Role-playing games like Owlcat Games' Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader revolve around the concept of choice. The protagonist's background, skills, party makeup, and, crucially, their narrative decisions should all contribute to a gameplay experience that is tailored to the individual player and their approach to evaluating these choices. While many RPGs rely on a traditional good-versus-evil alignment system, Rogue Trader takes a different route with its Conviction system, offering three distinct paths for players to explore.

Game Rant had the opportunity to converse with executive producer Anatoly Shestov and senior gameplay designer Leonid Talochenko about Owlcat Games' approach to the role-playing systems in Rogue Trader concerning player decisions. They discussed how the team prefers to utilize potential negative consequences and direct in-game feedback to compel players to carefully consider their options, aiming for maximum emotional impact.

Unintended Ramifications of Actions in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

The Rogue Trader can embody a benevolent Iconoclast, a cruel and self-serving Heretic, or an unwaveringly faithful zealot with Dogmatic choices that closely align with the Imperium's uncompromising ideals. However, blindly adhering to a single path may not always be the optimal approach, and Rogue Traders may occasionally face difficult decisions that challenge their chosen alignment. For instance, when a planet undergoes a massive Chaos invasion, leaving behind vulnerable survivors, the compassionate Iconoclast decision would be to rescue them, but doing so could potentially cause more harm than good in the long run.

In contrast to the tone-based dialogue style of Mass Effect Andromeda, which serves as an effective player self-insertion tool, dialogue choices in Rogue Trader carry severe consequences that often have gameplay implications beyond the narrative. Player decisions can influence the availability of certain companions later in the game, specific gear is exclusive to particular alignments, and even the endings vary significantly based on the path chosen by the Rogue Trader.

Making Hard Choices in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Each alignment consists of tiers that yield beneficial passive traits, but players can only progress beyond the third tier within a single alignment. In other words, players can experiment with and reap the benefits of each alignment, but they can't have it all, necessitating careful consideration of their decisions.

The war-torn universe of Warhammer 40k stands as one of the most unforgiving settings in all of science fiction, and even a Rogue Trader will routinely encounter the harsh realities of the 41st millennium. By offering unfiltered role-play options, Owlcat Games has encapsulated the essence of both RPGs and Warhammer 40k in one swing of a chainsword.