I typically review games on the Switch 2 that I have already experienced because that is the best way for me to compare platforms. But with Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, I have nothing to compare it to. Instead, I am left looking at the quality as someone who just decided to dive in blindly, as someone who only has the Nintendo Switch 2 and not anything else. So, if you have a Switch 2, does Rogue Trader act as a suitable addition to your ever growing collection? Let’s discuss.
Grimdark Details
Owlcat Games had an impossible task on their hands. For those who don’t know, Rogue Trader is the equivalent of Balder’s Gate 3 for the Warhammer 40K universe. I’m not saying it is the same by any means, I am saying that the playstyle and concept are relatively similar. Rogue Trader is a CRPG that leverages free-form movement and tactical combat. You create a character derived from various background choices, engage in a long campaign revolving around your character being a Rogue Trader, and you’ll fight some of the nastiest enemies this side of the Warp, practically killing them on sight. It is a brutal game filled with violence, dread, and flavorful text pulled directly from Warhammer’s own lexicon. When it comes to core presentation, the game checks every box you could want. I want to really emphasize here that Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader is a good game, great even by most standards! But, there is a lot here that makes me take a step back and question if bringing this game to the Switch 2 was truly worth it.
Rogue Trader is best played on your TV but I don’t say that in a sense of what is better, but rather that it is the lesser of two evils. Playing on the TV does show a lot more of the imperfections within the game’s character and environmental design. What you lose in a sense of quality you gain in additional years of eyesight. While you can display the game on a 4K screen with a smoothness that rivals the infamous Boston Slide, you still have the jagged edges and low-poly looking details. Oddly enough, the more I played on my TV, the more I felt humbled by the experience. I felt like I was playing something retro rather than something made for the most current age of gaming. But that charm becomes fleeting for most, and I don’t see a lot of people viewing this as an acceptable level of detail. There are loads of texture pop-ins, invisible characters from time to time, and an overall dull look to everything that can pull some of the most temperate people right out of the experience.
Rogue Trader operates on this loop where you get narrative bits through exploration and talking to characters, then you fight; a true Warhammer experience. There’s lots of pontificating between characters, and it is wordy, almost like having a conversation about anything that remotely interests me. There are these grandiose passages, monologues about heresy and treachery. It is all draped in this almost ornate tone, and rightfully so, that is part of the aesthetic here. Due to the breadth of these narrative moments, the screen becomes mostly taken up by the words being spoken as well as UI elements. On one hand, I like this because I can read at my own pace and just forward onto the next part.. What I don’t like is how it takes up literally the bottom part of your entire screen. Yes, there’s a lot going on here, and this is why I said that porting this game over feels like an impossible task. I don’t know if it is like this on other platforms that leverage the actual 4K resolution to the fullest, but the scaling feels completely off and it only gets worse when you place it into handheld mode.
Deceptis Handheldis
Handheld mode is where the game asks, “are you sure about this?” The Nintendo Switch 2’s screen might be big and display in full 1080p resolution, but the way Rogue Trader uses the screen is not quite the way I was hoping for. Yet, it is the only way it can be used. If they were to shrink the size of the text, I’d be squinting, finding it incredibly difficult to read. It is truly a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario.
Details within the game are already rough around the edges, taking that and scaling it down to a smaller display feels like a tough compromise. As someone who played Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Steam Deck as well as my PC and PlayStation 5, taking something this grand and getting it on a screen of this size is incredibly tough!
To get a bit technical, there is a reason why nothing really scales correctly in this sense and it is due to pixel density. A 1080p resolution on a 7.9” display gives you a pixel density of 278.85 Pixels Per-Inch (PPI). This is why games like Mario Kart World look really good. It does help that it is a first-party developed game, and they sure know what they are doing. But when you have a game that is just being ported over, there are scalable issues that need to be addressed and the only way to really do that is to rebuild from the ground up to better accommodate the differences. I can’t see anyone doing that for games that have already launched, and Rogue Trader is just an example of this.
Not All is Lost
As I fight through Rogue Trader I am falling in love with what it presents wholesale. It is just that the presentation feels underdeveloped and I do not hold it against this game. Rogue Trader tells this meta story that emits this aura of a hopeful future. The game has already seen an update which addresses a few issues, but it isn’t enough. Perhaps we may see this change when it comes to Owlcat Games’ next title. I can’t fully embrace the idea that this is a complete one-off. Sure, it is an attempt worth making, but when we are in an industry where people have no problem pushing games away that just aren’t up to snuff, it can feel like an uphill battle for both developers who love their work, and players who are passionate about the product.
I stand by my words and I only repeat them because I want the sound to echo throughout the internet. Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader is a fantastic game, the Switch 2 version just needed a bit more love. Or maybe it needs more blood for the blood god. Who really knows? Either way, if you can see beyond the pixels, you’ll be in for a great time.
