Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Reviews
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has a deeply satisfying core loop, with amazingly faithful art direction and audio. There's a wide variety of optimization and server problems right now however, so the technical side of the experience may vary wildly.
As a "survival" game, Fat Shark games has absorbed a lot of successful experience from Vermintide. Darktide inherited the classic "cooperation + grinding" gameplay, it has shown good quality in the plot; game settings; and background music, but the annoying network, poor optimization, mistranslation and half-finished equipment system also dragged down the game experience of players. I hope that Fat Shark games can solve these problems in the future updates, so that I can continue the journey of "killing mice" nicely.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
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 a solid horde shooter that is otherwise held back by technical issues and weak live-service elements.
Warhammer: 40,000: Darktide is one of the most enjoyable games of the year, but it's tremendously rough around the edges.
Warhammer 40,000 : Darktide offers a very pleasant and fun cooperative multiplayer experience. However, we hope that the bugs (especially on PC) will be solved as soon as possible.
Review in French | Read full review
Fatshark has ruled the co-op horde game for years, but I find aspects of the game lacking or not as enjoyable as it should be. Darktide has a strong core to build upon, and so thankfully Fatshark has earned enough goodwill over the years that I trust this’ll only get better over time. Knowing Warhammer is not a requisite to enjoy what’s here, anyone will be able to play this and embrace the chaos. As it stands today, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has more than enough content in classes, weapons, and mission to enjoy, and it’s clear that the best is yet to come.
Darktide would have deserved a better score, because the game itself is good, real good. But poor optimization (not entirely justified by the game's looks), far too common game crashes, and a loot economy that cannot help but raise some eyebrows end up impacting the user experience. It's still a great 40k game, but you might want to wait for some patches if you're on the fence.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Darktide is a game that has atmosphere seeping out of every orifice. Its design brings a crushingly depressing and oppressive aesthetic to life in new and exciting ways, transporting the player to the grimy underbelly of Tertium. The most shocking realisation is that you don't want to leave.
Even as omnipresent as Darktide‘s technical woes are, it’s the exhilarating thrill of a mission run that shines most brightly in my mind when I think about my experience with it. Even on low graphics settings, shining your rifle’s underslung torch down a dark corridor, only to see a horde of Poxwalkers glaring back at you before your whole squad unloads on them, provides an utterly giddying rush.
With Darktide being more of a live service game, there isn't necessarily an ending to its narrative to speak of. Players will rank up and be treated to short cutscenes reflecting the increase in trust and standing the spaceship's NPCs hold for the player. However, each character feels rooted in the dark sci-fi future the Warhammer series takes place in, as they deliver hints of its complex lore. More story will likely be introduced over time, with hopefully new locations to explore, because players may be left hungry for more narrative and beautiful levels to look at. Still, mowing down enemies with friends has rarely felt as satisfying as it does in Warhammer 40K: Darktide.
Darktide is easily the best first-person experience of all Warhammer 40,000 games.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The developers should be yelled at for giving us an Early Access game disguised as a full release, but their fans are used to it. I have no doubt that, over time, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will get new content, fixed bugs and an overall boost in quality.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Enjoyably frantic, and gory, Darktide is gratifying to play, but the experience is softened by performance issues and dreadful load times.
Darktide captures the most essential parts of its genre, though it sometimes stumbles when trying to build metagame content on top of that foundation.
Some occasional technical issues and an unwillingness to truly burst out of the norms for the genre keep Darktide from reaching enormous heights, but within the confines it sets for itself, this is about as good as it gets.
"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.
Hilarious banter, ridiculous fights, a great mission structure, and satisfying progression show that Fatshark is only getting better. Being available day one on Game Pass for PC means no one, either alone or with friends should pass on giving this one a go.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a worthy successor to Vermintide. Fans of good first-person melee combat shouldn't hesitate to check this one out.