Warhammer 40k : Rogue Trader (CRPG)

[shinymcshine]

So this is the most recent offering from Owlcat, who made the fantastic Pathfinder CRPGs (Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous) all in that familiar party based isometric style.

 

So whilst the theming here isn't particularly one of too much interest (I've always preferred medieval fantasy to futuristic) it's all looking well presented and (here's looking at you BG3) all pretty well explained through tutorial pop ups.

 

Only an hour in so far, but I feel that I'll be liking this for the next 100 or so hours.

 

And it's on Gamepass too !

[shinymcshine]

Still in the early stages, but they certainly seem to have added more cut scenes and voice overs in this game compared to the Pathfinder ones !

[shinymcshine]

Having fun with this - sure the whole W40k backstory isn't all that to my liking - but the RPG and combat elements aren't too dissimilar to the Shadowrun (2013+) CRPGs and the recent XCom games - which is pretty sweet - and therefore a good comparison that if you enjoyed those games then you might well like this too - turn based combat, action points & movement points, cover bonuses, well structured interface & menus, etc - love it all !

[mfnick]

Definitely more interested after reading that. Gamepass as well, cool. Will give it a go.

[shinymcshine]

The mission structure feels a little like a cross between Mass Effect and Outer Worlds - where you fly your ship between different worlds, then scan for materials, or undergo an encounter - so far all through a relatively short map, using standard RPG branching dialogue choices and/or combat - then punctuated by events onboard your own ship.

 

Which all feels familiar, yet great at the same time - and if I can give it a further endorsement - I'll definitely be sticking with this, despite the lure of a shiny looking Oblivion !

[shinymcshine]

And there's turn based tactical ship combat too ❤️

[shinymcshine]

Still having a fantastic time with this - the inter group politics (difference of opinions between your party members) is a really good dynamic - and the grey areas of choice and consequences.

 

It really annoys me that the Owlcat RPGs get hugely overlooked in favour of BG3 (even with Rogue Trader having the W40K licence) - as I feel they excel in most areas.

 

Similarly I do wonder if Larian's D:OS games got a deserved sales spike because of BG3, or if they just languish as niche CRPGs vs their D&D licenced product.

[shinymcshine]

Around 60 hrs now, and still thoroughly enjoying this - albeit some of the space combat feels wholly unbalanced (when you run into a bunch of OP enemy ships - which you don't get any prior notice of the fight difficulty until you're blasted into pieces, and therefore just avoid the conflict upon reload - on the flip side blasting away space pirates in a single turn feels good....).

[shinymcshine]

Progress with the space battles (aka upgraded my ship!)

 

So what's somewhat easy to overlook in this, what with everything else going on, is how you actually trade goods and buy better equipment, including ship upgrades.

 

Essentially when you collect things you can determine the split between things going into your inventory or being classed as cargo (certain things are always cargo, and as you go along you can designate items to automatically be classed as cargo (e.g. low value weapons, amour etc) - so a bit like how the 'junk' filter works in the Pathfinder games.

 

You then need to trade cargo & trophies (which you get from killing different enemies), which is subdivided into classifications (weapons, tech, fuel, provisions, religious items etc) with other factions to gain reputation with them, and that allows you access to procure equipment from them (the more rep the better the equipment) - and each faction has a different preference to what they want, and how much rep you get for trading what - so for Ship mods you need to provide Trophies to the Imperial Navy, and then you can get better weapons, shields etc. 

 

You also assign your crew to different ship roles (for ship combat) based on their stats - so they do things like, manoeuvre, shield boosts, weapon enhancements, etc.

 

Further you don't actually use currency within a trade - it's determined by your 'profit factor' - which increases as you complete tasks, missions, colony projects etc.

 

So whilst you can occasionally come across wanding traders (& pirates) you mostly do it through a broker on your ship bridge - and I'd sort of forgotten about that bit....... since you need to collect enough stuff to enhance rep, which of course scales as rep increases, but also need increased profit factor too.

 

It's as if the old Bioware took BG2 and then made it into a Mass Effect isometric turn based RPG (rather than going down the cover shooter route) - I'm really loving it !

[shinymcshine]

Oh no, they've used that well worn, tired, CRPG trope....

 

Spoiler

Act 3 - you are betrayed, and wake up separated from your companions and all your gear....... 😤 

 

So whilst this gives a bit of a change of pace, it's then often a PITA to then try to re-equip everyone back to how they were when you regain all your gear (esp. 70+ hrs into the game...)

 

Updated - okay, I'll give them their due, they re-equipped my team with their last load out when I found my gear !

 

[shinymcshine]

Hopefully coming to the end of Act 3 and it's been a bit of a slog, a real downturn in experience, with a focus on numerous arena type fights - albeit I've only really had an issue with one (optional) monster, where I had to reload and play around with load out and tactics.

 

Clearly a swerve in terms of design choice, as noted (albeit aside from above, I've not particularly felt underpowered).

 

Biggest change is here you are limited to being trapped, trying to escape, from a relatively small constrained area, where dialogue options and outcomes feel that they will always lead to a fight - but pacing wise, it's not the free travelling, optional quests, shortish levels, space travel, trading and ship combat of the previous acts, hence it does feel a bit jarring - but not game breaking.

 

 

[shinymcshine]

Thought I'd blown it at the end of Act 3 as I was struggling a bit with an end boss type fight, where I was overwhelmed by numbers, reinforcements and it's mid life refresh (and emergence of a couple of turrets).

 

So down to 3/6 companions, noting that it also allows mid fight saves games, and having been wiped out on previous efforts (and feared that my party either wasn't skilled enough (sub optimal builds, or I'd just got the wrong party members with me (and couldn't change as I was way into Act 3 by now)) I tried a slightly different approach, and it paid off !

 

Spoiler

Tried just concentrating all my attacks on the boss, rather than splitting some for crowd control - and it worked well, esp. as killing boss deactivated the turrets too !

 

[shinymcshine]

The game (& DLC / Season Pass etc) is currently half price on Xbox Store (from £21.49 for base game), until 17 July 25.

 

It's incredibly good if you like CRPGs - I've just hit 100 hrs on the base game alone, and there still new things to do - and the DLC has positive reviews too, adding new quest and character classes.

 

Fantastic!

[one-armed dwarf]

It's on sale on steam for the next 7 and a half hours as well, 25 euro

 

edit not as cheap as Xbox is with the season pass though. 

[shinymcshine]

They tend to do two season passes, each with 2 hefty DLC missions and a bunch of new characters & classes (the 2nd mission for Season Pass 1 DLC was recently released).

 

I suppose it means they get paid twice (so it's not really a season pass, as there's 2) but it keeps the money turning, and they are significant in content ~ 15 hrs each (rather than just a 1-3 hour mission).

[shinymcshine]

Thought I'd hit the final battle/s (The Siege) but there's more !

 

The first battle was a bit messy, quite a lot of enemies, and a few too many Chaos Marines to make it comfortable - but the next fight was even tougher - esp. when the boss had a power shield so I was doing minimal damage to it - so chipped away for about 30 mins, taking off maybe a quarter of it's health before I remembered that you can check out it's stats and all became clear (and much easier)....

 

Spoiler

The shield was connected to one of the minor demons it summons - where said demons don't really cause you much trouble, so I mostly ignored them - but when you do kill the connected one, the boss shield drops, so you can do full damage, until it summons more demons, and the cycle repeats !

 

Not the first time I've played a CRPG where you trawl through 95% of things no problem, then hit a blocker, where the solution is something you used in the early encounters of the game (checking enemy builds) but don't really need to as you progress and feel you have a fair handle of what's what..

 

[shinymcshine]

It's been a fantastic 120 hrs but looks like I've now hit the end game ! I'm going to save doing the 2x DLC so I have something new for a future playthrough.

 

[shinymcshine]

Didn't feel that I'd spent too much time exploring beyond the usual limits, but looks quite a niche thing to do !

[shinymcshine]

And that was that, 125 hrs, fantastic game.

 

There's a long summary of post game events, but here's the (spoiler free) end.

 

[shinymcshine]

Been playing this fantastic game again - since I bought the 2 Season 1 DLC packs - which not only give you extra missions but also a new character class in each one - a Spinner, who is a close combat assassin (with a whole blood cult backstory) - and and Enforcer, complete with their robo-hound sidekick.

 

I'm also going down the more 'heretical' gameplay route to see the difference and consequences that has to offer. 

 

Much like the Pathfinder games, the more you play and learn the ruleset and what combos you can stack regarding skills and impacts the 'easier' the experience becomes - but there's always upping the difficulty if I ever feel the need.

 

Truly great experience all round !