The gamescom 2024 delivered with remarkably many highlights. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was on site and was invited by elaborate booths and many opportunities to play and chat with developers. However, one game stood out for him as a Warhammer fan.
My colleagues and acquaintances from the industry kept asking me towards the end of gamescom what my highlight had been. My honest answer was always: Everything.
I had never had a gamescom where everything I saw could excite me so much. Dune: Awakening, Atomfall, even Empire of the Ants were a lot of fun for me. Nevertheless, in the end, one game is clearly the winner for me: Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader.
For those who don’t know: Rogue Trader is a role-playing game in the 40k universe, playing similarly to Baldur’s Gate 3, only in a dystopian sci-fi world. It’s also one of my absolute favorite games.
At gamescom, Lead Narrative Designer Olga Kellner introduced me to the new DLC “Void Shadows.” Or more accurately, that was actually agreed upon – because she quickly left the field to me.
With this teaser, Owlcat is currently luring into the new DLC:
“Should I play for you or will you play yourself?”
Olga’s first question was whether I was familiar with the game. My answer: “Not really, I’ve only played about 250 hours,” made her think for a moment, then smile. After all, she offered me to just play the new content myself.
Apparently, I was only the second journalist to accept the offer, but who would turn down such an offer in the name of the Emperor?!
A brief overview of the content of Void Shadows:
- The DLC brings a new companion: Kibella, an assassin of the Death Cult
- With Kibella, two new classes come into play: Bladedancer and Executioner
- Additionally, new missions on your ship, more story, and of course companion quests for Kibella
My gaming session consisted of the highlight of the DLC, the final battle against the new boss. Who that is, you can read in the spoiler:
This is the story of Void Shadow
In Void Shadow, you discover that something is wrong on the lower decks of your massive ship. A cult has settled there, the Genestealers, who according to lore are controlled by a new threat: Tyranids.
The leader steals your appearance and deceives your officers. You must now go clean up. Fortunately, you also find out in parallel that assassins of the Death Cult are on board.
This cult is a group of fanatics who honor the Emperor by killing, and doing so as bloody and brutally as possible. They walk a very narrow line towards chaos and are correspondingly dangerous – and are currently being critically watched by the Inquisition.
This is the story of the Death Cult:
I immediately fell in love with Kibella – and that is dangerous…
I don’t want to spoil the entire boss fight here, you should have something to play yourself. But being able to look at Kibella, the new companion, left me grinning like an idiot all day long.
Kibella is a Bladedancer and prefers to fight with blades in a fast, agile fighting style. Normally, I like the heavy bolters and flamethrowers in 40k – I have rarely been so captivated by simple swords:
- With a jump, the Bladedancer evades opportunity attacks and lands between enemies, attacking them directly with her swords.
- Blade Dance then hits all enemies in her vicinity with a series of attacks – and allies, should anyone stand beside her.
- With various buffs, the Bladedancer makes her attacks stronger, inflicts damage on herself or allies for benefits, or causes enemies to bleed.
- Kills reset some abilities, allowing Kibella to jump around even more and reach more enemies.
- The “ultimate” ability of the Executioner then makes all enemies explode with a damage-over-time effect (like bleeding) and decimates the entire battlefield if prepared well.
For the experts among you: Together with a Psion, who gives Kibella buffs, a tank, and an officer, the Bladedancer can perform multiple moves and attack so often that she can easily take down six or seven enemies alone, even bigger ones. And that every round.
After the play session, I had some time to talk with Olga about the expansion, but for the first time in years, I was speechless during an interview. As a Warhammer fan, the action of the fights, the new abilities, and the sudden appearance of the new enemies excited me so much that I was simply blissfully happy.
15 hours more content, over 100 hours more to play
In the conversation, Olga told me that Void Shadows brings about 15 to 20 hours of new content to the game. However, it is distributed in Acts 1, 2, and 4, so a new playthrough would be ideal to see everything.
Moreover, Kibella is available as a romance option, and who would not want to have a killer by their side who slaughters everything around her at the slightest suspicion of heresy? I can’t think of anything better! But this means: I will need to sacrifice another 100 hours or more for another playthrough. RIP vacation.
For all the heretics among you: Death Cult assassins like Kibella are quite easy to seduce to chaos. Just a heads up…
Neither Olga nor the people responsible at Owlcat could tell me how much Void Shadows would cost or what would come afterward. This is still to be decided. However, it is known that the DLC will be released on September 24.
Although I was generally very excited about gamescom 2024 and everything I played was unconditionally good, Rogue Trader remains my highlight. There is no game I currently look forward to as much as the release of the “Void Shadow” DLC, even though I already know the ending. The official winners, however, look a bit different: Monster Hunter Wilds is the big winner of gamescom 2024 – all winners of the gamescom awards
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