‘Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader – Void Shadows’ Review: A Great Addition To A Great Game
The new expansion to Owlcat’s Rogue Trader, Void Shadows, is here, and its a lot of fun.
Last last year the long anticipated cRPG Rogue Trader had its full release. The game was a first of it’s kind, a massive sprawling party and turn based RPG set in the world of Warhammer 40,000. Owlcat, who developed the two popular Pathfinder games, was well situated to make a great game of this type, and gave players something they’ve been wanting for a while. I got to play both the Beta test and the full release and had a great time. Now nearly a year later we have gotten our first big DLC for the game Void Shadows. It’s a great addition to the game. So lets take a look at what it has to offer.
Full disclosure. Owlcat provided us with free review copy of the DLC. However, the opinions below are our own.
What You Can Look Forward To in Void Shadows
Void Shadows is a full expansion DLC for the core game. It adds about 15 hours of playable content to the game. This content is fully integrated into the main story and campaign and you’ll interact with these stories as the game progresses. As such the DLC is best enjoyed with a fresh playthrough of the game. Of course this story comes with plenty of new content, great, upgrades, companions, classes, quests, locations and lore. It’s a lot of stuff, but it is spread out and mainly uses existing systems so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Focus On The Ship
The majority of the new contact is related in one form or another to your voidship. You’ll get to meet a lot of new crew and characters on the ship and explore new sections of the ship (and fight there). The new quests tend to a have a ship focus and you’ll even get some new upgrades for your ship. I’m a big fan of all this. The voidship is a really cool part of Rogue Trader and having one is part of what makes a Rogue Trader special and interesting. I like that that its a big focus and I think one of the things Owlcat has always done well is show off just how staggeringly big these ships are.
A New Companion – Kibellah
No big expansion is complete with a new fleshed out companion. Void Shadows introduces Kibellah who is a Death Cult Assassin. Um, yes please. The Death Cult Assassins are a super cool but under explored aspect of 40K. Though Kibellah we get a lot of lore on Death Cult-ure and what it means to be part of the cults. It’s a ton of cool new info and I think its really cool and fun. She also brings new combat tricks to the table and a lot of content. She is romance-able and is fully integrated into the story. I did feel like she had a little less voice acting done for her than some of the other companions, but that was just an impression and I could be wrong. Either way shes a fun/terrifying new addition.
New Baddies-Genestealer Cults
It’s not all fun and games and new gals to romance, you’ll also find new enemies to fight here. Yep, that’s right the Genestealer Cults make an appearance. They are a growing threat in the bowls of your ship that you have to deal with. It always cool to see more factions and more of the 40K universe added to the game. GSC makes a ton of sense as a new faciton. It’s well known that the cults can hind among ships crews and infest them. So everything here make a lot of sense and ties into the lore well. It’s a great way to add more stuff to the game and make the threat on your ship feel unique and insidious.
Final Thoughts- Is Void Shadows It Worth It?
Overall I’m really enjoying the new content. I feel it adds a lot to the game and is all up to the same quality as the base game, which I think is very high. If you like Rogue Trader’s vibe, and style of play – and want more of it, then yeah this is totally for you. On the other hand, it is mostly more of the same with some new facets but nothing that I think is groundbreaking or indispensable. Rogue Trader was a complete game (thank the Emperor) and you don’t NEED this DLC to full enjoy it.
On top of that the integration into the main plot is a bit of a double edged sword. This isn’t end game content. That does mean that to enjoy the DLC you are going to need to do another full play through. (twist my arm eh?). If you’ve never played the game before that’s great and this will only enrich your experience. If you’ve been wanting to try another run or looking for an excuse to do it then this is also great. However if you’ve played the game through several times and gotten most everything out of it I’m not 100% sure its worth playing it a again to just to bit up the chunks this DLC adds here and there. Then again maybe having 10-20% of your play through be new content is worth it? It’s going to be up to you to make that judgement call.
A Hearty Recommendation!
At the end of the day there is a ton of value here for a reasonable price. It adds a lot and if you are new to the game or wanting to do a new run though I can whole heartedly recommend Void Shadows. For the rest of you, well if you’ve played the game through that many times you likely a big enough fan that you’ve already bought the DLC!
4/5 Death Cult Ritual Scars
Pick up Void Shadows Here (Steam)
