Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published December 19, 2023 · Updated December 18, 2023

In this Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader Review, we play a story-rich classical RPG from Owlcat Games, developers of the critically acclaimed game, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. We begin your adventure aboard our personal, giant voidship, traveling between the multitude of systems within the Koronus Expanse, a barely charted and incredibly perilous region of space. Despite being considered a backwater of the Imperium, this region encompasses an enormous stretch of the void, filled with dangerous creatures and prodigious opportunities for profit and exploration.

Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
35.52GB download size.
Steam achievements.
Licensed Warhammer 40k game.
Steam Trading cards.
Full controller support.
Gore can be turned on and off.
Graphics settings – display, display mode, resolution, lock mouse inside the window, camera shake effect, graphics preset, v-sync, frame rate, fsr mode, volumetric lighting and shadow quality, SSR, bloom, depth of field, footprints, anti-aliasing, hbao, film grain, and crowd quality.
Accessibility options – Colourblind sliders, and font size slider.
Safe zone setting.
Display settings – gamma correction, brightness, and contrast sliders.
Mouse and keyboard settings – can rebind controls, enable the camera to follow characters, screen edge scrolling, enable scrolling beyond the game window, the speed of rotation of the camera with the mouse/keyboard, and keyboard scrolling speed.
Gameplay settings – Auto-save and set how many quick and auto-save slots to use, tooltip delay, tutorials, autopause and what it can do, auto end turn, and increase enemy and player animation speeds slider.
CRPG gameplay.
Optional tutorial pop-ups as you play.
Six difficulties – custom, story, normal, daring, hard, and unfair. All affect enemy difficulty, skill tests and so much more. (you see it before choosing)
Three pre-generated characters to choose from (Bahardor – warrior/Darrius – operative/Hecata – soldier) or you can create a character. Pre-generated characters allow you to change their appearance with clothes, helmets, backpacks, and color scheme choices.
Extensive character creator – appearance (portrait/appearance/hair/tattoo/implants/voice), homeworld which affects stats (Death world/Void born/Hive world/Forge World sub skin implants/Forge world analytics implants/forge world locomotion implants/imperial world feudal/imperial world military traditions), Origin (Astral Militarum commander/commissar/Vagabond/ministorum priest/navy officer/noble/sanctioned psyker biomancer/sanctioned psyker diviner), triumph, Darkest hour, doctrines (fighter/leader/adept/marksman/assassin/vanguard/hunter), stats, and ship name.
You can still edit the pre-generated characters with all the options that a custom character gets.
Beautiful art and portraits.
You can name your ship if you want.
Powerful soundtrack,
Hover over text that helps explain menu options.
Choice-driven interactions affect relationships and the story, you can also learn about the world with handy expandable text explanations.
A 3D world with full camera control.
Interactive elements from doors to switches to loot chests.
You are moving around the world by clicking the left mouse button with the mouse or movement is free form with the controller like in a 3D action game.
Fantastic world to explore.
In-game cutscenes with character interactions.
Turn-based combat.
In combat you have mp and ap, mp is movement points and ap is action points as to what you can and cannot use.
The journal houses all the quests, rumors, and orders.
Passive skill check system so in the background your character skill/knowledge/abilities can affect what you can do in situations.
Play how you want from the combat to conversation choices.
Frequency of character voice response choices – constantly, never, and occasionally.
Excellent animations and dismemberment.
The cover is a must in the game. You can get partial and full cover from the environment or use a shield.
Damage numbers pop on the screen.
The menu/inventory system can be done by double-clicking an item or the traditional drag and drop.
When moving you see a silhouette of yourself before committing to the action.
With a controller, you have full 360-degree camera control with the right stick.
Get temporary buffs from party members like positive effects which can raise your abilities for a short time.
Actual skill checks are shown in dialogue.
Party members can be moved around independently.
A really good story that grabs you straight away.
Zero rounds – this is where you cannot shoot but you can move so you can get in a good position.
Gained exp shows up on the screen.
Gamers of the genre will find the controls and basic flow very familiar.
Hit chance and damage done show above a character before you act.
Companions (party members) earn exp and levels at the same rate as you even if they are not in the active party.
Level-ups can be done manually or automatically.
Initiate Co-op from the menu at any time.
Inspect killed enemies to loot them.
Handy comparison tables pop when hovering over items and gear.
When there is a load of enemy bodies close together you loot them all at once.
Voidmap unlocks new locations as you progress but you can go back and forth as you like.
When you level up you pick a skill from the current doctrines skill tree and a state to upgrade.
Psykers can analyze enemies so you can learn about weaknesses etc.
Handy grid system for movement and ability casting.
Everyone will have a different experience.
A real handy button that will show all items, environments, and people that can be interacted with.
The controller is well implemented.
The story is good and does a good job of keeping you engaged.
Memorable characters.

Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader Review Cons:

Cannot remap controls on the controller.
The performance is all over the place no matter what graphic settings get tweaked.
So much to take in.
Your character uses his voice way too much with repetitive one-liners.
A lack of a mini-map makes traveling around not as fun as it could be.
The loading times are up and down but it loves hanging on 100 percent.
The general moving around is not as smooth as it could be and a lot of it is to do with how the camera follows you.
Parts of the walls don’t break down or go see-through when you are panning around or moving.
A few times I found myself stumped on very basic tasks because everything is laid out in a way that says you already know what to do… When you do not.
Parts of the skill trees were locked out.
Lower graphic settings make a lot of things fuzzy.