One of Rogue Trader's biggest strengths has always been its ability to make Warhammer 40,000 feel weird and outlandish, yet also deeply personal. The Infinite Museion doubles down on that by introducing a delightfully eccentric tech-priest and sending you on the galaxy's most dangerous museum tour.

So after spending a week with the DLC, is The Infinite Museion an essential addition to Rogue Trader, or merely a pleasant diversion?

Video version of this review (~14 minutes)

New Companion - Eogunn Februs

The story kicks off with you meeting the new companion, Eogunn - an unusually jovial seeker of knowledge who treats the line between curiosity and insanity like a seesaw. One of the first things you see him do is create a Frankenstein's monster out of several fatally wounded soldiers. His goal is noble: to save at least something of them and give them a second chance at life. But as you might imagine, stapling three people together doesn't exactly go according to plan.

What really surprised me, however, is that Eogunn actually admits he was wrong. He even goes as far as to suggest that, in his eagerness, he may have committed heresy - the greatest sin against the Omnissiah. Getting that kind of introspection from a Tech Priest is as rare as a dog that won't instantly vacuum up food as soon as it hits the floor.

Because of that, he serves as a very interesting counterpart to Pasqal. Whereas Pasqal often feels more machine than man, Eogunn represents a true union between the two. He's actually happy to be alive, enjoys talking to people, and can even appreciate the occasional joke. So as someone that loves the Adeptus Mechanicus, it was wonderful seeing a tech-priest characterized as something other than a robed weirdo that goes beep-boop.

Not that Eogunn isn't a robed weirdo. He's basically a balloon with tentacles and a face. And instead of just being a normal kind of crazy, he created an imaginary friend whose main purpose is to tell him he's being an idiot. Their relationship is honestly kind of cute - which is not something I expected I'd ever say in regards to a tech-priest, but here we are.

In true Rogue Trader fashion, his story takes some wild twists and turns, though I won't spoil the details. What I will say is that I found the central dilemma to be fascinating, even if the whole thing was a bit too... abrupt for my liking. The quest unfolds over multiple chapters, but the bulk of the narrative arrives only during the final stretch.

I would've loved a few more conversations exploring the conflict, because right now you go from discovering the problem to resolving it in only a handful of steps. It sure would be nice if real life worked like that. But on a more serious note, this doesn't ruin the quest or the character, but it's a blemish on an otherwise excellent new companion.

Eogunn is a very strange tech-priest, in all the best ways

Side Stories

And much like the previous DLCs, The Infinite Museion is blended seamlessly into the main campaign - there isn't a chunky bit remaining. In fact, I'm pretty sure a new player would have no chance to separate the DLC's madness from Rogue Trader's usual fare.

For example, there's a new Adeptus Mechanicus oil rig you can stumble across where two different sects of tech-priests are engaged in a heated philosophical debate... and also a shooting war. It has almost nothing to do with the main story, but it's a fun little detour that offers some extra insight into the tech-priests and their wonderfully deranged beliefs.

An entire new zone for a simple side quest is the kind of effort I love seeing

Planet Zarkov

There's also Zarkov - a brand new colony world complete with quests, upgrades, and the usual assortment of planetary crises you can solve from the comfort of your throne. It fits into the campaign so naturally it feels like it was always meant to be there.

But that's not the only natural thing about it, because Zarkov is a planet overrun by evil vegetables that enjoy eating people almost as much as they enjoy torturing them. But what's really surprising is that Zarkov isn't full of gibbering madmen. Instead, it's run by descendants of a penal legion that have spent so long under impossible pressure they've learned how to use every part of a Guardsman... if you get what I mean. And if you don't, that's probably for the best. Oh, and they even have their own theme song!

So if you want to claim the planet, you'll need to help the Zarkovians deal with the Drover - which is essentially Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. This ended up being one of my favorite fights in the DLC. My first attempt ended with an endless tide of flowers vomiting all over my party before I could even leave my little shame corner. But the second time around I brought significantly more firepower - emphasis on the fire - and after a bit of aggressive weed-whacking, Zarkov officially joined my domain.

This is also where I was reminded that Rogue Trader's writing was, and still is, excellent across the board. Owlcat has an uncanny ability to make me care about characters that might as well be named 'Joe the Poop Shoveler' for how important they really are in the main storyline. So despite spending maybe an hour with them, I found the Zarkov crew surprisingly memorable.

Which is quite fortunate, because they don't disappear once the quest ends! The newly liberated Zarkov regiments pop up at other points in the campaign - including the DLC's finale. They don't play a massive role, they're just some dudes high on corpse-poison after all, but seeing them acknowledged as a part of your retinue makes the world feel just that little bit more reactive, and I really like that sort of stuff.

It's friendly. You can go pet it.

Enter the Infinite Museion

This then leads, through events I won't spoil, into the Infinite Museion itself. And honestly? I loved my first trip through it. The whole thing begins as a guided tour through some of the galaxy's strangest creatures and artifacts, before eventually culminating in an interactive exhibit dedicated to everyone's favorite suicide squad: the Death Korps of Krieg.

The fight itself was fine, fun but nothing too special, but what made it memorable was pure random chance. A Krieg Commissar suffered lethal damage and then simply refused to die out of sheer stubbornness. He then proceeded to scream at one of his own soldiers, attempted to shoot another in the back, missed completely, and then exploded into a shower of giblets - like any good Krieger. I don't think you could've scripted that any better.

Just don't touch the exibits.

Time Loop Shenanigans

But the coolest part of the Museion, and probably the highlight of the DLC for me, is the time loop exhibition. You're dropped into an ongoing siege, and your job is to cause so much chaos that the simulation throws a hissy fit and self-destructs. Or you can just blow it up with a bomb, but come on now! If you choose that option you need to seriously re-examine your priorities in life.

Because the time loop is a quintessential CRPG quest - tightly designed, packed with memorable characters, and full of decisions that have actual consequences. More importantly, it's not just about figuring out what to do and how, but also when.

Everything you do advances the simulation. Talk to someone? Time passes. Poke a radio? Time passes. As a result, dismantling the whole thing becomes a giant puzzle. You need to figure out the right sequence of events, manipulate the various characters, and sometimes even get your hands dirty.

I spent about an hour poking and prodding every corner to get the 'good' ending, and I had an absolute blast. Especially because the thing I was missing the whole time was actually super obvious, yet something I never even considered: I needed to intentionally fail a conversation to change how events play out.

The time loop is a 10/10 section for me

Trazyn

The time loop was such a strong section that it also highlights my biggest disappointment with The Infinite Museion. And before the pitchforks come out, I need to confess something: I've never really cared for Trazyn. He always felt a bit too self-indulgent, and that's saying something given how silly Warhammer 40k is. And unfortunately, The Infinite Museion hasn't changed my mind.

Part of the problem is that Trazyn just isn't that exciting as a villain. He doesn't want the player because they're essential to some grand scheme. He wants them because they'd look good as exhibit #420690 - which compared to Eogunn, Zarkov or the time loop isn't nearly as personal or interesting.

Which is a shame because the Museion itself absolutely is. So when it finally came time to raid it and engage in a little friendly fistycuffs with him, I was genuinely quite excited. In my mind I imagined Trazyn getting increasingly desperate and throwing his prized collection at us. One second you'd be fighting some bizarre alien monstrosity, and then suddenly a chaos dreadnaught would crash through the ceiling - that kind of thing.

Instead, the finale is basically just a difficult Necron fight. Yeah, I wiped out once and had to re-try as Trazyn the Infinite didn't get his name because he really likes Halo. But compared to the Drover - a completely unique boss - or the time loop - a completely unique scenario - the final confrontation felt surprisingly... conventional.

And that's kind of my issue with it. The DLC spends most of its runtime showing off wonderfully bizarre ideas, only for the finale to fall back on something you'll see dozens of times throughout chapter 5. Now this doesn't make it bad. Far from it.

The fight can be downright nasty, and I really like how - mid-fight - you can make decisions that directly influence the ending. It's just that Rogue Trader set such a high standard for itself that merely 'good' now feels like being served plain mashed potatoes after a five-course meal.

On the bright side, I did get to projectile vomit directly in Trazyn's face, which was deeply satisfying. And no, that's not a joke. That's an actual augment you can acquire!

Trazyn is fine, and that's just not good enough for Rogue Trader's standards

Augments

Instead of simply improving your characters through gear, you can now shove bits and pieces of metal into them in order to unlock new abilities, or just amplify what they already have.

While Forgeworld characters, and the two tech-priest companions, have a slight edge - everyone is able to embrace the certainty of steel. And it's a very interesting system since many of the augments offer plus/minus style effects that, if you overindulge, can really come back to bite you. Still, I found it to be powerful enough that most of my crew ended up getting chromed out. Because if you're going to be fighting demons from beyond the stars, an ogryn sized arm certainly helps!

Eogunn is especially exciting here as a lot of his power comes from his augments. He's able to arc lightning between enemies, shield allies in a spikey field of static, and even create an electric wall that hurts enemies and - somehow - buffs your projectiles. So as far as new systems go, I'd say the augments are a smash hit. They fit seamlessly into the game, offer interesting choices, and just feel good to mess around with.

But more than that, they also come with their own little story - one that discusses where exactly the line between man and machine truly lies. It's a fascinating conundrum and the game presents it well, it's just that - much like Eogunn's story - it needed a little bit more room to breathe. As it stands, it's thought-provoking, but just a bit too condensed.

Up for some arm wrestling?

Is The Infinite Museion Worth Playing?

Which is pretty much how I'd summarize The Infinite Museion as a whole. There's nothing here I'd call bad. In fact, most of it is great. It's just that I kept running into moments where I wanted the DLC to do a little bit more with its ideas before moving on to the next thing.

The companion storyline needed a few more conversations. The augmentation dilemma deserved a little more exploration. And the finale never quite reaches the same heights as the time loop exhibition that came before it.

But despite those shortcomings, The Infinite Museion succeeds at the thing Rogue Trader does best. Whether you're helping a balloon-shaped tech-priest wrestle with impossible questions, liberating a planet from evil vegetables, or deliberately trying to break reality - there's always something weird and memorable around every corner.

So as far as Rogue Trader expansions go, I'd put The Infinite Museion in second place behind Void Shadows. It's not mandatory, but it is absolutely worth a playthrough - especially if the idea of wandering through the galaxy's most dangerous museum sounds like a fun evening for you.