Chapter 3 was first time in a long time (since Aurora fight) enemy character moved near mine and bursted my tanks to death before they got a chance to even act. I had something similar in Janus last chaos fight but there it was not on turn1 before my action so I had options.
well the problem with rogue trader it doesnt even have a first good half scanning planets like mass effect is not exciting. Owlcat makes this 200 hour long rpgs but only have like a 15 hours of cool content. 20 year old games like Skies of Arkadia does CRPG better then owlfats latest take. Ship combat, exploration combat. Rogue trader feels like a cheap phone game in comparison while having 100 hours more of padding and 400 person team.
Scanning no but there are a fair bit of interesting locations and space fights there.
After finishing it I can say that for me this was weakest of the 3 Owlcat games.
I have passed it on, thank you! We appreciate any feedback, and especially a detailed oneI finally finished the game last night, I've been taking it very slow and even pausing sometimes for 1+ weeks to wait for more patches for acts I was about to enter.
So let me leave some general thoughts and then I will go into more details per Act. Note I played it on Xbox Series X and on Hard difficulty.
I've chosen Dogmatic options in most of the conversations where it was offered (I might have missed some where you can either ask questions or choose Dogmatic right away and if you ask questions there is no dogmatic option offered again).
Good:
1. Music and art was excellent and felt WH40K to me.
2. VO that was there was excellent, I just wish there was a bit more with main story parts and with important characters (for example not voicing Lady Theodora was a strange choice considering how often everyone talks about her during the game, giving her VO would have made her more memorable in our brains).
3. Ship combat as it was there was good, I would not call it excellent but it was noticeable better than other mechanics of the game.
4. Some of the companions were good (like Pasqal or Ulfar), some were average (like Abelard, Cassia or Argenta) and others whatever (to be fair I killed both Eldar companions but from what I have seen from others I didn't miss much although that opinion might change in my future Iconoclast or Heretic run). I would rate them Kingmaker level, not in level with best ones there. But passable overall, especially compared with companions from AAA games like BG3 or Starfield.
5. Exploration (in Acts where it existed) was fun although marred with too many slow loading screens.
Mid:
1. Colony management was good idea, but completely unbalanced. Reputation buildings almost required, many of the options much weaker than others. In Act 2 you cannot see tier 4 and 5 buildings but those later have stat requirements that are impossible to meet if you didn't know about it..
2. Faction trading same problems with balance, too hard to level up and too many trash items offered. I built most faction rep buildings and picked up all the trash and tried to sell it and I didn't max out any of the factions except Imperial Navy that had opposite problem of leveling up too early and then collecting cargo for them for half of Act 4 with nothing to do with it. With Explorators I probably could have maxed them out if I didn't give stuff to other factions trying to get some of the rare SM gear that the game lacks desperately.
Also makes little sense that you need to be a trash collector of basic weapons and armor in small numbers while you got whole planets with millions of people producing shit for you. You should at least have an option to exchange profit factor for repution when you order to produce items for factions.
3. Too many trash items. You are all the time getting shit items that are rarely better than what we got before. At some point I would have preferred if you just created items that are copy of previous one but with better bonus.. kind of like +1, +2 and so items from DnD/Pathfinder.. I think some of my characters finished the game with items in slots that they got in Act 1 or 2.
4. Koronus Expanse UI needs improvements. Needs markers for rumors, quests, waiting battles and so on. On Xbox is it especially bad as when you are trying to move from one system to another it tends to randomly jump to far away systems instead on nearest you pushed your stick towards. It is frustrating to fight the UI for basic functions.
5. Too many random combat encounters when traveling the warp on yellow lanes. We do not have enough insight to get everything green so yellow is only real choice for everything and when I just want to get from point A to point B I get way too many battle encounters and I do not want to waste cargo to skip those battles when it is already hard to get reputation up and also skipping battles costs you a lot of XP and more cargo.. At least make it so you still get same XP and cargo from them if you spent cargo to skip them..
6. I appreciate that you tried to make a fair bit of Boss battles (and not only on main quest chain) unique and varied but it all falls apart when combat system is so broken and unbalanced on both sides. This point will go into Good group if you ever fix basic combat mechanics.
7. Conviction system was good when it worked but considering I finished with lvl 3 (out of 5) while taking most Dogmatic options (and I've picked 0 iconoclast or heretic options) and it stopped offering Dogmatic options sometimes in Act 4 and 5 it goes into mid group. I like that it also gives mechanic bonuses to character in party, if you even fix it, it can also go into Good group.
8. Leveling. I like leveling but this game does not need 50+ levels for characters, especially when all options are tiny bonuses (except 10 or so broken ones). You should have made it 25 or 30 levels tops and made leveling happen less often but be more meaningful.
9. Story overall does not stink but does not smell nice either. It is whatever with no interesting big enemy behind it all like previous 2 pathfinder games. Whole thing feels way less interesting and ambitious than 2 previous Owlcat games. And this is coming from someone that is new fan of WH40K and currently it is my fav setting and I want to love anything coming from that world.
Bad:
1. Stability and Technical issues: From start game would crash here and there but in last few weeks it would break also after crasing causing it to not want to load or if it loaded it would not want to load any saves. Only reinstalling the game would help. I think I reinstalled it 7+ times in last 9 days.
In addition to that, loading is way too slow and saving the game is way too slow. Not sure if that is only later acts problem but it is noticeable. Also gets slower the longer the game runs.
2. Many UI problems with character sheets, leveling and maps and using abilities. On some maps (especially random encounter maps) there are cover icons around invisible covers and characters even crouch next to nothing lol. Pressing right stick down is needed for details of things and holding it down is needed to expand details.. I can tell you that on controller pressing left and right sticks down is the most irritating button that exists and should be avoided unless you go no other options. And 100% should not be used in combination with needing to hold it down.
Expand details should be some other button and no need to hold if down. Hold down the button should only be left for confirming level up. Then when you are trying to read what abilities do sometimes you get the formula, sometimes just a number, also if you are trying to see what you picked at previous level ups, it does not focus on the chosen skill but just on its group and you need to search for it.
And during combat game will show you some abilities will affect targets but they do not (most notably with Tactical Advantage from Operator and Cassia spell that reduces enemy Toughness and Willpower) but they still waste your AP and go on cooldown.
Also not sure how this is on PC but on Xbox it is irritating that you need to press highlight key all the time because it turns off as soon as you interact with anything or open any other UI.
3. Bugs, bugs, bugs.. there are so many in every part of the game sometimes I am not sure if some things are bugs or strange design decisions. Too long to list even those I found (in all parts of the game I am sure I've seen 100+), I hope they are fixed in time. I probably submited 30+ bug reports in first few weeks until I lost the willpower because I caught myself some days I would play 2h and 1h was sending bugs..
4. Combat mechanics are a mess. Characters get extra turns from who knows where (my Cassia usually gets 3 turns per round lol and I only know where two of those come from - one is her standard turn, other one is when someone uses a Heroic ability first time; on the other hand Bounty Hunters get extra turns every time some cover or map item is destroyed).
Even with legal extra turns, game keeps jumping from one character to other mid combat or even mid turn without you doing that and it makes it messy and super irritating to play(This is mostly the blame of the BH talent but also its active ability).
Other times characters get extra attacks that come from who knows where, like where Wildfire gives multiple extra attacks and Heroic abilities that give free attacks give more than one free per round if character turn is given to someone else and then returned.
Other times costs of actions change randomly without any idea how and why, this is especially noticeable on Ulfar with Dual weapon combat and some of the Archmilitant talents that give cost reductions when killing with melee or ranged attacks.
It is very very hard to plan rounds and actions with so much extra shit going on.
And then we come to problem that starts happening on average in Act 3 and beyond which is both sides do too much damage. Either you murder them on turn 1 or they murder you on turn 1.. all the abilities from 3 classes starts stacking to crazy levels and then your characters start to do thousands of damage in one attack and whole thing becomes ridiculous.
In the end your 150 wounds guys fight even humans with 400 or 1500 (act 5) wounds or your Ulfar Space Marine veteran with Terminator status with 180 wounds goes against random Chaos Space Marines with 500 or 700 wounds.. it just kills all immersion in addition to all the fun and tactical combat
Even defensive abilities are out of wack, if you can survive turn 1 you can combine Tactical Analysis and Santic spells to make everyone immortal (probably even more with Grand Strategist). Everything needs to be scaled down..
And then there are many abilities that got 1 round or more cooldown but if character can get a turn somehow they get refreshed on same turn. This is especially bad with spells, especially Cassia. Her offensive spells get refreshed even when she gives turn to someone else and them gets it back when that person is done.. Or on any other extra turn.
Combat needs clear rules and those rules need to be upheld. Also I think whole mechanic of giving characters extra turns is not good. At best it should be around giving extra AP and those abilities on character next turn. So Officer Heroic still gives some bonus AP and allows multiple attacks but only when that character gets its next turn in this round of next round.
As for classes Officer, Arch-militant, Assassin and Psykers seems to be vast overachievers compared to other options. Master Tactician also seems to make momentum gain skyrocket letting you use way too many Heroic abilities even on turn 1 (in addition to other abilities like Argenta ability + way too many attacks she can get where some are product of bugs like Wildfire giving 2 attacks instead of 1).
5. Ulfar.. he has so many problems. He cannot pass through map elements, he cannot climb, he has terrible gear options, no gear for multiple slots and so on, his charge does not work correctly, he uses pistol to do attack of opportunity lol, his one handed bolt weapons cannot be used in melee range, his basic gear sucks and he feels very un Space Marine like due to how easily he is taken down.. although that last part could be fixed when you fix players and enemies all doing too much damage.
6. Pasqal weapons also are super buggy. You cannot Dual wield them, some abilities do not work correctly with them as he does not know what weapon to use for what attack..
OK lets now move to Acts.
Prologue + Act 1
This is best part of the game but has some serious problems.
Lack of medkits to heal traumas and lack of basic gear for your team. You basically scavenge everything from fallen enemies, even basic armor which makes zero sense narratively. If you were stranded on planet with no access to your ship armory it would make sense.. even the armory you got on display in your RT room seems to have better stuff than what you are forced to scavenge from random corpses of basic soldiers..
This part of the game reminds me of Kingmaker where game had no slings and other basic weapons and we had to wait for 1 year until basic stuff was implemented..
Argenta seems useless as she cannot hit anything and you gave her Bolter which is useless with Burst fire. When she kills everyone on her first introduction is completely opposite of how she plays when you get to control her
Act 2
Still pretty good with exploration and needing to solve problem with planets but then planets are very static once your do one main quest there. No additional quest, no showing how your actions changed things. Kiava Gamma stays corrupted factory forever. Janus and Dargonus never get anything new (beyond companion quests). Events start having no sounds showing what is happening (like for crowds) and lack of polish starts showing its ugly face.
Also warp travel has random events when you loot armor from random guards there which is better than what Abelard or others have one them which is a problem that is brought in from Act 1...
Medkit problem becomes lesser as now you can build buildings on Colony which give your free advanced medkits every so often.. unless players chose to not to build that project not knowing how much they will screw themselves..
Basic medkits should become available now in infinite numbers but make them not tradeable to factions by not being able to send them to cargo.
Space combat is tough and dangerous at start and super easy by end of this act. I wish they made space combat a bit more dynamic and gasp with some level scaling so it adds one more ship if your level and equippment is beyond some value.
Act 3
This Act is controversial to many as people do not like to lose control but personally I liked it.
I didn't like that I could not trade with factions at start while still on my ship. That means any items I didn't grab back in Act 2 I do not have access until Act 4. Also funny shit you can move manually to Footfall and still trade, you just cannot from your ship which is even more stupid.
This Act has excellent Malice vs Commissar thing but also has that stupid book event vs that flying assassin thing which ignores you just beat all their champions in the Arena for 2 time and forces you to do fight it alone with just your skill checks even with all your companions being next to you when it happens and no real explantion given why they are not helping LOL. This book event is the probably the most nonsensical part of the game.
Here combat stops being fun as turn 1 killing tactics start showing up on both sides.
Also maps are too small, that city is tiny. This should be like BG2 Dark Elf city with that same amount of content (or similar). This is not even close to Pathfinder:WotR demon city, it is very streamlined and bad in comparison.
Act 4
I was expecting tiny amount of content due to what people said that did it before me.
In the end between rumors and companion quests and main quests there was a fair bit of content here but it all feels less polished. Also probably whole rumor UI and thing is not presented well.
Then whole story flows wrong. With Lord Inquisitor making your wait for days or weeks while you randomly travel around the map while important battle happens at Euphrates. I even arrived there expecting I could do something only for them telling me to go away lol.
And then you cannot reject him, no explanation why a non Heretic RT should just follow him and do what he says.
Also whole act feels like you are no longer in any control and you are not doing your RT stuff but you are now solving other people problems like you are some mercenary.. it is especially strange after first 3 Acts that were about you first.
Maybe the solution would be that crisis also hits your planets and it cannot be removed until your neutralize Euphrates. And Quetza Temer should not be required to do before Euphrates.
This act is full of stupid combat that ends or is decided on turn 1, combat stopped being fun and just become a chore.
There seem to be less Conviction options in this Act overall.
Act 5
Now this one is very strange. Narratively it is mess, like why should I follow Lord Inquisitor into strange lands through unknown Xeno tech, it is heresy just doing that shit?! I've been given zero reason to risk it all and leave my planets alone. It feels like there should be multiple options and paths here if you do not go and other things happen (like you can go to war with other two RT for more land; or like in Act 4 where Incenda asked you to join her take 3rd RT's planets but then you never get to do that)
Then Nomos suddenly shows up after he/it basically stopped talking to me after Act 2 and a bit with that priest arriving to worship him and starts talking about me revealing his source and shit and how he will help me fight?!
Also in this act game completely stops giving Convictions..
Then space combat is hilarious how without any explanation you are fighting Necron ship and winning.
And ending narrative is suddenly wtf, whole thing is stupid and not foreshadowed well through the game.
On the other hand, space combat is suddenly dangerous again and interesting and I had some combats that lasted more than 1 turn (although any standard generic ones did not even last until end of turn 1 because of how OP my team is by now).
Also the encounter with your doppelgangers is one of the most interesting in the whole game, both the conversation and the combat after that. And last fight lasted more than 1 turn mostly due to boss having over 15000 wounds and 200 armor while at same time not doing enough damage to one shot my characters. Now if only it had some ramp up mechanic where it starts doing more and more damage so it can somehow circumvent OP defensive mechanics you buff up with on turn 1..
Ending Slides
These made little sense. I chose to let Nomos absorb the C'tan Shard as game had no Dogmatic next to anything and nobody before told me he is AI and dangerous so I said fuck it. Especially when he said if he fails absorbing he will destroy him.
Then slides say Nomos become a true defender of the IoM and region and he is extremely Dogmatic in his actions and how he is very powerful and effective and then continues tell me about all the shit that is happening in the region and Nomos is now not intervening and not stopping it LOL
Whole shit is bugged and nonsensical like most of the game..
TLDR;
Overall in the current state I give the game 6/10. If it fixes technical problems and combat it will easily be 8/10.
Owlcat_Eyler please forward this feedback to your team, I spent 2hours writing this :D
Same here. Boss killed Ulfar, Cassia buffed Argenta, Heavy Bolter killed everyone.
Cassia can stack dodge to over %125 easly. I probably saw %200 once.
Also best dodge tactic is to kill enemies. I found that when I shoot 18 heavy bolter rounds to an enemy, their attacks become easier to dodge.
Fall back, deal with the two grotesques, wait for the elf horde to follow you down the stairs, scourge and purge.
This is a standard Unity RPG issue. Not even ATOM, which is otherwise remarkably well optimized (relatively), was safe from this IIRC.
ATOM is made by few guys, it is not comparable.
Yeah too many cucks spoil the broth
The problem is how the game handles positioning during pre-combat phase. You can only place your characters in a certain area from where they start. Another problem is that in some fights somebody had a "brilliant" idea to surround your team at the very beginning of the fight (Dark Eldar raid on your palace, for example). It is similar to having space battles where enemy literally opens up on you on your first turn, if you don't have Silent Running skill for your ship (that allows you to act first in space combat).
