The original Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was an unexpected classic, a high-octane retro FPS that pitted the player against relentless hordes of pixellated cultists, Chaos Space Marines, and the daemon servants of the ruinous powers. With the sequel Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 due to release the same day this article drops, I took the opportunity to interview lead designer Matt Bone to learn how the sequel has taken the forces of Chaos to new extremes.
Warhammer 40k Boltgun has a well-deserved place on Wargamer’s guide to the best Warhammer 40k games ever, but it was very much a first stab at the concept, with loads of potential foes left on the table. Notably, protagonist Malum Caedo only fought the daemonic servants of two of the four Chaos Gods, the plaguefather Nurgle and lord of magic and deceit Tzeentch. It was a bit like the Doom Slayer revving up the chainsaw, only to find that the Hell Knights, Cacodemons, and Pinkies were on strike.
Boltgun 2 brings in the forces of the missing gods: Khorne, the lord of slaughter, and Slaanesh, prince of excess. “We were keen to give each faction its own identity and feel, which extends to how the enemies behave in the game”, Bone says. Most Chaos Daemons are melee combatants, so creating distinctive enemy behaviours that stopped them feeling samey “was on our minds from the earliest parts of development”.
“For Khorne, we’ve leant into their bloodthirst and rage: Bloodletters leap directly at the player, swords held aloft; Berzerkers are true to their name, enraging at low health and aggressively engaging the player at every opportunity”. “Khorne enemies definitely aren’t ones for subtlety”, Bone adds.
That differentiates them from Slaanesh, whose daemons “are more elusive and cunning – they’re like predators playing with their prey”. As Bone puts it, “Daemonettes don’t come directly for the player, they leap around the battlefield, showing off their graceful prowess”. They’ll engage by closing the “gap with a rapid, zig-zagging phase attack”, finally revealing “their true, horrifying appearance”.
Picking which enemies to include was “an almost impossible choice, as there’s so many in the Warhammer 40,000 universe”. The original Boltgun has some deep cuts from the Warhammer IP, including the Plague Toad (which GW no longer makes models or rules for), and a design for the Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch based on a model produced in the 1990s.
Picking which of the many different versions of the daemons meant looking “into different variants of that enemy in terms of loadouts and appearance, figuring out which is the best fit for the game”. “Again, we’re usually spoilt for choice here”, Bone says. Turning them into sprites is a collaborative process, “communicating with the Warhammer team to gain additional insight into how these enemies should look and behave in the game”.
The returning enemies from the original Boltgun have received “a new coat of paint to bring them up to the level of the new enemies”, and “in a lot of cases, we’ve improved their behaviour, whilst staying faithful to what people liked about them in the previous game”. Bone gives the example of the Aspiring Champion – a relentless pursuer that follows you around like satan’s charity mugger – who now has “a new sprint to make him even more terrifying (sorry, everyone)”.
The new enemies and rebalancing “means we’ve been able to provide a lot more variety in the gameplay, which is one of our main goals with Boltgun 2”, Bone says. “An encounter with Daemonettes leaping about whilst Noise Marines fire large, rebounding sonic projectiles from a distance is going to feel and play differently to one with Nurgle enemies covering the floor with toxic slime, the bullet hell of Tzeentch encounters, or Khorne enemies getting in your face”.
The original Boltgun’s combat encounters and arenas were generally excellent, but it had some brick walls of difficulty – the early Plague Toad boss fight was a real player filter, incredibly hard to kill and supported by repeatedly spawning hordes of disruptive Nurglings and long-ranged cultists. “We’ve learned a ton from what players have told us they liked and disliked about Boltgun 1”, Bone says.
The team “sought to address the criticisms, making sure there’s a lot more variety, and leaning into interesting mechanics rather than having bullet sponge enemies”. “Our job has been to find the most engaging combinations for encounters”, he adds, “but sometimes it’s also about paring things back: there’s an early encounter with a horde of Poxwalkers (a new enemy in Boltgun 2) that works because it’s just them – albeit a hell of a lot of them”.
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Source: Wargamer
