This would be true if Pathfinder Wrath of the righteous have had sold LESS than Kingmaker and had a lower Peak Player numbers in steam.. But Wrath sold better than KM in a similar time frame AND doubled the the player count.
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...tall-plans-modified-and-ceo-fired-lol.148268/
Nah, I want more games in WH40k as that setting is superior to almost any other.
Maybe it wasn't their decision, could've been GW's decision so 2024 could solely be focused on SM2.
Not at the cost of bringing Owlscat fans into the hobby.
Rogue Trader is the first Warhammer 40K game I've played that feels genuinely epic
A review-in-progress of Owlcat's latest CRPG
In the grim darkness of the far future… I will finish my review of Owlcat’s Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. It turns out that trying to complete an estimated 100-hour RPG during the run-up to The Game Awards is too much for this humble Scriptor. There are still many more tabletop-style planetary maps to discover and plunder, many more character levels to scale, and many more cursed artefacts to tamper with before my protagonist, the closet Chaos worshipper Bruschetta de Plonque, can pronounce herself mistress of the Kronos Expanse - assuming the Inquisition doesn’t claim her first. But after 20 hours of the game, I can absolutely say that I’m looking forward to the next 80. While it doesn’t have the cinematic swagger and raw anecdote-generating capacity of obvious rival Baldur's Gate 3, Rogue Trader has mystique and depth to spare, both in terms of its grotty narrative and its exceedingly busy combat and levelling systems.
Image credit: Owlcat Games
The depth is a mild shock, to be honest. Warhammer 40K is arguably the ultimate work of sci-fantasy greebling. Its "High Gothic" universe appears nightmarishly storied, bristling with spires and skulls and scrolls and seals, with ancient, cathedralic voidships and battle machines that have actual souls. But in practice, of course, it can be brutally simplistic. It’s about a bunch of big stupid space empires that exist on a permanent war footing, each shaped and structured by blunt hatred of the rest. Even today, after however many cross-media adaptations and spin-offs, you can see that this setting began life as a gleefully ham-fisted joke about the draconian tendencies and colonial nostalgia of Thatcherite Britain. There's a heck of a lot of writing involved but, for my money, the writing is often an extension of the greebling – literally, in the case of the faux-Latin text etched into monuments and weapons – and that is how things come across in many Warhammer 40K videogames, even those that don’t fixate on the spectacle of chainswords and bolters. Rogue Trader is one of the few I’ve played that earnestly digs into this world and tries to develop characters and plotlines, and it’s quietly compelling so far.
Above all, that’s because it gives you enough license and leeway that those stories actually have time to evolve. As the titular Rogue Trader, you have limited permission from the God-Emperor to pursue personal glory, amass a power base consisting of a private voidship and planetary colonies, and experiment with Chaotic forces and other heretical pursuits that would otherwise be deemed grounds for execution - as long as this works out to the benefit of the Imperium eventually.
You can have other people executed at the drop of a hat, or more accurately a head, and there are smaller opportunities to play tyrant throughout dialogue: I once had my ship’s comms officer lashed for accidentally ending a conference call early. But you yourself can get away with quite a lot, despite being surrounded by devout servants of the Imperium. Here are some things I’ve done in full view of my party and crew: accepted a demonic apparition’s offer of help; stabbed some malfunctioning Servitors with a cursed blade, harvesting their souls, during one of the game’s choose-your-own-adventure style storybook interludes; opened negotiations with some cutthroats who are either Chaos worshippers or happy to work with them.
Image credit: Owlcat Games
My character Bruschetta is, I think, pretty obviously a Wrong ‘Un. She’s a spaceborn aristocrat with contagious bad luck that is alternately helpful and a hindrance in combat. Character creation includes a choice of Triumphs and Darkest Hours that comprise your backstory: Bruschetta’s Darkest Hour is that her family library contains a mysterious tome that has somewhat wrecked her mind. The game also gives you a choice of voice-actors – naturally, I’ve picked the “mad” one which causes Bruschetta to say things like “they will see, oh yes, THEY WILL SEE” when I assign movement orders. But all this misbehaviour has earned me little more than worried looks from Argenta, my group’s ultra-pious Sister of Battle, and some occasional scolding from my Seneschal, Abelard, a stalwart graduate of the Imperial Navy.
This might sound like a cop-out, and perhaps that’s what it’ll prove to be. But the game’s elaborate and exhaustive character writing is sustaining it so far, and that’s mostly because the starting major side characters aren’t the brittle personifications of the underlying alignment system they appear to be. Argenta is the quintessential handsome young fascist on the surface, but she carries a weight of secret sorrow that softens her otherwise dogmatic assessments of the blasphemers we encounter. Abelard manages your voidship with an iron fist – at one point, we had a massive falling-out because I insisted on compromising with some mutinous crew members on the lower levels – but I get the sense he values decisive, clever leadership over devotion to any individual cause. Idira, your psyker or sanctioned Chaos wizard, is driven by a mixture of fear at being possessed by the demonic forces at her command and resentment at being ostracised as a Warp-sensitive, however loyal to the Emperor.
The three are at once bound together and burdened by their memories of Theodora, your exalted predecessor as Rogue Trader, who quits the scene early on in mysterious circumstances, triggering your ascension. Predictably enough, it turns out they didn’t know her quite as well as they thought they did. All these people are, in short, enmeshed in the act of figuring themselves out, and I’m enjoying peeling back their layers as I pursue my not-very-hidden Chaos sympathies. It helps that there’s a pretty clear division in dialogue between heretical remarks that only have a short-term effect, square-bracketed options that permanently affect your overall character alignment, and those that might even trigger a confrontation with a party member.
Image credit: Owlcat Games
I’m also enjoying the game’s turn-based combat system, though I do have notes. It’s a slightly rickety but engrossing balance of simple and bewildering. On the one hand, this is essentially a game about moving people into full or half-cover and flanking opponents who are trying to do the same. Overarching mechanics include reactive attacks of opportunity when people try to move away during melee, the risk of friendly fire, especially when firing a burst, and a set of class-specific, potentially match-winning Ultimates that become available when you gain enough Momentum from kills or conversely, take enough of a beating.
It almost seems intuitive, from a distance. But on the other hand, each character has dozens upon dozens of abilities spread across various classes and subclasses, which you can stack and combine to transformative effect, and which threaten to wreak all kinds of havoc towards the endgame.
Bruschetta is an Officer, for example, whose starting signature ability lets her choose another party member as her personal minion, applying status modifiers that affect both parties for the duration of the battle. You can expand on this with upgrades that, say, make the officer-minion relationship more defensively inclined, with self-heals that kick in when you’re next to each other, or which unlock combos when you attack the same target. Abelard is a classic lightning bruiser, never happier than when barging forward to bog groups down or occupy the attention of a boss, but he can also be reconfigured as a support, with abilities derived from his Imperial Navy career that scatter enemies who are trying to mob your team. Idira’s psyker powers cause the veil of reality to collapse, unleashing various kinds of demonic activity, but my Navigator, Cassia, has an unlock that repairs the veil when she, say, mesmerises a foe into running towards her. So if I put her and Idira together, I can keep things in equilibrium.
Image credit: Owlcat Games
Or at least, I think I can. The obvious downside of all of the above is that Rogue Trader can be absolutely impenetrable, even by RPG standards. The tutorial battles do a solid job of showing you the ropes, but the progression system throws you into the deep end with lengthy lists of unlocks per character level, the applications and overall value of which are difficult to visualise. As you’d expect from a Warhammer game, the UI is a festering expanse of crenellated menus, Latinisms and billions of ability icons perched in nested circles.
The game does recommend certain abilities with thumbs-up icons, but this is akin to a nudge towards the approximate end of a corridor crowded with people bellowing phrases like “+2 temporary wounds per Archetype taken”. If you’re going to play Rogue Trader, be prepared to spend a fair few of those estimated 100 hours with your eyes closed, straining to picture scenarios before choosing an unlock. I’m enjoying the process, but a bit more guidance would have been appreciated. People who get excessive FOMO about choosing the wrong progression path should probably steer clear.
But anybody who’s in the mood for another massive RPG should definitely take an interest, pending my full review. There’s still time for things to go south, mind you. The writing has so far struck a good balance between committing to the worldbuilding, and poking fun at it, but there’s the risk of it becoming over-serious as the stakes are raised. The battle system’s complexities could prove to be inelegant and gratuitous in hindsight. The big thing, for me, is how much choice of alignment changes the story, and how much Owlcat will have to rein in the possibilities as the decisions multiply and evolve. I hope they’re fully committed to unpacking the consequences of Heresy, in particular. I’d hate for daft old Bruschetta to make it to the finishing line unscathed.
Rogue Trader’s role-playing embraces the brutality and freedom of Warhammer 40K
I’m the Rogue Trader now, and it’s everybody’s problem
By Cass Marshall Dec 6, 2023, 8:00am EST
5 Comments / 0 New
Share this story
- Share this on Facebook (opens in new window)
- Share this on Twitter (opens in new window)
- SHAREAll sharing options
Image: Owlcat Games/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72936015/roguetraderkeyart.0.png "The party in Rogue Trader, including a Sisster of Battle, a Space Wolf, an Aeldari Ranger, a Navigator, a Psyker, and a Seneschal fight off hordes of Dark Eldar in the game’s key art.")
Cass Marshall is a news writer focusing on gaming and culture coverage, taking a particular interest in the human stories of the wild world of online games.
“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.” That’s the tagline of Warhammer 40,000, one of the most over-the-top and brutal sci-fi settings around. But even in a merciless, brutal dystopia that grinds its people into dust, some get to enjoy being on the top of the food chain. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is about the perils and pleasures of being atop that particular hierarchy.
Rogue Traders in 40K are freelance explorers, scouting the far frontiers of the Imperium of Man. It’s a risky career, but it comes with luxurious rewards: agency, freedom, power, and a giant flagship. As the player, I explore a system of the Imperium with a loyal crew of companions, making impactful choices and determining the fate of those around me.
Rogue Trader is a computer role-playing game in the vein of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Pillars of Eternity. I create my custom protagonist, determining stats and bonuses based on my backstory, home world, and so on. I’m then thrust into a high-pressure job interview as a potential heir to a Rogue Trader aboard her flagship. Little do we know that there’s a coup in the works, and traitors aboard the ship. After a deadly struggle against heretics and demons, I ascend to the position of Rogue Trader. I’m the captain now, and I get to decide how to run my ship.
Image: Owlcat Games:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24276007/sister.jpg "A Sister of Battle as depiected in Rogue Trader by Owlcat Games. A member of the Sisters of our Martyred Lady, she holds a massive bolter in two hands.")
This is a vast game, with tons of features you’d expect from a CRPG — companions (each with their own narrative paths and conversation trees), top-down strategic combat, and branching choices that impact the world around you. I get to make choices all day — in fact, that’s part of the gig of a Rogue Trader. Some are more important than others; whenever I get to specific points in the story, I can choose from one of three major paths. Dogmatic choices exult the God-Emperor and loathe the mutant and the witch, the Heretical options pursue corruptive power, and the Ionoclast path is the closest thing we have to modern-day “good guy” morality.
After the events of the tutorial, my beautiful voidship is run down and my staff is struggling. As the newly anointed Rogue Trader, I have to trek around the various planets of the Koronus Expanse to get a new Navigator, fix my ship up, and avoid any major diplomatic incidents with the locals. My voidship is the size of a modern city; I’m as much a governor as a captain, and I have to manage the ship, its cargo, and its many occupants.
In the process of getting back on my feet, I uncover a nefarious cult and a deep conspiracy. It’s not an easy job, but I’m blessed with a handful of companions from the Imperium to help me out. I can call on them to unlock doors or perform other environmental checks, but they come most in handy in combat.
When I meet opposition, it’s deeply satisfying to control my troops in a turn-based battle. Each fight takes place on a grid; it’s very similar to Baldur’s Gate 3 or even XCOM 2. Some positions provide cover, while others are out in the open. Friendly fire is also a very real concern. An arc of auto-fire from a bolter, or a Navigator’s third eye opening, can harm friend as well as foe. My Rogue Trader is a sniper, and she would be lost without her Senechal taking the front lines. There’s a lot of firepower at my disposal, and it’s mostly quite satisfying to use — even if I occasionally shred my poor Senechal with a devastating AOE.
Image: Owlcat Games:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25135215/TaintedStreets_1.png "A Rogue Trader and his companions are mid-combat, which shows the grid-based movement and cover systems of the new CRPG from Owlcat Games.")
I can chat with the companions between battles, learning more about their pasts. Most of them have deep and dark secrets I can uncover with a little time or patience, and they have fascinating stories to tell. Abelard, my Senechal, is a guy who sucks morally but will back me to the absolute hilt. I grew to love hearing about his days in the Imperial Navy, and he was the one guy I felt like I could trust. Augusta, a Sister of Battle, starts as a one-note zealot, but cracks form in that facade when I learn about her past and doubts. Cassia and Pasqal both represent two sub-factions in 40K, and they have lots to share about the Navigators and Tech-Priests.
My absolute favorite companion is Marazhai Aezyrraesh, a dark space elf who feeds off the suffering of sentient beings. He’s cruel, depraved, and an absolute hoot. Yes, he may flay a few too many people for my tastes, but he’s the best companion to bring to a party.
In the grand scheme of things, this is one of the most complete and detailed explorations of the 40K universe you can find. The game is an homage to the Warhammer 40K RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games, including Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy. I spent years as a teenager and young adult poring over these sourcebooks (which Rogue Trader is inspired by), learning more about the tiny details of life in the Imperium. Developer Owlcat Games has paid the same attention to every detail of the Koronus Expanse. I delve into ancient facilities staffed by tech-priests of the Machine God, the hostile xenos city of Commorragh, or massive cities built to honor the God-Emperor of Mankind.
I love the characters, the environments, the writing, the lore, and the flow of battles. But I have concerns with the game’s pacing. By the end of the first chapter, I had leveled up 16 times. Each level offered marginal rewards, like being able to move slightly farther during the character’s turn in combat or having a higher parry chance when being attacked. A slow drip-feed system means each level feels less important, and even though I’m growing stronger, I don’t get that sense of long-term satisfaction.
Image: Owlcat Games:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25135302/Lab_1.png "A nefarious room for scientific experiments, with gurneys and green lighting, in the world of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader")
It’s especially frustrating to hit a roadblock like the one at the end of Act 1, where an incredibly tough boss rolls out of nowhere and spanks my crew — and I can’t leave to go grind experience somewhere else. I eventually found out a way to cheese the fight by focusing on my melee fighters’ positioning, but it took far too long banging my head against the wall. The victory tasted like ash in my mouth after all that frustration.
Voidship combat is another aspect that feels clunky and frustrating. Like the squad-based skirmishes, naval encounters are also turn-based, where positioning is ultra important. Space naval battles should feel tense, but instead, I’m mostly annoyed at having to continually rotate my ship and set up my zones of attack. I wish I could delegate these annoyances to my Senechal — to delegate the duties of character leveling and ship combat, the better to appreciate all of the things Rogue Trader is doing so well.
Rogue Trader is a dense, vast game, and much of it has clearly been crafted with love for the expansive lore of the 40K canon. While there are small annoyances and clunky features along the way, the political intrigue, cast of characters, and moral choices have me hooked. For 40K fans, this is a rare treat — a game that digs past the heroic facade of bolters and battles and taps into the grimdark dystopia that makes this particular sci-fi setting so damn compelling.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader will be released on Dec. 7 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Owlcat Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships.
Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Review — A Grim Dark Odyssey
A long awaited Warhammer 40K CRPG executed superbly not only in terms of combat but also story, atmosphere, and character building.
Gordan Perisic
Image by Owlcat
With the massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3’s adaption of D&D5e, Owlcat has undertaken a similar herculean task of adapting Rogue Trader (2009). With Owlcat’s previous two adaptions of a TTRPG-turned-CRPG with Pathfinder, I was wondering how well they did with Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader.
As someone who has read through and even ran a couple of one-shots of Fantasy Flight’s 2009 TTRPG version, I was also very curious about how they managed to fit such a vast and complex system into an accessible game. With this in mind, there’s plenty to go through here, including the combat system, interactive story, consequence system, ship combat, colony management, and more.
Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Review: A Grim Dark Odyssey
I can’t help but compare Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader to both Baldur’s Gate 3 and Kingmaker/Wrath of the Righteous. I played all three games and loved them for their crunchy translations of TTRPG rules into actionable CRPG mechanics. The neat part is that they’re all based on D&D, with BG3 being the fifth edition and Kingmaker/WotR being Pathfinder, which is based on D&D third edition.
However, Rogue Trader tackles a whole different system and switches out epic fantasy for the grim darkness of the far future where there’s only war (Or WAAAGH, if you’re cool and green enough). You take control of a Rogue Trader, a Lord Captain of an imperial voidship outfitted with a loyal and diverse crew set on exploring the far reaches of the Koronus Expanse, where you’ll face classic WH40K factions and “chaotic” encounters.
Screenshot by GameSkinny
First and foremost, Owlcat nailed the combat system by not necessarily adapting the TTRPG beat for beat but actually simplifying it slightly to fit the digital medium. The crunchy aim-shoot-dodge or strike-dodge-parry d100 test feel is still there but streamlined for new players. One of the core (and exciting) mechanics is Momentum, a morale system that allows you to activate powerful ultimate abilities to turn the tide of battle.
That said, the character creation system is where things get real and the complexities of Rogue Trader hit for the first time. It’s not as simple as picking a race and class and being done with it. You can customize your Homeworld, Origin, Sub-origin (Psykers), Triumphs & Darkest Hours, Archetype, and finally Skills with each section being highly mechanically or narratively relevant. Archetypes are your class but are modified by your mechanical abilities from your Homeworld, and Origin and Skills are your roleplaying/combat characteristics modified by your Triumphs & DH throughout the game’s story.
For example, I created two characters with two simple ideas in mind: I wanted to play a sniper character and a psionic-power-using Psyker. I picked the Operative Archetype and that suited a sniper character fine, but my Fortress World abilities for double shots and Crime Lord abilities for single-shot damage boosts propelled the build to a whole new level of depth.
Screenshot by GameSkinny
Furthermore, being a Psyker isn’t even your class but an origin option that can modify your Archetype. On that character, I took the multi-attacking Marksman option that’s usually for gun-wielders, but it worked with my Psyker abilities, allowing me to fire off powers twice per turn.
It’s a beautifully vast system that takes a while to get used to but is incredibly rewarding and offers incredible customization. While I love titles like this, it’s sad to say its complexity might turn some people off from the game, especially since we haven’t even gotten into the combat system yet. It’s noteworthy that Owlcat has introduced some hand-holding with the Recommended Talents section during Level Up, but it offers only a few options and wanes later as you pick up more advanced Archetypes.
Just this alone describes how Rogue Trader is an acquired taste for players who generally like the detail-oriented intricacies of CRPGs. While the game is narratively accessible for newcomers to the WH40K universe, mechanical unfriendliness does exist at first for those who haven’t played the Rogue Trader TTRPG. Still, the same can be said for the Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous Pathfinder adaptions and those two performed well at launch with new players, so this might not be as big of an issue as I’m making it out to be.
If this sounds like fun to you, you’ll have a blast choosing from the various weapons that have alternate fire modes like Single Shot and area-spanning Burst Shots. Then, your party composition in combat comes into effect, where you’re combining the various abilities of custom characters you can create with companions. This is further boosted by the excellent drop-in online co-op system, where playing with your friends is seamless as you create your unique team composition (watch out for the Magicka-esque friendly fire system, though).
Each combination can work since every class has several ways to build it. I could design my Psyker around Pyromancy blasts from range or spec into a more melee-based tanky build with Biomancy or Sanctic. Experimentation is endless, and I have to applaud the developers for introducing custom companion creation and respecing early for someone like myself who likes to mix and match their own custom party.
Screenshot by GameSkinny
Furthermore, the narrative is incredible as you take command of your Rogue Trader ship, explore the Koronus Expanse through the Starmap, and interact with the multitudes of WH40K factions both imperial, heretical, and somewhere in between. The game introduces an Alignment and Reputation system, where your dialogue story choices are tracked giving you new unique options based on how you roleplay your Rogue Trader.
Different companion NPCs may join your party based on these choices or alternate approaches to encounters present themselves depending on your story preferences. Furthermore, through various factors, like how you interact with Imperial Inquisitors and various other groups, the story shifts and changes into new directions, triggering multiple endings or different scenarios down the line. For example, my sniper and Psyker followed the Benevolencia and Hereticus paths respectively. Where the Benevolencia path allowed me better diplomatic relationships with certain characters, the Hereticus path allowed me to take control of a Mauler/Forge Fiend Daemon Engine in one encounter.
The latter was one of my favorite scenes in all of CRPGs ever.
Screenshot by GameSkinny
On top of all of this, WH40K Rogue Trader has two mini-game systems with Colony Management and Voidship Combat as you progress through the story. Similar to Kingmaker, you’ll have a slew of resources displayed at the top as you make decisions on how you manage your crew and colonies on other planets. You can plunder and build up a small cast of followers for your own gain while deploying an occasional Exterminatus on an unredeemable planet or try to save and take in as many new people at the cost of precious resources. Overall, the game slowly introduces new mechanics and mini-games as you progress from Act 1 to Act 2.
As for Voidship combat starting from Act 2, it’s a surprisingly developed system that’s simple to learn in a few runs. It’s no Battlefleet Gothic Armada or Crying Suns, but it will still prove enjoyable alongside ground-based combat. You can upgrade and level up your ship, allowing it to take many different maneuvering, defensive, and offensive actions in combat. There’s a neat movement mechanic based around Acceleration and Battering other ships. However, ranged weapons are your best bet with various options like manually-aimed torpedoes, long-range lance weapons, or AoE macro cannons.
The system is elevated when you consider that in online co-op, each of your friends can control a different part of the ship, like one friend being a Master of Maneuvers for movement and another focusing on offense with the Master Cannoneer role. Companions grant you different abilities in these stations and some are better than others based on their Origin like Abelard being a Navy Officer. That said, one issue I had with ship combat is that it’s not interwoven too well into the story and is more like its own separate thing. Sometimes, optional ship battles can feel like a slog you’re going through without a clear story purpose.
This is fine because you can skip most fights, but then you won’t be strong enough to undertake some of the mandatory fights later on. I quite liked it overall, but it does need a bit more work to incorporate it properly into the main story by, for example, introducing complex dialogue sections during ship combat.
Screenshot by GameSkinny (Owlcat Showcase)
When it comes to difficulty, it’s highly customizable in a similar manner as in Pathfinder Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous. You can alter specific values, such as skill check difficulty, combat damage, enemy critical hit frequency, Voidship combat difficulty, and much more. Then again, you can simply fire up the Core difficulty mode, which emulates the experience of playing in a Rogue Trader TTRPG session.
On Core, I found the game to be balanced just right, even though it warns you to start on Normal. You’ll struggle at the beginning not because the game is difficult — even though it can be with some difficulty spikes like Chaos Marines — but because the combat and character leveling system take time to learn. Luckily, there’s no perma-death, you have access to saves, and you can respec at any time and fix your character-building mistakes. In fact, characters don’t die when they fall to 0 in combat; they just fall unconscious and receive debuffing Injuries and Traumas, which can be treated later.
Where I did find the game difficult was more due to clunky console interface controls which could use a bit more work on the port’s side. That said, the game is incredibly well-optimized performance-wise and will run even on slightly outdated machines.
Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Review — The Bottom Line
Screenshot by GameSkinny
Pros
- An incredible amount of character-building options that are endlessly replayable.
- A visually stunning and beautifully crunchy combat system that feels very rewarding to learn.
- An atmospheric WH40K grim dark story that is highly interactable, full of neat twists, and rewards agency.
- Seamless drop-in online co-op mode where you can carry your progress over to single-player.
- A Voidship combat mini-game that is surprisingly well-developed mechanically.
- Quick access to the ability to create a full custom party and respec when needed.
- A Space Wolf companion (no further elaboration).
Cons
The best compliment I can give Rogue Trader is that it is a faithful love letter to the Warhammer 40K universe. Many of the aspects that fans of 40K want in a CRPG game are here, from various iconic factions to superbly-designed gritty tactical combat. Most story choices feel incredibly meaningful and character-building decisions are usually fun despite a slew of useless Talents.
- Too many passive abilities that can take hours to read but make classes feel identical. They can sometimes even bury the more active fun options.
- Clunky interface controls on consoles, especially in the Level Up menu.
- Voidship combat needs more narrative ties to the main story.
- Though there are many great ones, the barrage of useless Talents on the first few Level Ups might repel new players, and the recommended section needs to be expanded.
The problem is that quantity doesn’t beat quality in character building, as many of the Archetypes can suffer from a lack of variety if not built properly. If the Level Up screen was fixed, both in terms of controls and by culling the “+Small% damage to one gun type” Talents, this game would be perfect.
On the bright side, there are so many interesting abilities and interactions between Archetypes, Origins, and Homeworlds that allow you to build tons of character options. Owlcat just needs to make sure they’re all balanced and viable to avoid that “one option per class to rule them all” problem. That said, the full release is miles better than the beta and this game has a bright future alongside Kingmaker and WotR with the potential to even surpass them.
I’d say Owlcat’s Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader can even offer a competent fight against Baldur’s Gate 3, which is saying a lot. That narrative consequences & agency system combined with a highly customizable ground & ship combat is just that good.
[Note: Owlcat Games provided the PS5 copy of Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader used for this review.]
Image by Owlcat
9
Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Review — A Grim Dark Odyssey
A long awaited Warhammer 40K CRPG executed superbly not only in terms of combat but also story, atmosphere, and character building.
What Our Ratings Mean
Sure beat whatever the journo consider as "neutral god".
fitting
the opinion of the most pathetic dumbest cuck available
sometime i wish i wouldnt have learned to read...
Need greedy vatnik emoji
I'd like to think that the reviewers are overexaggerating the bugs. I played Wrathfinder on release too and it was an overall stable experience with (non-combat) bugs being mostly limited to one or two side quests, particularly in the later areas of the game. I'm hoping that it's the same for this game, but we'll see soon enough I guess.
