I've been playing Darktide, latest upcoming title from Fatshark.
Nearly have 3,000 combined hours in their last two games, Vermintide 1 and 2. Immensely enjoyed my time with them. Both of those were focused on first person melee combat, something fairly unique and usually added as an afterthought in other FPS games. In that they succeeded, and the combat that drew me in for thousands of hours returns much the same in Darktide.
I am first focusing on what differentiates it from its predecessors. For one, it is a new setting. Warhammer: 40k is beloved by many; the new atmosphere is a welcome addition, though I am sad to see the Ubersreik 5 go. In a major departure from the Vermintide games, they have opted for character creation rather than a hand-crafted hero. I have mixed feelings about it. Some will enjoy this new change, for my part I enjoyed the characters from Vermintide 1 and largely felt they got lazy with their writing of them in Vermintide 2 The heroes went from almost depressed sounding at the situation they were in in V1, to overly confident in all things in V2. Coupled with, IMO, a lesser performance from the voice actors. For Darktide, now that they have unnamed heroes, one less hero (there are now 4 "classes" instead of 5), and no additional sub-classes, you would think this would have given the direction for characters much more focus. While there are some fun lines (I especially like the Psyker "loner" voice you can choose on character creation), overall, it feels even less like real people reacting to things than the writing in V2 does. This bit might not matter to most players, and I may be hammering on this aspect too much, but what drew me into the first Vermintide in the first place was the incredible bleak atmosphere of the game, the music, and the believable reactions and conversations from the characters you were playing. I stuck around for the solid gameplay, but the vibe was the hook. Only one of those things seems to have translated to their sequels, the music.
Great music for Darktide. Not a ton to say about it, it feels very fitting for what I know of 40K stuff. I can't say I prefer it over the music from Vermintide 1, but that game has a special nostalgia for me, so I may be biased. On to the arguably most important aspect: the gameplay.
What separates Fatsharks' games is the mechanics of their first-person melee combat system. As I said, I was drawn into the first game by the atmosphere and the characters, but I stayed for the gameplay. The melee combat is the unique aspect to the gameplay and is the differentiator for Fatshark games. This system has returned in Darktide, with quite a few new melee weapons. Some old bugs that have been present at the launch of both of the Vermintide games are present for the launch of Darktide, which is dismaying as they have fixed those bugs in later updates to both previous titles. I'll save details for the last paragraph. The big change for this title is the ranged combat. There is now a much larger focus on guns and gunplay. To my eye, the gunplay is merely OK. Certainly a step up from the previous titles, but the ranged weapons were never the draw for the Vermintide games. The corresponding addition of enemies with guns, though, is a massive departure from previous titles. Many enemies have guns now, they are hitscan, they deal lots of damage. I am certainly biased in the opinions that follow. I and many other players already hated the addition of archers to Vermintide 2. These new enemies are so much worse. The new arsenal of ranged weapons feels inadequate to deal with the amount of ranged trash enemies, and on top of that you can't consistently dodge more than a single enemy shooting at you. It is never a single enemy; they come in squads. Maybe this style of play appeals to the Call of Duty crowd. They added a corresponding "energy shield" to compensate for the chip damage you will inevitably receive from these enemies, but what really irks me is the stun imparted by their shots. Honestly? I would take the ranged trash enemies out entirely, their combat systems were never balanced for it. Archers in V2 were only tolerable because they were not hitscan, they were extremely easy to kill, and they made very clear and obvious sounds. Same largely applied for the gunners. That made sense in a melee-focused game. Again, you have more guns in Darktide, but they seem inadequate when every other enemy has a rifle and takes turns stunning you from long distance while you are trying to deal with a horde up close. It just doesn't work for what is still, in essence, a first-person melee combat focused game.
On to the last, and I promise to keep it brief. Bugs. I came into Vermintide 1 less than a year before Vermintide 2 was set to launch, and so missed many of the bugs and quality of life issues that plagued it. I was present for Vermintide 2 from the earliest possible time though, having participated in the closed beta. Fatshark seems to be two steps forward, three steps back when it comes to game releases. This holds true for Darktide. Bugs that were present at the launch of both other games have made their return for Darktide. Obvious quality of life issues are rampant. Melee in both games had issues with missed inputs when trying to chain an attach after a push or switch weapons after a push/attack. This issue always gets patched out but returns for Darktide. The balance changes made between the closed beta and this pre-order beta are baffling to me. I played Psyker for the closed beta, and it did not run long enough for me to really test out any other class; I have chosen Psyker again for the pre-order beta, and some things I already considered weak or unwieldy were nerfed. If nothing else, I would say this is a much harder game than either Vermintide game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the difficulty feels unfair what with the ranged stunlocking via squad of trash enemies who happen to have guns. Makes it feel like it's a cover shooter when its clearly not.
TL;DR
Suffice to say, I expect a pretty botched release and possibly mixed reviews on Steam when this game officially launches. I don't like lots of the changes they have made around the combat. I don't like the oversimplified characters. The "characters" and their reactions, if you compare V1 to Darktide, are woefully one-dimensional and unbelievable. I don't like the far smaller pool of classes as compared to V2, would have preferred either the V1 approach or the V2 approach, not a watered-down mix of both. I don't like how slow the progression is, though it's nowhere near an MMO grind. I don't like the micro-transaction warning signs I have seen. There are none yet, but I can see how easily they can be implemented and am expecting them to either show up on release or soon afterwards. Quickplay makes the return from V2, but you have apparently lost the ability to directly choose a level and a difficulty, instead there is a sort of "mission board" similar to the Payday 2 crime.net thing. The hub area is bigger and more useless than ever, god I miss the Red Moon Inn (from Vermintide 1); so much wasted space, so much wasted time running around it.
4/10, rather disappointing for a veteran player from their other games. Hopefully my opinion changes as the game matures; this was the only game I was looking forward to. I will probably still play it so long as there are not some unfathomably stupid decisions by Fatshark in the near future. It has an enjoyable atmosphere and good music, bogged down by poorly balanced gameplay changes, bugs, poor QoL features, a watered-down class system, and one-dimensional characters.
