Classic RPG Rogue Trader Will Explore More Than Just the War in Warhammer 40,000
Throwing “magic” into the universe of Warhammer 40,000 is an incredibly dangerous business. Cykers (see Space Wizard) need to draw power from the volatile dimension of Warp, the home of demons and chaotic gods. So, no matter how trivial or powerful, every spell has the potential for injury, madness, demonic possession, or death. Warhammer 40,000: In Owlcat Games’ next RPG, Rogue Trader, every time you consider locating an enemy in your head, you need to weigh the risks.
The danger of warp, a system that manages whether your head explodes or lives to cast another day, is a favorite of 2009 Rogue trader Alexander Gusev, a desktop RPG set in the dark future of the 41st century. Is one of the mechanics of. He and the other members of the Owlcat development team have been playing games for years, so the chance to turn this pen and paper hobby into a video game was a dream. But later it was a golden pitch to Games Workshop, and that dream is a reality. Gusev is currently the creative director of the first Warhammer 40k video game RPG.
“We were creating more RPGs than most sandbox style RPGs. [other developers]”Gusev mentions the studio’s incredibly open Pathfinder game. “You had your kingdom. You traveled, explored the map, and learned about this unknown place, the stolen land. And this is what the Rogue Trader party did. It always reminded me of what I was doing. ”
Most Warhammer 40k video games take part in humanity’s millennial quest to wipe out all other races in the galaxy (no good guys here, sorry). But with a gorgeous spaceship and an impeccable fashion taste, Rogue Traders isn’t a battle-hungry space marine. “Rogue traders shine differently than many other factions of the Warhammer Empire, and can even interact with Zenos. [aliens] “Other than just killing,” Gusev explains.
Rogue traders’ mission to explore, trade and mediate transactions in areas beyond the limits of imperial space means that they are free to see the stranger side of the universe. “Probably the best [subject] We’ll approach it from a CRPG perspective within the Warhammer 40k setup, “says Gusev. “This gives us the opportunity to give powerful enemies and do truly epic things without having to take part in battles completely away from the RPG part. Also, showing the world, which ordinary people are there. You can also show how you live and what the peaceful part of the empire looks like. ”
Rogue Trader Imperial Cruiser. (Image credit: Games Workshop / Owlcat Games)
The freedom of rogue traders to negotiate and recruit aliens inevitably means increased tensions among the crew. Your protagonist is surrounded by characters that can only be described as religious enthusiasts, each with their own interpretation of how to serve the human emperor. For many, giving a simple “hello” to someone outside your species is considered the highest heresy. Therefore, part of the Rogue Trader challenge seems to be managing the conflicting perspectives of the party.
“There are certainly high conflicts in our game,” Gusev teases. “There is a certain point where one character can be killed by another. For example, Adepta Sororitas characters are not comfortable around unlicensed cyclists.”
If you want to see these particular sparks fly … you can hire both Adepta Sororitas (warrior nuns) and unlicensed cyclists as followers. Other hired companions include Seneschal (right hand pulled from the Imperial Navy), Adepts Mechanics Magos (Cyborg Engineer), Inquisitor Interrogator, Navigator, and, of course, Space Marine in the Tribal Space Wolf chapter. It will be.
“We were looking for characters to show the universe from different perspectives,” says Gusev, Owlcat’s companion choice. All of the above characters are from the empire, but each has a very different culture and contradictory beliefs. Of course, the real strange thing is the Aeldari Ranger, an imperial space elf far older than humanity, and they are undoubtedly seen with suspicion by their two human companions.
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Resolving disputes among fighting crew members is just one of many Rogue Trader options. Gusev promises a completely divergent story: “Which choices you make in different parts of the game can make a big difference.” He assures me. “Some decisions made in the first half of the game can change the second half of the game very dramatically.”
“We’re still making classic RPGs with a focus on companions,” says Gusev. So Owlcat fans can be confident that Pathfinder will be worth it in the 41st century. “You can change these characters. They have a personal quest and they have their own epilogue. Some of them are less accustomed to some of the choices you are going to make. And you will be able to change their destiny by how they interact with them, how they interact with them, how they react to their interruptions in some dialogues, and so on. . ”
Rogue Traders may focus heavily on your crew, but their personal story is only part of a more epic picture. As the trailer of the announcement revealed, the story includes some of Warhammer 40k’s most notable factions, including Chaos, Aerdari, Dolkari, and Necron. If the Warhammer story usually takes two or three factions and puts them into battle, the Rogue Trader will explore multiple fronts.
“Our game is very long and the story isn’t short, so there are advantages here,” explains Gusev. “These enemies have not been introduced as Deus ex machina. We have time to properly introduce them and connect them to the story.”
Imperial servicer. (Image credit: Owlcat Games / Games Workshop)
At a minimum, you can expect great enemy diversity. Then there is a collection of enemies lovingly translated from plastic miniature foams to digital models. Then you can blow them off little by little in turn-based combat. This is Owlcat’s new venture (the pathfinder used real-time with pauses). “We chose turn-based because we wanted to focus more on combat encounters and more on individual characters and what they do,” says Gusev.
It puts us back in danger of warp. Gusev refrains from explaining exactly how Owlcat adapted the tabletop rules to Rogue Trader’s combat system, but if not careful, unauthorized cyclists could burn their brains. It is clear that there is. However, Gusev promises that there will be a series of artifacts from the 40k arsenal, correct and blessed by the god of machinery. “We have both melee and ranged weapons. It’s not very common in many turn-based games, but in Warhammer it’s very common to have a bolt pistol and a sword at the same time.” For example, this would lead to an interesting blurring of the line between ranged and melee combat.
At this time, we don’t know when the Rogue Trader will be released, but Owlcat already plans a series of beta stages that can be accessed by purchasing the Founder’s Pack. There is no such thing as Rogue Trader in the extensive library of Warhammer video games currently available, so putting it into practice as soon as possible is of great interest to me personally.
This kind of character-driven storytelling is actually only accessible through the Black Library. A huge collection of novels from Games Workshop. And yet, most are war stories that see a corps of space marines dropping cargo ship-worthy ammunition onto an army of aliens. It’s rare in the 41st century to see a party-based adventure like an RPG talks about. I’m fascinated to see what Owlcat does with the freedom offered by Rogue Trader.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
