Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader Void Shadows DLC review — Spinners of the Bloodspun Web

I’ve been reviewing Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader – Void Shadows, the expansion to the absolutely INCREDIBLE Rogue Trader, but…I just don’t know where to stop. Frankly, I could spend the rest of the entire year playing it continuously and still not even scratch the surface of everything here. If you’ve finished Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 and want to jump into what is essentially Baldur’s Gate 3, but set in the Warhammer 40K universe, then settle in – by the Emperor, we have a LOT to talk about.

Before we get rolling, there’s one important thing to know up front – if you’ve not started Rogue Trader yet, and are wondering if Void Shadows is something tacked on the end or laced throughout, I’m happy to report that it’s the latter. You can nab this DLC and simply enjoy it as part of the much larger game seamlessly. If Owlcat’s previous approach to DLC being something separate from the main branch wasn’t to your liking, this is going to be far more your speed. If you are looking for a look at what’s going on with the new content, let’s dig in.

Chapter 1 of the game continues to be a bit of a slower paced introduction of sorts (I’m hesitant to call it a tutorial as it’s far more than that), but somewhere in Chapter 2 you’ll eventually run into a challenge on your Voidship. The rise of a Death Cult has begun deep in the bowels of your massive capital ship, worshiping The Emperor in a rather unconventional manner that, as a Rogue Trader, demands your direct attention. It’s here that you’ll meet your new companion, Kibellah.

An assassin, Kibellah is one of the two new archetypes introduced in Void Shadows – Executioner and Bladedancer. Bladedancers are close-combat, agility-based, and highly mobile. Executioners unleash brutal damage-over-time attacks, debuff targets, and also can engage at point blank range. As is tradition in the base game, you can integrate these archetypes into your existing characters, such as making the already-badass Abelard even more lethal. You can select both classes for the main character at character creation, so feel free to start your adventure with powers like Raining Blood (causes your target to literally burst into a shower of blood everywhere, causing AoE damage to your foes) for your Death Cult Assassin. Executioner is a second-tier class, meaning you have to hit level 15 to promote into it, just as you would for any other secondary character archetype. They combine nicely with classes like Pyromancer or other front-line fighters, splashing DoT attacks all around them.

In the Warhammer 40K universe, Voidships are effectively massive cities, floating through space. Those who serve on these ships often do so generationally, living, working, and dying on the ship, passing their skills onto their progeny who carry the tradition forward. The term “grimdark” is ascribed to this world often, and Void Shadows is no exception. As is tradition, I won’t ruin the main thrust of the campaign, but suffice it to say that learning “how the sausage is made” below decks exposes our otherwise-privileged protagonist to the mechanics of how their ship truly runs – something Abelard has done a great job of shielding us from for the most part. While we did have a few interactions below the command deck, Void Shadows is far deeper, far darker. As Kibellah ascends from the bowels of the ship, she’ll face her own crisis of faith in the only world she’s ever known. Grimdark indeed, and I’m here for it.

Truthfully, I can’t say much more, even about the primary antagonist, without revealing a huge spoiler. It does introduce some new endgame sequences, including a final fight that is absolutely BRUTAL. Everything you’ve learned in the combined 100+ hours of gameplay from start to finish will be tested. It’s clear that the Owlcat team listened to the fan feedback that suggested that by the 4th act your crew is nearly unstoppable and decided to introduce a few surprises to test that theory. The good news is that there’s even an improvement hidden here – Owlcat has quietly made light armor useful again. If going toe-to-toe doesn’t get the job, unleashing a Bladedancer with almost no armor and insanely high dodge abilities just might. I do have to say that there is a pendulum swing that continues to happen that might spoil the party, no matter who you bring.

Rogue Trader shipped with a fairly uneven difficulty level. 1.1 fixed some of it, and 1.2 swung it back too far to the difficult direction. Enemy modifiers and adds were fairly ridiculous. Void Shadows (1.2.1) irons out a few of these modifiers, but you can feel the pendulum swinging again. Undoubtedly you’ll see this swing a few more times before it settles. There are difficulty levels to tinker with the overall experience, but occasionally you’ll find a wall. I wish you the best of luck with some of the bigger fights – you’ll know precisely what I’m hinting at when it hits you square in the face a few times over the course of the campaign.

One of the best parts of Void Shadows is that it continues the tradition of Rogue Trader in that it has incredibly impactful and well-researched choices. The world of Warhammer is rarely good, even for the good guys, and each conversation, choice, location, and outcome was crafted by a team that clearly cares about bringing that universe to life. Over the course of about 20 additional hours of content, you’ll face enough difficult choices that you can’t simply back up to any particular point and “choose the better option” – there often isn’t one, and it’s always nested deeply in the next decision, the one after that, and the consequences that come as a result hours and hours in the future. Not unlike deeply-storied games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, or Owlcat’s own Pathfinder titles, you’ll have to live with the consequences of your actions.

Speaking of consequences, there is a new Grim Darkness mode to challenge yourself if you are so inclined. In this ultimate challenge mode you’ll face the world of Warhammer 40K with a single save slot that updates when you quit — no loading of saves is allowed. You can’t back up, there is no saving anyone, and your decisions are carved in stone immediately. Death is permanent, if your ship is destroyed it’s game over, and more than a dozen sliders like half-cover hit bonus levels, skill check modifiers, enemy wound modifiers, and more offers additional challenge. If you die, you’ll be given the chance to continue in “Custom Mode” but that will end your attempt at gaining the “There is Only War” achievement. That said, this mode has nothing to do with the difficulty level of the game. You can still make adjustments to difficulty without punishment or losing the run. It’s an improvement over the Kingmaker system in their own Pathfinder games, but that doesn’t make the death of a favorite character any less brutal. You can tinker with some of the “loss” conditions (e.g. requires a whole party wipe, or the destruction of your voidship) to further customize your playthrough. Good luck.

With the introduction of this first DLC, you’ll also find a new tab that contains a list of what expansion you own, as well as any additional goodies like the Limited Outfit DLC you can obtain. Undoubtedly this will expand over time – there are more DLCs on the horizon. A mod tab is also added to the mix, confirming official mod support for Rogue Trader without having to go through the previously-used Toybox method. These can be linked directly with Nexus Mods to try to keep things simple.

If you are new to Rogue Trader, or if you found the computations for hits, dodges, powers, and skills to be somewhat confusing, you’ll be happy to see a slight revamp to this on your power cards. Instead of seeing how the calculation is made, you’ll instead see the cumulative effect. Classes like pyromancers, psychers, snipers, and…ok, well, everyone and all of the myriad skills that can modify your to-hit percentages alone, this is a wonderful improvement. You can still peek under the hood with a mouse-over, of course, so nothing is lost, just simplified – a welcome quality-of-life improvement for newcomers and veterans alike.

I really enjoyed experiencing the Grimdark world of 40K through newcomer Kibellah’s eyes. Her perspective is unique, and seeing it integrate and blend into the bizarre world of your navigator Cassia Orsellio, the cut-and-dry world of Sister of Battle Argenta, or even battle-tested Seneschal Abelard Werserian. She’s a valuable and dangerous member of your party, but she’s also learning a whole new world at a breakneck pace. She’s a great addition to the party, but she’s also a fantastic character and story arc for returning players who have already completed the story arc of Rogue Trader once already. I can’t say more without spoiling things – this is Owlcat hitting their stride with something they clearly enjoy.

As I said in the beginning of this review, it’s hard to know where Void Shadows starts and ends. It’s interwoven so deeply within the base game that it’s akin to trying to separate oil and water. It’s another way to play that, if you enjoy this universe at all, is impossible not to recommend. It adds so much that it doesn’t feel like it was “tacked on” or left out. Instead, it’s the perfect excuse to experience the whole thing all over again, only now with the launch bugs and balance mostly crushed under heel. Welcome back to the Koronus Expanse, Rogue Trader.

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