"Ambitious as f**k" Warhammer 40k RPG is the first real BG3 challenger I've seen

Once upon a time, I read A Very Short Introduction to The Devil. I've always had a fascination with the occult, especially all things dark, demonic, and dreary. I was drawn to Vampire: The Masquerade because of its ability to challenge your morals while allowing you to live out a supernatural power fantasy, while other TTRPGs like Call of Cthulhu and Candela Obscura satiate my thirst for well-timed cliffhangers and arcane knowledge. But in each of those - even VTM - it feels like there's a good guy; someone that's slightly better than the rest.

In Warhammer 40k, that distinct line between hero and villain simply isn't there: Games Workshop offers you the power fantasy of huge armor and explosive weaponry, but it doesn't give you any opportunities to be truly good. Where, as my book on the devil told me, most humans resist the voice in the back of their head urging them to do bad things, Warhammer 40k asks you to embrace it and act on it in the name of justice. It's a juxtaposition Owlcat explored with Rogue Trader, and a concept we'll have to grapple with in its upcoming RPG, Dark Heresy.

Rogue Trader casts you as the central nexus of a sprawling space opera. Having ascended to the eponymous role, it's clear from the get-go that you're in charge. By contrast, in Dark Heresy, you play as an Inquisitor, the people who go out there and get shit done. There's no fanfare, no right or wrong: there's what the Emperor says and then there's heresy. It takes me a moment to get my head around those binaries. There are fifty shades of bloodsplatters, but our goal is simple and united, and no one questions it.

"Traditional stories come with a set of pre-determined things that are good and evil," executive producer Anatoly Shestov tells me. "Someone determined before you that doing these things shifts your alignment to the good or the evil side, and the world reacts accordingly. The thing about Warhammer is that these things are so intertwined that nobody actually understands what's good and what's bad. We're telling a story where it's not you picking between good and bad, it's you deciding what's good and what's bad - maybe killing these innocent people is good at this particular moment, maybe punishing this bad person is evil, because further down the line this evil guy will save millions that the innocents will corrupt." Well, that's quite the setup.

Shestov plays through an early section of the game, and while its mechanics are immediately reminiscent of its sister RPG, the scale just feels bigger. Both the environments and animations have certainly received a glow-up, with scrawled drawings of those missing from a local settlement tugging at my heartstrings and really bringing the world to harrowing life. Caverns feel echoey and have enough vertical depth to present challenging combat encounters, and some geometry is fully destructible, oftentimes masking whatever horror lies in wait.

But, for me, the main difference I see between Rogue Trader and its new, darker sister is the focus on detective work. Akin to the likes of LA Noire and Nobody Wants to Die, you'll have to collect clues to piece together a report for your Imperial masters. You'll comb through crime scenes and check every nook and cranny, but Shestov says that you're more "Arnold Schwarzenegger than Sherlock Holmes," as you'll need to smash things up to uncover the nitty-gritty details. As someone who loves detective stories (I will die on the hill that LA Noire is the greatest videogame ever made), this is music to my ears.

"The system itself doesn't demand that you play as a detective," Shestov tells me. "It comes naturally story-wise. We realized that the detective side of things would allow us to speak to the player on a different level. It doesn't just give you facts; you can go to an encyclopedia and read those. It's not just personal feelings; you can go to the dialog and read those. Instead, it ties in a separate, self-meaningful story."

But, as Shestov says, most of your time is spent "smashing" things. Warhammer 40k, at its core, is a story of destruction, with combat very much at its heart. Building upon the traditional turn-based systems we see in Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy adds a Fallout-esque targeting system, allowing you to specify which limbs you want to blow off. You can hone in on the arms, legs, head, torso, neck, and even eyes, each of which has a percentage chance to land a shot. Popping a few rounds into your enemies' arms may deal a major wound, potentially crippling them going forward. It's yet another layer of strategy, and I absolutely love it.

Combat scenarios have leveled up, too, perhaps taking some inspiration from Larian's titanic Baldur's Gate 3. As we approach a bar that's filled to bursting with stony-faced, heretical gang members, we're given different options to customize our approach. You can go in stealthily or unleash absolute hell, but we choose to get the bandits drunk and then attack, inflicting a series of debuffs. Again, it levels up how you approach each major skirmish, adding even more layers to already complex fights.

While I don't get to see the full battle, things play out similarly to Rogue Trader - everything is turn-based, with different party members bringing their abilities to the table. The cover system is still there, but everything just feels like it's leveled up. While a bar brawl is always fun, I'm excited to see what the bigger, boss-fight sequences look like: I want to blast these new and improved heretics into smithereens.

Shestov describes Dark Heresy as a "fruit of Owlcat's passion and labor," and, from just an hour of watching him play, that really does come across. It's bigger, bolder, and more complex than its predecessor, and is the only CRPG I've seen in the post-Baldur's Gate 3 era that I think has the potential to come close to Larian's epic. Of course, it's a Warhammer-set game, which may be off-putting to some, but if you love story-driven games and making difficult, life-or-death decisions, I truly believe Dark Heresy is the game for you.

"We're still ambitious as fuck and crazy people, and we're making the game we want to play," Shestov tells me with a smile. I can't wait to get my bloodstained paws on Dark Heresy, but in the meantime, I'll probably return to Rogue Trader to check out the Lex Imperialis DLC. Perhaps, in the spirit of becoming an Inquisitor, I'll let the little voice in the back of my head take charge for once - the Emperor's word is law, after all. Who am I to question it?