Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 Review, Two Heroes, Two Games

This game is reviewed on:

This Boltgun 2 review comes from someone who loved the first game's noise and got tired of its last few hours. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 launched on October 14, 2026 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a Switch 2 version announced to follow. Auroch Digital picks the story up straight after the original's ending, and the sequel is louder and far better stocked with things to shoot. All Warhammer 40K Games Collection keys can be found here.

I've played it on PC: one full run as the new hero, Nyra Veyrath, and most of a second as the returning Malum Caedo. That second run is the reason my score lands as high as it does.

Below, you'll find what changed, who it's for and whether it belongs in your library.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 Review Summary

• Boltgun 2 is a confident retro shooter sequel that fixes the first game's thin enemy roster and adds a second playable hero.

• Malum Caedo and Nyra Veyrath each get their own abilities, melee and weapons, and you pick one for the whole campaign.

• The branching campaign closes one path every time you pick another, so a single run leaves missions unseen.

• All four Chaos gods bring their own troops, from Nurglings and Daemonettes up to the Great Unclean One.

• Four difficulty levels, plus separate settings for armor, ammo and healing pickups.

• There's no character progression between missions, and the key hunts and Purge arenas repeat more than they should.

Malum And Nyra Play Like Two Games

My favorite part of Boltgun 2 is the new hero. Nyra Veyrath is a Sister of Battle, and her whole kit is built around speed and fire. Her signature move, the Fervent Slide, is a dash that kills weaker enemies outright, and jumping out of it launches her into a leap with time slowed down. Early on I slid off ledges by accident. A few levels later I was sliding through a pack of cultists, springing up over the survivors and torching them before time caught up.

Her left hand carries a Power Sword that lunges her from one enemy to the next, and she throws a Melta Bomb where Malum throws grenades. She opens with a bolt pistol and keeps swinging the sword with it still firing, so I rarely stopped shooting to slash. Her run clicked for me once the crossbow and the flamer came out. I quit clearing rooms from the doorway and started running at the biggest crowd. Nyra pays you back for getting close and staying on the move.

Malum Caedo is the Ultramarine Sternguard Veteran from the first game, heavier than Nyra and much harder to put down. His special is the Obliterating Charge, which sends him straight through enemies and hurts them on the way. He swings a Chainsword, throws Frag Grenades and starts with the boltgun itself, the weapon the series is named after. Nyra circles a Bloodletter looking for an opening. Malum walks through it and keeps firing.

You can't switch heroes mid-campaign, and both of them are better for it. With Nyra I was always hunting for a ledge or a slope to slide down. With Malum I stopped worrying about the layout and started thinking about line of sight, since he can soak hits she can't. Who needs a reward screen when the second run plays like a different shooter wearing the same art?

The Branching Campaign Earns A Second Run

The Boltgun 2 campaign sends Malum and Nyra to an isolated star system after reports of rising Chaos activity. Vashtorr the Arkifane, a daemon of inventors and engineers, wakes a daemonic machine at the heart of a planet, and the blast wrecks much of the Imperial fleet. From there you move world to world, cleansing the corruption that feeds his plans. The story leans hard on Warhammer lore and does little to explain terms like Arkifane, so newcomers will miss some of it. I didn't mind. The plot is mostly a reason to visit new planets.

After a tutorial mission, a campaign screen lays out the current planet and a few missions to choose from. Picking one closes the other path for that run, and some branches add optional missions that fill in the lore. My Nyra run and my Malum run took different missions for long stretches, and I still haven't seen all of the 30-plus on offer. A single run took me roughly as long as the first game, somewhere around ten hours.

Levels are shorter and far more vertical than before. I fought through a hive city, a ruined industrial outpost, a mangrove swamp and an icy mountain top, and most of them stack their fights across several floors. Nearly every level hides a few secrets, and an optional dotted path points you to the next objective. That path saved me more than once in the swamp, where every root and trunk looks alike at full speed.

Objectives are the weak spot. Most levels ask you to find two or three keys or survive a Purge, an arena where you clear out a huge enemy count before moving on. By my second run I could predict how nearly every sub-level would go from its first room. There's also no upgrade tree to invest in between missions, so the variety has to come from the route and the hero you picked.

All Four Chaos Gods Show Up

The first Boltgun ran low on new enemies in its back half, and this sequel fixes that properly. Boltgun 2 sends in the armies of all four Chaos gods: Nurgle, Khorne, Tzeentch and Slaanesh, each holding its own territory. Nurglings and Chaos Cultists are back as fodder. Above them you get Poxwalkers, Plague Marines, Daemonettes, Noise Marines, and Bloodletters with their daemonic Juggernauts, which became the enemy I planned every arena around.

Each faction brings its own tiers, and the mix decides how I fight a room. Cultists die in a burst and mostly exist to distract you. A Juggernaut closing in forces me to move, which matters a lot more as Malum than as Nyra. Some elites soak more ammo than feels fair, and a few late arenas on the higher settings turned into long strafing loops around one big target. The Great Unclean One was the toughest wall I hit on my first run, and the Lord of Change and the Lord of Skulls sit on the boss list too.

Malum and Nyra carry separate arsenals. His leans on the shotgun, a plasma gun and a grenade launcher that turns crowds into red mist. She trades those for a crossbow and the flamer. The Heavy Bolter shows up for both of them, and a weapon wheel finally makes swapping painless. The first game's toughness numbers are mostly gone too, so I picked guns by feel and stopped checking which ones a target resisted.

Boltgun 2 difficulty comes in four levels, and the game lets you tune armor, ammo and healing pickups separately from the main setting. I finished Nyra on Normal and pushed Malum up a notch, and that second setting is plenty for most players. A visual option runs from chunky pixels to a cleaner, closer-to-modern look. I kept the pixels, and they get busy in a big Purge. Long sessions tired my eyes faster than the first game did.

Is Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 Worth Buying?

Yes, if you liked the first game or any modern retro shooter. Boltgun 2 is bigger in every direction that counted, and the two heroes give it a reason to stay installed after the credits. Warhammer fans will get the most out of the story, since the plot assumes you already know who Vashtorr is.

On PC the launch build ran smoothly for me on my RTX 4080. That card sits far above the recommended tier on the Steam store page, which targets 1080p at High settings with a GTX 1650 or an RX 570. I had no crashes and no stuck enemies across both runs. The minimum tier asks for a GTX 980 or a Radeon R9 Fury at 1080p on Low, so older machines are covered as well.

If you want story depth or a progression system to chase, wait for a sale. The loop of keys and Purges is the whole meal here. At full price I'd still pick it up for the Nyra run alone. Switch 2 owners should hold off until that version is out and tested.

FAQs About Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2

Final Words

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is the rare sequel where the new character outshines the mascot. Malum is still a joy to drive through a crowd, but Nyra's slide and flamer are what I'll remember. Auroch Digital built two ways to play and then designed levels that suit both.

The structure holds it back from a higher score. Keys and Purges carry the whole campaign, and the game hands you no long-term goal between missions. A future update that adds a reason to come back between runs would change my read on it more than any new weapon.

Pick Nyra first. Her run teaches you the game's speed, and Malum feels twice as heavy afterward.

GameBoost Products

All Warhammer 40K Games Collection
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 Game Key
View all GameBoost Game Keys
View all GameBoost Accounts
View all GameBoost Boosting Services
View all GameBoost Currencies
View all GameBoost Gift Cards
View all GameBoost Top Ups
View all GameBoost Items