Wait for it till its done and the DLC is out. This game is buggy as hell.
but... its a damn good crpg, even with all the bugs, i had an absolute blast. I can not echoe the sentiments that Act 4 and 5 are rubbish, its true that Act 2 and 3 are the peaks of the game but i felt particularly the final part of the game and the little story beats were quite well done.
The combat is broken in a satisfying way, until you get too overpowered. For the last 10 hours i was able to resolve even the boss battles (ignoring scripted enemy turns) in a single turn, having 2 officers + bolter Argenta simply breaks the game if your characters are set up right. The tension in combat that existed for the first 40 hours, evaporated in the end. Nonetheless it is quite fun to dig into all of the mechanics to get your party composition to fly.
But what really makes this game shine is the atmosphere, i would go as far as to say that i have not yet played a game that represents and sells the 40k universe as well as Rogue Trader. I used to be interested in 40k before hand, playing mainly Dawn of War and the Gladius 4X game, but i never really felt that attached to the human empire, it felt a bit tacky to me. But this game made me realize what the setting is really about, by the end of the game i was a paranoid dogmatic who'd rather let a bunch of people die than allow for the slightest opening for chaos to take roots in my demesne. While Chaos is portrayed as a proper threat, that gives credence to all the fanaticism and paranoia that is omnipresent in the empire, what the game kind of lacked was to give us a proper reason as to why Chaos is so alluring. They tried, sort of linking class struggles to it, but i never really felt intruiged to join chaos, it was very obvious that chaos was bad, and the question (for a sane playthrough) was to navigate between keeping chaos at bay and not being too much of a genociding fascist.
But that aside there is a lot of very detailled wonderful writing that, if one loves reading (a lot), really make the setting and all its intricacies shine. Its easy to make fun of 40k but damn, this setting has a lot of deep lore. Absolutely loved and one of the reasons as to why this is one of my favourite cRPG's of all time.
Especially after the Netflix-level writing of Baldurs Gate 3, which made me abandon it in horror, after 20 hours, this game felt like coming home, to where i belong.
The story is okay, it has some good beats, its not very dramatic, but actually surprised me a little in the end. It does a pretty good job at showcasing the universe and building up characters, but its nothing to etch itself into my mind. Reminds me a little of Wasteland 2, another game i loved but that had a story that didnt really make that much of an impact. I think what a story in a game does, is make me care about what i'm doing and this happened not in the way of the plot, but in the way the game manages to bind me emotionally to the fate of the koronus expanse. All i did was for the purpose of making life better there, and the game feeds this very well. Regarding the companions i have to say i quite liked the majority of them (including those 2 who i sadly had to execute to stop chaos from (potentially) corrupting their weak minds) and found them memorable, particularly Pasqal, Yrlet, Heinrix and Argenta stood out to me.
The reactivity in this game is both great and a little lackluster, you can resolve an endless amount of situations differently, primarly through dialogue, and this can change stuff in a serious manner, but in other ways it often feels like the world does not really acknowledge what you do. Major events occur, for example in regards to companions, and you cant hold conversations about it. Major revelations are left uncommented aside from the very dialogue concerning it. That was quite disappointing, although with the scale of the game (took me 90 hours) it is forgivable.
In conclusion: This game is a buggy mess, it has balance issues, it doesnt have an extremely exciting plot, the structure isnt executed perfectly. BUT man did i get sucked into it, the atmosphere of this thing is really something. When i feel that a game is actively expanding my horizon by allowing myself to fully immerse in a foreign, complex world, think and live through its rules and realities, thats when i become very happy. And Rogue trader absolutely did that for me!
88/100
but... its a damn good crpg, even with all the bugs, i had an absolute blast. I can not echoe the sentiments that Act 4 and 5 are rubbish, its true that Act 2 and 3 are the peaks of the game but i felt particularly the final part of the game and the little story beats were quite well done.
The combat is broken in a satisfying way, until you get too overpowered. For the last 10 hours i was able to resolve even the boss battles (ignoring scripted enemy turns) in a single turn, having 2 officers + bolter Argenta simply breaks the game if your characters are set up right. The tension in combat that existed for the first 40 hours, evaporated in the end. Nonetheless it is quite fun to dig into all of the mechanics to get your party composition to fly.
But what really makes this game shine is the atmosphere, i would go as far as to say that i have not yet played a game that represents and sells the 40k universe as well as Rogue Trader. I used to be interested in 40k before hand, playing mainly Dawn of War and the Gladius 4X game, but i never really felt that attached to the human empire, it felt a bit tacky to me. But this game made me realize what the setting is really about, by the end of the game i was a paranoid dogmatic who'd rather let a bunch of people die than allow for the slightest opening for chaos to take roots in my demesne. While Chaos is portrayed as a proper threat, that gives credence to all the fanaticism and paranoia that is omnipresent in the empire, what the game kind of lacked was to give us a proper reason as to why Chaos is so alluring. They tried, sort of linking class struggles to it, but i never really felt intruiged to join chaos, it was very obvious that chaos was bad, and the question (for a sane playthrough) was to navigate between keeping chaos at bay and not being too much of a genociding fascist.
But that aside there is a lot of very detailled wonderful writing that, if one loves reading (a lot), really make the setting and all its intricacies shine. Its easy to make fun of 40k but damn, this setting has a lot of deep lore. Absolutely loved and one of the reasons as to why this is one of my favourite cRPG's of all time.
Especially after the Netflix-level writing of Baldurs Gate 3, which made me abandon it in horror, after 20 hours, this game felt like coming home, to where i belong.
The story is okay, it has some good beats, its not very dramatic, but actually surprised me a little in the end. It does a pretty good job at showcasing the universe and building up characters, but its nothing to etch itself into my mind. Reminds me a little of Wasteland 2, another game i loved but that had a story that didnt really make that much of an impact. I think what a story in a game does, is make me care about what i'm doing and this happened not in the way of the plot, but in the way the game manages to bind me emotionally to the fate of the koronus expanse. All i did was for the purpose of making life better there, and the game feeds this very well. Regarding the companions i have to say i quite liked the majority of them (including those 2 who i sadly had to execute to stop chaos from (potentially) corrupting their weak minds) and found them memorable, particularly Pasqal, Yrlet, Heinrix and Argenta stood out to me.
The reactivity in this game is both great and a little lackluster, you can resolve an endless amount of situations differently, primarly through dialogue, and this can change stuff in a serious manner, but in other ways it often feels like the world does not really acknowledge what you do. Major events occur, for example in regards to companions, and you cant hold conversations about it. Major revelations are left uncommented aside from the very dialogue concerning it. That was quite disappointing, although with the scale of the game (took me 90 hours) it is forgivable.
In conclusion: This game is a buggy mess, it has balance issues, it doesnt have an extremely exciting plot, the structure isnt executed perfectly. BUT man did i get sucked into it, the atmosphere of this thing is really something. When i feel that a game is actively expanding my horizon by allowing myself to fully immerse in a foreign, complex world, think and live through its rules and realities, thats when i become very happy. And Rogue trader absolutely did that for me!
88/100