(For the record, speaking about the "Deluxe Edition" v.1.3.2.13 (Spring 2025) with the "Void Shadows" DLC) The Good -------------- Short version: Great game, took me about 100h to get through. Countless quests, side quests and things to do, it does remind me of BG in a way. Also the WH40k universe is very rich, with an extremely rich and elaborate lore, and RT uses it extensively. Universe integration is perfect (at least IMHO, I'm no WH40k specialist). WH40k fans should be delighted, but even people who are totally new to it are not lost, everything is very elegantly explained. Besides the main RPG quests part there are also a couple other things happening, like ship-to-ship combat, commerce/diplomacy and colony management. They're (IMHO) quite elegantly integrated, and give you the feeling you're indeed a Rogue Trader, not just some insanely rich bully boy. - Ship combat is interesting, though you only fight enemy ships during specific quests, there are no random pirate encounters. - Colony management is simple, but needs careful planning to eventually get to the projects you want (like the one giving your character some power armor): Many projects block other projects, and some (apparently minor) projects are requirements for major projects on other systems! Better take 5 minutes and a piece of paper, and plan ahead. - Last but not least, the companions you can surround yourself with are mostly interesting, most feel real, and have their own agendas and side quests. (I'm particularly fond of Idira, her comments and reactions always make me smile...) - The RPG game engine is rich (borderline complicated) and lets you fine-tune your character and your companions as you see fit. You can even create additional companions from scratch. There are (still) some bugs though, and that brings us to: The Bad ----------- Everything would be perfect if it weren't for the slightly unfinished (and untested) state of the game, especially concerning the later chapters (3+), which are also very much shorter: Chapter 2 is the longest and most satisfying, 3 and 5 are just quest-sized, and 4 is short, much too short. - Concerning bugs, the devs are apparently still working on it, and most of the bigger issues you can read about in the forums seem to have been fixed at the time I'm writing this. Not that everything is fixed, but what remains are just annoyances, not deal breakers. In 2 playthroughs I didn't experience anything really major, but I did meet some annoyances (like quests randomly broken, but playable). - There are some annoying GUI issues, like the ever shuffling inventory: After some time you accumulate lots of items (like a dozen grenade types, a dozen types of medikits and so on). At some point you certainly will decide to spend some time organizing each item category (weapons, armor, consumables, etc.) so you can find stuff more easily, but in vain: After a while the game will randomly reshuffle everything--not always, not everything, just sometimes and potentially just some items, so you are encouraged to waste again 5 minutes re-organizing everything, hoping (in vain) it will stay that way for a little while... - There are also several buggy items, for instance medikits: you have 10 kits of a type in your general inventory, you equip a character with: 2 kits appear in the character's slot, and 9 are left in the general inventory! When the character uses one of his 2 kits and puts the remaining kit back into the general inventory, it won't stack anymore. You now have 9 medikits + 1 "preowned" one... So you'll eventually find yourself with a stack of "unused" medikits and a stack of (visually identical) "preowned" medikits, and those "preowned" ones won't stack on the character either (can't give him 2 of those)... And this happens for all the dozen different medikit types! That's where the ever-shuffling inventory hurts a lot, since you'll try to keep tabs and use those single "preowned" medikits outside of combat, so you can have your characters go into combat carrying 2 "unused" medikits. - Some colony projects are bugged too, in that they don't seem to give the "colony characteristics" bonuses they are supposed to give. But it's no show stopper, since those stats don't seem to do much anyway, most colony events seem scripted. - Another thing which is mildly annoying from a role-playing point of view (but apparently on the point of being fixed) is that the game is alignment biased: "Iconoclast" (chaotic good) characters get all the best and most sensible choices, and the best gear too. "Dogmatic" (lawful neutral) characters are left in the cold: In RT Dogmatic = brainless fanatic, so if you roleplay one your game will be violent and short, missing a huge lot of the story. Not only do Dogmatic characters have quite boneheaded dialogue/action choices ("me see, me kill"), there are also few alignment-specific items for them (not to mention they couldn't possibly get through Chapter 3 alive). "Heretic" (chaotic evil) seems more playable (I didn't try though), and version (1.3.2.28) apparently added a cartload of heretic-only objects (nothing compelling or even interesting though IMHO). In short, "Iconoclast" is the choice of sane and/or sensible people and the one which lets you fully enjoy the game, "heretic" is for raving psychopaths, and "dogmatic" is apparently for those who shoot first and ask questions never ever. Conclusion: ----------------- An excellent game I'm really glad to have stumbled upon. I really would had loved a real sequel with more adventures, not just DLCs adding content to the existing story. There are only so many times you'll replay the whole 100h, just for a couple hours of new content. But since Owlcat just announced "Dark Heresy", a different game in the WH40k franchise, I guess that's that. :-( A note about the "Void Shadows" DLC: ------------------------------------------------------- Good DLC, definitely worth the money, if only for the additional adventures: I've read lots of complaints from people who wanted to have more Genestealer encounters (and I concur, after all I discovered the WH40k universe thanks to the "Space Hulk" board game). Well, let's just say Void Shadows satisfies that wish... ;-) A note about the Deluxe Edition: --------------------------------------------- For those wondering like myself where those bonus weapons supposedly included in the Deluxe Edition might be hidden (by the time I eventually found them they were hopelessly obsolete): You can find them at the start of chapter 1 (after the Prologue is finished), in the crate in your new office (room with the big desk in your quarters). The Heirloom Pistol gives you the "Dual Weapons" perk, so you can use it together with the chainsword. Which leads me to note: Do explore, always check every nook and cranny, in every location. RT has a lot of not-obvious loot lying around, including a lot of hidden things which only become visible (i.e. able to be highlighted) when you're near enough. Explore every level! A note about Editing/Cheating/Fixing: ----------------------------------------------------- For those stuck due to bug or just stupidity, there is a great program called "ToyBox" (search "ToyBox-RogueTrader" at GitHub). It allows you to edit about everything in your game, and might help you out of otherwise hopeless situations. Like when a quest wouldn't finish: The objective was "Kill all enemies", and well, they were all dead, I did wander around the room for a while without finding anything left to kill, but the game didn't acknowledge it was done. ToyBox allows you to fix this with a single click (choose quest, click "finish"). (Disclaimer: Not affiliated, use at your own risk, etc.)
I *really* want to like this game, (being a fan of tactical, turn-based games *and* a fan of WH 40k), but I have to admit this is definitely a missed opportunity. The units are great-looking, combat is interesting, it could had been an excellent game, one of those you give as an example, but clearly somebody didn't consider it worth the investment. First, there are no real campaigns, it's a handful of man-made scenarios liberally diluted with randomly generated skirmish maps to add volume. Those randomly generated maps are usually tiny, cramped, and you only get an (also randomly selected) subsection of your initial troops, which means you can't really follow any strategy, or your own preferences. Quite frustrating. There are also some well-known bugs still in the game (like the level-up icon corruption). Speaking of which, there are signs that something bad happened during development: If you read the comments inside the script files, you'll discover that even the development team had sometimes no clue how this code was supposed to work!... LOL The Good: ------------- - The units look (and sound) gorgeous, like animated tabletop miniatures. (The environment though is "Fallout Tactics" level, a game released 16 years earlier...) - The combat engine is quite good. As a fan of turn-based tactical games having played all the usual suspects I am very satisfied. - The AI is not too bad. It won't do anything unexpected or complicated, but isn't totally stupid either. The Bad: ----------- - The campaigns are the result of a "least effort/cost" strategy. Only half a dozen human made scenarios in three campaigns, each padded with 3-4 random skirmish scenarios? The engine deserved better, with a wee little more effort this could had been an excellent game... :-( - It's one of those cases where people mix up making something interesting/original and making it tedious. For instance some developer decided players should not have an "End Of Turn" key -- on a turn-based game!... You need to use your mouse and go click on the little icon on the bottom, each and every time... - Some bugs, nothing game breaking, just annoyances. It's just that this is an 8-years old game. I really don't want to know what it looked like back in 2017-2018... According to the changelog included, it was still being fixed in 2023. - There is a scenario/campaign editor, but don't expect to use it. It's totally undocumented, buggy, and apparently the game engine doesn't allow creating campaigns (chaining scenarios) anyway! Maybe unless you are a veteran developer, but I doubt it, since as I mentioned above, even the game's devs themselves didn't always understand how it is supposed to work... TL;DR: -------- An excellent turn-based combat engine, superb unit models, unfortunately let down by some rough-and-ready campaign design and some GUI design blunders. I don't know if this was an attempt to make a quick and cheap game around a prestigious license using a pre-existing engine, but it sure feels like that. A pity. The important question: Would I had bought it if I had known what I know now? Yes, at the current low price I do. I would had been very annoyed if I had paid a full AAA game price though, unfortunately it is definitely not worth anything over $10.
And you can't beat the price!... Of course, this being an open source project, it is an eternal WIP, but on the other hand it will always be getting richer as people add content. Currently some things are hinted at but not yet fully implemented, but you already get many hours of a well-constructed main campaign, and of course the possibility to do your own thing, be a merchant, a miner, a pirate, a bounty hunter, roaming inside a huge and quite well-filled galaxy. In short, if you liked Elite-likes, this is a must have.
In Kenshi you aren't some budding superhero who will soon beat single-handedly the snot out of 3-story high monsters, you are just a weak nobody in a world full of other weak nobodies... Also there is no hand-holding, actual or moral, in Kenshi you can really do whatever your want, but you'll have to discover everything about it yourself and make your very own choices. Now for those who might worry if it isn't too hard, please note the game's editor can edit savegames, which means your greed is your only limit: Do you want to be incredibly rich and carry all the best gear? Your choice. Just note the game will stay challenging nevertheless, since there are no overpowered items to be found. Speaking of realistic, enemy mobs won't attack you politely one at a time, they can and will swamp you. Some times enemies will outnumber you 1:10 or more, and even when you've started to be well-trained and well-equipped, some times your only chance is to run away and hope to somehow get rid (outrun, distract) of your pursuers. The world is huge and interesting, in my first playthrough I spent (game) weeks just exploring the continent... The game is rock solid on my laptop, there are some very minor issues (1.0.59b), but nothing game breaking: Once (after a long game session) doors started to visually disappear (but you could still go through them), and sometimes after opening and closing a door many times, my guys couldn't cross it anymore. In both cases saving my game and restarting Kenshi fixed everything. Well, there are some infuriating (to me) things, like not being able to take over ownership of abandoned ruins, but I hope they will be "fixed" eventually, since apparently the game is still under active development. (I sure hope they'll release a DLC...)
For the record, I'm a Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale veteran, and I liked this game very much. Okay, let's get over the few things which cost it one star: The campaign system is a wee little restrictive, for instance you can't visit places if you don't get a quest unlocking them. Also dialogue options are sometimes a little limited, forcing you to adopt an attitude you maybe didn't want to have at that point. Well, I guess it is because it is safer for beginners that way, and it makes sure you won't accidentally break some important quest, but it is nevertheless slightly annoying for RPG vets like me, or for tourists who just want to go sightseeing. On the other hand there are several very different choices you have to make. Everyone in the game has a (contradictory) agenda, so you can't just please everyone, you'll have to make choices (and enemies!). There are also several interesting companion NPCs you can "hire", and the game will be quite different depending on who you will actually lug around, especially since those companions also have their own agendas. All this makes for a great replay value, I can imagine at least 4 completely different playthroughs, following either one of the three main factions or none of them (which is also an option). The world itself is great, the NPCs are interesting and believable, there are plot twists you don't see coming, and most of all, it doesn't have the usual, Disney-level, 1-dimensional "Good Guys vs. Bad Guys" ethics you normally see. In Tyranny everybody is all shades of good and bad and, like in real life, everything is just choices (sometimes difficult ones) the player has to make in all conscience, and which usually have consequences later on. Wanna be a jerk or a goody-two-shoes? You'll get what you deserve - but not necessarily so... Don't believe the silly "forces of eeevil have won..." marketing blurb, there is way less "Evil" in Tyranny's world than in our own. The supposedly "bad" guys in Tyranny are actually trying to do the right thing, and the supposedly "good" guys are in reality total self-serving jerks, so who is "good" and who is "bad"? Easy: Like in real life, the winners are always "good", the losers are always "bad", so you need to make sure you're on the "right" side in the end... The whole setting (world) is quite compelling, and if there is one thing I regret, it's that there won't ever be a sequel... I would *really* like to see how Kyros will react to the player's ambitions...
