80
Despite my unearned misgivings at the game's initial announcement, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader somehow became likely my favorite title so far from Owlcat Games. Likely due to a combination of well-designed turned-based gameplay, a better focus of gameplay systems that don't needlessly detract from the core experience, and simply waiting for a few additional layers of polish to give the title a chance to be represented in the best manner possible. While still a little uneven in terms of gameplay progression and technical proficiency, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is an engaging game that's brimming with things to discover and a uniquely compelling narrative that is at times both hopeful and poignant.
77
Rogue Trader has some serious bad luck coming out so soon after Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a good story-driven game with meaningful choices, memorable characters, brutal battles and rich character-building system. But it’s hard to get into it after experiencing the colorful and user-friendly world of BG3. [Issue#263, p.72]
80
As someone whose only experience with Warhammer 40,000 is through games, I still adored the writing, combat, and music in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. It has also been a joy to play on Steam Deck especially with the newest major update. If you skipped out on it at launch to wait for a few updates, I can safely recommend Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader right now. I hope it does well enough to get a nice physical release in the future.
9
Overall, a very fun and engaging cRPG with deep mechanics that did not feel as overwhelming as the Pathfinder series. The turn-based combat felt good, particularly once the character builds started kicking off. The main plot and side-stories felt well-thought-out and connected. The companions were good (I spent more than a little time agonising over dialogue choices due to investment). The Void Shadows DLC was great, while the Lex Imperialis DLC was fine. Honestly, the only bad things worth mentioning are the numerous bugs plaguing the Lex Imperialis DLC (audio files not playing, visual glitches, crash to desktop etc.) and some minor bugs in the main game (stuck on 100% loading screen, audio echo/muffling etc.) which required cleaning out the cache. But yeah, all in all, solid game.
9
As a Warhammer and CRPG enthusiast, I really love this game. Great story, characters, and gameplay. However, performance issues and combat encounter design can be very annoying at times.
7
I went into this with no Warhammer background. Some parts of the game were really cool and engaging, and the overall look and atmosphere were great. Sound design was solid, and systems like trading and ship combat helped the game stand out. The writing was very wordy and hard to follow if you don’t know the lore. Most of the game wasn’t voice acted, but when it was, the voice acting was way too slow, with long pauses and breathy delivery that dragged everything out. Combat got dull later on, with enemies turning into damage sponges that weren’t actually dangerous. Most items felt useless, abilities were badly balanced, and colony management was interesting but mostly extra busywork. By the end, I didn’t care much about the story and mostly just wanted it to be over. I still finished the game and enjoyed parts of it, but it has a lot of small issues.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
Released On:
Dec 7, 2023
Metascore
Generally Favorable
78
User score
Generally Favorable
7.8
My Score
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
82% Positive
32 Reviews
32 Reviews
18% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Jan 19, 2024
90
The bugs get worse as the game goes on with frequent crashes and other problems spiking up in the third act and beyond. These are the same kind of issues that Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous had at launch, and fortunately in both cases the games subsequently became more stable and polished with future updates. So you may want to wait a little while before picking up Rogue Trader. However, even with the bugs, Rogue Trader is an excellent CRPG set in one of my favourite sci-fi settings, and I would be remiss not to give it a glowing recommendation.
Dec 15, 2023
84
Despite any flaws, in whatever gameplay area they might be found, Rogue Trader was undoubtedly created by people with passion and knowledge of the setting and lore, who sought to create an excellent Warhammer RPG and, for the most part, they succeeded.
User score
Generally Favorable
75% Positive
203 Ratings
203 Ratings
14% Mixed
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
11% Negative
29 Ratings
29 Ratings
Nov 15, 2025
10
Even though I'm an RPG fan, I've had no previous contact with the dark Warhammer 40k universe. After playing this one, I'm digging more and more. The game is quite heavy on text and moral decisions (it reminded me of Planescape Torment), which gave it more of an adult character and orientation. Plenty of encounters and turn based battles (I enjoyed them all, but they could be tiresome for some people). Great music scores and character development for all your team members. Graphics are good and loading times are decent on my SSD. Excellent game, got me waiting for the sequel!!
Apr 26, 2025
10
As always, all heresy must be PURGED!! By the the Emperor's will!! Story telling is awesome, setting is awesome, everything with this game is awesome!489 hours in game and still kicking. Cant wait for next DLC. Combat and character building possibilities are great, if you don't mind spending hours understanding combat and learn by heart all talents and archetypes :-D There is tons of unique items with unique abilities, which add extra strong layer and flawour with plenty of possibilities.
Jan 8, 2024
80
If you've eaten too much after this year's extraordinary role-playing buffet, you can easily let this serving go by in the first instance, but if you have an appetite for more and an interest in the universe, Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader is definitely worth a recommendation.
Dec 14, 2023
80
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a surprisingly solid title that manages to stand out from the crowd during a year that’s been jam-packed with incredible games.
Dec 6, 2023
80
Rogue Trader delivers everything you'd expect from an RPG set in the vast Warhammer 40,000 universe. A dark atmosphere, numerous cruel choices, excellent companions, exploration of the galaxy and its dangers, good tactical combat and even some rather successful space battles. Realization is also quite good for a game of this genre, but it's far from mainstream, with a lot of text to read on the one hand and daunting character progression on the other. Our biggest regret is that, like many other games, Rogue Trader will probably come out full of bugs that will take a while to resolve.
Jan 16, 2024
70
Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader was, besides Baldur’s Gate 3, my most anticipated game of 2023. Owlcat did an amazing job on Wrath of the Righteous and I expected that they would nail the Rogue Trader fantasy. Unfortunately, a lot of changes, bugs and a severe lack of voice acting completely ejects me from the immersion that is necessary for any 40k game. The deep progression system, while very confusing and not beginner-friendly, makes for a unique playthrough each time, but the very slow and boring combat hinders the pacing of a somewhat great CRPG.
Dec 6, 2023
59
Rogue Trader gets 40K's atmosphere right, but it's buggy and the rules are a mess.
Dec 11, 2024
10
Un gran RPG de estilo clasico.
Si te gustan los juegos de este estilo es un imprescindible.
Jan 16, 2026
7
I went into this with no Warhammer background. Some parts of the game were really cool and engaging, and the overall look and atmosphere were great. Sound design was solid, and systems like trading and ship combat helped the game stand out. The writing was very wordy and hard to follow if you don’t know the lore. Most of the game wasn’t voice acted, but when it was, the voice acting was way too slow, with long pauses and breathy delivery that dragged everything out. Combat got dull later on, with enemies turning into damage sponges that weren’t actually dangerous. Most items felt useless, abilities were badly balanced, and colony management was interesting but mostly extra busywork. By the end, I didn’t care much about the story and mostly just wanted it to be over. I still finished the game and enjoyed parts of it, but it has a lot of small issues.
Jun 13, 2025
7
Take a bit of fallout, baldurs gate, xcom, put it in a warhammer 40k shaped mold and you've got Rogue Trader. The game looks good but the combat is shallow while the mechanics behind it are unnecessarily complicated and obtuse. Some abilities are very complicated, requiring hyperlinks within the ability itself, requiring referencing multiple things while trying to reference things. And much of all this complication amounts to a hill of beans or worthless or super situational abilities. And with how often you level up and every class being so different having to read what abilities do before you pick them over and over and over again gets very tiresome. And there are dozens of abilities to choose from. I will give props to one mechanic that this game has that the xcom series desperately needs. You can select the tile you intend to move to and you will be able to see if you will have line of sight and % chance of hit before you make the actual move.
Aug 16, 2025
4
Unbalanced complicated combat with many useless buffs where enemies can be easy or extremely hard especially from Act 2 and later and the game does not warn you about level difficulty.. Useless chit-chat with huge texts to read i want to play a game and not read an essay for freak sakes. Spac.e ship battles are also uninspiring there is nothing epic about them. Not the RPG i was hoping it's like a game made in Excel with spreadsheets
SummaryYou will take on the role of a Rogue Trader, a scion of an ancient dynasty of daring privateers, that reign over their own merchant empire and explore the fringes of Imperial space with the blessing of the Emperor Himself. Exploration will bring the protagonist to mysterious lost and forgotten worlds as well as numerous planets claimed... Read More
Platforms:
- PC
- PlayStation 5
- Xbox Series X
- Nintendo Switch 2
Initial Release Date:Dec 7, 2023
Developer:
Publisher:
