Hands-On With Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2

2 hours ago 1

Published May 21, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT

Scott Baird is a Staff Writer at DualShockers with over a decade of experience writing about video games, board games, and tabletop RPGs. He has been writing professionally since 2013 and covering games since 2018, with work spanning news, reviews, lists, guides, interviews, and event coverage.

Before joining DualShockers, Scott contributed to publications including The Escapist, Dexerto, TheGamer, CBR, and Gamepur. He has also worked as a full-time Pokémon writer at Dexerto and a features writer at TheGamer. Scott holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Film & TV Production.

The dark future of Warhammer 40,000 is the ideal setting for a boomer shooter, as the enemies of the Imperium are endless and are just waiting to be obliterated in the name of the Emperor. The original Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun showed just how well the franchise could work using the retro format, and DualShockers had a chance to see if the sequel could live up to the high standards set by its predecessor.

Set in the 41st millennium, Warhammer 40,000 tells the story of a mankind that has spread to the stars, where it has found countless forces that seek to destroy it. Fortunately, humanity is protected by the Space Marines, genetically engineered superhumans in high-tech gear, who fight the enemies of the Imperium with religious zeal.

Usually in Warhammer 40,000, Space Marines fight as part of massive armies. That doesn't work as well in video game form, which is why Boltgun starred a single Space Marine from the Ultramarines chapter, named Malum Caedo. The Boltgun 2 demo preview brings Malum back to the frontlines, but this time, he's not alone.

Boltgun 2 Has Two Playable Heroes

By far the biggest addition in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is a new main character, named Nyra Veyrath. Nyra is a member of the Sisters of Battle, an all-female order of warriors that serve the Imperium, who tackle xenos and the servants of Chaos with the same fury as their Space Marine cousins.

In Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, the player can select either Nyra or Malum to play through the game, with each having unique levels. So, are there any differences between Nyra and Malum? The biggest difference is weapon selection, as the only item they shared in the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 demo was a Heavy Bolter, with the rest of their arsenal being different.

Warhammer 40k: Boltgun Fills The Grimdark Future With Color

By emulating classics like Doom and Quake, this Warhammer adaptation kicks ass!

Malum has his trusty boltgun, a shotgun, and a plasma rifle. Meanwhile, Nyra has a pistol, a crossbow, and a flamethrower. These weapons have a wide range, with Nyra's pistol and crossbow being slower and carrying less ammo, but dealing a ton of damage with each hit. Her flamethrower is way more fun than Malum's plasma rifle and feels incredibly satisfying when putting mobs of enemies to the torch.

Nyra is a member of the Sisters of Battle, an all-female order of warriors that serve the Imperium, who tackle xenos and the servants of Chaos with the same fury as their Space Marine cousins.

Nyra and Malum have different special moves, but they feel the same. Each has a powerful melee attack and a charging/sliding move that deals damage while getting them out of harm's way. They also have grenades, which are powerful but take an ice age to explode, giving swifter enemies plenty of time to evade them.

It's a shame I have to start the demo preview on a sour note, but the two characters in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 are way too similar. When I first learned of the dual protagonists, I was hoping for a more agile hero who could evade attacks and a tank who could absorb or deflect hits, kind of like the difference between the Doom Slayer from Doom Eternal and Doom: The Dark Ages. Instead, the main difference is weapon selection, which feels like wasted potential.

The Carnage In Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 Is Just As Fun As Before

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is a direct continuation of the first game, both in terms of story and gameplay. If you played the first Boltgun, expect the same high-octane boomer-shooter action. Regardless of which hero you pick, they'll soon be knee-deep in the soldiers of Chaos and will need to convert them via bullets to the brain.

Like the retro shooters of old, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 expects you to blast through enemies, while taking time out to search for secrets. Don't expect puzzles more taxing than "find the red key for the red door", as the focus is on the action, and boy, is there a lot of it. The retro pixel 2.5D art style is back, just as glorious as before.

Akin to its predecessor, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 has some quality-of-life features that older shooters lacked, the best of which is a quest marker line that shows the route forward. The stages in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 can break off into multiple directions, so it's a godsend to easily get back on track and not spend ages wandering around, like you can do when playing the old Doom games.

While there is an overarching story and characters will warble some dialogue at you throughout missions, it's very easy to tune out. This is action in its purest form, and is just as fun as its predecessor, if not more so, as there's more here than last time around.

What Else Is New Aside From Nyra?

While Malum and Nyra will spend most of their time in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 fighting alone, there were encounters with friendly units. That's right, the Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum is here as backup! Unlike the genetically engineered superhumans who make up the Space Marines, the Imperial Guard are regular humans who take up arms against humanity's enemies.

Like in Warhammer 40,000, the Imperial Guard can't take as much punishment as the Space Marines. In the first level of the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 demo, members of the Death Korps of Krieg show up to fight alongside the hero, shortly before being overwhelmed by enemies. Sure, they're not exactly avatars of destruction, but their presence is welcome, and it's always an honor to die alongside members of the guard.

There are new enemy types in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, as servants of the most vicious Chaos god have taken the field. Now, warriors of Khorne are here, resembling fictional devils, and they pack a punch. Foes ride Bloodcrushers into battle, before disembarking to slash the player with their blades, in some of the most challenging and exciting fights of the demo.

The Purge sections of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun are back, where the player has to fight hordes of enemies before they can proceed, but the ones in the sequel are far better staged. In the Boltgun 2 demo, I had to fight ever-encroaching hordes of Nurgle servants in winding caves, where it was hard to avoid being surrounded, while the later stage involved battles on a bridge where sections of the ground could be broken off, as masses of enemies carrying exploding battles charged across.

The Purge sections of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun are back, where the player has to fight hordes of enemies before they can proceed, but the ones in the sequel are far better staged.

The new Purge sections in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 are fantastic and made me appreciate the differences in the character arsenals more than in the regular sections. Having access to Nyra's flamethrower made the fight in the caves a lot easier, as they bunched together, while Malum's plasma rifle was better on the bridge, as the greater range and speed let me take care of enemies before they could get too close.

The demo is short, with both stages lasting around twenty minutes per character, but it got me hyped for the full release. While it's a shame that Nyra and Malum aren't more distinct on a mechanical level, the game can still be a worthy successor to the original Boltgun. The thrilling gameplay has been improved upon, especially the Purge sections, with enough bells and whistles to make me want to don a suit of Power Armor and jump back into the fray.

The Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 demo launches on Steam on May 21, 2026.