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After the amazing Void Shadows DLC, I have been eagerly anticipating the release of Lex Imperialis. Sadly, for those who want the TLDR, this DLC feels like a step back in many of the areas that Void Shadows did well. It also came out far buggier than Void Shadows did, though many of the bugs have been fixed as of patch 1.4.1.
This review is based on a 62-hour run on patch 1.4.0.199/200 through chapters 1-4 and patch 1.4.1 for chapter 5. I have completed 100% of the achievements for this DLC and the other DLC/main game. This is my 4th run through Rogue Trader, completed on Unfair.
Lets start with the good. Outside of some mods for Dawn of War, this is easily the best rendition of the Arbites I have seen in any game, Darktide included. As stated in my previous reviews, I am a huge 40k fan since second edition and truly enjoy the lore. This DLC is 100% lore-compliant and everything I thought it would be and more in this regard. All of the amazing in-engine cutscenes involving the Arbites were very well done. All of the additional cutscenes at key points in the plot were nice additions as well. Some of the boss fights that had no meaningful intro, now do, as do key plot points. The second main quest in Lex Imperials had spectacular writing, and was in line with what I would say is Owlcat quality. I was grinning the whole time because of how ridiculous it got.
The new Arbitrator origin was a new way to build my Rogue Trader this time around. Dual-wielding shotguns post-patch 1.4.1 is a ton of fun. Definitely, a different way to run an Arch-Militant build, many of the decisions impacted by my Rogue Trader's background seemed meaningful for this new class as well. The Overseer class is similarly amazing with Psykers, going and sending buffs to your squad, or lighting 10+ enemies on fire through the Psyber-Raven is borderline broken, but also incredibly fun. These were clearly well-thought-out additions, and I really appreciated the work Owlcat put into them.
Now, before we get into the bad stuff, I do want to praise Owlcat for pushing out patches in response to concerns and changes from the player base and fixing bugs so quickly. I do have serious concerns about why so much content seems to have been added in patch 1.4.1. It seems like this DLC was perhaps pushed out too early, and stuff was cut. Looking at the Void Shadows DLC for the first couple of major patches, not many things were added, but there were tons of bugs being fixed. I cannot help but wonder how good Lex Imperialis would have been if it had been left to cook for another month.
So, for the bad, I had two crashes that seemed to have been related to the new Familiars. In the Void Shadows quest, when I tried again from an earlier save and did not bring a companion with a Familiar, I did not get slowdowns or crashes. I did try again from that save with my original team, with two Familiars, and post-patch 1.4.1 seems to have fixed it. Similarly, dual-wielding weapons with the Arbitrator did not work until patch 1.4.1. As this is a key reason why I chose that build for my Rogue Trader, that was a huge bummer for the first 50 hours of my run. I would have liked to see this not have been an issue, as that is one of the most unique mechanics for the Arbitrator origin when you build your character properly. Post patch 1.4.1, Glaito lost his claws, so I brought him to the final fight, and he couldn't do anything. Reading forums, I am not the only person with this bug, so I hope this gets fixed. I did file a bug report already.
I am also having lots of issues with the cloud saves not syncing, not with any other game, just this one. Steam support says it is not an issue on their end, so my only conclusion is it is something with this game. I often have to start/exit the game for my save to sync correctly. This is new since the DLC came out and again this is my only game that has this issue. It also exits to an error screen of some sort on my Steam Deck, which it did not before.
Compared to the Void Shadows DLC, the first planet quest was not very well written, and I see that was supposedly fixed in patch 1.4.1. I didn't get a chance to try it, as I was well past that point in my game. When I played it, the options were very blunt and direct, not with the usual Owlcat flair to it; it was very strange. There was no banter with my companions arguing about what to do at all; it was just going along with the motions to the pre-determined outcome. The second planetary quest was not like that, so I do not know what happened. While we are on the topic of quests, it seems that Lex Imperialis is significantly smaller than Void Shadows. One of the errands is just to go here, talk to this person, and they will rejoin your party. That is all. No meaningful character development, no challenge or quest to do. The new companions' romance is nothing to write home about either. I think the writing could be improved. I believe we had eight quests/errands in Void Shadows. We got far fewer meaningful ones in Lex Imperialis, for the same price. I did buy the season pass, but I still can't help but feel I did not get my full money's worth.
In terms of design, I have some serious issues with this DLC. Firstly, your Arbitrator companion is missing key skills to make him stand out. Why do I have to wait until exemplar to get him to have a shield and shotgun or dual-wield shotguns? Since we cannot fully respec our companions (which is a major gripe I have with this game), why would you leave that skill out? It means the new companion doesn't come into his own until very late game, or you have to rely on his familiar. If, like me, you have several familiars, you may not wish to do that. I like how Owlcat fixed the ship quest so we get it sooner, and supposedly fixed the Arbitrator interactions so they can start sooner as well. Please, for future DLCs, understand that post chapter 3 is not the time to introduce characters to us, as there is very little that cannot be done in chapter 2 game-wise. I really hope the next DLC integrates the characters on par with Void Shadows, showing clear development from the beginning of the game and doesn't lock out key skills.
Some nice additional touches were changes to the Halo Device, fixes to item descriptions and balancing of some classes. I still think Pasqual needs a buff, which all operatives do. Other classes range from broken to serviceable.
My wishes for the next DLC are something meaningful for going Heretical and losing so many companions. The sword you get sucks, and doesn't incentivize you to go that route for the loss you take. I also want to see the benefits for that alignment get buffed. Both of the other alignments, if kitted with your build properly, are much more useful, and Dogmatic can be broken if used correctly.
I give this DLC a very lukewarm 7/10. It was a letdown in many respects, as I have outlined. If Owlcat did not push patches quickly, I would have left this review as a thumbs down. Only buy this if you are a hardcore fan, wait for a sale otherwise and more patches to come out.
Please let the next DLC cook so we do not have so many bugs with our builds, and give us more meaningful quests with well-written, compelling characters that are introduced early in the game, like Void Shadows did. You did such a great job with Void Shadows, Owlcat, I know you can do better than Lex Imperialis.
EDIT: Thanks for the Dev response, I am rooting for you guys to do well with DLCs 3/4 and Dark Heresy.