Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was provided by Owlcat Games for review. Thank you!

cRPGs have been making a resurgence these past few years after their heyday back in the late 90s and early 00s, and now it's Warhammer's time to get in on the action. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader brings the legendary franchise to the cRPG genre, and you'll probably be left wondering why it took so long for a game like this to come about! A franchise famed for deep lore seems like the perfect fit for a cRPG, specializing in deep conversations and gameplay mechanics.

The story of Rogue Trader puts you in the role of... well, a Rogue Trader. After the ship you're on suffers a mutiny and the current Rogue Trader is assassinated, you are placed next in line to inherit the title and the ship. With your new ship and crew at your command, it's up to you to continue to explore the outer reaches of Imperium space and to carry on the legacy of your predecessors. It's a decent story, and the rank of Rogue Trader given to the player character means you have more freedom, rather than sticking strictly to Imperium guidelines.

The Rogue Trader (the player character) will always be in your party, but you can have up to 5 other party members accompany you on your journey, made up of officers from your crew and companions you'll meet along the way. Of course, if you are playing a co-op game, your friends can join you as party members instead.

Throughout your journey, you'll be given plenty of choices on how to handle certain scenarios. Do you want to stick close to the Imperium's strict rules, or would you rather show some leniency and mercy to gain the loyalty of others? They impact the game and how events proceed; if there's an immediate effect, the game will show you what that is. You might expect this from a cRPG, but seeing it used and executed well here is great.

While similar to a cRPG, the game's combat reminded me greatly of XCOM. Weapons have damage ranges that they can do, ranged weapons have a percentage to hit chance, and various environmental objects provide half or full cover from enemy fire. It's a great combat system that works well in this universe where ranged weaponry is common. However, it still has that old XCOM feeling of missing a 90% chance to hit the shot.

There are still melee classes, and they can function quite well even against ranged opponents thanks to some generous movement speed. It's quite common to be able to run across a third of a battlefield and do a melee strike all in one turn, meaning it's a good idea to keep ranged units back from the action and try and keep your melee units near the front, but ideally still in some cover until they can charge the enemy and do some high damage attacks.

Aside from these straight-up attacks, there are also abilities, which play more into the cRPG side of the game, where you can give your party members buffs or your enemies debuffs. Or just use some action points to unleash a powerful attack on your foes.

Regarding combat difficulty, the game leans toward the harder side. Even with Normal difficulty, you'll still need to think tactfully and plan your moves to win battles, especially when encountering tough bosses. The bosses were a bit of a bugbear for me, though, as they use game mechanics that aren't disclosed beforehand, such as regenerating all their health from environmental objects, resulting in losing if you don't figure out what you need to do immediately. Because of this, the game can feel a tad unfair at these moments, and you may need to "save scum" as it were to beat a boss here and there.

There is also space combat, which is a bit more simplified compared to regular combat, but does have some neat mechanics such as requiring your ship to move in a certain way, meaning you'll want to plan so you can maneuver your ship's shields and weapons to keep yourself safe while keeping enemy ships within your firing arc. It's still turn-based and takes place on a grid, so it's not a big departure, but it is a neat additional take on the combat.

The game's UI can be a little daunting initially, but the menus are quite functional once you've wrapped your head around the UI design. The progress tree for leveling up characters is shown in a circle. While it takes some getting used to, it's a great way to display the information, as once the circle has been filled, you get the chance to prestige into your next class to further your specialization.

The aesthetic of the Warhammer world is presented well here, with all its intriguing designs on display. Your ship essentially functions like a city in space, with open and luxurious rooms in parts, with the rest of the ship and a great deal of the environment being very utilitarian. Candles light the corridors and are strewn about. It would all look out of place in anything but Warhammer, but Rogue Trader pulls it off to keep a cohesive feeling game and allows you to immerse yourself in the world.

Rogue Trader does, however, lack almost any voice acting and is very text-heavy compared to something like Baldur's Gate 3. So you had better be prepared to do plenty of reading for this one. Fortunately, the font size is large and easy to read, even on a Steam Deck screen.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a solid cRPG. The storyline is interesting, and the game presents the player with choices that actually affect the game. The combat mechanics are solid, requiring proper planning and tactical thinking to succeed, and the game does a great job of making you feel like you are playing a role in the Warhammer universe.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - Steam Deck Performance

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader leaves a decent first impression on the Steam Deck. It supports the native 1280x800 resolution that the Steam Deck uses, so there are no black borders and great controller support for gameplay and the menus.

The game also has a default graphical setting for the Steam Deck, which appears to target 30 FPS, but you have to make sure you configure your SteamOS settings correctly to hit that target.

Recommended Settings - 30 FPS

Set the SteamOS frame rate limit to 60 and no TDP limit.

The "Steam Deck Preset" chosen by the game seems to largely favor putting the game on Medium settings. However, if you set your SteamOS Frame Limit to 30, it tends to lock the game to 24 FPS in intense scenes, so we need to keep the SteamOS Frame Limit to 60 to get a 30 FPS experience. You can use the in-game frame rate limit to lock the game to 30 FPS and save some additional battery life.

Some environments may drop into the mid-20s at times, which you could fix by dropping one or two settings, like Shadows or Lighting, but I just powered through as 25 FPS is still an ok experience for a turn-based game.

Power draw varies greatly depending on the environment. In quiet areas, it can drop as low as 13W; however, in more intensive areas, it often reaches 19-20W. Temperatures also vary from around 60C-65C to up to 75C, depending on the area.

Because of this, you can expect around 3 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2 hours from the LCD.

Unfortunately, reaching 60 FPS is impossible on the Steam Deck, so we're stuck with a 30 FPS experience. Fortunately, cRPGs are still perfectly fun to play at 30 FPS, so we can tick Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader as a good game to play on the Steam Deck.

Accessibility:

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader has many accessibility options, such as the ability to disable blood/gore, auto-pausing when major events happen, and detailed tutorials on each gameplay mechanic.

It also features very adjustable difficulty settings allowing you to change things such as how beneficial cover is and the dodging chance of enemies etc.

There are also filters for those with color blindness.

Conclusion:

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader successfully brings the Warhammer universe to the cRPG genre. An intriguing storyline littered with choices for the player to make, coupled with the chance to play through the game with friends and an accomplished combat system that borrows from the playbook of tried and tested tactical strategy games, means that Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a game to look into for cRPG fans.

As for how the game performs on Steam Deck, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader runs pretty well on the Steam Deck. Its graphical preset holds 30 FPS for the majority of the time, and its good control scheme allows full control of the game without the need for the touchscreen or touchpads.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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