Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Merchant is a game about one of the most powerful groups of people in the far future of the 42nd Millennium: the titular Rogue Traders. But every good Rogue Trader is backed by a team of allies, ranging from close confidants to powerful goons. Alongside a sprawling single-player campaign, Owlcat Games’ upcoming CRPG features a drop-in co-op mode that lets you take your friends for a joyride across the expanse of Koronus. Polygon played via preview session Rogue Traderwith Owlcat Games, and together we took on a dungeon full of dangerous machine cultists.
Cooperative play prioritizes flexibility; I can ask friends to join me in my campaign at any time, simply by choosing co-op mode, generating a code to share, and loading a save. Additionally, my companions can keep the save after our run, allowing them to move forward alone if they wish. Rogue Trader is a massive game, and the cooperative system seems to focus on allowing players to join friends at any time rather than maintaining a consistent role-playing campaign for each participant.
The combat will be familiar to fans of similar games like Wasteland 3 Or Baldur’s Gate 3. Characters have limited moves and actions they can perform each turn. Some of them have support skills and can buff or heal their allies. Others concern creative ways to assassinate heretics. The Rogue Trader can be a highly customizable and variable character, and his companions are also all capable of switching between various weapons and talents.
Image: Owlcat Games
The fiction of Rogue Trader also means that the companion pool is much more wild and variable than in other 40K games; it includes two Aeldari, a Space Marine and a Sister of Battle who follow your orders. The Imperium of Man is a place where the slightest infraction can land you at the stake. In a game like The oil spill, the craziest guy you’ll see is the tall, friendly abhuman Ogryn. A rogue trader, on the other hand, can commit constant acts of heresy that would result in a normal person’s execution; they can choose to tell a Space Marine what to do, have a few space elves as a crew, or use powerful alien weapons because they have a good kick.
Rogue Trader also has a wide selection of party members. There are some fun options, like a fiery Battle Sister or a cunning Tech Priest of the Adeptus Mechanicum. The Rogue Trader can’t bring them all to every mission, and having certain companions unlocks new conversation options. For example, the Tech Priest will have a lot to offer when it comes to managing the technical systems of the Imperium.
Image: Owlcat Games
In co-op, players can share control of characters. In a duo game, two players can split the six characters down the middle, each controlling three. If you bring a whole team of friends, each person can control one of the six. It’s a fun way to experience the game’s range of combat options – and you’ll find yourself trapped in many fights, as there are no pacifists in 40K.
Because the Rogue Trader player character is so important to the plot, regardless of which player in the cooperative session is in control, the Rogue Trader essentially gets control of the story. Other players are in the game; they can highlight certain options but not choose them.
Overall, the cooperative campaign in Rogue Trader seems to be less of a narrative commitment and more of an arena in which you and your friends can team up to explore dungeons across the expanse of Koronus. The flexibility the system offers is intriguing; I see myself exploring other paths in my campaign by taking a session with a buddy, or honking my horn and seeing if I can gather some friends to take on a particularly difficult boss fight. The world of Warhammer 40K is wild and I’m excited to have a new avenue through which I can introduce my friends to this vast and strange world.
Gn tech
