I came in Warhammer 40K: Darktide neither a vermin fan on again 40K fan but just a thing that wanted to have fun with friends. This is important to note as I will not be comparing this vermin 2 or talk about how the game contributes to the lore of the whole 40K Universe.
What I can say is this Warhammer 40K: Darktide is an awesome game. Its combination of melee and range-focused mission-based gameplay, incredible visuals, and stunning gore is second to none. It’s fun, stressful and a great time with friends. But dark tide isn’t without its issues, some of which are hard to overlook given the game’s full release status.
There is no linear path to mission progression dark tide. After completing the prologue and tutorial, you can select any mission in the mission terminal instead, provided you meet the difficulty level requirements. The mission selection rotates, along with the difficulties available to them.
Each mission lasts between 20 and more than 30 minutes, depending on the difficulty and the performance of your strike team. Harder missions take longer and are far more painful. The actual taking on of the missions is of course the real fun dark tide and the gameplay is exceptional. Between the four classes at launch and the myriad of weapons, there’s a wide range of ranged and melee weapons to choose from.
The Preacher: Zealot and Veteran: Marksman classes are the two most basic of the four classes. The former is best for melee combat and deals extra damage as it loses health, and the latter is an exceptional elite killer as it grants vision to elites and deals extra ranged damage.
While Zealot and Sharpshooter are more straightforward, Psyker: Psykinetic and Weapon: Skull Crusher Serve well for crowd control and various support roles. Psykinetics can focus on an enemy and brain blast them, as well as use staves to cast incredibly useful crowd control spells. The Skullbreaker, on the other hand, is larger and a little more robust than the other classes, offering Knockdowns and Wave Clear.
All four play differently, but each offers the immense satisfaction of ripping or blasting your enemies through sheer firepower or regular, old-school power. Each melee weapon has its own unique moveset, and ranged options include the ability to blast things apart, brace or even special attacks.
To put it bluntly, you’re blowing up a lot of things. Or rip them to pieces. Or toss them around like rag dolls, resulting in bits. All the while you can see the flesh tearing from enemy bodies where you hit them, their limbs disengaging right where you cut them open and tearing their bodies in half, spitting out entrails and maggots in your destructive wake.
To say that Warhammer 40K: DarktideTo say that the fight is satisfactory is a gross understatement. It’s the kind of thing you encounter and can’t help but cackle or giggle with delight as you see every iota of your power utterly decimate Heretics. Every person I’ve played the voice with has laughed as they savored its destructive power, and you would be no different.
Fatshark also made it out of the park dark tideTempo and level design by . The pace keeps you engaged from one encounter to the next, from one attack to the next, from one target to the next. The only truly boring moments come from waiting for Pox Hounds, Pox Bursters, or Mutants. Even if Heresy and Damnation players scoff and quote Flure from Crushers and Maulers – that too is part of the eternal commitment.
The level design is not just a spectacle to behold — all the drabness and filth of a beehive town on display — it’s intuitive. Each map is designed and mapped to be easy to use knowledge where you need to go, and your response team’s voice lines will tell you if you’re on the right track. Unless? That’s okay, you’ll find it soon enough.
There’s no way I can give that much credit dark tideThe soundtrack of . Jesper Kyd has probably composed one of the best game soundtracks of 2022. It’s a shame he’ll fly under the radar for the most part due to the live service co-op nature of the game; Many tracks are absolutely outstanding. There couldn’t be better music to tear off. — It’s just too bad the music doesn’t get much time to shine on lower difficulties.
Regardless of how satisfying, entertaining, visually stunning, aurally memorable, and challenging the actual game is, the non-mission related parts of it are dark tide are an unfunny, RNG-loaded slog that distracts from the game.
The weapons offered in the Armory Exchange, the game’s only weapon and curio shop, change every hour. This is a bit similar to the system shown in FIG Previous 4 bloodbut in dark tideit’s for guns – and it’s obviously no fun checking the store every hour hoping to get something valuable to upgrade.
The game’s equipment upgrade and customization systems compound the problem. Using Diamantine and Plasteel, two resources you can find in missions, you can upgrade weapons and curiosities to higher tiers. The problem is that the blessings and perks you get when you dedicate (upgrade) a piece of gear are random and Perk rerolls are also completely random.
Only two of the four gear upgrade/customization options are available now, more than two weeks after launch, and none are fun or fulfilling.
These systems are obviously designed to increase the time it takes to get an “optimal” build. None of this feels rewarding, just happiness and not the kind of happiness that gets your brain on some sort of dopamine rush. It feels lacking, and adding blessing adjustments won’t help that.
Additionally, dark tide is pretty buggy. Crashes and disconnects are common for many gamers, and even those who are relatively free of crashes while playing the game still have to contend with the game refusing to close or thinking it’s crashing on closing. It’s not a great user experience on that front, and dealing with these issues isn’t a task for the impatient.
Warhammer 40K Review – The Verdict
Advantages
- Wonderfully disgusting sight.
- Level design contributes to “unlife”. 40K the lower districts of the hive city.
- Incredibly satisfying and varied combat between the four classes at launch.
- Amazing soundtrack.
Disadvantages
- It’s not remotely fun to be at the mercy of an hourly weapon reload timer.
- Equipment upgrade/customization systems are not satisfactory.
- dark tide still crashes and lags for many players, sometimes frequently.
I really wanted to give Warhammer 40K: Darktide a full 10, i really did. I’ve put nearly 130 hours into the game since launch and obviously love it. I even bought four copies for people recently. But outside of the actual gameplay and graphics and sound design, dark tide is a buggy game.
Constant game crashes and disconnects every 15 minutes are unacceptable. And kudos to those who don’t like the gear system because they’re more easily satisfied than I could ever be.
dark tide is an awesome live service co-op FPS worth almost every penny. Nearly. I love it to death and it’s going to be one of my most played games of 2022, but it’s not perfect. It will surely become one of the titans of the genre vermin and its sequel, but there is still a long way to go.
[Note: Fatshark provided the copy of Warhammer 40K: Darktide used for this review.]
