We were missing a shooter like this: Darktide combines the dirty Warhammer slaughter with the co-op chaos of Vermintide. It plays just great.
Sometimes game development can be so straightforward No groundbreaking new ideas or creative outpourings are needed. Sometimes the most obvious solution is also the only right one. At least, that’s how we imagine the thought process behind Warhammer 40,000: Darktide – straightforward and uncomplicated.
Fatshark employee 2: “Oh yeah, there’s chainsaw swords and demons, that’s a super change!”
It may only be a teeny leap from the excellent Vermintide 2 to the futuristic quasi-sequel Darktide, but fans of the 40k series will no doubt thank developer Fatshark for now lending their expertise to the sci-fi world often battered with only a few top-notch game conversions.
GlobalEsportNews has already been able to play a few test games in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. We explain to you what really changes compared to Vermintide 2 – and where Fatshark still has to improve before the release on 13 September 2022.
What is Warhammer 40k: Darktide about?
The hive city of Tertium is under attack: Chaos is spreading across the 90 billion-strong city-planet. The evil god Nurgle, who recently caused trouble in Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters is using a plague to turn good citizens into aggressive demon-zombies.
Because the battle against the soulless hordes demands many fighters, the Empire turns to using prisoners as cannon fodder. As four of them you take up the fight in the co-op shooter Darktide, the following classes are available for selection:
- Veteran (classic shooter)
- Zealot (fast melee fighter)
- Psykker (Mage with crowd control spells)
- Ogryn (Tank with heavy weapons)
All characters can both hit up close and deal damage at a distance with a ranged weapon, but have clearly defined strengths and weaknesses. In a multiplayer game (or in solo mode with bots), however, not all four classes have to be represented, instead you can experiment: How does it play, for example, with four Zealots whirling their war hammers on the front line? Or with two Psykkern covered by two Ogryns?
You can create several characters and grow them over the course of several games with a playing time of ten to twenty minutes. The extensive editor offers numerous cosmetic setting options, you can customise your heroine or hero very precisely and even give her or him one of several predefined background histories.
In the game, the characters often make funny comments and even discuss with each other, which loosens up the gameplay. A preview of the atmosphere in the game is provided by the new trailer:
With the Zealot’s war hammer, Darktide plays almost exactly like Vermintide. There’s no friendly fire, but the characters complain if you target them instead of the enemies. The people infected by chaos are reminiscent of the infected from Left 4 Dead. The game is similarly hectic, especially on the higher difficulty levels.
Depending on your level, the game always offers you new variants of the familiar missions, in which the two factors “Toughness” and “Frequency” can increase in five stages. One determines whether you will only encounter normal zombies or elite enemies with shields and special abilities. The other determines how often enemies appear.
Switching between melee and ranged combat works well, the hit feedback is satisfying and a class and weapon special ability add variety and a touch of tactics to the slashing and stabbing. Time and again there are special events where you have to short-circuit terminals, for example, while hordes of enemies pour in on you from all sides.
Fatshark has listened to the feedback of Vermintide 2 players and brought more dynamics into these situations. For example, since the order of the terminals changes with each playthrough, you can no longer learn the whole thing by heart. The AI director in the background also keeps sending different mini-bosses towards the group.
Who is Darktide interesting for?
Of course, if you’ve played Vermintide 2 for over 100 hours and aren’t chained to the fantasy setting, you have to at least give Fatshark’s next co-op shooter a try. But even if you’ve always disliked shoot-’em-ups and are particularly enthusiastic about the W40K universe, you’re welcome to take a look here. Because the gameplay is no pippifax, but by no means as fast and sweaty as in Doom Eternal.
As a psyker or one of the other ranged combat classes, you can let yourself fall back and comfortably take out the most dangerous opponents from a distance, while your comrades make a breach in the enemy mass with their nimble trigger finger.
What do we like so far? What still remains unclear?
What do we like so far?
- The level design is beautiful dark and atmospheric as befits Warhammer. The enemies look appropriately disgusting.
- Shooting and hitting feels good.
- The classes seem very different and complement each other well at first glance.
- Your character levels up and unlocks improvements (armour is purely cosmetic).
- In addition, there’s Weapon Crafting where you can transfer your favourite effects to other guns and haudrauf instruments. Unlike in Vermintide 2, you will find the necessary resources directly in the levels.
What is still unclear?
- The variety is the biggest sticking point so far, both visually (the industrial look of the levels could wear thin) and gameplay-wise (is Fatshark saving colourful orcs and other cool enemies aside from the somewhat dull zombies for DLCs?).
- Currently you return to the lobby after a failure (all four players die and cannot revive each other), a direct restart is not possible. The developers are currently considering changing this.
Editorial conclusion
The hands-on event for Darktide was a special moment for me, because three months after a lengthy finger injury, I was able to play a first-person shooter with WASD for the first time again. Maybe that’s why I liked Darktide so much? No, nonsense with blood sauce, the game is well on its way to becoming the best 40k shooter even without finger trauma. After all, there’s not too much competition, the last representative was Necromunda: Hired Gun. But let’s not joke: I like the way Fatshark Vermintide 2 has been implemented in the new scenario and improved in certain areas – the original was already really, really good. However, I hope that the developers have a few surprises and visual highlights in store for later levels, otherwise both the enemy and environment design could become a bit too dreary in the long run.
