Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Reviews
Much like its endless enemies, Darktide's many small issues add up to a real nuisance - but stupendous atmosphere and vicious action just about prevails.
Performance issues aside, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's ferocious battles make for some of the most thrilling co-op action in years.
Though Warhammer 40K: Darktide needs more time to develop, its core gameplay is the best Fatshark has ever created.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a solid horde shooter that is otherwise held back by technical issues and weak live-service elements.
Darktide is built on great foundations and I enjoy playing it a lot – especially with friends. There’s a brilliant game buried deep within this Hive World, filled with exciting combat and gruesome enemies in equal measure. However, to properly enjoy those glorious moments, you have to break through the pustular skin of Darktide’s pointless upgrade systems and wade through the poisoned viscera of dull progression. I just hope that the countless obstructions in the live service elements don’t turn too many players away from the game mired underneath.
"As Darktide's levels aren't grouped into acts, it's much harder for Fatshark to tell coherent stories across them"
Although it feels more like an early access release at this point, this is a promising start for what should eventually eclipse Vermintide 2 and all the other Left 4 Dead wannabes.
Darktide captures the most essential parts of its genre, though it sometimes stumbles when trying to build metagame content on top of that foundation.
Still, knowing Fatshark’s previous work, I’m confident Darktide will be in much better shape in just a few months’ time. And perhaps, in a year or two, after a couple of expansions and numerous updates, it may be something extraordinary. As things stand right now, it’s only very good… which is hard to complain about. A fantastic setting with tons of replayability and the same old juicy combat? There’s plenty to get sucked into, and no signs of slowing down.
Darktide is an absolute blast. Its heavyweight blend of melee and gunplay ensure that the flow of frantic runs into the hive city just keep on coming.
Despite the growing pains, Darktide is a solid co-operative action game that’s great for a group of friends to play in spurts. At launch, the experience is limited in progression and variety, but the gameplay is challenging and viscerally satisfying enough to keep your attention. It doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack slaps and, performance issues aside, the graphics pack a punch. Since Fatshark is known for updating the Vermintide series over time with frequent content updates, Darktide is expected to improve as well. It may even deserve a higher score within the next six months, but I can only review what’s available now. So if you’re considering a purchase of the game, think of it as an investment that will likely pay off in a few years. It’s more than understandable, though, if you would rather wait for Darktide to meet your standards for a full release.
One should expect more from the extremely rich Warhammer 40k lore. Darktide has some good ideas but commits the ultimate sin for a game: it becomes boring due to its extreme repetitiveness.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Warhammer: 40,000: Darktide is one of the most enjoyable games of the year, but it's tremendously rough around the edges.
If it goes the distance, Warhammer 40K: Darktide will get better with time. As it stands it's an enjoyable romp through an almost endearingly macabre world.
The transition from killing Rats and Chaos Warriors to fighting the Scabs and Dregs couldn't have gone smoother. Warhammer 40k: Darktide adds enough new ideas to differentiate itself from the previous Vermintide games without ostracizing the fans of that franchise.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has a solid foundation that just needs more built atop it. Slaughtering legions of Chaos freaks is fun for a while, and the in-game chatter between characters is surprisingly funny to the point I was invested far more than I otherwise would’ve been. Sadly, the unbalanced classes and poorly paced missions, plus a complete lack of incentive to play after hitting the level cap stop it short of what one wants from a horde shooter.
Fatshark's bone-crunching co-op is deliciously gory and grim, but an uninspiring progression system and short, repetitive missions hold this Vermintide successor back from reaching peak rampage.
Once you get down into the dilapidated yet impressive levels of the Hive and start swinging, Darktide is as great a swarm shooter experience as any, but it needs to improve much of the surrounding infrastructure to make that core combat experience feel rewarding and meaningful. Who knows? I may even come back in a year to re-review the game (which is something that should generally happen with more game reviews), but in the meantime it’s a simmering cauldron of potential that still feels a little raw.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is one of those games that oozes fun, no matter how you play it. It lends itself perfectly to all playstyles, and has this natural way of immersing the player in its world. That might be from the unique RPG system, the insanely detailed environments that make you feel like you're really walking through this huge hellscape, or maybe it's just the gratuitous violence. Whatever the cause, it's doing a great job of keeping me hooked. Of course, the game isn't without its cons, and these do detract from an otherwise solid experience. Regardless, it's a game that I will absolutely be coming back to time and time again.