This is the first game I have ever played where I dreaded when my characters had enough exp to level. My, God, the leveling was so tedious that sometimes I would walk around for an hour before I would go through the painful process of choosing skills, etc. Character personality is almost as bad as leveling. Is it so hard to write an interesting villain? Sometimes, I would encounter a villain that would say, 'We meet again, Rogue Trader' and I would be like, 'Are you sure, cause you are so boring that I don't remember our first meeting.' That retort was better that the combat I would have to endure to kill the boring villain.

As a fan of Warhammer 40k and CRPGs, I enjoyed Rogue Trader. It was the first Owlcat game I actually finished, but I just can't recommend it to anyone. Because this game is a mess. Here are my thoughts right after reaching the end for the second time.

Let's start with presentation. I wasn't paying attention to the game during Beta stage, but it feels like Owlcat created "just enough" content to push it to release, and this feeling of "just enoughness" never left me. There's lack of... everything, really:
-GFX assets
What's the difference between several unique Medium Armor sets you have? They share the same icon - you have to check the tooltip.
Most of the talents either have no picture at all or share the same one - once again, you gotta check the tooltips.
-Voiceover
In-battle barks are reused so often they became memes inside the community.
Party banter is just... there, existing in a vacuum.
Most dialogues are silent until they are suddenly not. This one hurts because VAs did a pretty good job (especially with Cassia and Argenta), but the amount of spoken lines is so small one can't help but wonder why Owlcat even bothered.
-Polish
Goofy animations, a-posing, interface bugs are so prominent you will learn to ignore them.

It's not like those are game-breaking critical issues, but this really sets the tone of the game.

Let's get to the design.
-It's overwhelming, but also simplistic
The amount of archetypes is ridiculously small. For a good chunk of a game you will have 2 or 3 core abilities to rely upon, but they are surrounded by a plethora of talents to choose from. Talents bombard you with numbers and complex modifiers, making early leveling a chore with unobvious payoff. But that does not matter, because...
-Balance is non-existent
You will eventually pick up 90% of all available talents and start clearing rooms before Turn 1 is concluded. The game tries to counter it by introducing fatter enemies with bullshit abilities.

Story.
-Vastness of a sea, depth of a puddle
There're lots of things happening on the background during your journey and everything neatly ties up in the end, but the way the plot is presented is kinda messy and disjointed.
Your companions' character arcs happen in their own little bubbles and abruptly end without any satisfactory closure.
Reactivity withers up and dies during act 2. World type? Previous Career? Triumph? Darkest Hour? Most of the decisions? Previous events? Rarely (if ever) brought up until the ending slides begin to roll.

It seems that Owlcat had some interesting ideas, but in attempts to make them work they ran out of money and/or time. Still, I think their recreation of Warhammer universe was pretty spot-on, even if some enemies were just too ridiculous for a mere human Rogue Trader. Locations were small, but packed with little things and were pleasant to look at. Sound design was also great. But the rest is... yeah.

Mutant gf = good heresy

Aeldari gf = good hersy

Drukhari bf = kinda good heresy

Selling your soul to chaos = bad heresy

Remember kids, it's only heresy if you can't kiss it

I spent 150 hours of my life playing a Warhammer 40k game, and missed recruiting the Space Marine to my party.

Like Owlcat's Pathfinder games, Rogue Trader is a crunchy and sometimes unforgiving experience. I ran into plenty of minor bugs, and probably didn't really understand all of the mechanics until maybe 149 hours into my game. But despite all of that, I really enjoyed my time in the outer reaches of grimdark space.

But still, that Space Marine thing...

Super fun! I got a lot of enjoyment out of this game, but it is absurdly broken in many different ways. It's very very easy to dominate this game without even trying to, by the end chapter on normal NO fight gave me any trouble at all. The game seems to lean heavily on the concept of giving your teammates extra turns, this can quickly snowball easily into you getting 3 "turns" of attacks on your main attacker that also grants themselves extra attacks on their own turn, which means even being swarmed by 15 or 20 enemies is irrelevant, as you can easily kill all of them and the boss in the span of one "turn". This is a fun power fantasy for the power gamers, personally I am more casual about my games and like the ebb and flow of a difficult encounter even on medium. I would understand if I looked up the most broken builds online and used them, but this was in my casual gameplay session that I ended up nullifying the entire game about halfway through.

The companions are interesting, the world of 40k is very engaging, but the main storyline felt that it dragged quite a bit. It was more swashbuckling adventure, while the main storyline seemed to want me to care about mysteries and intrigue that just weren't engaging.

I cannot give this game 5 stars because it is EXCEPTIONALLY buggy, even after a large patch (which of course introduced more bugs). As an example, my characters have a trait that inflicts damage on enemies in their "aura" because of a storyline decision made at some point. This happens any time the character is near an enemy. The game also gives you a setup phase before most fights, allowing you to move your characters in a limited space around the battlefield before the battle begins to get in optimal cover or place your units intelligently. The "thorns" aura also activates during this phase, but not once. It activates every time you move the characters, which is free and infinite in the setup phase. This means I was able to kill one of the main bosses of the game by just moving my character back and forth in the setup phase, activating the thorns aura, and whittling down their health 20 HP at a time. Meaning, while it was easy to break the game and win any fight in one turn, I could now break the game and win any fight in ZERO turns before the fight even begins.

This is just one very extreme bug, there are numerous others. The game is filled to the brim with bugs at almost every turn. But I still enjoyed it, any CRPG fan will likely enjoy it as well. The combat is busted but fun, and the game can easily last 80+ hours.

Even if it lacks the grand scale of Wrath of the Righteous, I think Rogue Trader has a very good shot at standing neck to neck with it in the future once the inevitable "Enhanced Edition" comes out along with the two future DLCs.

As it is right now, it's still a "good" game with thoroughly entertaining writing with regards to the setting and characters you interact with, character building that feels streamlined compared to Pathfinder but still having plenty of depth and player expression for party composition, and generally good presentation (seriously, this has some of the best voice acting I've heard out of an isometric CRPG, period) but is also your average CRPG launch release (as in, the game feels like it begins falling apart by the seams both technically and mechanically once you get to the last portions of the game).

The only big negative I have unrelated towards the technical side would be the game balance. Unlike both Pathfinder games which even on "Normal" the game would punish the player if they don't pay attention to an enemy's weakness/don't pre-battle buff, there's a point in RT where you just begin steam rolling the majority of battles with some very over powered classes like Officer and specialized companions like Cassia and a certain sniper companion later on. I'm far from a grand strategist but even I was starting to handle fights efficiently enough that some ended within the first turn. That being said, the first big 2024 patch has already nerfed classes like Officer and companions so I assume they're going to be rebalancing a lot before the first DLC drops.

I finished another game at long last! It's true! And it only took me three whole months :)

I had a lot of fun with this. As someone who's historically not really a strategy game player of any stripe it was a little touch and go to begin with but once I got the hang of it the combat system became quite enjoyable. The default difficulty is probably... a little too easy, to be honest, especially by the end (and especially if you build certain characters extremely brokenly. Looking at you, Yrliet) but the difficulty being very customizable is quite nice. I didn't tune it up during my playthrough even though I definitely could have but also I'm going to be playing this again for certain so I'll mess around with that when I do.

Enjoyed as a story experience too! My entire breadth of knowledge of Warhammer prior to engaging with this came from playing a bit of Darktide and spending a long time listening to my friends who were obsessed with it tell me stuff about the lore. It should be noted that part of the reason this took me some time to finish is that between starting it and now, I did also start reading the novels, and now I have an incurable brainsickness related to that- I consider this to be something that this game should take as positive though. In retrospect, it's not a terrible introduction to 40K, just due to the sheer scope of things it covers. At least 10+ factions from the 'verse are represented to some degree here so you really do get a good idea of what the setting is like. Still heavily Imperium-focused but you know what, that's just fine.

Also, and this is an addendum I feel compelled to add just because it's directly responsible for me wanting to play this game in the first place, has one of the most batshit insane romance subplots in a game I've ever experienced. Dunno how VG romances after this are going to stack up to Evil Torture Elf who is your pet cat :J

Its a great game.
Only giving 4 stars because though it's fantastic, the endgame is riddled with bugs. When its done and I come back to play it I'll re-rate it.
I honestly can't wait to come back to this game because it was so good.

Pros:
- fun combat! you're always outnumbered and feels badass to wipe out hordes of heretics!
- Very well written story and dialogue
- Actions have consequences. You can choose to execute companions, which is great for RP but you feel the consequences of loosing that character from your team.
Cons:
- BUGS. The endgame is broken atm, so I'm going to come back and finish later.
- Complexity - this is both a pro and a con, but i put it in con because though it is great it feels really daunting at first. You eventually get the hang of it and understand the terminology but its A LOT.

I think this game had a lot of potential but there's an incompleteness to the last couple of acts and the large amount of visual, ui and quest killing bugs that holds it back.

On the positive the game really captures the WH40K feeling with the way the characters and environments look and with the writing you can tell that they researched it.

The combat can be fun but there's a lack of choices, particularly near the end, when it comes to builds. For instance you only have 4 starting classes to choose from and once you've chosen one, you're locked in. Compared to Pathfinder where you have a large amount of flexibility to mix and match. But the game does allow you to respec freely so once you find something you like you can change things around as needed.

The systems hold up better than the pathfinder games. The colonies are optional but do give you rewards. Ship battles while not fantastic are better done than Wrath's crusade system.

I think where the game falls apart though is that the last couple of acts were not fleshed out and tested enough. I went heretical and it didn't seem to really impact anything from the story, I was walking around with a Chaos Marine and no one cared at the end, no one commented. It was very disappointing. Also the story wasn't written tight enough at the end and lost a lot of the initial steam in the game, not fitting well together.

And the bugs, as of this review on 12/25 there are so many bugs that hopefully they fix that really effects the enjoyment and I'll have to ding my rating for it.

Overall I feel like this game needs to go back into the oven for another year, do a lot of bug squashing and do some revision/expansion on the story and the paths. It has a lot of potential but the execution at the end of the day is subpar.

Warhammer has always been an IP that I had a passing interest in, but never one I had fully immersed myself in. When I saw that Owlcat Games was helming a Warhammer CRPG however, I was excited to give it a try.

As someone who only knew the very basics of Warhammer, Rogue Trader is a great jumping off point for the grimdark series. There is so much lore to take in, but the game takes it's time explaining the significance, as well as really setting the scene for the information presented.

As far as gameplay, this game plays quite similarly to Owlcat's Pathfinder games, however with Warhammer rules to it instead. The character building can seem intimidating at first, as many abilities and stats require a bit of research to understand, but once you get the hang of it it is quite intuitive.

As of writing this review I am roughly two-thirds of the way through the main story and it is rather good, although nothing particularly unique about it has jumped out to me. The companions however are always a highlight of RPGs like this, and Rogue Trader is no exception. All of the characters are well rewritten and have many unique and interesting interactions.

Overall, I think Rogue Trader is a fine CRPG, and another good entry from Owlcat games. This game is a must for any 40K fan, and I would say it is definitely worth trying if you have a passing interest in the series.

It was one of the most broken games I've seen in a long time. I played 80 hours but it left me tired as if 80 years had passed. They released the game in an even worse state than Baldur's Gate 3. I guess this is a new trend for game developers. They release buggy as hell and early access games as full versions. After releasing the things that need to be fixed and added before the release, they complete it with updates and additional DLCs. On top of that, they expect extra money for these DLCs. Looking at the current state of the game, it should definitely be avoided. I can easily say that the game was released 1 year early and it will take that long to fix it. The only reason I gave the game this score and was able to finish it is because it's connected to the Warhammer universe, otherwise it really wouldn't have gotten a score higher than 0 from me.

If you are familiar with Owlcat style RPG's, this game follows the same beats mechanically. This includes the positives and negatives such as a great in-dialogue highlighting system you can click on to give you info on obscure lore (very handy for any 40k newcomers). And a bit of a clunky leveling system. However they definitely get the vibe of being a Rogue Trader in this universe, the characters are all interesting and fun. Its a bit buggy under the hood so expect some goofy shit to happen from time to time but the devs seem keen on fixing important stuff. If you like 40k and enjoy Owlcats Pathfinder series, id definitely recommend!

Incredibly difficult game to rate because like all Owlcat Games, the good is off the chart great but they all have a catastrophic issue with making the game 100 hours when 60 will suffice. People who love it will replay in a different style/difficulty level but for story/rpg players the incessant combat just grinds you down. Maybe in fiuture a skip combat button so you can get back to the bones of a great game.
I loved the world being new to Warhammer, the characters, and running a trading house but the crazy navigation system and combats meant I was always distracted from enjoying how rich the world is.
Owlcat are about three minor changes in all their games from Pathfinder to this from cranking out solid 10's.
For hardcore RPG players only

i don't really know how to start a review for this game. i think it would be as bloated as the game is. or maybe i should not start one, because i don't think the game is actually finished as is

but all of that being said, i figure plenty of people have already talked about how buggy and broken it is (sometimes in a fun way, sometimes not) but i feel what really irked me was the story, the characterization, things that really can't be patched out. i like 40k, not too invested in it, but i like the lore, i love reading articles or listening to podcasts about it, but i could not muster any interesting in the thousands and thousands of words being written here. everything felt flat, uninteresting, i just skipped everything. could not care less about the koronus expanse and everyone living it. i would just skip everything till the next slaughterfest of a battle, level up my dudes and change equipment

i liked a lot of it, but damn, there's a lot to not like it too

40K was always a universe I appreciated from afar but never enjoyed while engaging with it. This holds true for this game too, the needlessly wordy and tiresome writing and terminology made this slow going but enjoyable enough. The combat was fun as well with some decent choices and tactics. I put this game down mostly because of the perks/class system. I found myself scrolling through menus and reading dozens of uninteresting perks for 15+ minutes every time one or more characters leveled up. I didn't stick with it long enough to fully flesh this system out so I can't attest to possible evolution that I didn't get to. But wow this dragged the games pace to a crawl that frustrated me to no end. So unfortunately, I think this is where my playthrough ends for now.

First three chapters were awesome: Adventure , choice making , colony management. Was actually fun to explore the Koronus expanse , however by the end of chapter 3 i had explored everything except the systems blocked off by story progression. Then Chapter 4 came and I stopped. Chapter 4 is scripted moment after scripted moment. Too much busy work and poor enemy balance. I'll maybe pick it up in like 6 months when it got updated to be better balanced and optimised. Besides those issues, it has other issues. The romance getting forced before you get all companions, some companions not being able to be romance ( cough.. argenta cough... ) , writting getting meh toward the later chapters ( 4 and 5 ). Quests being uncompletable due to bugs.