Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader’s Combat Promises To Be a Strategy Masterclass

ign.com:

The Warhammer 40,000 universe isn’t known for being shallow. It is chronicled across hundreds of different novels, lore articles, and rule books, each drilling deeper into the histories and abilities of the 41st millennium’s many factions. With that in mind, Owlcat Games - creator of the incredibly layered Pathfinder series - is the perfect developer for a 40k CRPG. And after seeing just 30 minutes of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, it seems as though Owlcat is well underway creating a dizzyingly deep and complex game that’s totally authentic to the setting.

At Gamescom 2022 I sat down with game director Alexander Gusev to watch him play through two combat scenarios against a crew of Drukhari warriors (sadistic space elves, for anyone not literate in 40k). At first glance Rogue Trader’s turn-based combat is a close cousin of XCOM; a party of six companions navigate a battlefield built upon a grid that dictates movement, cover, and weapon ranges. But as the turns go by, I begin to realise that Rogue Trader has the potential to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the most strategic RPG battle systems ever made. It draws on the unique opportunities of 40k lore, providing a huge library of combat skills that demand careful set-up to make the most of.

While devastating psychic abilities and guns capable of reducing an enemy to smears of red paste are exciting, I’m surprised to find it’s the planning layers before the kill that have me most impressed. Party member Pasqal, for example, is a Tech Priest with the ability to survey an enemy and identify their weak points, which can then be exploited with an attack. That attack can be enhanced through the use of the Machine Spirit Communion skill, which blesses a weapon to increase its