Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy preview – Innocence proves nothing, the video game

Fans were a bit surprised about the announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy earlier this year, given that Owlcat Games’ most recent grimdark CRPG success, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, is still getting expansions. But Dark Heresy, which is based on another tabletop RPG from Fantasy Flight Games, is not a quick cash grab reusing assets and systems to ride Warhammer 40,000’s current wave of popularity — it’s an ambitious sequel that targets many key improvements over Rogue Trader all while keeping the foundations of what made the title such a hit in place.

Among these principles, naturally, is the grimdark morality of a universe in which humankind’s primary civilization is a theocratic, fascist, warmongering hellhole stuck in eternal decline that’s being assailed by even worse forces from all sides. In Dark Heresy, you play as an Acolyte of the Imperial Inquisition, an all-powerful secret police force whose motto is “Innocence proves nothing.”

You’re essentially a detective tasked with rooting out heresy and treason. And with the planet you’re on being under assault by the Tyrant Star, a Chaos phenomenon, this mission is what’s keeping the entire world alive.

“It’s not about being good or being evil,” a developer tells me at Gamescom 2025. “It’s about doing what you have to do to keep the planet alive for another day. Dark Heresy is about allowing the player to draw a line in the sand for himself that he doesn’t want to cross and then doing everything possible to make him cross it.”

There’s an often used quote from the Eisenhorn books that drives home just how terrifying the Inquisition is: “My patience is limited, unlike my authority.” But Eisenhorn wasn’t mandatory for Owlcat’s developers to read — novels depicting crime and horror in Warhammer 40,000 were.

“It’s a strange combination of pulp fiction, noir detective stories, and Warhammer 40,000,” the developer describes.

Suffice to say: Just like Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy appears to be nailing the atmosphere and tone you’d expect from a story featuring the Inquisition. You are feared, hated, suspected. You will feel paranoia, because everyone could be a traitor or a heretic, or believe you are one.

This is supported by the enhanced visuals. While Dark Heresy uses Rogue Trader as a base, the entire texture and asset library has been remade, allowing for higher visual fidelity. Things like movement have been smoothed out, so jumping over a small chasm no longer requires a skill check, instead being done fluidly as part of your regular traversal.

Being a spy and detective thriller, Dark Heresy prominently features criminal investigations. As an Acolyte – an Inquisitor’s apprentice and assistant, essentially – you go around, collect clues, and draw conclusions. This includes the ability to arrange them on a whiteboard, connect them, figure out why some contradict each other, and go full Sherlock Holmes, if you wish to. Or you can come to the conclusion that benefits you most — it’s an Owlcat CRPG, so there are tons of possible choices at every point, most of them getting someone killed.

And here’s the thing: Go back and read that Eisenhorn quote. Go back and read the motto of this organization. You don’t need to be afraid of coming to the wrong conclusion, because you are an Acolyte of the Inquisition. As Owlcat puts it: “It’s up to you to decide if it is okay to answer like this and no one will judge you. It’s you who judge everyone else in this particular story.”

Owlcat uses a lot of narrative techniques from the crime genre to enhance the storytelling, such as recreating crimes based on how you’ve put the clues together. It gives the game a different feeling compared to Rogue Trader, perfectly immersing you in this role you’re playing. 

Naturally, you’ll need to get a little rough sometimes, and battles are where Dark Heresy makes the most changes compared to Rogue Trader, addressing some of its key issues.

Changes to the cover system are refreshing the combat experience: Instead of differentiating full and half cover, you either have cover or you don’t. Cover effectiveness has been increased, too, but this comes with the drawback that all pieces of cover are now destructible, potentially forcing a lot more movement over the course of an engagement and creating some interesting choices between maneuvering to circumnavigate cover or simply annihilating it.

Owlcat has also added a Concentration mechanic for actions like throwing grenades. Basically, these actions no longer take place immediately. When you aim your grenade throw, you declare an intention to throw your explosive there and the action itself appears in the turn order, to be executed when its turn comes. If the character’s Concentration gets broken in the meantime by taking damage, being stunned, and so on, the action is interrupted. This creates a tactical back and forth between player and AI.

Figuring into this is the ability to target specific body parts with your attacks. So if your foe wants to throw a grenade and you can’t kill them this turn, the best way to interrupt their action is to get a shot at their arms — good luck throwing a grenade without your appendages.

Combat is governed by the morale system, which has been expanded from your own characters to the NPCs with some variations. If you can sap an enemy’s morale enough, you’ll be able to cause infighting or get foes to flee, helping you manage in fights where the odds are stacked against you.

A surrender function reduces the amount of time players have to spend mopping up enemies in engagements they’ve already won decisively, addressing one of Rogue Trader’s bigger points of pain: the sheer length of its battles.

Players have their personal gun cutter to fly around the planet and visit its moon, where their superiors are headquartered. The vessel will also function as an office of sorts, but it doesn’t get the same importance as your void ship does in Rogue Trader, which makes complete sense and fits the different situation.

Companions have their own quest lines once again, some being romanceable. And, yes, a few of the companions can be killed permanently through choices you make. Customization is also more sophisticated than in Rogue Trader, so your Acolyte can stand out of the crowd a bit more.

Everything said and done, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy looks like a fantastic follow-up to Rogue Trader that delivers more of what made it so great and improves on many elements, all while differentiating itself enough to stand on its own feet or take away from Rogue Trader. It’s something of a balancing act, but Owlcat is seemingly managing it wonderfully — any CRPG or Warhammer 40,000 fan needs to have Dark Heresy on the radar come 2026.

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