. On some level, this balances out because hitboxes are also ridiculous, so even when dialing in, the aim is proving harder. After all, the character just doesn’t want to look where you want them to; you can typically get away with this. Having to shoot a precise location on the body stands to highlight this. Not like there wasn’t a purge or two as well where I tried really hard to get my reticle on target, and the game had other plans.
Thankfully, these are also the moments you get a look at how nice the animations are in Boltgun 2, when typically you have guns moving from a stationary position to shooting, or the death animation for the characters. And then all the franticness is set to that killer throwback soundtrack that keeps you hyped. The fact that each campaign can be beaten in about four hours, and after you do win, your only thought is probably how badly you want to go again, is really saying something.
Verdict
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 doesn’t do anything to reinvent the wheel. It is a throwback boomer shooter that you have most likely seen before. Not every game needs to do that, though, and being a competent homage is still an impressive feat to pull off. That is too simple, though, because it isn’t just competent; it’s in top form. You want to keep playing it; keep taking down everything that stands in your way. Boltgun 2 is an addictive loop of death, carnage, and rebirth.
Remember to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Bluesky to keep up to date on everything we have going on!
Reviewed for PlayStation 5, also available on Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Coming to Nintendo Switch 2.
*A Code was provided by Devolver Digital for the purposes of this review
Developer: Auroch Digital
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Release Date: October 14, 2026
Pros
+Wild combat across two players each with their own unique guns and abilities.
+Fun level design that has depth while remaining retro.
+Purge moments where you dash around fighting hoards.
Cons
-Some levels can be confusing to navigate, leading to getting backtracked.
-Boss fights often feel lose momentous compared to the hoards.
-
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun II
