THE team at Fatshark are back with more Left 4 Dead-inspired mayhem with their newest co-op shooter: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
Set in the brutal ugliness of the Warhammer 40k universe, we’re thrust into a plague-ridden city as a prisoner who has been tasked with discovering the ‘containing’ the outbreak in exchange for your life. It’s a really unique perspective to be playing in, as the 40k universe rarely delves into the ‘human’ perspective of things, which quickly thrusts into the chaotic action you would expect from this kind of game.
Being set in the Warhammer 40k universe has its perks, as we’re presented with the glaring omission from Fatshark’s previous, medieval-themed Vermintide games: guns (and a lot of them)!
The implementation of firearms makes the entire experience feel a lot more like the third Left 4 Dead game we never got, and also offers you more versatility to play the game in a way that brings you the most joy. It’s disappointing that some of this is tainted by the lacklustre progression system, but I’ll touch more on this later.
I cannot emphasise this enough for anyone unfamiliar with the 40k universe – It’s an incredibly ugly world. Darktide’s colossal environment design is gritty, dark and unpleasant to look at, which is the exact aesthetic the game is trying to present through each and every avenue of the game you explore. Each of the 13 missions you’ll chaotically fight through on the fictional planet of ‘Tertium’ feel very ‘Warhammer’ in their design, and they’re ENORMOUS.
The only drawback of this is that at times (especially when replaying levels) it’s really hard to tell the difference between one level from another.
Level section is decided on an overworld map, with the nifty inclusion of a social hub which you can freely walk around in and adjust your setting and loadout before each mission. From here you’ll jump straight into the inarguable best part of a game: the combat.
I absolutely adored Fatshark’s previous Vermintide games, and admittedly was slightly worried that attempting to blend the best parts of these games with the arsenal of firearms that would be expected in a 40k game would be… messy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Combat has never felt more chaotically fun. Medieval axes and swords have been replaced with revving chainsaws, crossbows have been superseded by sniper rifles and enemy types are more varied and exciting.
Combat as a whole has been drastically improved by these editions, but there’s definitely a glaring exclusion in the form of a fully fledged crafting system that had become such a bright spot of FatShark’s previous game.
Although the ability to upgrade weapons exists, and games like Vermintide 2 had several years of updates to get everything refined and polished, it just felt like an omission that should have been included to fully showcase the wide arsenal actually available in Darktide, but I’m hopeful this will be added in the not-too-distant future.
As an additional welcomed inclusion to the game (for me at least), Warhammer 40,000: Darktide strays away from it’s predecessors by allowing you to personalize and level up your character. You’ll get to pick your own backstory from a variety of options, alongside picking one of four distinct classes.
Each offer unique ways in which to approach combat and gameplay, but I thoroughly enjoyed playing as the ‘Psyker’ the most, who can pop enemy heads with the use of their weaponised migraines (it’s really hard to explain this without actually seeing it in action).
One little hot-tip I’d recommend before jumping into Darktide: see if you can convince a friend to get it as well. I spent the initial half jumping into levels with strangers and the latter half of my playthrough in a full squad of friends, and the difference was polarising.
Darktide really wants your group to utilise each class’s strengths and coordinate plans to progress through missions (even more-so as you progress into the later levels), which; when you’re playing with strangers, is a rather hard task to do (at least in all the lobbies I played in).
On top of this, not everything is perfect in terms of stability and crashes throughout my time with the game, but Fatshark have been taking in every bit of player feedback they’ve gotten to try and address and rectify these issues and promptly as possible, with some hot-fixes already being rolled out.
Darktide also suffers from a lack of end-game currently, but alike Fatshark’s previous games, this is something I’ve found is fleshed out after more content is added to the game, so I’m assuming Darktide will get a similar treatment.
All in all, Warhammer 40,00: Darktide is absolutely at it’s best when you’re experiencing it with a group of friends, and is a welcome addition to co-op shooter genre. There’s some performance issues that still need some ironing, alongside some additional content that is needed – but if you’re looking for an incredibly fun co-op shooter to play with some friends, I think the search is over.
You can pick up Warhammer 40,00: Darktide on PC or the Xbox Series X, or download it right now on Game Pass.
