An animated Warhammer 40,000 short from Amazon’s Secret Level anthology has had an unexpected consequence: I’m now completely absorbed by the setting. The short was the one entry I particularly enjoyed, and its grim vision of the far future stayed with me.
Since then, I’ve read the first three Horus Heresy novels, worked through a couple of collected short-story anthologies and reshaped my YouTube and Instagram feeds around Warhammer lore. I’m avoiding the miniature-painting and tabletop side of the hobby, partly because I suspect it would become financially dangerous, so Owlcat Games’ Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader seemed like the ideal way to get my fix.
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A more approachable route into the 41st millennium
Rogue Trader is a top-down computer role-playing game with some of the same broad appeal as a less intricate version of Baldur’s Gate III. Battles are turn-based: characters have movement points and action points, and the round ends once those resources have been used.
I selected the Commissar class almost immediately. A profession featuring a perk called “One for the enemies, two for the traitors” was too perfectly suited to my current mood to ignore.
At first, I wasn’t convinced that playing an ordinary human would deliver the Warhammer experience I wanted. The animated short and my reading of The Horus Heresy had made me firmly partial to the Adeptus Astartes. My character is a member of House von Valancius, violently promoted to the position of Rogue Trader, and there is no Space Marine origin option.
Still, I gave it a chance. The game was on sale, and several friends had recommended it. Those friends turned out to be regular acquaintances who had apparently been waiting for me to discover the fandom so they could reveal their own Warhammer interests.
A prologue built for lore fans
Rogue Trader won me over during its opening section. The game begins with you summoned aboard the voidship of Theodora von Valancius, a distant relative who is preparing a successor from among several candidates.
Her ship comes under attack from heretics. One of Theodora’s operatives betrays you, knocks you unconscious and infects you with a developing Chaos entity. The presence lurks inside your mind and becomes active when the Warp is close. During the assault, Theodora disappears, leaving you to search the damaged ship for her.
Your path is eventually cut off by walls of flame and an apparition offering power in exchange for assistance. You can accept its help, trust in the Emperor’s power to carry you through the flames, or turn back towards the crew under attack.
That choice landed particularly well because it connected with what I had recently been reading. I had just finished Galaxy in Flames, the third book in The Horus Heresy, so the Emperor option immediately felt familiar. I chose to walk through the fire despite having little personal attachment to the Imperial faith. The result echoed an event involving Mersadie Oliton: I emerged unharmed, while the Warp creature inside me was burned away.
It’s a clever reference for anyone coming to the game with some existing knowledge, but it also works as a dramatic introduction to the setting. If you’re considering more dedicated gaming hardware for story-heavy sessions, our arcade machine buying guide covers the key things to consider.
Permission to be unpleasant
The game’s morality system has also encouraged a side of my role-playing instincts I usually keep restrained. I generally choose the compassionate or heroic dialogue option, but kindness is not always rewarded in the grim darkness of the far future. Sometimes it can get you and everyone nearby killed.
One early situation takes place on the lower decks, where you are asked to address children orphaned when the voidship was attacked. You can offer them sincere encouragement, dismiss them by throwing candy in their direction, or deliver a harsher message about surviving in a brutal world.
Normally, I would have selected the comforting response. This time, I chose the tough-love approach: life is terrible, and becoming stronger is the only way to gain the power to change it. In the context of Warhammer 40,000, that felt like the appropriate answer rather than simple cruelty.
My Commissar’s abilities make the whole performance even more questionable. The class includes a way to shoot an ally in the back in order to make them stronger, which is helping me maintain a morally dubious position without quite becoming a full villain.
Chaos, choices and a promising campaign
Several major quests into the campaign, I’m having an excellent time. The setting is proving compelling even without relying on the Adeptus Astartes civil war that first pulled me into the wider universe.
Rogue Trader has shown me that the Imperium’s political manoeuvring, religious fanaticism and constant survival pressure can be just as absorbing as stories about Space Marines. My interest in the setting is only growing—and Space Marine II is next.
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