So I bought the Darktide. I'm a bit of a WH40K fan. It's a bleak setting and lots of hateful morals in the Imperium of man. But a perfect setting for perpetual war and combat.
So similarly to Vermintide, we return to the sewers but it's not ratlings we battle but Chaos cultists. There is no Skaven in WH40K, a shame - I know. They must've gathered enough warpstone to leave the galaxy is my head canon. Sigh, this means I still can't play Skaven, but I digress.
It looks a little light compared to Vermintide (2). Already, Vermintide 2 was a bit light story-wise to Vermintide 1. Thing is: Although I absolutely LOVED Kerillian, I'm more there for the gameplay, and Fatshark does nail it for a filthy casual like me who aspires to become better. You know, every peasant has a marshal's staff in the knapsack.
Right, Darktide doesn't look any good for story. You get character creator and make your own characters, and that means the voiced and story-laden protags like Kerillian are off the table.
Combat: Yeah it's more shoot-heavy but ammo isn't really that abundant. It does feel quite satisfying, though. Almost every gun is iron-sighted, though. Melee is the strength, like in the other Tide games I'd say. It is basically the same with some tweaks, major one being probably removing the dodge cost. You can solo now highest difficulty easily. If it wasn't for the enemy ranged fighters. They are serious threat now and overall make the gameplay more tactical.
But that's a lowly lvl 15 casual peasant trying out the 3rd difficulty. The first two are just introductory, the step to Malice difficulty is quite steep. And heavily dependent on your gearscore.
You unlock items like in Vermintide with higher "ratings" consecutively. But you unlock per character, it's no longer a shared loot pool per Account. Welcome, you fellow traveller, Mr Grind. You can buy new stuff for earned in-game gold currency in the armory whih cycles items every hour. You want a hammer? RNG got you covered... And items come in - I dunno 5(?) marks which is versions where Mk1 is the clomper to cleave through hordes and Mk5 is the clomper that cleave through horde but has a single target finisher in the 3 lite attack combo.
Kinda mixed bag. I embrace the versatility. Just the versatility needs be available to pick. So far no problems, unless I try to tackle malice with randoms. The skill trees - look very limited. You get three choices per every 5th level for a perk per character that's it. I thought the zealot and ogryn would be my favourites, but it's rather the zealot and the psyker. So far I got them all over level 10 now. Just the veteran, the ranged specialist, still stuck at lvl 2, lol.
Gear-wise you can't go wrong, unless you want to minmax. Variety in terms of maps and missions, that's a thing quite lacking. With Darktide you get a modern shooter with melee focus and potential tactical approaches to fast paced combat in a PvE cooperative wrapper. It's the L4D formula taken to new levels, however Fatshark seems to stagnate on the newer levels and seems more concerned with milking the sheed out of players. It's quality work - then you wonder what's there to do once you unlock last level and they release new DLC what makes you basically just start over again. Not really my cuppa tea. But until then, is usually worth the money spent. Could use some more maps, though...
So similarly to Vermintide, we return to the sewers but it's not ratlings we battle but Chaos cultists. There is no Skaven in WH40K, a shame - I know. They must've gathered enough warpstone to leave the galaxy is my head canon. Sigh, this means I still can't play Skaven, but I digress.
It looks a little light compared to Vermintide (2). Already, Vermintide 2 was a bit light story-wise to Vermintide 1. Thing is: Although I absolutely LOVED Kerillian, I'm more there for the gameplay, and Fatshark does nail it for a filthy casual like me who aspires to become better. You know, every peasant has a marshal's staff in the knapsack.
Right, Darktide doesn't look any good for story. You get character creator and make your own characters, and that means the voiced and story-laden protags like Kerillian are off the table.
Combat: Yeah it's more shoot-heavy but ammo isn't really that abundant. It does feel quite satisfying, though. Almost every gun is iron-sighted, though. Melee is the strength, like in the other Tide games I'd say. It is basically the same with some tweaks, major one being probably removing the dodge cost. You can solo now highest difficulty easily. If it wasn't for the enemy ranged fighters. They are serious threat now and overall make the gameplay more tactical.
But that's a lowly lvl 15 casual peasant trying out the 3rd difficulty. The first two are just introductory, the step to Malice difficulty is quite steep. And heavily dependent on your gearscore.
You unlock items like in Vermintide with higher "ratings" consecutively. But you unlock per character, it's no longer a shared loot pool per Account. Welcome, you fellow traveller, Mr Grind. You can buy new stuff for earned in-game gold currency in the armory whih cycles items every hour. You want a hammer? RNG got you covered... And items come in - I dunno 5(?) marks which is versions where Mk1 is the clomper to cleave through hordes and Mk5 is the clomper that cleave through horde but has a single target finisher in the 3 lite attack combo.
Kinda mixed bag. I embrace the versatility. Just the versatility needs be available to pick. So far no problems, unless I try to tackle malice with randoms. The skill trees - look very limited. You get three choices per every 5th level for a perk per character that's it. I thought the zealot and ogryn would be my favourites, but it's rather the zealot and the psyker. So far I got them all over level 10 now. Just the veteran, the ranged specialist, still stuck at lvl 2, lol.
Gear-wise you can't go wrong, unless you want to minmax. Variety in terms of maps and missions, that's a thing quite lacking. With Darktide you get a modern shooter with melee focus and potential tactical approaches to fast paced combat in a PvE cooperative wrapper. It's the L4D formula taken to new levels, however Fatshark seems to stagnate on the newer levels and seems more concerned with milking the sheed out of players. It's quality work - then you wonder what's there to do once you unlock last level and they release new DLC what makes you basically just start over again. Not really my cuppa tea. But until then, is usually worth the money spent. Could use some more maps, though...
