Developer Owlcat Games took to the official Steam page to reveal the full contents and changes of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy Beta. Check out our impressions to learn more!
Before starting the game, you can now create your own Acolyte: pick one of five Tier-1 archetypes, one of four origins, and one of three homeworlds. Sanctioned Psyker also exists as an origin, so nothing stops a Warrior or Operative from rolling with warp powers on the side.
Specialisations replace the firehose of talents from Rogue Trader. You commit to a direction – dual-wielding, anti-armor, demoralization, precise targeting, one of the psyker disciplines – and your build takes shape from there. You can further customize your battle prowess by using ability modifications to reshape how you skills work, keeping your build evolving past level-ups.
The available contents of the game had been expanded to the entirety of the First Act, excluding its prologue – have to save some intrigue for the full version! You can try out the systems that the team has been building and gradually expanding upon: a full investigation, two interconnected locations, faction reputations, conviction choices, and the consequences that follow you from one decision to the next.
Combat in Dark Heresy is more deliberate compared to Rogue Trader, with encounters having directives, both primary and secondary. Sometimes all you have to do is simply kill them all, but there are additional goals as well: rescue hostages, capture targets alive for interrogation, close warp rifts before they spread, take down the chains holding the platform up. Whether to attempt them or simply go for the throat is up to you.
Additional combat changes that set apart Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader:
- Zones of influence. Every character has an immediate sphere of influence around them, and abilities key off it. Some companions thrive on staying close. Others – like Discordance the Pariah – warp the rules within their zone.
- Armour as a second health bar. Your gear absorbs hits as its own pool. It doesn’t regenerate every turn the way it did in the Alpha; you’ll manage it through consumables and abilities, and your Operative will love the moment that armour finally cracks.
- Concentration. Enemies winding up grenades, executions, or big psychic powers show a target on the field. Interrupt them in time and the action never lands.
- Morale victory. Break an enemy squad’s spirit hard enough, and the fight ends without killing them – execute or subdue, your call.
As an Acolyte of the Tyrantine Cabal, you will have your investigations to carry out – gather clues, interview witnesses, swap companions mid-mission to apply their specialist knowledge, and use the in-game journal to connect what you’ve found. The literal truth of what happened is one answer. Who you choose to blame, as an agent of the Inquisition, is another. Both have consequences.
Additionally, certain choices define your Acolyte’s conviction: pragmatic, zealous, willing to look at xenos technology, or something in between. You can commit to a certain idea, with payoffs at the end of the act.
The developers also give a small overview of the ten available companions. If you don’t mind spoilers, check them out in the blog post.
