Reviewed on: PC
Code provided by the publisher.
I consider the first Boltgun to be pretty good, even if it had several missteps that held it back from being a top-tier modern-day boomer shooter. Boltgun 2 is similarly solid if unremarkable, improving upon the level design and theming in its predecessor. Still, it’s more of a lateral step, even if I still appreciate how much work has been put into the level design and beyond.
Boltgun 2 is a shorter game than the original, but it now has branching pathways that are meant to convince you to play its campaign twice. You can choose between the original game’s protagonist, Malum, or a new one, Nyla, as you tear through levels and leave copious amounts of blood in your wake. I chose Malum for my first playthrough, but it doesn’t make a big difference.
About half the campaign is static, with the same core levels (and optional ones) appearing regardless of your choices. But at three points you’ll be given a choice of one set of three or four levels over another, resulting in you missing out on 9 or 10 levels each playthrough. Or you can unlock all levels in the accessibility menu and just choose the rest from the game’s level select.
I don’t think this idea really adds that much, but it does give you a reason to replay the campaign as the other character and see what you missed. Malum and Nyla both have different weapons as well as different melee attacks, a different ability, and different grenades. In a lot of ways, the two characters are mostly interchangeable, but they do offer different experiences.
For one, Malum’s third and fourth guns are worse than Nyla’s, while Nyla’s first and second guns are worse than Malum’s. The most egregious difference between their two sets of weaponry is that Malum gets a fairly useful shotgun as his second weapon and Nyla gets a mostly useless crossbow that I rarely fired. This mostly bothers me because a boomer shooter is often only as good as its shotgun, so her not getting one irks me more than it should.
One aspect does make Nyla far safer to play than Malum, though: she has half as much health (100 versus his 200), but she gets 100 armor instead of his 50. More importantly, while Malum’s health regenerates if it drops too low, Nyla’s armor regenerates instead, meaning that she functionally has a recharging shield, which ends up meaning that you’ll be able to recharge it a hell of a lot more than Malum’s health, as well as use it to keep her health bar from even being damaged.
Then there’s their abilities. Malum charges forward in a very rigid way that sends enemies in his path flying, while Nyla slides. The slide does considerably less damage but offers a lot more mobility. One of the most unique parts of the first game’s gameplay is that holding the melee attack would cause Malum to slow down time and launch himself at an enemy in radius. Instead of this, Nyla charges forward with her sword, knocking the enemy back.
Calum’s chainsword attaches to foes and lets you chainsaw them to death slowly, but Nyla instead hacks and slashes like any regular sword would. In other words, her melee attacks are more basic, but this actually makes the characters feel even more different, so I didn’t even mind this. I think I might actually like Nyla’s melee attacks more despite the fact that they feel more basic.
Speaking of more basic, the first Boltgun had traditional maze-like boomer shooter levels, while the ones in Boltgun 2 are streamlined in comparison. Most levels are 10-15 minutes long and you now have a map inspired by the modern Doom games and a navigation function that shows you exactly where to go by drawing a dotted line on the ground.
Due to this, Boltgun 2’s levels feel much smaller and more focused. While I wouldn’t normally agree that this is a good thing, the levels in the first game felt aimless, repetitive, and weren’t all that memorable. I can’t say the same for these, as they’re mostly focused forward massacres. The theming of the levels is also far better, with much more variety in terms of locales that makes the game’s visuals that much more inviting. It’s a big step up in most ways.
There are a lot of enemy factions here that the game constantly rotates between, making for a less repetitive bestiary than the original game overall. Unfortunately, the enemies mostly feel the same regardless, as you’ll be fighting lots of weak peons that die in one or two hits alongside spongy elites. This often makes enemy hordes feel the same regardless of what group they’re from.
Boltgun 2’s campaign will take about 5 hours or so, but since there’s plenty of reason to go through it as the other character and see the levels you missed, the amount of content isn’t bad. I will say, though, that this game does feel extremely similar to the first one in terms of gameplay despite how much more direct its action is. In that way, the game doesn’t really feel like that much of an advancement.
Verdict
I had a good time here, and some of the levels are legitimately impressive (especially a late-game group of levels that see you making your way through an alien world on minecarts and while platforming to escape a fatal, rising liquid). Boltgun 2 won’t knock anyone’s socks off, but it is mostly an improvement, so fans of the original will find plenty to like as long as they want more of the same gameplay-wise.
