Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 Review - Single-Player FPS Action Awaits!
Title: Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2
Release Date: 10/14/26
Platforms: Steam/PC, PS5, XBOX
Developer: Auroch Digital
Publisher: Auroch Digital & Devolver Digital
I don’t know if it’s true, but I feel like I start half my reviews with, “Now I’m not a ____ fan,” or whatever. In the spirit of that: I’m not a big Warhammer 40k fan, partially out of fear—my impression is that folks who truly start down that road get totally taken over by it and lose themselves over the course of studying billions of hours of lore. (image: Henry Cavill) If you’re Henry Cavill, you can probably handle it, but that is one of the many ways I’m not Henry Cavill. I’d like to stay me, if I can.
(Rogue Trader trailer & Space Marine 2 trailer) Still, I’ve dabbled in the universe: Rogue Trader and Space Marine 2 come to mind, and I enjoyed those games well enough even if I didn’t follow through to the end with either title. What I find fascinating about Warhammer 40k is how versatile the IP is. All evidence points to the fact that you can make a game of ANY genre in Warhammer 40k and get a banger.
A game’s story typically makes up the meat and potatoes of my reviews, but… well, I admit I’m a little out of my depth here. The story beats are communicated just fine, and I think I can grasp why I’m, uh… like, massacring gaggles of whatever I’m massacring. I just don’t have the requisite background to understand what’s going on. Usually, if you slow down enough, you can kinda fill in the blanks, right? (image: Dragon Age Inquisition) I did that with Dragon Age and eventually I filled in enough missing context to get up to speed. Warhammer, though? I dunno, there’s so much jargon that it might as well be Arabic mixed with German mixed with a punch to the face.
So I can’t speak to how well Warhammer 40k fans will appreciate the story because, frankly, I have no way of knowing if anything is lore-accurate or… good? Is the flesh weak? Or does it bring glory to the god-emperor? I dunno. It’s Schrödinger’s warp madness.
Not that the story matters, of course, because you’re not playing Boltgun 2 to scratch that audiobook itch, are you? No, you want to eviscerate dozens of enemies per minute and spill more blood than a (Mr. Bean & Okinawa) coked-up Mr. Bean at Okinawa. Yeah, that’s right, you freak.
As you can see, Boltgun 2 harkens back to the olden days of Doom or Quake. AKA, games I had to go to my friend’s house to play. In hindsight, it’s good I didn’t have something like this around—I don’t think little Tough Martin could’ve handled the carnage, though it would’ve given me and my WW2 veteran grandpa something to talk about.
You’re availed of two characters to play as: a space marine and (I think) an Inquisitor. The story is the same either way, though the campaign has points of divergence where a second playthrough as the other person would feel that much more fresh. I was a little struck by how differently both ended up handling, despite the end result being very much the same: dozens of square miles covered in blood and guts. Our space marine is a tank with a chainsaw, if you’re not familiar, with a growing assortment of heavy weapons at his disposal. Our inquisitor: she’s got smaller firearms, but she’s quick as the devil’s fiddle and is amazingly handy with a blade. She was a little harder for me to handle, but if you use her right you can clear a room in a snap.
The power fantasy is real with both of them. The game is all about keeping up your momentum, never stopping for a second. Once you get into a flow state, you kind of get sucked into the blood rage, and all you can see is dead meat that I couldn’t suffer to live. It’s a good thing these alien races aren’t real because I would be radicalized by this point. Between the impeccably bombastic sound design, the relentless carnage, and the insatiable drive to unleash hell, I felt like I had jet fuel poured directly on my brain by the end of each play session.
It was hard to see through my haze of bloodlust, but I think the game ran great, without any issues. I think I also saw a decent amount of enemy variety, though it was hard to tell because, frankly, I just annihilated anything that moved. Which I think is what the game is going for. So, top marks, guys. By the throne, whether I wanted it to or not, Boltgun 2 hijacked my brain. I’m not going to say the bloodlust was pleasant, but it was certainly effective, praise the Omnissiah.
Still, as my dear sweet nana used to say, bloodlust only takes you so far. The gameplay loop can get a little stale after a while, outside of the killing. A lot of the loop centers around purging roomfuls of dead meat and finding color-coordinated keys to open locked doors. Thankfully, there’s a useful breadcrumb feature that tells you exactly where to go for your next objective, which is great because I typically got really turned around, what with all the unfettered killing.
Wrapping this up, Warhammer 40k: Boltgun 2 isn’t the most complicated thing in the world, but it does what it does incredibly well. I think if you’re a Warhammer 40k fan, you’ll be satisfied. I think if you’re a retro shooter fan, you’ll be very satisfied. I think if your doctor recently told you your blood pressure is life-threateningly high… well, at least you’ll die satisfied. The gameplay is relentlessly violent and fun. The pixel art evokes that wonderful sense of nostalgia. The atmosphere is what you want it to be, the sound and art direction are what you want them to be. The soundtrack is bonkers and perfect. The story is good, maybe? If you’re not a diehard 40k fan, you might be lost. If you want a variety of things to do, you might want to learn how to yo-yo with one hand and use a controller with the other, because Boltgun 2 is somewhat narrow-minded. If you’ve been playing the tabletop game since grade school and you yearn for the days of Quake and you need to douse the landscape in the blood of your enemies to silence the demons in your ears, then I wager this would be a golden lamp for you. For my money, I give it the Silver.
Things I Liked
Makes me feel like a rabid pitbull at a company picnic
Neat soundtrack
Fun weapon variety
Fucked up folks finally have a decent game
Acute sense of relentless forward momentum
Awesome art & sound design
Tickling orgasmic carnage
Good difficulty
Things to Consider
Gameplay can get repetitive
Normies may find the story hard to follow
Not enough cheese puns
Could we perhaps fit more blood in here?
Who’s this For?
Warhammer 40k believers
Henry Cavill
Classic shooter geeks
Kids who need to see some shit
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