A Warhammer 40k role-playing game is the best game at gamescom 2024

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Gamescom 2024 scored with an astonishing number of highlights. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was there and was treated to elaborate stands and many opportunities to play games and chat with developers. But for him as a Warhammer fan, one game still stood out above everything else.

Towards the end of gamescom, my colleagues and acquaintances from the industry kept asking me what my highlight had been. My honest answer was always: everything.

I’ve never had a gamescom where I was so impressed by everything I saw. I had a lot of fun with Dune: Awakening, Atomfall, and even Empire of the Ants. But ultimately, one game is the clear winner for me: Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader.

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by Cedric Holmeier

For those who don’t know it: Rogue Trader is a role-playing game set in the 40k universe, so it plays similarly to Baldur’s Gate 3, only in a dystopian sci-fi world. It’s also one of my absolute favorite games.

At gamescom, Lead Narrative Designer Olga Kellner introduced me to the new DLC “Void Shadows.” Or, more accurately, that was actually agreed upon—because she simply left the field to me.

Owlcat is currently luring you to the new DLC with this teaser:

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader – The teaser trailer for the 1st DLC “Void Shadows” on Steam

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“Should I play for you or do you play yourself?”

Olga’s first question was whether I was familiar with the game. My answer: “Not really, I’ve only played for about 250 hours,” made her think for a moment, then smile. Finally, she offered me to just play the new content myself.

Apparently I was only the second journalist to accept the offer, but who in the world would turn down such an offer?!

Briefly about the content of Void Shadows:

  • The DLC brings a new companion: Kibella, an assassin of the death cult
  • With Kibella, two new classes come into play: Bladedancer and Executioner
  • There are also new missions on your ship, more story and of course companion quests for Kibella

    • My game session consisted of the highlight of the DLC, the final battle against the new boss. You can find out who that is in the spoiler:

    This is the story of Void Shadow

    In Void Shadow, you discover that something is wrong on the lower decks of your massive ship. A cult has taken up residence there, the Genestealers, who, according to lore, are controlled by a new threat: Tyranids.

    The leader steals your appearance and deceives your officers. You now have to go and clean up. Fortunately, you find out at the same time that assassins from the death cult are also on board.

    This cult is a group of fanatics who pay homage to the Emperor by killing, and doing so as bloodily and brutally as possible. They walk a very fine line between chaos and being dangerous – and are currently being viewed critically by the Inquisition.

    This is the story of the death cult:

    Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader: The trailer for the new death cult assassin

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    I immediately fell in love with Kibella – And that is dangerous …

    I don’t want to give away the whole boss fight here, because I want you to have something to play yourself. But the fact that I was able to see Kibella, the new companion, made me smile a little stupidly all day long.

    Kibella is a blade dancer and prefers to fight with blades in a fast, agile fighting style. I’m actually into the heavy bolters and flamethrowers in 40k – I’ve rarely been so fascinated by simple swords:

  • With a jump, the Blade Dancer evades opportunity attacks and lands between enemies, attacking them directly with her swords.
  • Blade Dance herself then hits all enemies in her vicinity with a series of attacks – and allies, if someone is standing next to her.
  • With various buffs, the Blade Dancer makes her attacks more powerful, deals damage to herself or allies for benefits, or causes enemies to bleed.
  • Kills reset some abilities, allowing Kibella to jump around more often and reach more enemies.
  • The Executioner’s “ultimate” ability then causes all enemies to explode with a damage-over-time effect (like bleeding), decimating the entire battlefield if it has been well prepared.

    • For the experts among you: Together with a psyker who gives Kibella buffs, a tank and an officer, the Blade Dancer can make multiple moves and attack so often that she can easily kill six or seven enemies on her own, even larger ones. And she can do that every round.

    After playing, I had time to talk to Olga about the expansion, but for the first time in years, I was speechless during an interview. As a Warhammer fan, I was so excited by the action of the battles, the new abilities and the sudden appearance of the new enemies that I was simply happy.

    15 hours more content, over 100 hours more to play

    During our conversation, Olga told me that Void Shadows brings about 15 to 20 hours of new content into the game. However, it is spread across Acts 1, 2 and 4, so a new playthrough would be ideal to see everything.

    On top of that, Kibella is available as a romance option, and who wouldn’t want to have a killer at their side who slaughters everything around her at the slightest suspicion of heresy? I can’t think of anything better! But that means I’ll have to sacrifice another 100 hours or more for another playthrough. RIP vacation.

    Webedia Gaming (GameStar, GamePro, MeinMMO) is accompanying the big gaming event as the official media partner of Gamescom 2024. It will be an exciting week for everyone who makes their way to gamescom. But also on screen, because there will be more streams – for example the FYNG show from GameStar, GamePro and MeinMMO.

    For all the heretics among you: Death cult assassins like Kibella are quite easy to seduce into chaos. Just a heads up…

    Neither Olga nor the people in charge at Owlcat could tell me how much Void Shadows will cost and what will come after it. That is still being decided. What is known, however, is that the DLC will be released on September 24th.

    Although I was generally very impressed with gamescom 2024 and everything I played was good without exception, Rogue Trade is definitely my highlight. There is no game I am currently looking forward to as much as the release of the “Void Shadow” DLC, even though I now even know the ending. The official winners look a little different: Monster Hunter Wilds is the big winner of gamescom 2024 – All winners of the gamescom awards

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