This review contains stylized images of violence, blood, and gore.
Forges of Corruption is premium downloadable content for 2023’s Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, a first-person shooter that uses stylized, low resolution textures and character models in a low-poly world to create the visual style of videogames that were popular in the 1990s. The story picks up immediately after Boltgun’s main campaign. Malum Caedo, the sole survivor of his Ultramarine unit’s original mission, arrives back on the Inquisitorial Cruiser in orbit around the planet Graia and is informed by Inquisitor Seibel that he must return to Graia for another mission. Forces of the Archenemy, the Chaos Marines, have seized a Manufactorum, a city-sized machine that can mass produce weapons of war. Armed with just a Boltgun and chainsaw sword, the efficient and deadly signature weapons of the Ultramarines, Malum must destroy the Daemonic Forge at the Manufactorum’s heart. If he fails, it may be too late to stop the wave of Chaos that will sweep over the Imperium of Man.
As its premise suggests, Forges of Corruption isn’t doing a lot to reimagine the circumstances of the base Boltgun videogame. It adds a new campaign of five levels which I access from the main menu’s Chapter Select screen. Malum runs through each broadly linear level, searching for keys to open doors, expanding his arsenal of weapons, and gunning down anything that gets in his way. Anything that moves on Graia is a deadly and dangerous enemy who will attack Malum on sight.
Forges of Corruption’s first four levels are much longer than those that appear in the Boltgun campaign, taking about an hour each to finish. The final level is technically short but is a punishing gauntlet against neverending waves of Chaos Marines and Daemons; though the timer at the level’s concluding screen records ten minutes of play, it takes me well over an hour to actually see Malum successfully through the onslaught on the default difficulty. Forges of Corruption offers a decent playtime of more than five hours and a considerable challenge for its modest install price.
The environments these levels take place in look exactly the same as the ones which appear in the base Boltgun campaign, grinding a barren planet ravaged by industrial manufacturing together with solemn and ominous gothic cathedrals. A level may begin in an arid canyon or on a snowy mountaintop prowled by Autogun Cultists, then enter a dingy sewer infested with Nurglings, which leads to a factory floor lit by the blazing heat of a massive forge where Chaos Marines patrol. The aesthetics still impress with their retro-90s stylings but this DLC does little to expand my vision of Graia’s scarred surface beyond what I see in the Boltgun campaign.
While Forges of Corruption makes few changes to Graia’s surface, it is not without new additions in other areas. Three new varieties of Chaos Marine appear to stop Malum’s march towards the Daemonic Forge. The Havoc, a ranged heavy weapons specialist, and the Terminator, a brawler equipped with electric claws, are the most common sights. They easily slip in with the Chaos Space Marines and Aspiring Champions from the base campaign. They are usually dead before I realize that Malum is fighting something different from the norm.
The Helbrute is a more dangerous and noticeable addition to the Archenemy forces. Every Space Marine in Warhammer 40,000 is already wearing powered armor, so the Helbrute is more accurately described as a bipedal tank who stomps determinedly towards Malum to crush him with slow swings from its gigantic fists. Able to absorb huge amounts of ammunition from Malum’s arsenal, they turn any risky encounter into a much more tense one. Though they are the top tier of the Chaos Space Marines, they are still an elite soldier, not a boss one. Set pieces in this DLC campaign still climax with encounters against the same Great Unclean Ones and Lords of Change Malum fights many times in the base campaign.
As Malum fights to the heart of the Manufactorum, he finds two new weapons to help him vanquish his dangerous new foes. The first is an ordinary Missile Launcher. This is such a predictable and traditional weapon in a first-person shooter it takes me some time to remember it is not part of the Boltgun campaign. Since several of the new levels require the destruction of key parts of the Daemonic Forge, it’s still a welcome inclusion. The other new addition is the Multi-Melta, a heavy weapon which produces heat so intense it can literally melt anything caught in its limited range. It’s a bigger, slower, and deadlier version of the Melta gun that Malum wields in the Boltgun campaign; once again, Forges of Corruption chooses a safe path of being more, yet the same.
Forges of Corruption differentiates itself from the base campaign through the sheer scale of its levels and encounters. Enemy density is ramped up across the board. On Malum’s first mission to Graia, it is common for him to be swarmed by a dozen tiny Nurglings at once. At several points in the Manufactorum, Malum opens a door to find scores of the creatures rushing towards him. Using a few blasts from the Shotgun or Heavy Bolter to reduce them all to goblin goo is immensely satisfying.
Several levels feature set piece encounters in massive arenas. Using the powers of the Daemonic Forge to bolster their numbers, dozens of Space Marines and Daemons appear at once to attack Malum, forcing him to stay mobile and fight defensively across the multi-level arenas just to stay alive. The Boltgun campaign features a few of these encounters near its end. Forges of Corruption includes them as a standard feature and all make what Malum faced in his original mission feel small and controlled in comparison.
Malum is once again joined by the servo-skull Incommodus, a floating head filled with cybernetics and Imperium propaganda. Incommodus’ original role is dubious. He is meant to guide Malum but in practice the Ultramarine doesn’t need much guidance through the Boltgun campaign’s linear levels. Incommodus spends most of his time on screen calling out ammunition pickups Malum has already found and shouting warnings about enemies Malum has already seen.
Forges of Corruption upgrades Incommodus with a more useful navigation ability. With the press of a button, Incommodus generates a line of arrows at Malum’s feet showing him where he should go next. I find myself grateful for the assistance here even though I cannot recall one moment in the Boltgun campaign where I wish for more guidance. The DLC’s levels include much larger and more spacious areas. Progress is also sometimes impeded until Malum activates several buttons and levers which can be difficult to discern in the stylishly low-resolution environment. It’s a smart addition that takes into account Forges of Corruption’s greater scale.
The final addition is a new mode accessed from the Main Menu: Horde mode. Its setup is simple. After selecting from one of four difficulty levels, Malum is dropped without his weapons at the bottom of a spiraling room filled with ammunition. About halfway up the spiral, a Boltgun sits in the middle of the floor. Picking it up fills the room with basic enemies. Killing all of these enemies causes a Shotgun to spawn, which summons more powerful enemies when it is picked up. Malum must fight his way through every enemy wave while expanding his arsenal back out to its maximum on each attempt.
The Horde mode finds interesting ways to introduce challenges beyond overwhelming numbers. While playing the Boltgun and Forges of Corruption campaigns, it becomes second nature to wield certain weapons against certain enemies. The Aspiring Champions always take extra care. They are not only incredibly damaging if they can rush into Malum’s melee range, they can also resurrect themselves into an even faster and more powerful form called the Chosen Champion. Decapitating them with a high-powered weapon to prevent this transformation is nearly always worth the expended ammunition. The Horde mode disrupts this practice; Malum can’t decapitate Aspiring Champions if he does not yet possess the needed weapons when they begin appearing in early waves.
Later waves introduce more conundrums along this line. The arena overflows with ammunition and healing items but that matters little when Malum does not possess the weapons that are most effective against certain enemies. As challenging as Forges of Corruption’s gauntlets can be, they feel modest compared to the skill, precision, and persistence the Horde mode requires.
Last year I played and reviewed the Boltgun campaign through the Nintendo Switch version and, while I could sometimes feel the dated hardware affecting the performance, it was not severe enough to feel I needed to comment on it.
I cannot say the same for the Forges of Corruption campaign on Switch. The larger environments and greater number of enemies frequently mire the framerate into the low tens per second. The final gauntlet in the Daemonic Forge feels like it plays in slow motion, making its already considerable difficulty feel even moreso. Only my sheer stubborn determination to finish the DLC and its manageable playtime saw me through to success. I can recommend the base version of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun to Switch owners. They should skip the DLC. It’s playable, even beatable, but it’s not enjoyable.
Forges of Corruption is a true level pack in the tradition of DOOM. It is an uncomplicated and uncompromising five new levels. What it offers beside feels like meager additions. Two of the new Chaos Marine enemies blend in with the crowd. The third is only encountered a few times. The addition of a Horde mode is nice but it has little depth and did not hold my attention. If you enjoy the original Boltgun campaign, you will enjoy Forges of Corruption, provided you skip the lamentably performing Switch version. If you are hoping for something more than what Boltgun already offers, you will be disappointed.