“First and foremost, we are aiming to tell more gritty, more dark, and more intimate stories and speak in a more serious and less heroic language with the players about the things going on in the Imperium,” Shestov explains.

The murky Inquisition are the perfect stars for this grisly excursion, being the Imperium’s equivalent to a secret police, sniffing out heretics in every corner of the universe. In the Calixis Sector, they’ll have their work cut out for them, with abhumans, xenos creatures, and the bureaucratic machinations of their own organisation standing in their way.

Shestov wants Dark Heresy to be a step up from Rogue Trader in every feasible manner. Full voice acting is already confirmed, but the developers want to deliver a “less buggy, more polished gaming experience” this time around. Despite Rogue Trader earning plaudits from Warhammer fans and CRPG players alike, Owlcat is starting afresh for its next game in that universe.

I tried pushing Shestov on any other races we’d see in the game – antagonists or otherwise – but he kept his cards close to his chest. Other than the Tyrant Star, a mysterious stellar anomaly that can’t be fought by traditional means, he confirmed that fans will come face to face with an unusual cast on their travels in the Calixis Sector.

“There are some abhumans in our setting that are tolerated inside the Imperium. And there are not just abhumans that are being somehow tolerated inside the Imperium. And there are some xenos that are being tolerated in the borders of the Imperium. And we will be introducing all of them.”

We know there’s an Ogryn in the game already – a tolerated abhuman – but there’s plenty of space to play in this regard. I wonder if our Kroot companion could lead to some interactions with T’au, or other xenos species affiliated with the Greater Good. It’s a stretch, and we’re more likely to be seeing the Leagues of Votann roll up, but I want to see my psychic space bears. Whatever aliens turn up in the final game, Owlcat is rooting down the back of the sofa to find the species that even the most ardent Warhammer fan has long forgotten.

The developer is also pushing the boundaries of romance. Shestov acknowledges that a “main fault” of Rogue Trader was the unromanceable Mechanicus companion, Pasqal. Rejoice, robot lovers, because that’s changing this time around. “We are fighting hard to make this particular companion, the Mechanicus one, romanceable,” he says. “And it would be the craziest romance I've ever encountered in a role-playing game.”

On that note, it’s time to sing a canticle to the machine spirit and ensure my PC is up to the task of some serious mechadendrite-on-mechadendrite action. In the meantime, we’ve got at least three more pieces of Rogue Trader DLC to look forward to. We’ll have more from Shestov on that next week.

 The_Pilot wrote:
“cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable”

 Lord Damocles wrote:

 The_Pilot wrote:
“cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable”

...where you can go down to pound town on your cybernetic companion. Ohhh yeahhh.

 BrookM wrote:
As with Rogue Trader, a very early pre-order has now opened up, for both an exclusive physical edition with Kroot statue and various digital editions: https://darkheresy.owlcat.games/

Site also features names and short bios of the companions.