Despite only being live for around a month, Owlcat Games‘ Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy has already proven very popular, with over 10,000 players joining the Alpha test and signalling a bright future for the follow up to 2024’s Rogue Trader.
Owlcat have released a big old dump of numbers to reveal just how popular their new CRPG is. For example, we know that 77% of players jumped into the alpha on Normal difficulty, which is inspiring considering that some people found Rogue Trader’s default difficulty to be a wall in certain areas.
In a series of infographics released by the Adeptus Administratum (that’s the Imperium of Mankind’s depressingly bureaucratic pencil pushing division to those not in the know) we have learned Ogryn companion Cogg is the most useful and popular party member so far, and that players purchased medkits and Melta charges 17000 times.
Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy is a sprawling CRPG in the style of Rogue Trader that sees players taking the role of an acolyte of the Imperial Inquisition, a terrifying, oppressive order of fanatics charged to ruthlessly root out the alien, the mutant, and the heretic in Imperium-controlled space and destroy them without mercy. Of course, it’s not always that simple – as anyone who has read Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn trilogy will understand. Sometimes, an Inquisitor has to bend the rules in order to protect the God-Emperor’s domain.
To that end, you will recruit an eclectic bunch of party members that would almost certainly have any acolyte burned immediately, including a Kroot sharpshooter and an Aeldari. Rogue Trader had a crew including a Sister of Battle and a bona fide Space Wolf Astartes, so it’s good to see Owlcat continuing to explore the histories behind, and the relationships between, the myriad different factions within this huge, colourful universe.
With no concrete release date yet, the best way to get a taste of Dark Heresy early is to sign up for the alpha by either pre-ordering the physical edition or registering for the Developer’s Digital Pack online here.
