Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 marches to a 14 October launch
Auroch Digital's retro shooter returns with a second playable hero, 30 levels and a Doom composer on the closing boss fight.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 will launch on 14 October for PC, PlayStation and Xbox, taking the retro first-person shooter back into the grimdark far future for a second tour of duty.
The sequel to 2023's Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun keeps the chunky, sprite-heavy look that made the original such a satisfying throwback, but it widens the fight in ways that change how it plays. A demo is already live on Steam, and the store page is currently offering a 10 per cent pre-launch discount.
A second hero joins the purge
The headline change is a second playable character. Malum Caedo, the Ultramarine who carried the first game, returns with his boltgun, chainsword and Obliterating Charge. He is joined by Nyra Veyrath, a Battle Sister of the Adepta Sororitas who trades raw firepower for speed: a Power Sword and Bolt Pistol, a Fervent Slide that gives her both vertical and horizontal mobility, and a Melta Bomb for clearing out crowds.
Bigger battles and a branching campaign
Auroch Digital has stretched the campaign across more than 30 levels, with over 40 new enemies drawn from the four Chaos gods — Nurgle, Tzeentch, Khorne and Slaanesh — and reworked boss encounters that ask for more than a steady trigger finger. The campaign now branches, which means seeing the whole story properly takes more than one pass.
On some levels both heroes fight alongside AI-controlled Death Korps of Krieg troops. Extra weapons, among them flamers, shotguns and stakethrowers, unlock as players progress. Mick Gordon, who wrote the soundtracks for Doom and Doom Eternal, contributes the final boss theme for the fight against Vashtorr the Arkifane.
What is still missing?
A Nintendo Switch 2 version is planned, but no date has been announced for that release yet. The Steam storefront still lists the game as coming soon, so the accurate description today is that Boltgun 2 launches on 14 October — not that it is out now.
Our opinion
Boltgun's appeal was never subtle. It was a boomer shooter with a licence and a chainsaw, and it worked because it knew exactly how loud to be. Boltgun 2's pitch is the same idea with more room to move, and the second hero is the cleanest way to add depth without bloating the formula, because Nyra Veyrath gives players a genuinely different rhythm rather than a reskin. The risk sits with the branching campaign, where replay value can curdle into repetition if the paths do not diverge enough to matter. Even so, with 30 levels, 40 new enemies and Mick Gordon writing the closing fight, this is the most confident the series has looked.