Last year was the dream come true for Warhammer 40,000 fans. A Space Marine lands on a chaos-ridden planet with nothing but a bunch of weapons and his chainsword to fight his way to the final boss and clean, clean, clean. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was a great shooter that finally gave us the Space Marine experience like it was Doomguy that we so desperately wanted.
Now, more than a year after the main game’s release, Malum Caedo receives a call from the Empire informing him that the purge is ongoing and that forces of chaos are once again gathering in an ancient Mechanicum forge. So Caedo suits up like an ’80s action hero and wipes the blood from his chainsword, ready for battle.
The Forges of Corruption DLC for Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun essentially offers a short mini-campaign tacked onto the end of the base game. Five levels, four of which are typical boltgun affairs, with enough enemies to make Caedo one of the most powerful Space Marines ever, and large open spaces to dive through while firing bolter after bolter to finish off those pesky demons and cultists. The final level is a mega-boss battle where you have to destroy the corrupted forge itself while also battling the biggest enemies from the base game and DLC.
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Forges of Corruption benefits greatly from its tight and focused setting. The journey to the forge is not only told through the corpses you leave behind, but you also see the pixelated lands around you become more and more corrupted the closer you get. At the start of each level, massive monoliths from the Empire’s creation loom over you, their immense size forcing you to consider how many demons lurk ahead. The visual design and look of these levels is great, and while the use of open space and some extra verticality is welcome, I must point out that if you know Boltgun, you’ll know these levels. Shoot your way through, occasionally grabbing a key to get to the next area, and annihilate as many enemies as you can. Rinse and repeat. It’s a formula that never gets old, although I would have liked to see a little more experimental level design in this DLC.
For the rest, we see new additions in the form of additional enemies and powerful weapons to kill those enemies. The Chaos troop roster is bolstered by the Chaos Marine (a slightly weaker version of the Chaos Space Marine who can wield a plasma cannon), a Chaos Havoc (Chaos Space Marine with a missile launcher), a new Chaos Terminator who teleports and tracks you with claws and the powerful Helbrute.
Aside from the Helbrute, which is an incredible addition to the enemy roster and gives you a devastating boss encounter that can hurl countless amounts of fire at you, crush your head in close combat, and even heal itself if you take too much air, the rest of the new enemy roster might not seem to have as much of an impact. They fit well into Forges of Corruption encounters and blowing them into pixelated pieces is incredibly satisfying, but compared to the Helbrute they can easily fade into the background and become just another blob of blood to step over on the way to the next room.
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The new weapons in Forges of Corruption are the Rocket Launcher, which has an amazing visual effect and deals a ton of area damage in an AoE, and the Mega Melter, which is honestly the only addition to the arsenal I could have hoped for. The weapons in the Boltgun base game are very well implemented, each playing their own unique role and countering certain enemies, but it felt like there wasn’t really anything to annihilate the bosses with. Enter the Mega Smelter, my new favorite for getting close to a Greater Demon and sending it back to the warp with as many flame shots as necessary. As with the base game weapons, the sound design is once again on point, and these two new instruments create a perfect chorus of sweet death for the enemies of the Imperium.
While there was a lot of talk last week about another DLC, Warhammer 40,000 fans, former boltgun players, and those who just want a great boomerang shooter campaign shouldn’t miss Forges of Corruption. For £4.99 you get a decent campaign full of stylized scenes and levels, a few new enemies that will feel your wrath, and some great weapons to dish out your fury with. It’s a fast-paced mini-sequel to the base game. Tight and focused, it gives me high hopes for the next hell Malum Caedo finds himself in.
