Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader is currently 30% off on Steam, the first time that the space-faring CRPG has been discounted on the platform. You can currently pick up the game for $34.99 (£30.09) – with an average run taking around 100 hours, that’s about 35c per hour of playtime. The deal lasts until April 23.
Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader released last December and is the most recent Warhammer 40k game on PC; it’s also the first ever Warhammer 40k CRPG. Players put on the high-heeled boots a newly minted Rogue Trader, unexpectedly given command of an Imperial void ship when their forebear is murdered in a heretical conspiracy.
Unravelling that murder is just one part of the plot. Your character has a trade empire to rebuild through story missions, currying favor with different factions within the Imperium of Man, and through a simple planetary colonisation system.
As a Rogue Trader you have unrivalled freedom, governed only by the ancient hereditary writ that entitles you to venture into unknown space and exploit whatever you find there for the benefit of the Emperor of Mankind. Your character could become a fanatical devotee of the Imperial creed, a foil of the 40k Chaos gods, or a pragmatic business mogel who puts profit above high-minded morality.
You can check out our Rogue Trader review to get a feel for the game. If you’re a fan of Warhammer 40k books or lore, you’ll find it’s a richly detailed realisation of the setting. Fans of turn based games will get a kick from the combat – it’s perhaps not as expressive as Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s still excellent, and the audio visual feedback on the weapons is superb. And if you’ve enjoyed any of developer Owlcat’s other CRPGs, you’ll find it a similarly deep and wide expereince.
If you’re familiar with Owlcat’s output, you may also be unsurprised to hear that it shipped with a few bugs and oddities. There have been plenty of patches since the game released, and – as is traditional with Owlcat games – it’s more reliable now than it was at launch.
Rogue Trader is directly based on a classic pen and paper Warhammer 40k RPG of the same name, and uses the same setting. You can still get the original game in PDF form from Drive Thru RPG: we also recommend you check out Warhammer 40k: Imperium Maledictum for a more up to date Warhammer 40k tabletop experience.