Ivan Fomin

I just played 4 hours of @OwlcatGames's Dark Heresy Alpha… and honestly? What a game this is shaping up to be. Full disclosure: the Alpha was not gifted to me. I paid for it with my own money. I also went in pretty skeptical because I’d heard people say it was very rough. At least in my experience, those rumors were completely unfounded. I was worried Dark Heresy would end up feeling like Rogue Trader 2.0—more like a DLC than its own game. Instead, Owlcat genuinely outdid themselves. They kept the core of what makes an Owlcat CRPG work, while implementing vastly improved and genuinely different gameplay mechanics. You play as an Inquisitor—basically the zealot police of the Imperium—and the game actually leans into that fantasy. You’re not just fighting; you’re investigating. You have to think, theorize, connect clues, reconstruct crime scenes, interrogate witnesses and suspects, and let your companions use their expertise to research specific leads. And yes, you can also completely ignore that and blame whoever you want, because in the end your word is the Golden Throne’s word. That freedom is baked into the design, and it rules. The game feels far more interactive than previous Owlcat titles. Combat is still CRPG at its core, but it’s significantly improved—new mechanics, better AI, new enemy types, and smarter encounters overall. On top of that: the music is excellent, the environments are gorgeous, and the overall atmosphere is peak grimdark. I genuinely have nothing bad to say about my time with the Alpha. I can’t wait to finish it, and I really can’t wait for the full release. What a treat.