Like a number of third-party series, the Warhammer 40,000 game adaptations came along very late to the Nintendo family of platforms. In 2020, two years after arriving on the PC, the strategy game Mechanicus arrived on the Switch at the same time as the Xbox One and PS4 versions. The side-scrolling shooter Shootas, Blood & Teef made it to every platform in 2022, and the first-person shooter Boltgun hit the platform one year later. They all worked fine and were well received, but they were also simple offerings when compared to the vast catalog available on other platforms. For the Switch 2, the Warhammer 40,000 series has returned with Rogue Trader. It is a game that's very deep compared to past offerings, and while the PC version released in rough shape, it got better as time went on. One can hope that the Switch 2 version of Rogue Trader goes down that same path because it's currently in a very woeful state.

The story starts off with your character on board a Voidship and learning that despite the bloodline distance, they stand to be the heir of the von Valancius house. The head of the house is important, since they are a Rogue Trader, a class that still serves under the God-Emperor but can do things that would normally get someone killed on the spot, such as trading with heretics and xenos. In other words, you're a powerful being in the universe but still have some limits. Shortly after your arrival, a mutiny takes place aboard the voidship, which not only puts the ship lost in the uncharted Koronus Expanse but also finds the head of the house and the next apparent heir dead. As the new house head and Rogue Trader, it falls on you to forge your own legacy while also trying to fulfill the former head's secret quest from more powerful people.

The story works well because the team at Owlcat has successfully nailed down just about every aspect of the Warhammer 40,000 world that players may and may not be familiar with. There's the overly grimdark universe, where skulls are everywhere and almost everyone tries to speak with as much poetic prose as possible. There are different characters, like the Sister of Battle, Space Wolf and Aeldari all behaving as they should. There's the notion that the choices that would be considered outright evil in other games are actually encouraged. Additionally, the characters all hate one another for petty things but still work together under your guidance. There's a sense of familiarity with the license, which makes the game feel more authentic than others with the name.

At the same time, the game is so rich with lore that it feels like the only way you'll get into it immediately is if you're already a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. In the first few scenes, you're bombarded with names and terms that will make you wonder what is going on. The game includes a glossary that allows you to highlight each word to get a definition, but that deluge of highlighted words can be really daunting for those trying to use this game as their entry point into the universe. You'll be better off trying to learn more of the world lore before starting this title, but if you insist on jumping straight in, prepare to pore over everything in those opening moments before it will click.

You start with a character creation system that's fine when compared to most other CRPGs. Body types and parts aren't exactly plentiful, but there's enough to build an interesting-looking character, even if you barely get to see those details. Stat building is also nice but nothing special, so the interesting bits come from building up your character's backstory. They come with the usual stat buffs and detriments, but those familiar with Warhammer 40,000 lore will get a kick out of the fact that you can make a diplomat come from a death world or a criminal from the fortress worlds. The number of combinations are good enough that you'll spend a considerable amount of time crafting your character before starting your adventure. Of course, if you don't want to go through any of that, there are a few premade characters you can choose from, but they're treated similar to created characters. Don't expect any of the characters to call out your name in the spoken dialogue segments of the game.

A game like this is a rarity in the console space. That is especially true on the Switch consoles, where the genre is represented by classics like both of the Neverwinter Nights games and the duo of Baldur's Gate titles. For the uninitiated, this means taking control of a large party of characters at one time, roughly six at any given moment. The number of stats and pieces of gear you have to worry about is enormous. The main questline can easily take you double the amount of time it would take to complete a modern JRPG, and that time increases greatly if you partake in the many side-quests. This game can be a real time sink, and you can spend months on it without realizing it.

Rogue Trader is long, but there are a few notable mechanics that stand out. The first is the dialogue system, which pops up often whether you're conducting trade with the inhabitants of different planets, getting information from your fellow characters, or maintaining the voidship and a crew so massive that it might as well be the population of a large floating city. Dialogue options are numerous, but the main attraction is in choices that are explicitly tied to one of three Convictions. While Heretical feels simple since it overtly sets you on an evil path, both Dogmatic and Iconoclast are far more interesting due to how they're the opposite of what they are in other games. For example, letting a crew member go unpunished is unbecoming of a Rogue Trader, while doling out justice for minor infractions is considered good. It seems strange until you realize that it fits perfectly in a world that embraces order and obedience.

The dialogue system naturally leads you to completely different story pathways and situations, but they're also in service to some pretty well thought-out sections of game management. As mentioned before, this is essentially a floating city, so your actions involve keeping resources at high levels and ensuring discord is swiftly taken care of. You never have to worry about currency for buying items, but you have to make sure that your trade is going well enough that you can easily convince other people to give you what's needed because they trust you have an easy means of paying them back. They aren't the main focus of the game, but these subsystems are interesting enough that you'll want to spend some real time with them before focusing on quest progression. You have to keep in mind that this is the Warhammer 40,000 universe and, as such, all of the dialogue is lengthy. There is no such thing as a quick line of dialogue because everyone will use as many words as possible. Every block of dialogue can be skipped, but be prepared to read sentences that may take 50 words to get through when five words would've sufficed.

When it comes to combat, your voidship is well equipped for taking on fights against other spacecraft. The game goes with a grid-based system but also follows some naval combat, since you need to turn the ship sideways to attack. Enemies also go down slower, since you need to take down their shields before they can get hurt. Combined with the fact that movement needs to be done and the turns need to be wide, ship combat can feel like a slog. The worst part is that many of the fights are unavoidable, so even though you can customize everything about the battle, it remains the least enjoyable part of the game.

While ship-to-ship combat is rarely exciting, the opposite holds true for fights on the ground. Fights are naturally more dynamic thanks to the differences in party abilities, and enemies are willing to hurt one another if it means being able to harm your party. For example, you can have a party member stack damage as more turns go by while another sends out a lightning attack that can damage others in a wide radius, including yourself. The grid movement system is still present, but now you get holographic views of where you'll end up and lines of sight to let you know who you can and can't target from that position. Fights can get complex in a good way, and fights are often fast. Compared to ship fights, there are also less randomized encounters, so you'll want to get into more fights to try different abilities.

Despite the praise, there are a few issues that stand out in Rogue Trader. The first is the absence of the DLC that has already been released on other platforms. The more cosmetic stuff isn't a big deal, but the Void Shadows and Lex Imperialis story-based DLC is a bigger blow, considering how they add several hours to the experience and add loads of battles and lore that enriches the main story. Considering the two-year wait that Nintendo owners have endured, it's sad to see these pieces of content promised for a later date rather than from the get-go.

The next gripe you'll come across is how the tutorial isn't friendly to use. You only get to see those instructions once, and despite there being a glossary section specifically for tutorials, there's no way to reference the exact controls and abilities. The developers have done an admirable job of translating the keyboard/mouse controls into gamepad form, but there are still so many actions that a good reference would've been helpful. It also doesn't help that all of the tutorial's videos are clearly PC footage, so you'll often get scenes with a mouse cursor and PC-specific prompts.

Performance is perhaps the biggest issue with this version. The game runs with an uncapped frame rate, and the initial flyover in the ship's cathedral shows some micro-stuttering that's not too egregious. You can get around 60fps if there's absolutely nothing on the screen, but walking around gets you below 30fps. Transition into major areas, and the game starts to take longer to load than on other platforms. There are moments when a quicksave can feel like a crash since the save process takes much longer than anticipated. Go into a fight, and be prepared to see the performance tank because every action causes the frame rate to drop into single digits and produces moments where you think that the game is purposefully skipping animations. Keep in mind that all of this occurs in docked mode, and playing in portable mode doesn't make things any better. For this genre, having a high frame rate isn't necessary, but performance stability is a must. The developers have promised to patch the game over time with a focus on performance stability, but as it stands now, you need loads of patience to deal with the frequent and severe performance drops.

Despite the performance woes, the graphics in Rogue Trader aren't half-bad. The environments are a standout because of the usage of varied colors. You'd expect the grimdark setting to show off loads of metal and gray with smatterings of fire orange and blood red, but you'll occasionally travel to planets full of colorful vegetation that brightens things up. As a contrast, the characters are good but only barely detailed with animations. The argument is that the camera rarely gets in close enough to see the character models in much detail, but it is stunning to see how low of a resolution is used for these models.

The sound is also quite good, and the music is awesome because it amplifies the mood of every scenario, and its only real failing is the abrupt transitions between pieces. The voice work is excellent all around, with each actor embodying their given character and demonstrating their adeptness at chewing the scenery. Not everything has an accompanying voice, though. There is no narrator, for example, so the dialogue boxes may seem long, but the actual spoken portion is short since the rest of the text is for description and setting the mood. Unless you're dealing with a character of importance, you'll have to read the incidental dialogue, which isn't accompanied by spoken audio.

There's a pretty good RPG hiding in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. The story is interesting, the quests are plentiful, the characters are well rounded, and there's plenty of depth in the RPG systems. However, the graphical presentation is merely passable, while the performance varies so greatly that you need a ton of patience to get through all of the hitching and long load times. This is a game to be avoided for now, but if the promised patches improve the performance issues, then those who crave a really meaty RPG in the infamous grimdark sci-fi universe will have a very good time.

Score: 4.5/10