Blog

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was supposed to be my entry into the grimdark future of 40k back in Summer 2023, but I only started playing it in February 2025. It caught my attention shortly before its release but, knowing that most CRPGs tend to launch full of bugs, I decided to hold off for a while. The 40k setting was intriguing, though, and I quickly found myself in a deep rabbit hole of video games, novels, and so much lore.

The path through the rabbit hole (so far) went roughly like this: “Warhammer – The Heavy Metal of Board Games” (Imaginary Worlds); “Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader – Owlcat’s Next Adventure” (Mortismal Gaming); Inquisitor — Martyr (Xbox); Eisenhorn: The Omnibus; Space Marine II (Xbox); Saints and Martyrs: An Adepta Sororitas Omnibus, and the Daemonifuge graphic novel (via Ebay).

In between and throughout were a variety of YouTubers, including the aforementioned Mortim, as well as Arbitor Ian, Hood Guard, Play On Tabletop, and of course, Warhammer itself. Most recently, there’s also the WH40k Book Club podcast, which I’m using to catch up on interesting characters and factions via novels I’m unlikely to ever read.

Suffice to say, by the time I loaded up Rogue Trader for the first time on Steam, I was ready to dive in!

NOTE: Mild spoilers ahead…

I still had at least 15+ hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio to play when I started Rogue Trader, assuming I’d jump between Xbox and PC until I finished the former, but I was so immediately hooked on the latter (thanks partly to inheriting my son’s old gaming PC, which is way more powerful than my 5-year-old ThinkPad), I haven’t turned the Xbox on since that fateful day. (RIP Game Pass?)

DNFing a game after 90+ hours shouldn’t be a thing, but I couldn’t do another round of Metaphor‘s dungeons just to see how the story ended. The combat had gotten tedious and repetitive, I didn’t want any more archetypes, and I’d maxed out the follower stories I was most interested in. Similar to Persona 3 Reload (and most modern RPGs, really), it’s just too damn long, mainly for the sake of being long.

Ironically, I’m now 120+ hours into Rogue Trader, with two acts of unknown length to go, and I’ve been thinking about a second playthrough for half of that time because there have been so many intriguing sliding doors moments, several of which have challenged the approach I took with my main character, Malakai von Valancius.

Being “Good” in the Grimdark Future

I created a Voidborn Noble Officer as it felt like the right combination of story and personality fit for me, and by the time I was done with the prologue, I had a new frontrunner for my personal GOTY. It was everything I hoped it would be, with a compelling story, deep lore, tactical combat, and consequential decisions that aren’t always clearly telegraphed — and it was just getting started.

As a Rogue Trader, you command vast resources — including entire solar systems and billions of people — and the story intertwines several smaller personal plotlines with a few huge ones, and it’s not always clear how deep a particular side quest will go when you start it. Or what you’ll miss if you choose to ignore it. There were two pretty intense quests in Act 2 that were better than most other games’ entire storylines, with ripple effects that seem to be resonating throughout the rest of the game.

The second act alone would be one of the longest games I’ve ever played, but it was immensely satisfying for blending the core turn-based combat mechanics and strong narrative with space exploration and voidship combat, plus trade and colony management! It does it all so well that Act 3’s plot twist was an effective rug pull, as refreshing as it was annoying, particularly because it avoids making “good” choices (relatively speaking) an easy way out. Every decision has consequences, and sometimes they’re just varying degrees of terrible.

One could argue that the game is trying to do too much (and I know there’s even more coming in the final two acts), but it’s also an appropriately expansive canvas for a Rogue Trader’s role in the grimdark future. I can’t imagine how they’re going to maintain the momentum through Act 5, but I’m all in on seeing it through to the end.

It also has a surprising sense of humor at times.

Squad Goals

My favorite companions have evolved throughout the first three acts, partly because Owlcat did such a great job with their individual narratives that it’s not just about combat tactics. I’ve purposely dealt with each one in character as much as possible, following the narrative threads as they’re revealed rather than peeking ahead to see which are the “right” ones, making some decisions much tougher than others.

Abelard (Arch-Militant), Argenta (Bounty Hunter), and Kibellah (Executioner) have been clear first teamers from the start, as much for their combat abilities as their personalities, while Heinrix (Vanguard) eventually became a regular after I figured out how to work with his psyker abilities. Pasqal (Bounty Hunter) has mostly been a regular because he might be the most interesting and entertaining companion of them all, and I’ve regretted not having his tech skills handy the few times I’ve left him behind. It took a while to figure out his build, though, and I suspect my version would be a liability in combat at higher difficulty levels.

I actually had to respec all of their builds, and my own, before the halfway point of Act 2, and we’ve been an effective squad ever since.

As primarily Dogmatic characters, my playing as an Iconoclast makes their conversations, advice, and reactions more interesting, especially when we disagree on a resolution, or they convince me to change my mind about something. I still don’t trust Heinrix, but I’m intensely loyal to the other four.

(NOTE: I don’t typically care about romance options in games, but I stumbled into a relationship with Kibellah and have been impressed with the narrative impact that’s had so far.)

Idira is a total mess, which makes her the other most entertaining companion, mostly for her side conversations with the voices she hears. I haven’t been able to get her build right, though, and she accidentally summons too many demons to keep her on the first team, except for the random Warp encounters where she can make things more interesting.

According to the internet, Cassia is the best companion, hands down, but she’s rarely in my squad because a) my character is a Grand Strategist, b) I don’t fully understand her unique mechanics, and c) it doesn’t make narrative sense that such an important character would ever leave your voidship to risk their lives in combat. (The overall retinue approach is very Star Trek, including the occasional redshirts you encounter. I try to save as many of them as possible, too.)

Jae Heydari is intriguing, even moreso after her little plot twist, but she’s the closest to my own character in skills and build, so she’s kind of redundant in the squad. If I do the second playthrough I’ve been considering, though, she’d play a critical role and would probably be the most interesting romance angle, too.

Ulfar is more interesting than I expected (I know very little about the Space Wolves), but by the time he joins in Act 3, he’s an awkward fit into a squad that’s been working well across multiple encounters. My Argenta is probably the closest tactical match, but Battle Sisters > Space Marines every day, all day, so that swap won’t happen.

Yrliet‘s storyline has been interesting for how it lets you play with the freedom Rogue Traders have to break rules, and the impact on Act 3 led to some of the most challenging decisions of the game (so far). Tactically, even though she’s an amazing sniper, I only included her when required because I’ve built my squad around close and mid-range combat. Playing as an Iconoclast has its limits because you can’t please everyone, and Act 4 kicks off with a big decision I was on the fence about and hated every option, choosing the one that felt “right” for my character and my core squad up to that point.

Marazhai has been the only WTF?! option so far. There’s no reasonable narrative scenario I could think of to justify having him join the squad, so after convincing him to betray his own team, I immediately turned on him at the next opportunity to avoid betraying my own. Unfortunately, he escapes in one of the game’s few poorly scripted moments, as the scene ends abruptly without a fight, and it was unclear what actually happened. I had to check Reddit to see if it was a bug, but he apparently escapes and might turn up later? I’m avoiding spoilers about anything I haven’t encountered yet, so I didn’t look any further.

So Far, So Very Good

Considering I was exhausted by Persona 3 Reload at this point and gave up on Metaphor: ReFantazio despite being so close to its ending, I don’t want Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader to end anytime soon. I could have happily spent more time in Act 2, exploring the Koronus Expanse, managing my colonies, fighting other ships, and occasionally having tough encounters in the Warp. If Act 4 was just doing more of that, this would still be one of my favorite games ever.

Thanks to a few of the game’s own trailers, though, I already know there’s some more big moments still ahead, and I know the game has a range of potential endings based on decisions you made throughout the game. There’s also another DLC coming soon, and no word yet on if it’s a new storyline, or integrated into the base game like Void Shadows was.

I’ve played with the Void Shadows from the start, and I can’t imagine the base game without that storyline, or not having Kibellah in my squad. If the new DLC is similarly integrated into the overall story, I’ll happily replay the whole thing again because I have a good idea for a very different Rogue Trader, which will require some adjustments to my current squad and tactics, and presumably result in a very different experience.

That I’d even consider replaying a 150+ hour game might be biggest compliment I can think of. It also means I might not turn on my Xbox again for months, especially since I have two other 40K games waiting for me on my Steam account.