You don't know me. And I don't know you.. but let me just say, this is the most enjoyable CRPG iven played the last 10 years. Trust me if you dare, but this game is just as good as baldursgate, just with less polish.
They've gotten a couple of major patches up since release. For the most part the bugs I've come across has been on the graphical side of things. I've crashed a couple times, but I was told in the past that if one was to play an Owlcat game then saving religiously was a must so I always had a recent saved game to load up when I do crash. But I haven't come across any of the gamebreaking bugs that some have come across.
Give it a few more patches than you think. The next few will be fixing the SUPER broken things, but owlcat takes eons to actually make a working gane 😂
So a few Lore corrections - in your favor. 1) Romance - People who've said Romance isn't a thing in 40k have never read the Ciaphas Cain books. Commissar Cain romances everyone from a Tech Priest lady to an Inquisitor acting as the in-universe editor of the book. Just because Space Marines have no interest in romance doesn't mean the rest of the Imperium is now only doing the nasty for purposes of procreation. 2) Alien Teammates - Rogue Traders often keep useful Xenos as mercenaries - such as Kroot Mercenaries and Ork Freebootaz. The RT should 100% have had the choice of recruiting some more xenos. Our Warrant of Trade basically makes it so only us or the Inquisition have this option. You're 100% right these should've been included. 3) Cyborgs - I've seen people in the comments saying only the Adeptus Mechanicus can be freaky cyborgs. This is untrue, if you can buy implants you can use them. There's are specific implants the Adeptus Mechanicus keeps to themselves (Potentia Coils, most life extending ones, etc), but generally you can get Subskin armor, a metal arm, etc by just having a reason to have it, or the cash to splash.
Depending on the author, many books show the Imperial Guard as willing to shell out the cash for replacement bits even for low ranking guardsmen. There was an old A-RPG that had the pluses and minuses of cybernetics as a key plot point, I think that could work really well in a 40k game.
Why would Drukari, and other xenos races have any respect for RT authority? We see occasional alliances of necessity within the lore, but rarely to this extent. The Eldar are intelligent enough to work with, as well as anyone under the Imperium, and ofcourse the friendly Tau.. but its a stretch to expect other races to care about an Imperial badge. As for romance... It ruins most rpgs, and is silly. Very rarely is it done tastefully, or even add anything to the story
On point one I not totally opposed to Romance but one problem with the writing is that aside from Companion Quests there is very little other quest material that isn't the main quest. It feels like the story is very stripped down and the bare minimum was included to make a functional narrative. There are certian points where you are bottlenecked and 'railroaded' because you have to do certain things to continue the story...the transition from Act 2 to Act 3 is probably one of the worse pieces of writing I have seen in a CRPG. Which is a shame because the Location of Act 3 is probably one of the most Awesome location to visit in 40k.
My favorite part of this game was how they managed to separate the silly and serious sections of this game. In one quest, there was a haunted ship straight out of Event Horizon. In another, there was Fidelio.
must be me, but I don't remember a single silly moment in the game. But I also didn't like the writing all that much, and found myself just glossing over the seemingly infinite walls of text
I've finished a first playthrough of over 120+ hours on normal as Iconoclast and I will say that this game could've been in play as GOTY if it had fully voiced dialogue and exposition. There's bugs in the game but not in the same amount that previous Owlcat came out with and never (at least in my playthrough) game breaking ones. I do hope this game is successful financially because I could see Owlcat building up this Rogue Trader side of 40k video gaming with a proper sequel instead of just a DLC.
One thing i wanted to mention is that Ulfar does get 2-3 items that are designed for him in his personal quest in Act 4. But you gotta run around like a madman and pass some awareness checks to find them.
@@SlanderedGaming If it helps, they are in the siege mission, in a secret room where you can find I think a chainsword and a boltgun for astartes. It's in the first floor, the one where you start, with a false wall that goes into a storage room. Don't know the difficulty for the test though, I had a 100+ Awareness Cassia with me. I don't think you can find any equip for him before that though. Other than that there is his special Axe, and a special bolt pistol given as a gift before the 5th chapter, on Footfall. Maybe I missed something, but considering the quality of the gear I don't think I have. Though again, I didn't managed to do his special mission the 5th chapter since it was bugged to hell and back.
@@SlanderedGaming You can find a lot of his gear sold by the traders. The Mechanicus have the most options such as helmets and weapons, with only the Kasballica mission and Ecclessiarchy having a few (I only saw a bolt pistol and chainsword with the mission and some helmets with the Ecclessiarchy).
I finished act 1 last night, having a blast. I really love this setting, not a long time tabletop guy or anything like that. But I probably started with the Dawn of War games years ago. I've been playing Darktide with some friends a lot and I can't wait for the Henry Cavill TV series. Thanks for the review! I really agree about the need for more voice work, Owlcat doesn't need a hundred million budget to match Larian's full motion capture dialogue, but they need a ton more voiced dialogue. I have very few friends who will put up with this much reading.
Overall it's quite good, was released in an unacceptably broken state but it was quite good once it was modded into a functional state, it'll just get better as Owlcat actually finish the game
Its more than that. You can tell around half way through chapter 3 that its just an unfinished game. Chapter 4 is utter barebones, the colony management is broken at that point and everything looks one step past storyboard. This game is 3-6 months from being a finished release.
thats what I'm saying, Owlcat need to actually finish making the game, I'd probably say it was released a year early, I was fairly lucky with act 4 more or less working for me, but yeah, it is bare bones, and act five was just broken beyond belief @@michaelbaker8284
@@michaelbaker8284sry u had such a horrible experience, personally i didnt run in a lot of bugs in my first run, like 5 or so and everyone of them was fixed by just reloading, hope u will have fun once it gets patched
@@skelton4795 I really enjoyed chapters one and two. They set a high bar and clearly bit off more than they can chew. They must not have enough people working there because I know alot of simple issue were caught in beta months ago and never fixed.
@@feliph64 Its like a very simplified version of Battlefleet Gothic 2 Armada. 10-15 years ago it could have been packaged and sold as a separate game by itself.
Ulfar was a mistake. It feels like a "it's 40k, so we need to have a space marine in the party" scenario. The rest of the game does so much right, too. A personal favorite of mine is Calcazar being a *radical* inquisitor, which rarely gets representation in games.
I don't know, I feel that Ulfar does a Space Marine, especially a son of Russ, really well. Mostly because I like the way he speaks of what being a space marine means, and especially his flair for the show and focus in more than soley war. The problems with him are mostly technical, being.. bugged as shit and having very little way to prepare him, and equip him.
As an entry to the Universe of Warhammer 40K, Rogue Trader seams perfect: There are plenty of explanation, that helps understand what happens and how this Universe works. Also, Main Character is a regular human, without any backstory that you have to know.
Character customization is weak as hell for 40k. You feel like 5 flavors of vanilla. Also your party covers so much that it's hard to make the mc feel unique in any way.
I don't think the CC is weak but I do agree it can be tough to create a character that feels head and shoulders above your party members. Hopefully the second DLC provides some unique CC options that party members do not have.
The characters need not even change over time to be good characters. Ciaphas Caine is the same through his whole series, he's a great character. He'd be to this game as Hildebrand was in FF14. And not having a Jokaero party member was a waste. I want my orangutan scientist party member. And only having 2 force weapons in the game, why?
The biggest dislike I have with Rogue Trader is the non-linear narrative to the missions and story line. Using WotR as an example, it's established early on what your goal is and what villains you're up against. As you progress on Crusade every new area you discover has a mission or errand attached to it, so it feels like you're constantly working towards the goal even on side quests. In RT it's almost the opposite; missions that send you out of your way then force you to backtrack, a lot of the exploration and side quests feel like filler that have no consequence to the main story or are just there for resource gathering, which can actually feel like a chore. And like you mentioned in your review, there is no clearly defined villain or end goal, you're just kind of walking from one problem to another which can have an affect on actually being invested in the story.
Funny, because that's what i liked the most about the game. It has a sense of exploration, which something like Mass Effect is really lacking (not even mentioning Starfield). It's only natural in a game about space travelling. This game feels more Star Trek than the last Star Trek game.
The game sorely needs a real villain. I could tolerate the non-linear nature of it if there was at least a villain you were clearly trying to overcome. Like Alex mentioned it has a Star Trek quality that is endearing but the lack of a true obstacle harms the experience.
They need to divide everything involving reputation by 10. By the beginning of Act 4 I should be able to pretty much max out my rep so I can actually USE the items available. Also, they need to integrate Void Ship combat into the story more and make it more dynamic (building up a fleet, different ships, etc.)
Excellent and comprehensive review as always. I especially enjoyed your like/neutral/dislike structure on the game and the time stamps are great. I preordered and have not played the game yet, due to the reported bugs especially from Act 4 and onwards, as well as dialogue or quest flags not popping when they should, and I hate to hear that you experienced some of these as well in the review. It’s also disheartening to hear that there isn’t more voice acting for pivotal moments, seems like a strange decision considering how great the voice acting was in Wrath of the Righteous. The mentioned lack of character development is another blow too and a weird departure from what made their previous Pathfinder games so good. That being said, I am still excited to play it once it gets patched up more and hopefully with an expansion or two they can address some of the characters and villains arcs that seem to be lacking, in addition to lack of reactivity for colonies or ship battles.
as a 40k fan, this game is the dream. No other game has delved into the lore like this one does, and the writing is quite good. It has some issues but this is a true work of passion and its shows
I would really like to see a patch that brings in more voice acting. I was very confused at times. I even thought there was some issue with my machine when main characters, particularly in the beginning would have voice acting segments and then it would just stop. They never recorded lines and it's very strange
The railroads. Yeah, very annoying. I found myself at one point in a dogmatic run being like...WTF would I make that comment for, I am going full dogmatic and that makes absolutely no sense. I know for a fact there are two other options, either of which would have made more sense that were simply not shown because I didn't meet some arbitrary flag or something despite being full dogmatic. It really made me want to stop playing the game.
I enjoyed watching the game. I was disappointed in the game breaking bugs or quests that just ended with a whimper. It does feel very 40K. Ive been in the 40K universe gaming since 1991, and this RT was straight out of the Rick Priestly book. I kept waiting for Abdul Goldburg to show up.(For those of you that remember him from that book) A couple of things that I hate...you get great party members that you just never get to use because you have soooo many good party members to choose from. Maybe there needs to be a way to remove the option of using the same, old ones EVERY time. Injuries, or they leave for an offscreen task like Von Calox did at one point. Another thing is I have played Owlcat games, so the synergy between characters and their abilities is soooo vague to me that Im afraid I will have no clue how to create an effective team on my own. Finally a final battle with EVERY member showing up would rock.
For me one of the mayor dislikes was one of your likes, the combat, its a heavy broken system right now, you can beat the game on unfair with argenta and 2 officers, one cassia and other yourself or jae in first round, you dont need any other companion, and there is a point when you get the first exemplar talen when you just finish every encounter in 1 round with just argenta and one officer, making infinite loop of turns. There are 2 core problems, the extra turn habilities and the stacking bonus system as a whole. they need to scrap it and redoit, cause in the end do not make sense that a character can do +1k dmg with each bullet of a 24 bullet burst, the final boss of the game have half that HP, and you cant do more damage cause there is no more enemies to fire at, if there where more, youll do more and more.
Was pretty interesting diving into the lore and combat was decent but I really dislike the leveling system and the overwhelming amount of choice that feels like it doesn't actually effect gameplay. I'd like to see more distinct abilities over a bunch of stacking BS that just makes your current abilities slightly better in very specific situations.
Contrary to you, i felt that the game had more voice acting than PFs). They focused entirely on companions, which i appreciate coz in previous games the only thing keeping you from forgetting what party members sounded like was occasional camp banter. Here lots of conversations with them on the ship are voiced, makes it more lively. Big story moments however did take a big hit because of that plus consistency of where voice acting happens can be jarring at times
The argenta revealing her past scene wasn’t voice acted which felt off. Good thing the cassia book scene that interrupted my space travel was voiced tho 👌
Game is fundamentally broken, unfinished and should not have been released in the state that it is. People should be more pissed off about this then they are. THIS GAME IS NOT DONE. ITS AN UNFINISHED BUGGY MESS. It's fucking unacceptable.
Despite Owlcat's output being very much my thing, I've not bought this yet. I will, no doubt, but not yet. Despite having spent (checks) 832 hours in WotR, I've somehow only completed it once, as Lich (the restartitis is real), I decided I wanted to *at least* complete Angel, Demon and Aeon, as well as Inevitable Excess and Lord of Nothing before I buy this. Hopefully, by giving myself clear targets I'll be able to stop constantly restarting and accomplish this in notably less than 2,496 hours. But still, it will take long enough that this game will hopefully be in a good state by the time I finally get to it.
I went Forge World Crime Lord Iconoclast Officer on my first run Anyone who actually thinks Romance doesn't exist in Warhammer 40,000 setting doesn't know the lore well. Honestly I was surprised by the level of loyalty Argenta showed my Iconoclast in her ending which I think counts against your complaint about the relationships not changing . I adore Cassia and she's one of my favorite romances in gaming. And I hate it when the protagonist of an RPG is the commander or pilot of an armed craft but ship combat is only in cutscenes so I loved the voidship combat in this even though my ship's default weapon loadout caught me off guard. As a veteran of the settings tabletop tactical games and RPGs I was expecting a Sword class Frigate to start armed with nothing but cannon batteries since that's standard for the class in setting. And to get a ship with the number of weapon hardpoints your Voidship has in the tabletop RPG you would need a Cruiser which are around three times the size of the Frigates you can use in this game. Still as a lover of Frigates in general I was pleasantly surprised one was our primary ship in this game. I guess you had bad luck with Ulfar or something because I found a decent array of Space Marine only weapons in my run. And his chapter 5 companion quest you're supposed to use Cassia's ability to cut a new path through the warp to reach it. Which is very bad if you've run out of navigator insight before getting there. There definitely needed to be a way to get more insight in chapter five because of how much you need it there IMO
Hm. I'll keep what you said about the navigator's insight in mind. I ran into a similar problem in Wrath of the Righteous. I was accidentally "too" good at the army stuff because I enjoyed it so much and basically wiped out most of the enemies on the map before I really started doing the actual "real" quests. That led me into a weird situation where my army started losing morale quickly because there were no more strongholds to conquer or armies to defeat. For some reason, they disagreed with me when I thought that having more or less beaten the demons back to Hell was a cause for celebration. Instead, they were like, nah, let's lose morale completely and let everything fall apart. I'm not looking forward to doing a similar mistake a second time so I'll hold on to some navigator's insight when I start nearing the endgame.
Right now, I'm stuck in Act 4 or to be more accurate, I stopped playing in Act 4 (on the Mechanicus planet) because combat is becoming really tedious. The Pathfinder games had a similar problem in that Owlcat just kept throwing more and more meaningless trash fights at you and although I generally prefer turn based combat, I ended up speeding things up by switching to realtime with pause. In Rogue Trader, this isn't an option and thus, certain fights can take almost forever. Plus, since the skills you use are largely buffs/debuffs, the fights always begin the same way and as much as I generally like the character system, with the sheer amount of fights thrown at you it just becomes a terrible slog. It's also very clear where they stopped playstesting, because as soon as I entered Act 3, the bugs were coming in hot. Nothing gamebreaking but enough to be annoying. And I totally agree, the decisions where to put voice acting and where not just seemed very random. That being said, I think it's a great game and they mostly nailed the Warhammer 40K atmosphere, but I think I'll take a break for now until they've brought the final two acts up to standard.
Since then chaos space marines become "trash fight"? And yep, this is 40k where usually you deal with billions of enemies to the point where several factions including Chaos simply swarm you with numbers
Owlcat mentioned they plan to do a patch down the line that rebalances a lot of combat and might significantly change some of the abilities. It will be interesting to see how much the lategame changes after that update.
I really hope so. I mostly had fun for the 96 of my now about 98 hours, but where I'm at now, it's just a terrible slog and for a week or so I haven't had the desire to return into the fray @@SlanderedGaming
So what you are saying is that the amount of trash fights in late game is lore accurate? Well, here's the thing, most WH40K games aren't lore accurate mechanically, not even the tabletop. ESPECIALLY not the tabletop. There is a fine line between "does this fit the lore?" and "is this fun gameplaywise?". And the deeper you get into the late games, the less fun fights become. @@Алексей545-т6б
Great video! I, too, love exploring the lore in games. Also, your part about the combat not being for everyone was helpful, as this game is on my list. I love tactically turn-based combat. Thanks for sharing.
Nice coverage! One thing I want to point out as it does explain a few of the things you don't like about the game: Games Workshop (the owner of the IP). I used to own a game store and I worked very closely with GW and there are two things I can say about them. 1, They are VERY enthusiastic about working with their partners if they think you are dedicated to the success of their products. 2. They are INSANELY protective of the IP. So, it is very possible that some of the times when you thought the game was being too dogmatically adherent to the lore and setting of the WH40K universe, it is because GW insisted on it even if it stifled some aspects you would expect in this type of game.
I just want to react for your sentence where you said that there is not a single chaos god showing up in the game. You would never see a chaos god in warhammer 40k. If it happens, then it's a goodbye galaxy scenario. It is because for a warp creature to enter realspace, it requires enough warp enery to sustain it's body in realspace. That's why when in game you use too much pshychic power, you destroy the veil between the immaterium and realspace, and chaos creatures start to appear. A chaos god would require so much warp energy that it is simply not possible for them to show up in realspace. Even after the fall of cadia and the fall of the last necron pylon (ancient necron structures that could nullify warp energy) that held the eye of terror (a tear on the veil between realspace and the warp that came to existence after the birth of a chaos god) back from expanding, there is still not enough warp energy for a chaos god to exist in realspace.Chaos gods create demonic legions and aquire followers from chaos cults and traitor space marine legions, but they themselves cannot fight. The closes being to a chaos god that could enter realspace was Vashtorr, an unholy blacksmith demon, that was stronger than a demon prince, but weaker than a chaos god and he was searching for a way to transcend to chaos godhood.
My friend drew quite a few female portraits for this game. I'm going to send him this video, he's a bit vain - he'd like to hear your kind words in this regard.
Hey man, good video as always. Your review is the closest to my opinion. Companions are not as interesting as in a Pathfinder game, and the fact that they stay strangers to u is devastatingly bad imo. I just hate it. Story is really good, I never seen to realize bugs in games so Its all good as well, but this is too grimdark for me. Iconoclast is my jam, for I can’t play evil characters nowhere, but it was still depressing, so I couldn’t really enjoy a good game. Also there is a sort-of-secret-ending, but Its so obvious, especially compared to the Pathfinder ones, Its not secret. Im not gonna spoil if u are somehow unaware of it.
Great review, as always! I really appreciate the depth & breadth of your breakdown, be it characters, mechanics, story, or aesthetics. As for my two cents: I love the game. It is-to quote one of my favorite content creators-absolutely fantastic ;). I’ve always been more of a fan of turn-based games anyway, so this is right in my wheelhouse. It’s even gotten me into the lore of 40K, so Games Workshop needs to give Owl at a big bonus on their contract, as Warhammer seemed impenetrable to me before Rogue Trader and now I’m buying 40K novels and scooping up older video games to scratch this itch (if anyone’s in the market for a good detective noir title in the Warhammer universe, check out the Eisenhorn novels!)
On the note of wanting to look like a freaky cyborg, I 100% agree. Really wish they'd have let us play as a Mechanicus Rogue Trader, even if it made no sense.
The fact there is no voice acting in act 4 outside of companions ending quests/romances and zero whatsoever in act 5 is bizzare. Im assuming that its just another late game bug because it makes no sense for the final conversation especially to be silent.
I love this game and warhammer in general, but the part of this game I was most disappointed in gameplay and dialogue wise was being a psyker. Gameplay wise there are so few power compared to what a psyker lore wise can do or that for some reason requires a staff to do it, like no biolightning, a true firestorm (that doesn't rely on ignite), blood boil, etc. The staves in my opinion should augment certain disciplines or abilities. Also there is like only 3 dialogue options if you are a psyker and then for the rest no one will acknowledge that you are a witch. Like if I am a telepath at the least, then I should be able to read the minds of others.
I took Arch Militant for Ulfar and he is a god compared to the others, it almost feels like cheating using him. On a normal playthrough, though. I think that his main selling point for this spec is the high amount of stats he gets, all useful for the spec itself (ballistic and weapon skill, toughness and strength) - basically anyone else I have is only close to his stats if I focused on 1 - 2 specific stats. You can get items for him from the traders. A helmet(really good, grants take cover on all your bursts) and a chainsword, helmet is from the Mechanicus faction and I can't remember who has the chainsword to be honest, I want to say (oddly enough) the cold traders. There's a ton of cool items from those traders, I think there's more space marine stuff there than what I mention but none come to memory now.
Finished Chapter 3 just before the holidays and taking a break for patches. The voidship and colony management feel central to the theme of taking care of thousands and millions but I agree that there hasn’t been enough reactivity to that, esp once landing & talking to various nobles. If I defeated marauding chaos ships or choose to establish a pirate base, I’d expect someone to comment. I’m a 40k fan, and Rogue Trader has the conceit that the normal rules don’t apply. I think corrupting companions would be very interesting, and playing as a high-noble dynast aromance could very easily take a more serious focus with implications. Very curious to see how heretical run plays out, so far the choices appear obviously evil without profitable upside - not quite the subtle temptations I was expecting. I feel the latter makes much more sense as a trillionaire space privateer actively watched by the inquisition.
I'm in love with the game, but there are a few glaring issues besides bugs. I feel like there should be a ton more NPCs with actual character portraits, same with the criticism as some very major characters have no voiced dialogue. I'm also concerned that there may not be enough points to obtain rank 5 heretic at the present, but thats only a rumor. From the announced DLC, they are going to add 2 more companions and roughly an additional 30 hours of story, which is really exciting as long as those things are quality and those companions are well integrated into the entire game-have plenty to say in every chapter. Lastly, even as of Chapter 2, you don't encounter your rival Rogue Traders enough. As en example, after completing Janus I had to determine how I wanted to tackle the food situation, but never got to meet Winterscale. I can't determine if I want to side with them or the station if I don't even know who they are.
I did a Iconoclast playthrou... i was shocked on the Epiloge, i realy didnt like some of the outcomes of my good choices... but well.. its grim dark fantasy. What i disliked the most (like in other owlcat games) are missing NPC portraits
@@SlanderedGaming I guess you may had some of the same stuff in the Epiloge.. did you let Marazhai life for example i didnt like 1 thing he did in the Epiloge. Or Pasqal and Yrliet... this one made me furious. I also didnt expect what my Empire became like.. it was nice... but... well i dont wanna spoiler... grim dark...
I just got locked in that area. They never tested one of the zones with a space marine companion. He spawned off map and I can't progess. And you are right it is utter trash. Completly unfinished half assed and rushed.
@@michaelbaker8284 no one said the game is trash but you. The game is pretty damn good, sucks theres a ton of bugs, but (not an excuse, i know) Owlcat games always have issues at launch. But if the games werent amazing rpgs people wouldnt play them
@@sparkyspinz9897 It's an unfinished product dude. Its not just bugs act 4 is clearly missing content. Not as in the triggers are broken and need patching. They never finished writing it.
At the start, I only went iconoclast because as a rich noble officer I didnt see myself jumping through flames. Problem is I heard because the points are limits I feel compelled to stick with Iconoclast in dialogue choices even if it goes against my character roleplay as I won't be able to reach rank 5. Perhaps next time they should add more of these points to allow more potential freedom? Also like you mentioned with this scale also effecting companions more than choices or dialogue perhaps a approval score for them aswell.
Thanks for the lengthy review! I'm in Act 5 right now, because I had to wait for patches to fix the Act 3 to Act 4 transition. I really enjoyed my time with the game thus far, but i 100% agree you with companions feeling distant, which is a bit turn off. It is lore accurate, but I dunno if doing it at the expense of companions was worth it, because in RPG's those are one of my favorite parts of those games alongside the story. Now that Rogue Trader is done I hope that Owlcat will go back to adapt Pathfinder modules, because I vastly prefer fantasy over Sci fi, even though 40K is my favorite Sci fi setting.
my only part i dont like about the game so far is commorragh is i had to reequipe evoryone i don't like when games do that. and the story that takes place there in my opinion should have instantly made slanesh make me a demon price for the eldar souls i gave. onother thing space wolf should turn jostle if you do any heretic stuff in front of him. I don't care about the game he should attack immediately then ask questions he is a space wolf the emperors executioners. one more thing in act 4 needing a fanatic heretic for the heretic content was unexpected because u haven't got it. so I reloaded to act 2 to try and find stuff I missed and haven't found anything yet but I was missing 80 points
I have not finished it yet, both a couple restarts YAY restartitis, and holidays. I really feel like this is a prime example of a game that with 2-3 more months in the oven could have could have made a noticeable difference, but I think both wanting it out for the holidays and back when they did announce it was right after unity talked about changing the pricing structure for 2024 they wanted to avoid that. As to the amount of VA I do wonder if the strikes over the summer affected the amount of VA the game got as VA is done towards the end of most projects and or with the increased rates if their budget for VA was set before the increased rates meant less VA
I am willing to give a bit more benefit of the doubt as they have delivered 3 games in a row I have and or am currently really enjoying especially WOTR that has given me over 1700 hours of enjoyment. -@@SlanderedGaming
I just wish I could play an Adeptus Mechanicus. Also, the political parallels with this game and America are terrifying. You basically become Jeff Bezzos overnight.
It be cool but idk if they have rouge traders. There is Warhammer 40k: mechanicus more xcom style with a more combat focus but portrayal of faction is perfect in that game.
@@kenpachiramasama1139 I mean, the Mechanicus are the closest thing to a transhumanist utopia that the Imperium of Man would probably ever achieve. So therefore it makes sense that the fascist Imperials would basically exile them to Mars.
I thought I would play this game at some point but the more I think on it, I'm not sure. WH40K is just too... thematically locked-in to really satisfy me in playing as the sort of character I want to. Grimdark settings just bore me. Its a suitable setting for a wargame, since it was originally just a tabletop miniatures game. But as a role-playing universe... unless you're already a fan of that fantasy there's just not much appeal besides things looking cool. Not that I'm surprised, it's literally in their tagline: "In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is only war!". Again, great for tabletop strategy, but a miserable world to live in. I dunno. It gets all the points for style, but I find the substance lacking.
I didn't find the setting miserable and I think it's worth playing through. Even though the setting is grim dark you are not necessarily forced to play that way which can make things more interesting.
Actually what many fans (including me) love about 40K, is that it's so over the top grimdark, that it veers into parody (quite intentionally so). Once you see it from that perspective, it stops feeling miserable, and a lot more fun!
The void ship does not have "millions of people" it has about 62 000 crew. But the planets you own (yes, right you own PLANETS) can have milliards of people.
Yeah I don't play to use Argenta for my Heretic or Iconoclast runs and she'll definitely be missed. Cassia is broken for the first three acts but by the end of the game she's not quite as useful.
I haven't played heretic but I saw Mortismal Gaming review for this game where he has 100% it. He had serious issues with the heretic path. Both from a lore and story standpoints. Ok you are a Rogue Trader and basically not subject to the laws or whatnot but you are within a Galaxy where heresy is outright banned or as you said punishable by death, and pretty much any one you interact with tells you that. On top of that you have a Sister of Battle and an Inquisitor in your sqad. But both of them stay with you even if you pick this path, they don't outright leave straight away when you choose this which is just bad (lore wise) and character wise. And basically you're "roaming" free masquerading as a heretic which is also baffling (world/story wise). But its a video game so its cool right? No.
They do leave a party if you go pretty deep on heretic path. It's a stupid nitpick on Mort's part. All Owlcat games are like that. You can openly be a demon in WOTR in front of Seelah, and she doesn't care, just like Argenta.
Haha, I didn't know Ulfar was just mediocre. I played blind on hard difficulty and thought that Ulfar was busted. My Argenta was perma-benched for dying so fast and doing no dmg. I was lazy to build henrix, so he was just support to cast words of the emperor spells.
Nice review. I've just begun doing the main quests in Act 2, yet I'm somehow still 70+ hours in. I guess I just like roaming space and exploring star systems. Hahahaha. My main problem with the game is that combat just takes SO LONG all the time. It's not a turn-based problem, it's just due to how all of the encounters are designed. There are just so many little scrub enemies that are no problem knocking off but who each have their own turn and just bog the pace down. On the opposite end, there are (so far at least - I AM still in the beginning-to-middle of the game) very few really challenging fights that really test out your skills and how well you've built your characters. It feels like I'm just mowing down cannon fodder, and while that can really work in a faster-paced game (the Space Marine FPS comes to mind!), it isn't terribly fun here. To me, at least. Or...well...I do enjoy the combat. I just wished it was tighter and more difficult. One thing I disagree with you on is that it's a shame there aren't more xeno companions. I can see why you'd feel that if you haven't played Warhammer 40K before, but man, they do NOT get along. It's not like a game like Mass Effect where you have a bunch of alien races that generally get along, then a bunch of fairly antagonistic races, and then some REALLY BAD ones. Nah, in W40K, they're all pretty genocidal towards each other. I'm not a huge W40K fan who is neck-deep into the lore of the universe, but I'm fairly certain that most of the races out there have at least razed a planet or two of Humanity's. While Chaos is kind of the big bad out there that absolutely everyone can agree to hate, no one is friendly with each other. I'm actually surprised that there are xeno companions at all, at least without you having to go full heretic to bring them onboard. Overall, I feel like you get a bit too much leeway with your wild ideas as the player character. I brought a mechanical "pet" onboard the ship and everyone around me rightly freaked the eff out because it was an unholy abomination that could put the entire ship at risk, but after yelling at me for a little bit (all voice acted, haha!), they all eventually cooled off and went along with it. W40K is just a...weird setting. Things are very black and white, and honestly mostly just black and grimdark. I feel like Owlcat had to de-extreme it a bit in order to build a proper game around it. All of this being said, I can recommend Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus if you liked Rogue Trader. Mechanicus is less of a CRPG and more of an XCOM-type tactical turn-based game, but it's hard to not see a lot of similarities even so. I really liked that game even if it had one of the weirdest difficulty curves in a while, with the beginning being hard as nails and the end being fairly easy. But it was still a fun game. It follows the tech priests while they're battling another xeno race that I don't think is in Rogue Trader. Obviously I'm not done with Rogue Trader yet but I see no inclination that this particular race would pop up. And that's kind of what I like about Warhammer 40K. Between Space Marine, Rogue Trader and Mechanicus, you have three games where you not only battle three different alien races/groups of aliens, but you're actually playing as three different parts of the Empire. There's a LOT of lore there. Sorry for rambling a little. Point is, great review! :)
I always thought that the companions don't become closer to the player is because they are already fleshed out characters with a set worldview (in the game world that is). They are either "business" partners, subjects, servants etc. One does not simply change a character of a Battle Sister, a Space Marine, an eldar or a Dark Eldar for that matter. It does really reflect the 40k genre. I've read many books from the universe and I have yet to see a budding, happy romance in any of them. Even the famous Cain when he has his trysts and romances it's never really about love or feelings, some of his "adventures" are one night stands, some just for pleasure and even Cain himself has no illusions about him and Amberley, in fact he knows all to well that if he fails or flat out disobeys her she will kill him. And don't get me wrong, that's coming from someone who would love to see some Sister of Battle action.
One playthrough so far. Iconoclast ranged dps psyker. The build was underwhelming, but the game was awesome. Waiting for some DLCs and then I'm gonna go again either dogmatic or heretic.
The state of this game on release is inexcusable and its a real shame, because underneath all that is an excellent game with great writing and really cool gameplay. I'm still sour from my first run which has been ruined by plenty of bugs. I'll come back to this game in a few months when it will be in a decent state. Hopefully Owlcat finally learn their lesson and improve on QA for their next game because it's really hurting them
I’m just playing now and 3 months after your review it’s still really buggy with parts of act 2 almost unplayable, and other graphical bugs that partially obscure the screen. But I’m 100+ hours in so obviously they’re doing something right! I think they’ve nailed the setting pretty well, and the stories are genuinely interesting. My biggest gripe is that levelling up your characters is a chore - there’s a bewildering array of options, and it’s not always clear how one upgrade will interact with earlier choices - it doesn’t help that some introduce new systems and tokens to keep track of. If they could find a clearer, more visual way to present the information I think it would be a huge quality of life improvement.
Watched a lot of your videos on this game and thinking of finally picking it up with the release of the 1.1.58 patch. I'm sure I will be coming back here for all your excellent info after buying th game...
overall, I really liked about 80% of this game. the other 20% was varying degrees of frustrating. mostly not horrible, but could have been better. the combat is mostly far too easy. even increasing the difficulty, most fights after act 1 are a stompfest, very little strategy needed. that's fun sometimes, but gets old fast when everything is like that. and while I really liked voidship combat, there wasn't as much as I wanted, nor does it integrate well with the rest of the game. the onboarding for it is also terrible. it's not the most intuitive system, and your ship at the start of the game is nearly useless. this makes it really satisfying when you get the hang of it, but I imagine it turns a lot of people off long before then. I also wish Ulfar wasn't so underdeveloped. having a space marine is really cool. having a space marine that doesn't play qualitatively differently from other party members (and is generally much weaker than a somewhat-optimized Argenta) is less so. And I still can't figure out why Owlcat insists on continuing to give us companions that we can't fully respec. sure, they _usually_ work alright enough, but it never feels good. who wants this? And while this is true of all of Owlcat's games (and most of the genre overall), but I'm tired of how most of these games handle skill checks. the vast majority of the time, nothing interesting comes of failing a check. A human GM would 1) tune important checks to their players' party, and 2) offer interesting (not always good, but interesting) outcomes even on failure. in most crpgs, the option are either pass and get something interesting or fail and don't, so failing just feels like you're missing part of the game. The last big issue I has was load times, especially for between the bridge/system/expanse maps. I'm on a great PC, and it still eats up a lot of time. particularly the system and expanse maps have no reason to take much if any time at all. there just isn't much happening on them. it makes exploration (what should be a highlight of the game) a real slog, and I started skipping some opportunities when I just couldn't be asked to sit through a dozen or more loads to do anything cool. while I've been pretty negative here... I did still really enjoy most of the game. most of the systems are fun, and the writing is engaging and occasionally quite funny, and it's easily the most immersive video game interaction I've had with anything 40k. but still, there are some significant ways that it fell short.
im so glad this game is really good Side note wouldnt it be awesome if you could recruit like a Tau fire warrior who escaped the influence of the Ethereals and is like in hiding with the rogue trader as a sniper. I totally agree that while its very un lore friendly, i think RPGs like this are the best opportunity to explore things in a setting that would otherwise be very very almost impossibly rare.
Unfortunatley the next two major story DLC's are more Imperium companions with a Death Cult Assassin and an Adeptus Arbites. Really missed opportunity for more xeno companions like Tau Fire Warriors, Kroot and Ork Freebooterz.
Trying to avoid most media on this but so far from the little I have seen it seems like a classic Owlcat game. Best to wait a year or two and get it on discount with all the patches etc. Shame really.
Big fan of your coverage, Also like your challenge :) Rogue Trader TTRPG is my favorite of all time and im just ecstatic that we even got this game so I am biased in loving it. I would like to point out a few things though, the game isnt really anything like the TTRPG rules wise except in the most shallow form. I assume youve never played the TTRPG which is why I bring it up. That doesnt bug me at all but I thought id point it out. For instance the naval combat in the game which is definately the red headed step child of the video game (which is really sad) has NOTHING in common with with the TTRPG, ships classes, importance, combat mechanics, modifications etc are all either gutted altogether or simplified so greatly they dont look anything like what inspired them. For me the naval combat was sadly a big deal (its actually a huge part of the TTRPG, critical piece really) but I got over it because im just happy its there! If they would have taken it out completely like you wanted 9given its not super integrated well) tbh the RT TT hardcore nerds like myself would probably have been hugely turned off. You cant be a rogue trader and not do ship and empire building stuff. I wish it was WAAY more complicated and integrated though. I am quite happy about the lack of whimsical D&D esque relationships in the game. I am only in act 2 atm but very happy with it. Though dont let even hardcore 40k fans tell you there is no room for "friends" or "love" interests in 40k. I am not sure who told you that XD 40k at this point is as varied as any other major sci fi settings and can be colored quite alot depending on the reader/writer. Dan Abnett is my favorite 40k writer and his stuff is miles different then some of the other writers for example. I understand what youre saying about friendship but im glad that not all RPGs follow the D&D friends around a table approach and that other options are around such as this game. For example I played BG3 and while I loved it, the horniness and friendness (while fun) was just crazy over the top. I like that it is much more muted here and works better for this setting and story imo. I agree with alot of your points though, if youre gonna have Astartes in the game make it a BIG deal. Otherwise better to leave them out and do maybe Kroot instead! Since everyone wanted one XD Great job, thank you for the review.
Glad you enjoyed the review and that the game is working for you thus far. Actually what I would prefer is that naval combat be more integrated as opposed to taking it away. I really liked Kingdom and Crusade management unlike other people and was expecting something similar here. I absolutely agree that your relationships with party members should be more muted than they are in D&D but I think this might be too far over to the other side. I know many Warhammer fans probably find it appealing though.
Thank you for the response! :) I hope they get to improve on your suggestions if tehy get to make a second one, as well as mine. As I dont think alot of what you wanted is not compatible with 40k @@SlanderedGaming
Great time, but kinda same issue as previous games, they really need to add value to their games. And i had e very strong feeling that they are less then Pathfinder too, maybe because they dont voiced the most important encounter, and frequently i thought "it would be really cool if it has been voiced" for example that exchange of lines between Heinrix/Argenta and DMechanicus at Gamma, anyway very cool video and really love you positive attitude
You're not the only one saying the companions weren't Rogue Trader's strong suit. Which is interesting as they were such a high point in Owlcat's earlier games. Very thorough review.
@@SlanderedGaming idk how you give anyone an arc in this game like warhammer 40k honestly just about everything just getting worst in general. Like what could really due when almost everyone is brainwash into their beliefs and to go outside that mean death in the setting.
@@kenpachiramasama1139you are totaly wrong. You can give amazing arcs to characters in 40k. You can restore characters feith, seduce them to darkness and anything in between. There is not only grimdark in 40k there is room for true heroes, selfless sacrifices and insperational tales too. Things can by all means get better, you cant kill khorne for example but you can defeat chaos on the planet and save billions. There is a LOT of plainly bad guys not only shades of gray, so goody goody paladin type can exist in 40k. Or you can give depth and understandable motivation to even most despicable character. That is why setting is so great.
Bro I like your videos but calm down on the spoilers in a REVIEW video. One of many examples "there are no major villains" can be said without spoiling that specific detail.
24:20 this is how I feel about warhammer 40k in general. Nothing wants to change in the setting. It all just wants to be one thing, which is what bugs me about it.
@@SlanderedGaming another issue I had the same you had with more alien companions. Hell Ionoclass characters should allow more alien characters hell the Tau fit that bill in lore. At least Gene stealers or chaos caultist for heretics.
It's amusing to me that you complained people don't have the patience to read all the text, I donthave the patience to listen to them speak, I read faster than they talk.
Emm...Yrliet has a great and multi layered character arc Argenta have such one as well But would you able to unlock it - depends on your dispositions and multiple choices . The only one had not grow much is Maragai, but he is drukari (but even he has option to become harlequin)
I did a Dogmatic run so Yrilet didn't make it. Argenta doesn't have a character arc, she has an issue that she needs help resolving but completing it doesn't change her in any significant way. Pasqal and Cassia have character arcs and I have heard Heinrix does as well if you romance him. I'll revisit this topic after completing more playthroughs.
@@SlanderedGaming My Argenta basicly face against her own arrogance and "Chosen one" complex (which cost lifes to many good people) and stand on Repentia path (basicly suicide in the Emperor name)
I been enjoying your Rogue warrior videos. You spent a long detailed time on those dislikes. Hard to remember anything else. As the saying goes, save the best for last.
Solid work my dude. While I am playing this game and having a blast, I'm also a bit of a 40k nerd so I understand a lot of the nuances in the setting. I'm sorry to hear that there's no proper antagonist in the story though, but Owlcat has a history of listening to fans and overhauling their games in response to feedback so who knows? Maybe they'll even do a sequel and pit you directly against Winterscale or a WAAGH of orc or a thousand other great options the setting provides.
The "secret" ending is having Nomos help you out but that is very easy and obvious to get especially on an Iconoclast playthrough (where it's also mandatory for having a "good" ending).
My problem with Ulfar was just him being a Space Wolf honestly. Sure, the lack of gear sucks and his build is garbage, but I also just would have liked a different Space Marine chapter. Salamanders (potentially the second Iconoclast companion, but still Xenophobic) Dark Angels (A geneseed seeking redemption for crimes committed by their forebears, maybe a good mix with Argenta) Blood Angels (basically Martyrs) Iron Hands (a Space Marines chapter that's on extremely good terms with the Adeptus Mechanicus) or possibly Grey Knights (which work with the Demonhunter arm of the Inquisition) would have been good options. Instead we get SPACE VIKING, the second most store-brand Space Marine right behind Ultramarines. It's just such a waste of potential and only shows how little depth these companions truly have. Also Character Customization is great... except unlike the Pathfinder games, you can't change it after Character Creation. Unless you use a Save Editor, you can't even change your Portrait or Voice options, meaning if you decide in Chapter 2 that you don't really like Pragmatic Male... tough shit buddy, make a new save file.
To be fair, there aren't many chapters that would accept to even give time to a "mortal". You may not like the SW as a chapter, which is fine, but there would be no way in hell that a Dark Angels even tolerates "wasting time" helping a mortal unless they are doing things like hunting a fallen ( which in turns means that they are just waiting to kill you to cover their tracks ), the Iron Hands aren't nice to mortals either, the Grey Knights would be impossible since they are a secret to the Imperium unless you are someone way, WAY above the rank of a RT. By the standards of a Space Marine, even of a Space Wolf, Ulfar is a saint of compassion and understanding XD About the changes, as fair as I know I think you may need to use the ToyBox mod, there should be a way to change these things from there
As a 40k fan, I feel like you are underselling just how evil both xeno and chaos are. You point out the issues in the Imperium of Man, but ignore the reality that they are the most humane species there is in that universe. Orks do not do anything but fight, due to being biological war weapons. The Eldar caused the birth of the 4th chaos god and are split between arrogant manipulators, who will destroy entire sectors of space in order to gain some imagined advantage somewhere in the future, or bloodthirsty psychopaths, who have to go on regular slave raids, in order to keep up a supply of warm bodies to torture/kill/maim/desecrate you name it. The Tyranids are a devouring swarm. The T'au present themselves the best, but even what is available, shows a stringent caste system, that uses genetic manipulation to ensure the existence thereof, possible mind control (they always give out translator helmets to new species they encounter, who then suddenly want to join in the collective), and worship some sort of "Greater Good" that only the ruling caste, the etherials know the details about. And then there is Chaos: Blood Sacrifices for Khorne, constant betrayal for Tzeentch, disease and decay with Nurgle and constant pleasure found in torture with Slaanesh. And none of these except for maybe the T'au want any diplomatic interaction with humanity. And even then, it is just to exploit humans even better. Compare this to the Imperium of Man. Led by an emperor, who sacrificed his wellbeing in order to stop Chaos on feeding on humanity, continues to sacrifice in order to keep humanity safe, by providing a lighthouse in the warp. Every attempt he made at leading humanity better, is fucked with by chaos though. Such as the time he created 20 demigods, which ended with Chaos using warp fuckery to send them out across the galaxy. He only ever found 18 of the 20 and of those 18 he found, 9 betrayed humanity and became servants of chaos. If you find a world being run badly, chances are chaos is at work. One of the reasons for why there is such a hierarchical system being found everywhere is that it enables the ability to give out specific knowledge on chaos (which is memetic and will influence someone to it's cause, just by them knowing about it, the more they know, the stronger the draw), without risking it spreading due to a more horizontal ruling structure. Or take the secrecy of the adeptus mechanicus. They remain so secretive because at one point humanity had AI assistence everywhere. It was a utopia. And then the eldar came in, saw how far humanity had advanced and decided that they would give a memetic virus to all AIs, that would ensure that they would all turn on humanity. And thus AI doesn't stand for artifical intelligence anymore, but abominable intelligence. The list of atrocities that humanity has had to survive because of the interference of Chaos or Xeno is long and unending.
I would respond but Roboute Guilliman already said it best "What more do you want from me? I gave everything I had to you, to them. Look what they've made of our dream? This bloated, rotting carcass of an empire is driven not by reason and hope, but by fear, hate and ignorance. Better that we had all burned in the fires of Horus' ambition than lived to see this."
Those comments on what Owlcat should do to garner a larger audience are strange. I don't know that they even want this. Having a stable player base and developping niche games might be a more strategic business decision than taking the risks and going big. Anyway, what I find strange is discussing games from a business perspective ; it has little to do with the design. You're not a councillor on their profits margins, you're reviewing the game.
I want Owlcat to stay in business which means they have to grow their audience and serve it. I get hundreds of comments every month about what players want from their games, how they feel about Owlcat games, and what they would like to see improved. It would be strange and frankly counterproductive to not include that information in my reviews. Also, the content of my reviews shouldn't be dictated by what a developer does or does not want to do. I am here for the players.
Excuse me, there are plenty of people that have romantics in the warhammer 40k universe. Being honest, one of the original space marines. It's currently banging in eldar
I think the biggest flaw in Owlcat games is that they are too long. I'd rather have a shorter game with more voice acting and more character development. I've only played Wrath only once, although it's fantastic, but it was just too long for me.
I hated Act 3. Not because it's all in one place, or torture or anything to do with Drukhari. It's what you learn about your own teammates makes me want to scream.
