Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Review - Is it Worth It? Should You Play it?

The answer is not yes but hell yes

thats the main issue i have with turn based rpgs : they are fucking slow.. Even if your party is strong , and the enemies are mooks .....it takes time. I dunno why owlcat didn't made it at least like wrath - having the ability to switch between the 2 modes - if they really wanted the game to be turn based.
Honestly , if you make your game be ONLY turned based.....then make it waaaay less combat focused , and turn it into a narative focused game

massive 40k lore? sold!! i’m new to the Warhammer universe but its so freakin awesome!

Too much combat and lore? Sounds exactly like what I expected from a 40K game 😁

As in all Owlcat games, buy it a year from now.

Yawn. I'll pick this game up 3-4 years from now when the GOTY goes on sale, with all the dlc's, for 90% off.

They need to start using AI to help with the voice acting

Solid review. I agree with your positives, so as I'm going to talk more 'negatively' that's not an insult. Your good stuff is good, moving on. ^_^

I was born in 1970, started playing videogames at age 5 & PnP RPG's at 11. So I have a LOT of XP under the belt. Now, when it comes to defining what an 'RPG' is, many people have their own takes, and in our modern culture it is offensive to flatly state facts & have hard & fast definitions of things. An RPG is a truly unique form of entertainment, and it is defined by one very specific thing, that without that thing, you may have all the exterior trappings of an RPG, but it will fail at that key element. At best, you will have a 'Diablo' type game. Not a bad GAME, but NOT an RPG.

That key feature is Player Agency.

An RPG is a game where the Gamemaster creates a world, where the players can then tell their own stories THROUGH the medium of the world the GM has made. If the players are just sitting there, in stunned awe, while the GM regales them with a story, that is basically a Book, or a Film(TV Show). A game like 'The Last of Us' is a perfect example. The minigames a player goes through have no effect on the cutscenes shown. Which is why you can watch those scenes isolated from the 'playable' parts & end up with a very similar experience.

Now, a Pen & Paper game has a tremendous advantage over the Digital version, as even an average GM can respond to player's choices in a much more comprehensive manner. It is of course absurd to imagine even the largest Dev team could match the creative flexibility of a talented GM. But trying to do that should ALWAYS be the goal. If you shoot for 100%, but only hit 70%, that's still far better than phoning in a 40 or 50%.

Why am I writing this little essay about this in the first place? Well, because of that very limitation of time and resources. It is far, FAR more cost-effective for a team to use Text, than to have everything voice-acted. Having a game like Rogue Trader, or BG3 fully-voiced increases costs by an order of magnitude. So a Developer must either cut back on the flexibility of the story, or be prepared to shell out huge amounts of money, which, obviously, companies are loathe to do, especially as RPG's, even the BEST-selling ones, make up a relatively small amount of the Game Industry.

As good as it is, imagine how much more open and reactive BG3 could have been, if Larian had chosen to cut back on the voice-overs. There IS no way around it- An RPG that has enough Player Agency to even be considered a real RPG, will be dramatically more cost-effective if it is mostly text.

I know there is this perception that Joe Normie Gamer HATES reading, and if true, that is (Aside from the real learning disability issues) just a sad commentary on both our culture and educational system. But is having some person talk AT you for minutes on end really so much better? I have watched many playthroughs of voiced sequences in games and very, very often they are just skipped through as fast as possible. My impression is that these days, people don't have much more patience for being talked to, than they do for reading.

I wonder though, if using the technology that has existed for many years, of A.I. replicated voices, might 'split the difference' to a degree. At the very least, some enterprising developer should use it so that players can actually hear their own unique character name spoken. I bet that one small change alone would increase immersion to a surprising degree. Just have the Voice Actor's voice sampled and insert the A.I'd voice when the PC name comes up in dialogue. These days it would be easy to do.

Hope THIS wasn't too long to read. Again, solid review, keep it up! ^_^

So are there even any negatives ? Lots of reading well Duh CRPG...Made by Owlcats to boot so you know damn well what you're getting yourself into..And to much fighting It's 40k if anything that makes it perfect. Grimdark only war and so power fantasy wading through endless trash as a scythe through grain...Again perfect 40k

If anything the ''negatives'' are more positives for me.

I love 40k and CRPGs but I didn't care for this game at all. It just feels dated.

On first sight its Fallout Tactics in wh40k.

This is my first 40k game ever and I'm loving it! If you're new as well but love crpgs and don't mind a bit of reading do not be intimidated - the lore is explained very well in the game and I got immersed right from the start. I like the combat a lot better than in Pathfinder too. The game has its fair share of signature Owlcat tediousness when it comes to gameplay and mechanics but I feel like they're getting better at it with each game.

The fights ARE full of cannon fodder, theyre there to rack up on kill buffs and fill your heroic action meter before nuking down the main threat of the fight. If you spend your first turn mowing all the one hit guys down it goes MUCH faster

ive played 40k since it was invented. from your review it sounds like an ideal game for me.

Personally, I love the reading. Makes me feel productive while I play, especially w an audiobook in the background. If i get bored i can just skip it and smash some heretics to bone and ash!!!

I know nothing of Warhammer but this game looks good, Epic is having its holiday sale, and reading that Cavil will work with Games Workshop and Amazon to make a new Warhammer franchise, it feels this is the time to get into it. I hope it is not too overwhelming.

Just got it today can't wait to play it baldurs gate 3 has really gotten my back into turn based games.

Completely disagree with your stance on there being too much text. Some people are arguing that parents don’t have time for that. Well, I would say in that case OwlCat games might just not be for you. I feel like if they spent too much of their budget on VA, they would have less budget to spend on writing. If the game is only partially voice acted - fine by me. My imagination will fill in the gaps.

“Too much combat”
Excuse me
Sir
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war

I’d kill for a kill team or necromunda game like this

Don't get this game just yet, I'm 70 hours in and about 20 of those were spent trying to get to the next act because of game-breaking bugs. It's not a finished product yet, far from it...

I really liked it until I got to chapter 4.

Chapter 1 is a bit getting used to, but overall okay. Chapter 2 was really cool, chapter 3 was good but bugs started popping up and chapter 4 completely unraveled at the seams. It's a complete bugfest and you'll see yourself getting stuck and reloading over and over again -- if not just getting completely stuck. It's really not a pleasant experience and all the bugs make chapter 4 (and supposedly 5) borderline unplayable.

So my advice is: wait at minimum a month or 2 before getting this -- and preferable 6+. If however all the bugs are fixed, this should be a really cool and fun game.

I'm glad that the first negative is actually a huge plus for me. As a fan of 40k since the early 90s.

Game is a buggy mess.
Another shameful display of "lets sell these idiots another unfinished product, we will fix them as we see fit but for now we take their money".
On chapter 5 at the moment, follower quests bugged, each chapter shorter than the previous one, etc bla.
The game makes you believe that youre in for a huge adventure exploring etc during chapter 2, when in fact is just a carbon copy of the equally horrid mass effect ship exploration.
The space battles are very few and scattered, so really dont see whats the point of having an upgrade talent tree for it, upgradable pieces etc if we barely ever see any combat (at least in my playthrough, visiting every system several times).
After chapter 2 the perspective is a bit more narrow and the game tunnels you in a series of events, in chapter 4 is almost on rails.
Still need to see how 5 is going to be.
As for the amounts of text: just because salt gives flavour to a dish does not mean you have to throw in ten buckets of salt and totally ruin it...
... which is the current phillosophy in modern crpgs.
Its a videogame and gameplay should come first. It certainly doesnt here even tho the idea is totally good.

No matter how much of a 40k fan you might or not be, really dont buy this in its current unfinished state.
Made the mistake of "damn I so want to play it" and this has been my well deserved experience.

The endless walls of text and lack of voice acting is really grating on me too. I like the game but it is just a bit tedious. Like you said I had to take a break. Like I want to see all my characters get stronger and unlock more abilities but I'm just a bit hesitant to wade through the amount of time it's going to take to get there.

if your a super newbie is it worth it. I got bg3 but haven’t played yet. also might get relemes of signa

Top down turn based combat is the one thing keeping me away from 40k games. I know its basic, but i wish GW would just do your standard action rpg with the 40k universe.

The game would be absolutely awesome was is not for the fact that it is completely broken and unplayable at the stage of the IV act. I would strongly suggest anybody to refrain from buying this game before it is properly fixed. Its bugged beyound oblivion. They beta tested first 2 acts, those are ok, but the rest is horrible. Nothing beats the filling of pouring say 70 hours into the games only to get stuck cos your charater cannot move on the bridge of the ship or the quest that you finished doesnt show as completed. Shame on the developers for rushing this game without properly testing to a state where it was somewhat playable. It is worse than a Cyberpunk 2077 disaster. Whait till they fix all the major bugs!

The game has WAR in its name. You can't complain there's too much battles, that's the whole point, because in the grim darkness of the 41st century there is only WAR.

So 20 hours in, I must say that this game is quite nearly a masterpiece. The ONLY things that would take it one inch down from perfect is the little glitches and animation bugs. Like when I use Adelbard to melee, he will do the parry animation 3 to 5 times before he swings. And that's not even a gripe. This game is so fucking good. I could see myself sinking HUNDREDS of hours EASY. I'm biased, though, as I love W40K.

The game is great, the character leveling system is unusual

Anyone who played the TTRPG will tell you that this game is an insult to the original TTRPG.

All they had to do was port the system over, not change it entirely.

After i finish wartales the next on my list is this(give me those one hour battles baby ).

Thank you for your review. I have been looking forward to this game as I have been a big fan of Owl Cat's previous entry and thought they were a perfect fit for bringing the incredible world of 40k to life. Anyone who is familiar with the 40k universe should not be intimidated by walls of lore and endless combat. Plenty of other entries with this IP to scratch the "less is more" itch!

Did you play it with all DLC?

so the negative are * oh god their is lore, and oh god their is gameplay * okay.... Fextralife as always

Does call of duty have too much combat? this is a tactical game but very lore heavy.
whats problematic is pacing, it goes in turns: >You have 20 min of playing a video game then then 10-20 min reading a book (but for real) - Voice acting.. few lines here and there, makes no impact, You have to read the story ;
I wished leveling up was less daunting - You have to read dozens of talents to level up and many are irrelevant for your class - I imagine it's really intimidating for most players to do it for 6 characters and choose all skills.

Role play doesn't exist in a sense like in BG3, all dialogue is linear with few "choices" on the way, but not impactful.

Owlcat has grown on me as one of my favourite devs. Picked up Kingmaker to try it out due to a lack of long term RPGs. Ended up spending way more time on it than I expected. Then WotR came out and I spent even more time on it. And this is threatening to make me a complete shut in for the next few months.

Can I be a Space Marine!?

THIS GAME IS AWESOME!

Darn bro I'm literally falling asleep during this review. Where's the energy at? It sounds like you're doing this review reluctantly

More turn based garbage!!

Lol, when you said, I need to decompress, totally agree. Sometimes just too many text. I do wanted some more variation for the enemies in act 1, like suddenly growing horns or tentacles, or even some kinda puzzle combat, not the go-to approach shoot and cover. And the psy-rating is an issue, I mean, you start at psy-rating 0, which means it's only viable at level 11 unless you go biomancer

I've seen a lot of people complain about how hard it is but it's just like XCOM or wasteland and it's 40K to be expected. There's a few bugs but nothing has been that game breaking so far I think this game is fantastic. If you like 40K and you want to make your own adventure in 40K play it

Is there too much combat AND too much story reading?

I wish there were an actual Adeptus Mechanius origin and class instead of just a Forge World origin

Always my first stop for reviews, and didn't disappoint. Thank you! Still on the fence here, I have loved WOTR, but "walls of text" is a sticking point. I always loved hearing my companions and other conversation, mainly the voice acting adds the layer. Is that lacking "main" characters or just your quest givers, sort of like WOTR?

Looks good but to much text and turnbased :/

BG3 was my first turn based rpg game (before that, I was not a fan at all of turn based games). This game does look great, but really confused if I should get it