izigame.me

After 200 hours i can say that i was disappointed and also very happy with what i played.
The Great:
Rogue trader is set in the 40k universe which i have barley touched. So i dont know how well they did this universe according to what the lore is. But it is very fucking interesting. Everything feels like its brimming with backstory and interesting lore concepts that really solidify the overall worldbuilding.
The sound in this game is so damn crisp. The sound of the bolt guns and lasers is so orgasmic.
The tactics gameplay is pretty damn good and challenging. There are so many different builds in the class system that you can chose from. The level up systems are deep and complex but not as complex as pathfinder is. I really do adore some of the classes in this game. The arch militant burst weapon build is probally the most satisfying class i have ever played in a tactics game or in a rpg its just sounds and feels so damn good mowing enemies down with a massive burst weapon combo. The combat in general feels so damn good because the universe, the visuals, and the sound pile ontop of eachother creating this very good package which immerses you in every fight. This also applies to space combat which is pretty well done.
The Meh
The economy in this game is way different then a usual RPG. Its basically a points system where you send your loot to factions to gain reputation, when you gain a certain amount you get a level which then gives you free gear. I did enjoy this system but at the same time i felt like their still needed to be a usual buy and sell system. As near act 4 the profit system became waay to easy and it just turned me having so much profit but no loot to gain levels. This feeds into the overworld system which is definitely better than pathfinders weird overworld army simulator. But it still never engrossed me with the colony management system that they put into this game. It felt like just wraiths system but no army mini-game just management. I think they just needed something like space combat battles where you assembled your own defenders in ships and faught different factions and pirates.
Story/Plot is a mixed bag (Very Minor spoliers). It starts off very very strong with you basically becoming a rogue trader which is basically like a emperor. Act 1 is great opening. Act 2 is a fantastic entry into the overworld systems and the overall world of the expanse. But act 3 the game drops off. Act 3 is like the underworld in wrath its fine but it feels to disjointed. The issue is that when you come back to the overworld in act 4 the game gives you very little new content. Everything feels samey and it is. Act 5 is a much sorter version of act 3 but it feels very rushed it has this weird small overworld segment that makes very little sense. So yeah the plot is much worse than wrath, i felt little care about the plot in 4 and 5 and just felt like i wanted to keep playing because of the combat.
Many companions felt kinda boring and generic. I would say 4 of the 9 companions were outright bland because we have seen their type of character 5000 million times in rpgs. Many companions dont have any agency at all. You can be a heretic for 3 and a half acts and they wont bat an eye. Its very sad because once again the Lich path in pathfinder had such a great and meaningful agency that worked so well because companions who were against the path you were on consistantly warned you and your personal relationships really mattered when it came to how they treated you. In rogue trader it never really matters and i was very surprized to see that when i went on the heretic path the characters that i treated with the most kindness still left me anyways and i was given no options to convince them like pathfinder. Some companions however really do a great job at ether exploring the different types of people/cultures of the world and some are just great personalities. While some of them are interesting they do end up lacking personal emotional moments with your character which was very odd. About 4 or 5 characters who or not romancable just feel like they are conduits for the culture that they are from rather than actual people.
While the actual combat is solid. You have to get past a bunch of weirdly designed systems that try to drain the fun out of the game. For one the injury system which is in most tactics games is god awful in this game, you cant heal most injuries and because alot of the games have long ass dungeons you are just sitting there with a bunch of injuries and expecally on hard mode its legit impossible to win some fights because you have way to many injuries stacked. This was an issue with pathfinder but its way worse in rogue trader.
Music was kinda a mixed bag and while it was very good early, it felt very repetitive in acts 4 and 5.
Bad/Bugs:
There are also 3 different types of morality systems which basically chose which faction you are part of being Inconiclast ( morality good guys) Dogmatic ( very religious crusader type guys) and Heretic ( very bad guys). The issue with these paths is that the system that they used for them just doesnot work. Its a points system and certain ranks are capped at points but if you dont have the correct points you cant roleplay. Its moronic how such a binary system could be implemented in a roleplaying game. The points system also forces the player to consistantly pick the choices that give them the points. In wrath when i roleplayed my Lich character i felt like i had so much agency over my choices so its dissapointing that owlcat took so many steps back with this system.
Game is buggy and needs way more patching. Performence was actually fine but the quest bugs cannot be overlooked.
Many abilites ether lack proper visuals or proper sounds. There are way to many times where the games ui during combat said i could do something but when i did the action it never actually did anything.
A massive amount of non voice read lines. I dont care about reading in games, my favorite games of all time consist of pre update disco elysium and Pentiment. But there are just so many damn moments in this game that require the voice acting to really sell them. When they didnot have them it felt like such a weird moment you have this really agressive music blaring over while your trying to read a book lmao.
Overall, i enjoyed 40k rogue trader. I really liked the tactics gameplay, i loved the world and the sound. I really enjoyed some characters while others ether had 0 personality or were too generic for me to care. Acts 1 and 2 are fantastic while act 3 was meh act 4 was contrived and act 5 was rushed. Game needs voiceacting for alot of the important parts, and music is meh. Morality system is anti roleplaying and is terribly designed, you never want to force a player into roleplaying a certain way and owlcat did it. Game is buggy with many gamebreaking quests bugs and combat bugs. I really love this game in so many ways and i also am very dissapointed with how this game failed in so many ways. I would get this one a sale rn 8/10.