Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - Void Shadows at gamescom 2024

Owlcat Games is a company that specializes in the CRPG genre, and at this point, it’s nothing short of a household name, having followed up the liked but shaky Pathfinder: Kingmaker with the incredible Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.

These developers usually like to support their games for quite some time after the initial release, and they do it in two ways. One is a stream of constant patches and improvements that fix bugs and smooth out balance outliers, and the other is DLCs. Owlcat’s DLCs come in various shapes and sizes – from small companion pets to entirely new adventures. Some are stand-alone, while others integrate into the existing story. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - Void Shadows, the upcoming addon that Owlcat showed off at gamescom, is definitely the latter. And it’s glorious.

At the Owlcat booth at gamescom, we were met by the members of the development team, who explained the premise of the Void Shadows DLC and presented the playable build.

The main focus is the Genestealer Cult, blossoming on our ship, and Kibellah, a Death Cult Assassin, who’s a new companion with an entirely new archetype – Blade Dancer. It’s her first archetype, with the second one being free to choose by you.

What was playable is essentially one of the DLC’s final bosses, and this not being my own setup, I was somewhat nervous as to whether or not I would be able to beat the encounter with unfamiliar character builds and weapons. And it did indeed start quite grimly – Argenta and Heinrix were wiped very quickly, Pasqal was on the brink, and only the Rogue Trader himself and Abelard stood their ground. Kibellah, though, she thrived.

I wouldn’t want to paint her as being broken or overpowered – she’s a high-risk/high-reward character: a slippery high DPS assassin that can serve as a dodge-tank when the need arises (and it very much did in this encounter); her contextual mobility being second to none in the game. But the reality is that none of the enemies managed to hit her even a single time – thanks in part to staunch Abelard, who gave his life so that she would live, but also due to her aforementioned dodge. Jumping around as her is incredibly satisfying, and if you loved giving additional turns to Argenta – you will more than love empowering her. Buffing a character with an officer repeatedly makes it hard to assess their real power, so I avoided doing that – she has her own ways of attacking over and over again.

In the very end, somewhat fittingly, only the Rogue Trader and Kibellah were left standing, encounter cleared. The devs that were present said that they didn’t expect me to clear the encounter with our limited time (through no fault of my own or theirs), but with their guidance and Kibellah’s power, we pulled through.

I wouldn’t want to reveal any surprises that the devs have in store for you, but I guarantee that you will want to make room for Kibellah in your strike party.

To recruit her, you’ll need to start the DLC questline either in Act 2 or Act 4, and go from there. The devs promise around 15 hours of content, which is a welcome addition to an already great game.

When I asked the devs about their approach to this DLC – and it being integrated into the main game, as opposed to some of the previous Pathfinder add-ons – they said that they don’t really have a set approach to the DLCs. There are always lots of ideas, and they pick the ones that make the most sense to both the developers and the overall story that is being told. It turned out that Void Shadows is a very natural fit for the overarching storyline in this Emperor-forsaken corner of the galaxy.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - Void Shadows releases on 24 September, 2024, and it has a huge stamp of our approval!