Warhammer 40,000 Dark Trader Preview – Investigate the Imperium

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader remains one of the best CRPGs of the last decade. Set in the brutal gothic environs of Games Workshop’s science fiction behemoth, it painted a narrative masterpiece that proved time and again that developer Owlcat were a team utterly in tune with the 40K universe. It’s with some excitement, then, that we got our first taste of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, the studio’s next offering at the altar of the Emperor.

For fans of Rogue Trader, there’s a lot here that’s going to feel familiar, starting with the excellent character creator. Once again, you can choose a portrait, before then fashioning a backstory and belief system that feels specific and unique. Will you be an Imperial Noble, or an Officer? Did your family suffer an ignominious defeat, or have you toiled faithfully for the good of the Imperium? What kind of world do you hail from? Even here, during the game’s beta test, there are several choices and unique paths to craft your character from, but you can probably expect these to expand even further for the full release.

Dark Heresy immediately showcases the writing prowess of the team at Owlcat. Just as with Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy is as much of a work of literature as it is a strategy RPG. There is a wealth of incredible text, lore and storytelling, all of which manage to carry the feeling of Games Workshop’s own writing, and the wider novelisations such as The Horus Heresy.

The branching conversations and choices you make can directly affect your character’s success, and indeed their alignment, though it’s more in relation to the ideals and puritanism of the Imperium than outright good and bad – there’s no “good guys” in 40K. Through the opening, where you are speaking at your own hearing about the loss of the ship you were aboard, and many of its other crew members, it becomes clear that there is a schism in the Inquisition, between those who follow its laws to the letter, and those who would favour a looser ‘interpretation’ of those laws.

Whatever the outlook, you don’t just survive this hearing, you find yourself under the protection of Lord Inquisitor Zerbe, your gear returned, and a new mission in your hands. This does not make you popular, and there’s both muttering, distrust and outright hatred lurking in the corners of the Inquisitors’ ship.

Still, you have a mission, and you’re almost certainly the type of character who isn’t going to let a few harsh words stop them. Dark Heresy brings a more deductive edge to the tactical action, and as you’re tackling the denizens of a hive you’ll find yourself looking for clues and piecing together your own ideas about what’s going on. That means gathering evidence, and that once againleans on the excellent writing and world-building. You’ve been given some advantages in this following your encounter with the Tyrant Star, and you now have visions that show you events of the past, setting you on the path to uncovering what’s gone on.

There’s a certain amount of point & click adventuring to these moments, as you have to search each environment for salient information. That’s not always incredibly easy with the dark, foreboding architecture, combined with the overall level of detail, but it does help to make it feel as if you really are searching through libraries, archives and offices on your way to making the key discovery.

One of the things not yet in place is the voice acting, with the full release of Dark Heresy set to include full voice work to bring the characters, and the story to life. That said, the quality of the writing, and the written conversations, is already excellent, and while I’m sure that the voicework will take it to another level, what’s here right now is still enthralling. Menace, malice and intrigue are the order of the day, and though you do need to acclimatise to the slightly formal, archaic speech of the Imperium, you soon understand how this world, how this universe, works.

While we’re playing Dark Heresy in beta, I was immediately impressed by how solid it feels. Owlcat haven’t had the best track record with the quality of the games at launch – check out the recent port of Rogue Trader to the Switch 2 – but Dark Heresy feels in a relatively good place, at least at this early point. Loading times can be slow, and some textures also take a while to load in, and while there’s the occasional hitch or spot of slowdown, it doesn’t detract or distract from what you’re doing.

With the impending onslaught of Rogue Trader’s third DLC, Dawn of War IV and Boltgun 2, Warhammer 40,000 fans are eating exceptionally well right now. Dark Heresy is a little further away, but this is a hugely promising and deeply enticing return to Owlcat’s CRPG stylings, with some interesting twists to the formula that should especially please Rogue Trader fans.

Tags: Warhammer 40000: Dark Heresy, Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader