Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Review

September 2026

I first gained an interest in Warhammer on a whim in December of 2023, where I picked up a box of Adepta Sororitas infantry to build and paint for the first time. Since then I've painted about 46 models and kept a loose interest in the setting, although I've neglected looking further into the books and other such tie-in media.

In May of this year however, I had another bout of inspiration to paint my Combat Patrol and purchased Rogue Trader around the same time. For my first real entry into the setting of Warhammer 40,000 outside of the miniatures, I found that it did quite a good job at outlining many aspects of the setting that the tabletop game naturally wouldn't cover.

From the beginning of the game, the portraits you can choose from in the character creator hit you with heaps of personality and pull you into the setting straight away. I really liked the stylisation of the menus and interfaces; everything is designed to pull you into the world and I think it does it very well. The game feels very consistently and intentionally made in this regard.

I enjoyed the pacing of the game for the most part, with a few gripes that only really show their face on repeat playthroughs. The first act of the game is great. It sets up the choice and consequence of the game straight away, with three primary objectives which have worsening outcomes the longer you take to resolve them, meaning you need to consider your character's priorities when you choose where to go. Unfortunately, this is really the only time this happens. Act 2 presents you with another three main objectives right after the game has conditioned you to expect different things to happen depending on the order you complete the core missions, but in reality there is no difference. You almost have to do them in the same order every time because your party is likely to be underlevelled if you don't. I found this a bit disappointing when I started my second playthrough and I wouldn't have minded as much if the game hadn't set it up so strongly in the first act. Aside from that though, the main quest throughout the game is quite compelling and each act feels distinct from the rest. I had a good time playing it.

The alignment system is great in this game. I'm a fan of the decision to have three opposing perspectives: Dogmatic, Iconoclastic, and Heretical. I also like that in the UI the alignment graph is shrunk down to a single axis and depicts both Iconoclast and Heretic as an opposite to the Dogmatic conviction. It paints a great picture of how the Imperium treats idealogical opposition, even if the opposition is what would generally be considered the classic cRPG "Good Guy" route. It's a very fun piece of flavour that suits Warhammer 40,000 perfectly. I have played the game twice, first as an Iconoclast and second as a Heretic. Both playthroughs felt distinct from each other, as I allowed different companions to die in different places, and the game references your chosen conviction all over the place in lots of different ways. I will say I did not expect the Heretical playthrough to be quite so unsubtle about it, given the presence of Inquisitors and the like. It did push the boundaries of my suspension of disbelief, especially in certain story encounters where it really feels like the game should end but it doesn't because you're the protagonist, but it's also sort of a silly-evil playthrough so all things considered it doesn't really matter too much.

As an aside, it's hilarious how actively this game pushes you to kill your companions. There are seriously so many opportunities presented to you, sometimes for fair reasons and sometimes for the most minor insubordination, or even no reason at all for some of them. If you decide to stay in-character regarding executions, it makes for a more interesting game at least.

I'm more conflicted on the gameplay side. Frankly, I don't think it's that great. I like being able to position your characters at the start of most encounters, and generally the game feels good to play in terms of feedback. Unfortunately, It's just a bit... boring. In the early game, you have so few abilities that every turn you just activate all of your abilities and attack an enemy. In the late game, you just perform the one mega-combo on each character every turn and win just like that. My first playthrough on Normal difficulty, even with my lack of foreknowledge, gave me very little trouble. The early game was a little tricky because I didn't understand the action economy just yet, but by the end it was incredibly easy. Abelard never got hit and Yrliet never missed and could wipe 6 regular enemies per turn. Only the fight at the end of Act 4 gave me any trouble.

On my second playthrough, I skipped Daring and went up to Hard difficulty, and it was even easier than before. The only challenging fight was at the end of Act 3, where I had chosen to bring different companions for story reasons and ended up with an incredibly squishy party that would get wiped in a turn if I didn't execute perfectly. The entire rest of the game was incredibly easy. The problem with the lack of challenge isn't just the ease with which I completed the game, it's how every fight feels the same. I would find one really strong combo on each character, and I would do the exact same set of actions on every single turn. It gets dull very quickly once you get over the excitement of your build coming online and realise you've still got about 30 hours of the game left.

The levelling system doesn't help either. In no other game has levelling up been such a chore for me. There are a truly vast number of feats and abilities, but most of them make only a minor difference in isolation. The class system is cool on paper with some interesting combinations, but having every feat available at the beginning of each archetype means you spend the first few levels looking through the (exceptionally long) list for the ones that are useful to you, and then picking the least useless option for the next 20 levels until you reach the level barrier for the next archetype. It takes a very long time to read through and parse each ability, and it's borderline impossible to remember what you've picked on every character. There are many abilities that apply only on special conditions that are very easy to forget. Worse still is when you decide to change a party member for a companion quest, and have to do 40 levels all at once. It's slow, boring, and very painful. I don't like it.

Ultimately, the combat is serviceable and not strictly unpleasant to play, but it gets very tedious over time, especially on repeat playthroughs.

On a more positive note, I liked the variety in companions and how they fit into the narrative and exist aboard the Rogue Trader's ship. You have a lot of options for party composition and it leaves room for you to dispose of some of them without sabotaging your odds in combat or stifling too much of the story. I also like that custom hirelings are available. My second playthrough involved a custom Pyromancer Psyker companion who utterly dominated the midgame before being outpaced by other characters in the endgame. I also liked that the companions all represent different perspectives of the world without getting into the realm of questioning why they're even working together on my ship (Looking at you, The Outer Worlds 2). They all react differently to various events in quests, and occasionally oppose you directly regarding other companions. It makes the game feel a lot more lively and strengthens the setting.

The ship combat is reasonably fun as well as a minigame, but I often ran into space battles that I was simply underlevelled for and had to reload to leave them for later.

The economy system is flavourful for the game, given your role as a Rogue Trader where money should be no object. I liked that I felt incentivised to invest in certain factions for specific items, using loot that serves no other purpose. It's unlikely you'll manage to max out all five of the trader reputations, so there is still decision-making involved in your investment, but it doesn't come at the cost of having fewer resources available for other things. In most games I will simply never buy items until the very end of the game because the cost is too high for an item that will likely be replaced by a better one shortly after, but in this game that isn't a problem.

Overall, I did like Rogue Trader and I plan on playing it again sometime after the final expansion is released. The issues I have with the combat and levelling system aren't dealbreakers for me, but I couldn't see myself playing this game any more after I've played the last of the expansions. It's a great game though, with a lot to like regardless of if you're a Warhammer fan or not.