Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[luj1]

It wouldn't surprise me if some of their assets are literally Wrath placeholders

Amazing discovery Sherlock

 

[Salvo]

Game's quite brutal so far

 

[Salvo]

Basically you have a bar called Momentum that fills when you do certain actions (mainly killing enemies), after passing a certain threshold you can activate "Heroic Actions", which are ultimate like abilities

The Sister of Battle, for example, can ignore the limit of attacks per round as long as she keeps killing enemies with each attack, meaning you can mow down half the field in one turn if you set it up correctly

OTOH, if your momentum is super low, you can activate the "Desperate" version of the skill, which is mechanically the same but will stop you from gaining any further momentum, meaning you forgo a lot of bonuses in the long run if you activate it early


All in all the combat seems fun and quick, but I can see it rapidly turning into Alpha-Striking everyone due to how lethal it is



EDIT: You get your own personal Servo-Skull which broadcasts your titles as it follows you around, how cool is that

 

[Salvo]

couple of screenshots

 

[Dadd]

0% VA >>> 100% VA > between 0% and 100% VA
Yes, voice acting requires good voice actors, and this does not contradict what I said.

It contradicts 100% being over the 0-100% range, as most games are voiced badly, because of bad voice acting.
You should try to motivate what you say instead of thinking your shit taste applies to everyone without need to be explained.

Unclear what you mean by "motivate" in this context. Partially voiced games are worse than fully voiced because the voice acting dictates how the characters are supposed to sound, unlike games with no voice acting where you are free to imagine how characters sound like without having to ignore voiced parts of the game, without providing the convenience of fully voiced games.

 

[Koolz]

Sir, I thank you for the pictures.

 

[hivemind]

combat feels lethal (on core at least) enough but there most of the fights I tried so far felt like way too overbloated with the number of enemies

 

[hivemind]

character systems and progression looks like a disaster but it also looks visibly unfinished so :hopium: I guess

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Not the biggest fan of the fact that the alpha has a start "in media res" where you are dropped in the middle of the story (...I guess?) at level 15.
I would have prefer to see the actual beginning of the game and being introduced to each system and skill gradually.

 

[Dodo1610]

I like the alpha except the garbage ship combat.
I really like the companions so far, they even seem to react more than in Wrath

BG3 has ruined these old school CRPGs for me though
- very little exploration
-no interactivity
-NCPs just stand around and have no dialogue
-no vertacility

Owlcat maps are pretty but feel utterly lifeless.

 

[Salvo]

I like the alpha except the garbage ship combat.
I really like the companions so far, they even seem to react more than in Wrath

BG3 has ruined these old school CRPGs for me though
- very little exploration
-no interactivity
-NCPs just stand around and have no dialogue
-no vertacility

Owlcat maps are pretty but feel utterly lifeless.

Keep in mind that's the entirety of Larian's shtick, they use collected data to hyperinflate the amount of reactivity / different choices that you can do thanks to early access

Like in D:OS 2 though, this only works for the part available to players in said early access (Act 1), meaning all the content and different quest resolutions is frontloaded ---> reactivity falls off a cliff post-beginning


Owlcat is certainly worse in the quest, and I reckon even the writing department, but their games are simply more fun

 

[Johnny Biggums]

I like the alpha except the garbage ship combat.
I really like the companions so far, they even seem to react more than in Wrath

BG3 has ruined these old school CRPGs for me though
- very little exploration
-no interactivity
-NCPs just stand around and have no dialogue
-no vertacility

Owlcat maps are pretty but feel utterly lifeless.

Solasta ruined the no (or limited) verticality for me. Some might say it's just a gimmick, but after I played with toons flying around and climbing on walls it feels like obvious decline to not have that and be iteratively improving on it within the genre (particularly in the weightless vacuum of outer space). To be fair, there are set pieces in BG3 where vertical ideas and options are well done.

 

[luj1]

Somehow it doesnt evoke the "Wh40k" vibe at all


Looks too cartoony

 

[luj1]

BG3 has ruined these old school CRPGs for me though
- very little exploration
-no interactivity
-NCPs just stand around and have no dialogue
-no vertacility

Haven't played, but it's one of those Dark Age (2004-2012) RPGs such as Dragon Age or Mass Effect where everything must be "cinematic" and voice acted leading to games trying to be movies (less content)

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Ah man.... here we fucking go!

Char creation is handled in a somewhat simplistic fashion in comparison to the acuall RT PnP rules, but it is most certainly serviceable.

Graphics are OK and the UI is indeed p. gud. The dialogues also seem to be written pretty well. As someone who played Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader for years I am delighted to see how much accurate lore is weaved into the dialogues. The devs really did their homework and managed to bring the Koronus Expanse/Calixis sector lore to live. Is this what the D&D fags feel like when playing Baldurs Gate or w/e? In any case it feels great! I almost came when I sow Kasballica, Drussians and Winterscale mentioned in one of the first conversations.

You fly around on the map that isnt too diferent from ME2. You can even scan planets lol.

You can travel with the party of 6 + the PC, which is quite an ansamble, you dont need to take full squad all the time though.

Combat is OK, there are separate movement and action points, you can take cover behind stuff and use abilities. Nothing ground breaking, but functional.

What I like:

Ranged weapons actualy are very much ranged, you can fire and receive fire from several screens away.
Friendly fire is real - you need to be mindful of positioning of your party members when using ranged weapons and AoE abilities, it is fair and works on enemies too
Some really cool abilities, like the Navigator´s Lidless Stare that can make huge difference in combat when used properly
Cool gore and weapon effects (ie bolter rounds explode inside enemies, plasma burns them etc)


What I dont like:

Enemies seem to be able to walk away from close combat range with impunity, in PnP locking the enemies in close combat was a major tactic
Attack actions remove all your movement points, I wish you could still move after at least normal attacks - that would add tactical depth


I am going to play some more before I pass judgement on the character progression and itemisation.

More impressions coming soon.

 

[jungl]

so is this better then narcos rise of the cartels?

 

[Grunker]

Enemies seem to be able to walk away from close combat range with impunity

According to Mortismal there are AoOs?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

so is this better then narcos rise of the cartels?

As someone who played both games, I can tell you that yes, it is.

Enemies seem to be able to walk away from close combat range with impunity

According to Mortismal there are AoOs?

Dunno man, I rushed my PC into a crowd of shooters, hoping to lock them in close combat like I would have done in PnP, one of them just took a step back and blasted me in the face with a shotgun, while the PC did nothing. I sure hope that AoOs will be added, it sucks not to have them.

 

[Alienman]

Enemies seem to be able to walk away from close combat range with impunity, in PnP locking the enemies in close combat was a major tactic

This is a thing that has to be fixed. What's the point of melee otherwise.

 

[Johnny Biggums]

Can anyone say more about what's off about the art style? I'm not a 40k guy. My impression of 40k is it's sci-fi but with a mash of gothic, theocratic, fascist-imperialist, and body horror themes, and the feel of the universe is much more tragic than comedic.

 

[Dadd]

Can anyone say more about what's off about the art style? I'm not a 40k guy. My impression of 40k is it's sci-fi but with a mash of gothic, theocratic, fascist-imperialist, and body horror themes, and the feel of the universe is much more tragic than comedic.

Shoulder pads are too small

 

[Tomas]

so is this better then narcos rise of the cartels?

As someone who played both games, I can tell you that yes, it is.

Enemies seem to be able to walk away from close combat range with impunity

According to Mortismal there are AoOs?

Dunno man, I rushed my PC into a crowd of shooters, hoping to lock them in close combat like I would have done in PnP, one of them just took a step back and blasted me in the face with a shotgun, while the PC did nothing. I sure hope that AoOs will be added, it sucks not to have them.

Have to have melee weapon equipped. How did you get a Alpha key?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

so is this better then narcos rise of the cartels?

As someone who played both games, I can tell you that yes, it is.

Enemies seem to be able to walk away from close combat range with impunity

According to Mortismal there are AoOs?

Dunno man, I rushed my PC into a crowd of shooters, hoping to lock them in close combat like I would have done in PnP, one of them just took a step back and blasted me in the face with a shotgun, while the PC did nothing. I sure hope that AoOs will be added, it sucks not to have them.

Have to have melee weapon equipped. How did you get a Alpha key?

My PC had a melee weapon though (he has a sword + plasma pistol by default). I will be trying it some more, perhaps it was some kind of a glitch but in any case, AoO need to work 100% of time, otherwise it detracts from the tactical depth considerably.

I got the Alpha by buying the relevant tier from Owlcat´s website.

 

[luj1]

More impressions coming soon.

Where is the minigame

 

[Tyranicon]

Can anyone say more about what's off about the art style? I'm not a 40k guy. My impression of 40k is it's sci-fi but with a mash of gothic, theocratic, fascist-imperialist, and body horror themes, and the feel of the universe is much more tragic than comedic.

Owlcat made no deviations from their standard style (cartoonish, nu Blizzard-esque graphics) to match the grimdark of the 40k setting. There's a grittiness that the smooth, pristine style of Owlcat is impossible to convey. The sense that the setting you live in is old, decaying, that you are merely the latest generation of ag-world peasants striving to serve a humanity more vast than you can imagine.

Even a Rogue Trader, one of the most powerful class of individuals in the Imperium, will feel that insignificance.

Ironically old Blizzard (Diablo I + II especially) had that grittiness.

Take a look at the Rouge Trader screenshots and at something like Dark Tide which imo nails that aesthetic.

And now look at the glorious art: