Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

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• Recommended Posted April 21, 2026 on Steam After 262.5 hours with the base game and all DLCs, I may not be a better person, but I do know two things for certain. First, the Warhammer 40,000 universe is incredibly fascinating. Second, it is a real blessing not to live in it. I was born in 1971. At my age, some people probably compare blood pressure readings or think about practical things. I spent 262.5 hours in Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, leveling officers, planning warp routes, making morally questionable decisions, and staring at space battles as if my actual rank depended on them. To be fair, that playtime was not just because I am not 25 anymore. I unlocked 52 out of 106 achievements, including "Exploring Without End", which means visiting every optional location in the game. And there are a lot of them. Really a lot. So if this took me forever, it was not just age. It was also because Rogue Trader keeps hiding one more wreck, cult, side story, moral dilemma, or medium-sized disaster around every corner. That is also one of the main reasons I liked it so much. This is not a game you casually finish and move on from. You sink into it. You read. You explore. You lose track of time, and every now and then you also lose track of what still counts as acceptable in this universe. For anyone who wants to dive deep into Warhammer 40,000, this is one of the best gaming entry points I have seen. And I say that not only as a player, but also as a Games Workshop retailer who sells the tabletop system in his store. No other game, program, or tool has made this world feel so playable, understandable, and alive to me as Rogue Trader did. That does not make novels, codices, lore videos, or the tabletop itself any less valuable. Not at all. They all keep their place. But if you want to actually grasp this enormous, dark, often completely insane universe through play, Rogue Trader does an amazing job. I played it in German, and I already know I want to play it again in English. The spoken dialogue is excellent. The voice acting has exactly the right mix of pathos, severity, and grandeur. It genuinely makes you want to hear the original version. The German text itself is weaker. I noticed typos, awkward phrasing, and a general lack of polish here and there. Rogue Trader also gets something right that many large-universe games do not. It does not just explain the setting, it lets you live in it. In its splendor, fanaticism, decadence, cruelty, and complete disregard for the individual. And yes, that is meant as praise. If you are looking for something politically correct, you are in the wrong star system. Even the more humane choices are often still far away from what we would call humane, reasonable, or civilized today. That is part of what makes this universe so effective. It is so dark, so fanatical, and so broken that, for all its fascination, it also reminds you how lucky we are to live in a democracy and in the West. One of the game’s strongest features is its alignment system with Dogmatic, Iconoclast, and Heretical choices. These are not just cosmetic dialogue tags. They matter, and they unlock gameplay options. I often chose Dogmatic because within this world it felt logical or politically practical. Also, I had no desire to get the Inquisition breathing down my neck every time I showed a little compassion. One NPC, whose name I will not mention because I do not want to spoil anything or receive a retroactive summons for heresy, made that very clear. Since I played a female main character, I sometimes even had the feeling he was twice as eager to come after me. That said, more than once I made a Dogmatic choice and immediately thought that in real life I would probably report myself for it. Deep down, I was often closer to the Iconoclast path, which is about as humane as this universe allows. In Warhammer 40,000, "humane" often just means not becoming a complete monster for one day. The atmosphere is excellent. Religious madness, golden splendor, decaying power structures, endless doom, and just the right amount of wax-sealed insanity. If you want to understand why this setting has fascinated people for decades, this game gives a very convincing answer. The writing, companions, factions, colonies, discoveries, and constant sense that the next jump point might contain treasure, disaster, or both all work very well. If you like reading and exploring, there is a lot here for you. Combat is strong too. When your party clicks and the synergies work, it feels great. There is a lot of system depth here. Maybe a bit too much at times, but still mostly in a good way. At some point you stop asking whether you became more tactical and start wondering whether you simply learned how to use the madness of the ruleset against the game itself. Now the bad part. Yes, the game has bugs. The space battles in particular caused real frustration. I do not mean enemy mechanics disabling abilities. I mean actual cases where skills were simply unavailable even though the cooldown should have been over. For me, this happened with multi-torpedoes, which I had specifically invested in and then just could not use when I should have been able to. I also ran into items that were supposed to improve stats like Parry or Dodge, but did not always seem to work correctly. In a few cases it felt as if a positive bonus had somehow turned into a negative one. So do not trust every item description blindly. Check what it really does. Not every item works the way it is described or translated. Even with those issues, my overall impression is still clearly positive. Rogue Trader is a gripping, dark, atmospheric, and often surprisingly clever RPG. It is also awkward in places, buggy in places, and morally filthy in ways that fit Warhammer 40,000 almost perfectly. If you want a large, text-heavy RPG with strong lore, meaningful choices, and no fear of making you uncomfortable, I can absolutely recommend it. If you want technical perfection, fast action, and smooth modern comfort, probably not. For me, this was one of the strongest Warhammer 40,000 experiences I have had in any medium. Recommended
• Recommended Posted July 12, 2025 on Steam Thought I completed the game and then I got an achievement saying “completed chapter 1”
• Recommended Posted July 31, 2025 on Steam [h1]The Best Flawed Game You Can Currently Buy[/h1] [b]TL;DR:[/b] An absolutely brilliant, masterfully written cRPG with a captivating story. If you have patience for its significant technical issues, inconsistent presentation, and jarring difficulty spikes, buy it. If you want a polished experience, wait and pray for a "Definitive Edition" update, similar to what the [i]Divinity: Original Sin[/i] games received. Also IF you get it BUY the DLCs. They add a LOT. [hr][/hr] As someone who has recently struggled to invest time in any game and quickly loses interest, it is stunning how this game captivated me. I typically avoid campaigns longer than 20 hours and have lately only enjoyed games with "short-term" gameplay loops, like roguelites. But this game is different. The universe, the story, the moral dilemmas, the way your choices have consequences (and sometimes unexpected benefits), the diversity of the cast, the ideas and gameplay of the combat, the soundtrack, and the presentation of key scenes: they are all carefully and masterfully crafted. And at the same time, the game fails at MANY things. Big time. But never big enough to push me away or ruin my mood to keep playing. Most of these issues would have made me drop any other game, especially as they caught me by surprise. They would not have caused me these many issues if I had known about htem before… This is why I'm sharing this review: so you know what you're getting into, and why I still recommend it. [h2]The Flaws You Should Know About:[/h2] [olist] [*] The prologue features amazing, extensive voice acting that sets a very high bar. Be aware that after the prologue, the vast majority of the game's dialogue is not voice-acted. This can be jarring after the high expectations set early on. [*] The game's presentation is all over the place. Sometimes you get a cool cinematic, other times an animated drawing, and frequently you'll have characters talking in slow, in-game cutscenes where you have to read the dialogue in turtle speed and watch actions unfold slowly. Then, suddenly, an event will play out as a "choose your own adventure" style text book. It feels like different teams with different visions worked on the presentation, and the inconsistency can be immersion-breaking. [*] You'll encounter some strange bugs. A character might get shot and then die two seconds later from nothing. A character might be sitting on top of the water in a pool. Visual markers textures in a quest might appear under the ground textures, so while clickable might not give you a direction needed. An enemy you're chasing might run off-screen but their model remains, frozen in place, making you question yourself what happened until you realize he “did run further”. [*] The game expects you to dig deep into complex character builds and skill systems very early on, without giving you much context. It does a poor job of explaining that the early game is forgiving enough to allow for experimentation, and that you can respec your characters later (though it is costly). The systems look more intimidating than they actually are initially, which can be off-putting. [*] There are a LOT of difficulty spikes. Some encounters feel like they require a perfectly min-maxed build. Most of these are avoidable. For example you can ignore a planet and come back later. Know this: this is an old-school RPG. It expects you to save often and reload in such situtions. Giving your saves descriptive names will help. [*] The diverse cast and their varied roles come at the cost of some companions being really complex to understand and use effectively. The game almost invites you to stick to simple archetypes. As a result, some characters might feel useless when you first get them, not because they are, but because their strengths are not intuitive. [/olist] [hr][/hr] [h2]Final Thoughts[/h2] Overall, the game often feels like it was developed by many different teams who didn't talk to each other enough. In some areas, it feels like features weren't fully playtested. It doesn't hold your hand, and then will suddenly give you a tutorial for an archetype in Act 3 that you may have already been using for hours. But still, the writing, the story, and all the moments where the game shines with surprising consequences make it an unforgettable experience. It feels like a game whose massive scope was carried by sheer passion and a great overarching vision, with some flaws in basic project management or if the resources fell short. It might actually be my favorite game, one where I could talk about its flaws just as much as I talk about why I love it. It's like a good friend: not perfect, troubled, and with their own issues. But their strengths are exactly what you need, and their flaws, even if they drive you crazy sometimes, are ones you can happily live with. And that's what makes Rogue Trader the best, most beautifully flawed game I've played in years.
• Recommended Posted November 24, 2025 on Steam Overwhelming at first (first run abandoned after roughly 20 hours) it gets easier to digest if you manage to resist the first 20 to 30 hours, due to an absolute ridiculous number of skills to choose from at characters level (and all characters level up at the same time...and they are many, towards the end of the game). However, if you are into these sort of games (i.e. isometric turn based RPGs) and like the 40K setting, this is a must play. There is also a lot to read...and I mean A LOT. It is clear that the developers put a lot of effort and love into this game. The writing is excellent and if you are familiar with the setting, it is a joy to read. There are some bugs, but nothing game breaking. A couple of side quest did bug out, but I could live with it. Suggestion: Do not store anything in the captain’s safe...trust me.
• Recommended Posted December 19, 2025 on Steam TLDR - If you like turn-based CRPGs and are interested in Warhammer 40k, I think you will like this. I also have 200+ hrs on Rogue Trader on PS5. Pros: Story, character building, turn-based strategy, music, choices that matter, surprises, tons to do, dark Warhammer 40k universe, voice acting, replay value, continued support by devs and new significant new content being released (even more coming), and more. (Very minor) Cons: Mild learning curve to understand game mechanics (e.g., "wounds" = health, how some characteristics like Perception affect battles, etc.), some difficulty spikes (if you explore a lot and engage in voidspace battles you will level up and be ok - also just be conscious of having a mixed group - tank, melee characters, ranged characters, support/psyker of some kind), some reading involved (voice acting is great and there is a lot of it but not everything is voice acted), once you get hooked it can take up a lot of your time :) This is now one of my favorite games and one of the few that I played a second time back to back. I am a fan of old school turn-based CRPGs and was interested in learning more about the Warhammer 40k universe so I decided to try Rogue Trader. I was hooked by the lore and then got sucked into the gameplay, strategy, and exploration. The game is very big and I enjoyed it so much I played through as Iconoclast and then immediately started again as a Heretic psyker. As noted above, I have 200+ hrs on PS5 and 160+ here on Steam and the replay value is immense depending on your decisions. The experience as a Heretic was very different from what I saw as Iconoclast and you can do some surprisingly evil things if you choose to. I am probably going to do a 3rd play through as a religious zealot once the next expansion releases. You do not need to look up any character builds to be successful in the game. I just learned the basics of the game mechanics and read the descriptions of the skills to look for synergies. I did not have any any issues in either play through. I did the second play through on the hardest difficulty. I have not played Baldurs Gate 3 yet (it's on the list) so I can't compare but I really enjoyed Rogue Trader and am looking forward to the expansions and next Warhammer game.
• Recommended Posted May 11, 2026 on Steam What a game. Never has the 40K universe been represented with such love and attention to detail. Highly recommend to both 40K fans and CRPG fans.