Review: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide – Zing

This Thursday, after pre-order beta testing, the co-op shooter Darktide from Fatshark studio, the creators of the famous Vermintide series, was released. For those who haven’t played Vermintide, Valve’s Left 4 Dead series can serve as a role model to some degree. This is a multiplayer action game in which a group of four players fight against hordes of enemies using fire, cold and magical weapons.

• Platform: PC (later Xbox SX/SS)
• Publication date: 30.11. 2022
• Producer: fat shark
• Genre: Multiplayer action
• Czech localization: Not
• Multiplayer: Online co-op
• Data to download: 50 GB
• Game time: 25+ hours
• Price: 3€9.99 (Steam), Xbox Gamepass for PC

This time, the action of the game, as the name suggests, takes place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, an environment in which even the biggest lunatic or masochist would not want to live. There is no place for comfort or a sense of security in this world. It’s a weird mix of very dark sci-fi and fantasy with gothic visuals. The most powerful force in the entire galaxy is the Human Empire, yet it is constantly under attack from all sides. The planets of individual star systems are often threatened by xenos races such as orcs or tyranids. However, most often it is the threat of Chaos, which can come to individual planets or entire sectors, both from the outside and from the inside. Darktide takes place on a planet under attack by a cult of the plague god Nurgle, and your enemies are various variations of the poor and ragged cultists, rotting mutants, or even the outright demonic creatures of this Chaos god. The player takes on the role of a convict recruited by the Inquisition to fight this chaotic menace. The story was written by Dan Abnett, a well-known author of books from this universe or mainline comics (also for Marvel). As you might expect, this is mostly about suppressing the cult of Nurgle on the planet and is not yet complete at the time of the game’s release. This will continue as part of updates after the game is released.

Various slaughterhouses

When you create your character, you choose one of four very different classes: Veteran, the classic soldier; Zealot, the fanatical worshiper of the Emperor who solves most problems with a flamethrower and hammer; Psyker, the sci-fi wizard; brain with many muscles and has at its disposal the heaviest weapons, and even a giant shield. His role is quite important – when not serving the Veteran in plain sight, he is an excellent tank, corridor cleaner, and due to his strength he has no penalties for carrying batteries and items needed to complete the mission. In addition to the Ogryns, male and female variations of these characters are available, and the background you choose when you create them affects the characters’ dialogue with each other during the game.

The gameplay is quite simple – on board the ship of the Inquisition, you choose a map on which you will perform one of six missions (from a simple Murder to theft of ammunition), wait for the formation of a group and go to the slaughter. And it’s a slaughterhouse – full of blood, body parts, larvae and other fluids that I don’t even want to try to identify. Each mission can also have a secondary task, which increases the rewards upon successful completion – to collect one of two types of books. Grimoire – Each one found will reduce the max HP for the entire team, or simpler scriptures that just take up space for other useful items like portable ammo. These missions have up to five difficulty levels, and the higher the level, the higher the rewards in the form of experience, money, items, or crafting resources. Various special conditions change from time to time, such as more enemies, more frequent elites, or, for example, blackouts across the map (you really, really need a gun with a flashlight). If your character overloads, they will drop to their knees and wait to be picked up by teammates. If they fail, she will be captured and the team can free her at a later part of the map. If everyone finds themselves in this situation, it means the end and return aboard the ship of the Inquisition.

The RPG elements here are presented in the form of an ability tree that you unlock – every five levels, you gain access to one of three abilities until the final level 30, where it is the strongest. However, you can freely and for free change the build between missions, and thus adjust it to what weapon you want to use and the like. Each class has its own unique weapon type, such as the staff for the psyker, the flamethrower for the zealot, or the reaper for the ogryn. The rarity of weapons here works the same way as in most RPGs – from gray to legendary gold. Armor or Here, clothing only serves a purely cosmetic role, and you only upgrade your character with weapons (primary melee and secondary fire) and up to three pendants that give the character secondary properties such as more HP, a shield, or individual resists. .

Each class has its own unique weapon type

Items can be obtained as a rare “Emperor’s Gift” reward at the end of a mission, or in the store, which refreshes once an hour with new items. However, the store is limited to the maximum blue quality. However, throughout the missions, you will find materials with which you can upgrade this weapon to legendary. Later, the ability to reconfigure these weapons will also be available, which will be a driving force for minmax players who need the perfect equipment to complete missions at higher difficulty levels. There are also weekly quests in the game, for completing which the player receives special tokens that can be exchanged in the store, the contents of which change every 24 hours, for epic / legendary items. The game also features a premium currency that can be used to purchase purely cosmetic items.

From the sewers to the temples

Visually, Darktide certainly doesn’t offend, but it’s not a gem either. Graphics and their settings are today’s standard, and in the end it’s probably good, because it also brings stability and the absence of any optimization problems. The game has no issues and works as expected on the appropriate hardware. And for weaker PCs, there are nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR, which are a lifesaver for many gamers. However, what differs from mediocrity is the design. Fatshark Studio shows that they understand the original, and the design of individual cards is breathtaking. Whether it’s the ominously dark sewers or the stunning gothic buildings on the surface. A huge amount of work can be seen in the details of the environment – the huge mechanisms that you launch during your missions, or even small things like tanks in the background wonderfully complement or directly create an atmosphere, and the creators certainly deserve praise.

Fatshark Studio shows that they understand the original, and the design of individual cards is breathtaking.

If I was in awe of the level design, then I’m completely beside myself with the musical accompaniment. Jesper Kyd (Darksiders 2, Skyrim, Assassins Creed series, etc.) is doing something incredible here. Many gamers online are already predicting that he will be the GOTY winner next year, and many of the songs from this soundtrack are sure to find a place on fans’ playlists. I was especially captivated by the song Disposal Unit – Imperium Mix (video on YouTube below). The soundtrack is on par with Doom 2016 in quality, and that’s certainly no small commendation. The rest of the soundtrack is great too. From the howling of dogs, through the dangerous ticking, to the sounds of weapons and slashing limbs, everything sounds great. Especially the explosive tick mutant is a very good move. It builds up tension until it attacks the player only to have its explosion deal massive damage. Therefore, it is important to listen to what is happening around.

So what’s wrong with the game? Well, it’s a cooperative thing, so the fun really depends on your teammates. Someone who has a group of equally active friends will enjoy Darktide much more than a soloist who relies on capable players in matchmaking. Weapon mods and trinkets that aren’t there yet certainly won’t help the game in the long run, and I’m missing something like the Paragon system from Diablo 3 in the game. Although the game does not have serious stability problems, it still sometimes crashes on windows. Luckily, the reconnect works and after starting the game, it reconnects you to the mission in progress, where the BOT was jumping in the meantime. It seems to me that in addition to fun action and nice effects, end-game content lacks an element that would move the player forward. Let’s hope later updates come with this as Darktide certainly deserves it – it’s clearly the best game in the genre since the first Left 4 Dead.