The new role-playing game Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is currently exciting players. Although it may attract fewer players than genre giant Baldur’s Gate 3, especially fans of Warhammer believe: the game is an even bigger hit for them.
What kind of game is this?
- Rogue Trader is a classic role-playing game, or CRPG, that takes place in the dystopian future of Warhammer 40k. There, humans are in constant war with Space Elves, Orks, and Chaos Demons.
- In Rogue Trader, you play as a so-called “Free Trader,” who has special powers: you explore the outer reaches of the universe and may even bypass laws if you find it necessary.
- Rogue Trader was released on December 7 for PC (Steam, GOG, Epic), PS5, and Xbox.
How Rogue Trader is received: Players are enthusiastic about Rogue Trader. In the PS Store, the game has a rating of 4.7/5 stars, and on Steam, it is rated “very positive” with 84% of the reviews.
Our colleagues at GameStar rate the game similarly. In an initial rating, Rogue Trader scores a preliminary score of 85-90. However, the end has not yet been reached.
Rogue Trader is especially well-received by Warhammer fans. A player on Steam writes that while the game does not match the presentation of Baldur’s Gate 3, it is the better game for him: “mature and without adolescent influences.”
“Detail-oriented, heavy, bloody, and the performance is perfect”
The implementation of the world in the style of a tabletop game is particularly well-received. Although there are no classic “classes” and the alignment behaves differently, Rogue Trader feels like a strong role-playing game. For newcomers, the game is a “great introduction to Warhammer 40k.”
The gameplay is reminiscent primarily of XCOM. In addition to spells and melee weapons like in Baldur’s Gate 3, projectile weapons, plasma guns, and laser rifles are also used.
The larger and only point of criticism that is repeatedly mentioned are the bugs. These have already caused in international ratings for some severe deductions in the score. Currently, the developers are working on patches for that.
I myself have now spent over 20 hours in the game and see it similarly: Rogue Trader plays excellently. I have hardly noticed any bugs so far, except for mainly typos in the German text.
It is, however, difficult to label the game as “better” than Baldur’s Gate 3, especially since it was just crowned best game of the year. Rogue Trader is different: more text and less spoken dialogue, less elaborate cutscenes, and visually not as appealing. The decisions are also somewhat more constrained but provide equally significant impacts and emotions.
All in all, Rogue Trader is certainly worthwhile for anyone who enjoyed Baldur’s Gate 3 and now wants to explore other universes, and especially for Warhammer fans. Lore nerds will find plenty of content here to indulge in.
If you are looking for further alternatives to Baldur’s Gate 3, we have prepared a few for you:
