Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - turn-based Warhammer 40k RPG from Owlcat Games - now with Void Shadows DLC

[Mortmal]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

 

[user]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

Yea I agree that some heretic options at least up to that point (ch3) are just like that and it really ruined the mood.
Not much reactivity in the way of avoiding fights true, but beyond that (and the inordinate amount of bugs and lack of balance) I can't complain.

 

[Mortmal]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

Yea I agree that some heretic options at least up to that point (ch3) are just like that and it really ruined the mood.
Not much reactivity in the way of avoiding fights true, but beyond that (and the inordinate amount of bugs and lack of balance) I can't complain.

So besides the excellent art, if maybe not grimdark enough sometimes, the excellent soundtracks, and it being faithful to the settings – and God knows we are starving for those adult settings in RPGs – although some companions would have been thrown through the airlocks immediately, and some of your choices would directly warrant a bullet in the head from some of your companions... it's pretty average.

 

[user]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

Yea I agree that some heretic options at least up to that point (ch3) are just like that and it really ruined the mood.
Not much reactivity in the way of avoiding fights true, but beyond that (and the inordinate amount of bugs and lack of balance) I can't complain.

So besides the excellent art, if maybe not grimdark enough sometimes, the excellent soundtracks, and it being faithful to the settings – and God knows we are starving for those adult settings in RPGs – although some companions would have been thrown through the airlocks immediately, and some of your choices would directly warrant a bullet in the head from some of your companions... it's pretty average.

I am all for not conforming with mediocrity, but imo, it's better on that front than 90% of the rpgees out there and better than 99% of them with the same or greater budget and scale. You can send a lot of your companions out of the airlock (figuratively), you can choose sides in many occasions or decide the fates of npcs, there is a LOT of reactivity that offers more than just flavor, even if this is just getting an item, profit factor or buff and npcs recognise your choices often enough.

 

[Mortmal]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

Yea I agree that some heretic options at least up to that point (ch3) are just like that and it really ruined the mood.
Not much reactivity in the way of avoiding fights true, but beyond that (and the inordinate amount of bugs and lack of balance) I can't complain.

So besides the excellent art, if maybe not grimdark enough sometimes, the excellent soundtracks, and it being faithful to the settings – and God knows we are starving for those adult settings in RPGs – although some companions would have been thrown through the airlocks immediately, and some of your choices would directly warrant a bullet in the head from some of your companions... it's pretty average.

I am all for not conforming with mediocrity, but imo, it's better on that front than 90% of the rpgees out there and better than 99% of them with the same or greater budget and scale. You can send a lot of your companions out of the airlock (figuratively), you can choose sides in many occasions or decide the fates of npcs, there is a LOT of reactivity that offers more than just flavor, even if this is just getting an item, profit factor or buff and npcs recognise your choices often enough.

Sure, it's better than 90% of the stuff out there, and it's a sad state of affairs. But it doesn't cost more to make the storytelling a bit more coherent. The heretic path just does not work, and the choices are especially poorly written. The moment you used the sword, Argenta would have shot you in the head too.

 

[user]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

Yea I agree that some heretic options at least up to that point (ch3) are just like that and it really ruined the mood.
Not much reactivity in the way of avoiding fights true, but beyond that (and the inordinate amount of bugs and lack of balance) I can't complain.

So besides the excellent art, if maybe not grimdark enough sometimes, the excellent soundtracks, and it being faithful to the settings – and God knows we are starving for those adult settings in RPGs – although some companions would have been thrown through the airlocks immediately, and some of your choices would directly warrant a bullet in the head from some of your companions... it's pretty average.

I am all for not conforming with mediocrity, but imo, it's better on that front than 90% of the rpgees out there and better than 99% of them with the same or greater budget and scale. You can send a lot of your companions out of the airlock (figuratively), you can choose sides in many occasions or decide the fates of npcs, there is a LOT of reactivity that offers more than just flavor, even if this is just getting an item, profit factor or buff and npcs recognise your choices often enough.

Sure, it's better than 90% of the stuff out there, and it's a sad state of affairs. But it doesn't cost more to make the storytelling a bit more coherent. The heretic path just does not work, and the choices are especially poorly written. The moment you used the sword, Argenta would have shot you in the head too.

Sigh... I imagine ch4 and 5, which I haven't seen will be worse. It's apparent the game was very rushed and some choices even look like they were stitched together in a later time. I would never imagine I would be able to play such rpgs in the 2020s, so I am really grateful to Owlcat, but they kinda screwed the pooch releasing this one. Hope they can salvage as much of it as possible.

 

[Mortmal]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

Yea I agree that some heretic options at least up to that point (ch3) are just like that and it really ruined the mood.
Not much reactivity in the way of avoiding fights true, but beyond that (and the inordinate amount of bugs and lack of balance) I can't complain.

So besides the excellent art, if maybe not grimdark enough sometimes, the excellent soundtracks, and it being faithful to the settings – and God knows we are starving for those adult settings in RPGs – although some companions would have been thrown through the airlocks immediately, and some of your choices would directly warrant a bullet in the head from some of your companions... it's pretty average.

I am all for not conforming with mediocrity, but imo, it's better on that front than 90% of the rpgees out there and better than 99% of them with the same or greater budget and scale. You can send a lot of your companions out of the airlock (figuratively), you can choose sides in many occasions or decide the fates of npcs, there is a LOT of reactivity that offers more than just flavor, even if this is just getting an item, profit factor or buff and npcs recognise your choices often enough.

Sure, it's better than 90% of the stuff out there, and it's a sad state of affairs. But it doesn't cost more to make the storytelling a bit more coherent. The heretic path just does not work, and the choices are especially poorly written. The moment you used the sword, Argenta would have shot you in the head too.

Sigh... I imagine ch4 and 5, which I haven't seen will be worse. It's apparent the game was very rushed and some choices even look like they were stitched together in a later time. I would never imagine I would be able to play such rpgs in the 2020s, so I am really grateful to Owlcat, but they kinda screwed the pooch releasing this one. Hope they can salvage as much of it as possible.

Sure thing, again. I prefer a gaming industry with Owlcat in good financial health. The alternative is nothing; there are really few good developers, but they could do better.

 

[Fedora Master]

This is the third time this happened, why are you surprised?

 

[Harthwain]

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

"False infos"? I have no idea what difficulty you are playing on and how much you did outside of the main story, but I am on second hardest (Hard) and I am doing a completionist run. I had to redo a buch of fights, because I don't have broken builds that wipe out the opposition on the first turn, which is another contributing factor for my playtime being longer. Oh, I also re-did the prologue one time, because I decided to go with a different origin.

but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

Reactivity is pretty weak. Bugs aside, the game is OK if you're looking for decent-ish tactical combat and WH40K setting, but as an RPG it's severly lacking (in fact, a lot of aspects of this game are undercooked). As such tactical RPG is the best description I can give it. Which is still good enough for the Codex to call it RPG of the Year.

 

[user]

This is the third time this happened, why are you surprised?

This is way worse than WotR and even worse than P:K, in the sense that it's not only gamebreaking bugs and crashes, but has affected the content as well, especially if the last two chapters are as unfinished and lacking as people say.

 

[Dayyālu]

I am after The Great Judgement and... It's stupid.
Maybe it would have been different had I been a Fanatical Dogmatic (and Doloroso would've recognized me as the only possible saviour of Footfall, but I will see how that plays out on my second run.

Doloroso joins you as a Dogmatic and he doesn't go berserk. Yes, the best outcome for offing the Dogmatic Rogue Trader comes from being Dogmatic yourself. Coherency!

Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

Examples. Reactivity almost drops to 0 after the Prologue (tell me how many times your Background and Chargen choices are recognized by the game: spoiler, as a Commissar, two and only in the Prologue). The game explains everything to you even if you should know everything already.

I had to redo a buch of fights, because I don't have broken builds that wipe out the opposition on the first turn, which is another contributing factor for my playtime being longer. Oh, I also re-did the prologue one time, because I decided to go with a different origin.

The game is flat-out UNFINISHED, not undercooked. Also, you have my full admiration for being crazy enough to play it as intended, keep us updated on how you manage the "fun" fights like the endbosses of Chapter 4/5, I shudder thinking approaching them without broken builds, I mean, Chapter 4 bossfight if you don't get wiped could go on indefinitely.

 

[Harthwain]

Doloroso joins you as a Dogmatic and he doesn't go berserk. Yes, the best outcome for offing the Dogmatic Rogue Trader comes from being Dogmatic yourself. Coherency!

The whole point is to stop Chorda from mass executing everyone on Footfall and Doloroso agrees to that. But even if you pick up the exile option he does the same thing as when she dies. If he decides to help you stop her then he shouldn't have this kind of reaction. Also, calling her Dogmatic is questionable. She is arguably on the verge of being a heretic while under the guise of a Puritan. My guess it is either a bug (I got 0 exp points when Doloroso does his 180) or it was decided that too much went into preparing for a fight for it to end without a "bang" (although Doloroso was very easy to deal with.

The game is flat-out UNFINISHED, not undercooked.

Some of it is unfinished, but some of it is also undercooked. Their ambitions and intents were clearly much bigger than what we got. It is obvious from the fact that they had to twist and cut many things (bugs or unfinished content aside).

Also, you have my full admiration for being crazy enough to play it as intended, keep us updated on how you manage the "fun" fights like the endbosses of Chapter 4/5, I shudder thinking approaching them without broken builds, I mean, Chapter 4 bossfight if you don't get wiped could go on indefinitely.

Yeah, I wonder so too. I will keep you guys posted.

 

[user]

Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

Examples. Reactivity almost drops to 0 after the Prologue (tell me how many times your Background and Chargen choices are recognized by the game: spoiler, as a Commissar, two and only in the Prologue). The game explains everything to you even if you should know everything already.

Want me to remember and list every single example up to the point I've played (ch3) or will a few suffice? /s

Psykers do get more recognition in general like multiple times with Henrix and Idira, but from what I remember reactivity happened mostly with events or your past actions e.g 1-2 mentions about + actual usage for my pet Forgefield, Vladaym complaining about Jae, coronation npcs recognizing your past actions etc etc. In general I was pretty satisfied with it, and besides some great small scale indies like AoD, only a few games satisfied me in that regard and like half of them were Owlcat's.

Would like if it was even better, I just don't think it's, you know, one of the drawbacks of this rpg.

 

[Mortmal]

I stopped playing after the Act 1 boss fight because I started getting a strong sense of deja vu from Owlcat's other two games. Is this game any shorter than them, and do things improve post-Act 1?

I have 142 hours and I am at the beginning of Act 4.

77 hours at act 4 final fight. Let's not give false infos to fellow codexers, its not that big of a game, almost zero reactivity and more or less a railroaded combat gauntlet. Combat has the merits to be turn based but honestly not so good and using well tried existing systems would have been better.

Played only the first 3 chapters and waiting. Yes, a ton of things are broken, combat is not balanced and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives, but hard disagree on the almost zero reactivity part.

The dialogue choices don't matter much; you'll go through the same fights, and the heretic choices... Oh my, the heretic choices, it's like playing some raging teen Chaos Space Marine. Option (Heretic): HURR dur, I am going to kill both of you MUAHAHHAHAH!

Yea I agree that some heretic options at least up to that point (ch3) are just like that and it really ruined the mood.
Not much reactivity in the way of avoiding fights true, but beyond that (and the inordinate amount of bugs and lack of balance) I can't complain.

So besides the excellent art, if maybe not grimdark enough sometimes, the excellent soundtracks, and it being faithful to the settings – and God knows we are starving for those adult settings in RPGs – although some companions would have been thrown through the airlocks immediately, and some of your choices would directly warrant a bullet in the head from some of your companions... it's pretty average.

I am all for not conforming with mediocrity, but imo, it's better on that front than 90% of the rpgees out there and better than 99% of them with the same or greater budget and scale. You can send a lot of your companions out of the airlock (figuratively), you can choose sides in many occasions or decide the fates of npcs, there is a LOT of reactivity that offers more than just flavor, even if this is just getting an item, profit factor or buff and npcs recognise your choices often enough.

Sure, it's better than 90% of the stuff out there, and it's a sad state of affairs. But it doesn't cost more to make the storytelling a bit more coherent. The heretic path just does not work, and the choices are especially poorly written. The moment you used the sword, Argenta would have shot you in the head too.

Sigh... I imagine ch4 and 5, which I haven't seen will be worse. It's apparent the game was very rushed and some choices even look like they were stitched together in a later time. I would never imagine I would be able to play such rpgs in the 2020s, so I am really grateful to Owlcat, but they kinda screwed the pooch releasing this one. Hope they can salvage as much of it as possible.

Chapter 4 is a boring slog with endless hp bloated enemies , long long fights. I am forcing myself to finish this game.

 

[Space Satan]

and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives

Dude, you are playing Warhammer 40k, what did you expect, a My Little Pony story where you tell bad guy to stand down and be good?

 

[user]

and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives

Dude, you are playing Warhammer 40k, what did you expect, a My Little Pony story where you tell bad guy to stand down and be good?

Everything can be solved with a civilized conversation, maybe the bad guy is bad because his gf dumped him for a space marine or smth in the past you can't know that

 

[Harthwain]

Dude, you are playing Warhammer 40k, what did you expect, a My Little Pony story where you tell bad guy to stand down and be good?

Back to back combat can be extremely annoying. I hated the same thing with the Act 3 final Arena fight(s), because it forces you to do well on each fight as you can't heal up in-between fights.

 

[Mortmal]

and there's too much back to back unavoidable combat with no alternatives

Dude, you are playing Warhammer 40k, what did you expect, a My Little Pony story where you tell bad guy to stand down and be good?

 

[Mortmal]

I am also taking commisions for custom rogue trader portraits by the way. Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi yours finally ready, sorry for the wait:

 

[Mortmal]

user :

 

[ERYFKRAD]

OK, I gave Indira more of a chance in my new Iconoclast run. As soon as I hit start of Act 2 her random chance to fuck up went crazy and it is not fun. I am still on Footfall, did only a few fights and on 2 of those she died and turned into a Demon that made both battles 2x harder for no reason.. whoever thought this is fun?!
If this shit continues I will have to bench her and only use her for her quests..
I do not mind other effects that can happen but this demon shit is stupid.
It is even more stupid that after the battle she gets up and everyone acts like nothing happened LOL. it does not make any sense even in narrative. Argenta and Heinrix would murder her first time it happened and everyone survived..

You acted as iconocuck heretic you get your just reward Comrade, of course devs being Cypriot liberasts so far from the light of Golden Throne did not gave you option to put the bolter round in her skull the moment she said '' I am strong idependent colored woman who need no sanction from Emperor''.

If this game was true to WH40k setting and lore only companions who would be not boltered or put onto air lock would be Argenta, Ulfar, Pascal, Casia and Chorda:

Spoiler

Henrix: Tainted by warp when he touched the demon possesed cogitator.

Mystery meat sloot from not Araby: Guilty of Xenophilia and desertion from Imperial Guard.

Strong independent black woman who needs no Emperor. For obvious reason.

Winterscale Papa: Khorne worship.

Wintercale Junior: Innocence proves nothing its better to kill one innocent than risk millions of souls.

Pascal and Casia - technically heretic and mutant but both protected by Emperor so you need to tolerate them.

Abelard: Knew that Theodora is heretic, did nothing, guilty.

Xenos they both shuld die the moment they appeared, game also lack option of gifting farseer to Inqusition, although knowigh that Calcazar was radical ergo heretic himself...

Gotta hand it to ya, you might be the first dude on the internet to have something bad to say about Abelard.

 

[Harthwain]

Gotta hand it to ya, you might be the first dude on the internet to have something bad to say about Abelard.

Yeah. I didn't see anywhere that he was aware of Theodora being a heretic. At best he knew that she wasn't above doing some real radical stuff, but that can be said by most people in the game.

 

[ArchAngel]

Dude, you are playing Warhammer 40k, what did you expect, a My Little Pony story where you tell bad guy to stand down and be good?

Back to back combat can be extremely annoying. I hated the same thing with the Act 3 final Arena fight(s), because it forces you to do well on each fight as you can help up in-between fights.

just put trauma healing medkits in slots and do not use up all heroics in first half

 

[ArchAngel]

I must say that iconoclast is pure cuck in this game. Letting Indira live is one thing but letting Eldar take control of Janus is not iconoclast option but pure Heretic lol

 

[jungl]

Owlcat really fucked up this game they have two major weaknesses. 1) they make obtuse borderline retarded design decisions. The overpowered trauma kits for example being neccessity. Space travel rng event in chapter 2 to avoid non stop random encounters. 2) game is not finished. Early builds if you say bye to elf girl she is gone forever. Later chapters being a buggy mess. They somehow are honing in on their weak points with every new game since pathfinder lol