Rogue Dealer is well my favourite Warhammer 40k sport. Whereas most eyes will meander over to House Marine 2 or the Daybreak of Warfare franchise, as a sucker for CRPGs and a hopeless Baldur’s Gate 3 fanatic, Rogue Dealer was, in some ways, the proper sport for me. Whereas it brings Video games Workshop’s grimdark setting to life in a manner that is each genuine and accessible, it was marred with efficiency points at launch, making it fairly exhausting to like irrespective of how exhausting you tried. Now, nonetheless, it is a necessary Warhammer 40k expertise, and one which I would argue any story-driven RPG fanatic ought to plow a while into.
Whereas the Rogue Dealer ebook hasn’t slammed shut simply but, Owlcat’s eyes are firmly positioned on its upcoming turn-based RPG, Darkish Heresy, which is about to be an edgy, gothic sibling. In a post-Gamescom interview with govt producer Anatoly Shestov, I ask what the group realized from Rogue Dealer’s launch, and the way it plans to make sure that Darkish Heresy avoids the myriad points we mentioned in our Rogue Dealer assessment.
“It is a exhausting query,” he says. “Inside our studio, there are a whole lot of passionate folks; lots of people who make the video games they need to play themselves. So at any time when we encounter any challenges or something that we may be higher, we do not act like we’re adults in sport improvement; as a substitute, we’re like a Vietnam commando with a knife and a mission: ‘I do it or I die.’
“We had been extra formidable than it was sensible to be [with Rogue Trader], and that is why we delivered a sport that wasn’t in its most polished state – not as a result of we had been keen to avoid wasting cash on QA. No. It was months earlier than the discharge that we determined that the fourth chapter wanted to be redone. Often you do not do such issues in a correct improvement cycle, however the alternative was both to ship one thing with much less bugs or much less immersion potential, with much less ‘burning’ issues inside it. We, as a studio, determined to go [with more bugs].
“With Darkish Heresy – and I perceive it sounds silly – we’re extra formidable than we had been within the Rogue Dealer instances,” he continues. “From my perspective, the distinction is that the group is aware of exactly what it needs to do and the way they need to obtain it.” Shestov tells me the group can be relying extra on knowledge to tell improvement timescales. “It is like ‘I do know you suppose you may make this boss battle in a single week, however the confirmed knowledge says that it’ll take you three weeks, not one.’ That is why we’re in a position to mitigate among the difficulties from the earlier manufacturing.”
I watched Shestov play an hour of Darkish Heresy at Gamescom this 12 months, and I can affirm it is taking a couple of, to borrow his phrases, “leaps of religion.” It is larger, it is higher, there’s extra detective work, and the fight system has leveled up tenfold. All in all it feels, to borrow Shestov’s phrases as soon as extra, “formidable as fuck,” constructing upon all the pieces that Rogue Dealer did nicely and amping it as much as 100. You possibly can take a look at my full Darkish Heresy preview if you wish to study extra.
Darkish Heresy is about to launch in 2026, so we’ll want to attend a short time longer to dive into what looks like Owlcat’s most formidable sport thus far. If you happen to’re searching for one thing somewhat happier to whereas away the winter nights, we now have an inventory of the very best area video games that preserve the interstellar half however ditch the grimdark. Or if Pathfinder is a bit more your pace, we now have an inventory of all the very best fantasy video games to play as we speak.
Did you want Rogue Dealer? Tell us over on Discord, and inform us who you romance as a result of, let’s be actual, you completely romanced somebody.
