So I'm in the final beta (launch is in two weeks) of Darktide. And I can say with total confidence that 40k has finally arrived.
What do I mean by that? Yes there are over 40 WH40K videogames to date. And in their time there were some good ones (Space Marine for it's simplicity was fun), but most are tactical affairs which our minds fill in the dramatic blanks. Spacehulk in its various iterations were hella-fun, but lets face it, they only teased us with what we *feel* 40k should be like.
Fatshark proved in Vermintide (1 and 2) that unlike all the other studios with the Warhammer licenses, they envisioned a very particular mode of engagement that speaks to the essence of Warhammer - fantasy or 40k. That feeling of creeping frenetic dread. The inevitable tidal wave of clawing fang and tooth-gnashing that threatens to consume you and all you love unless you're willing to fight back against hopeless odds. When they announced Darktide last year or so... their first foray into 40k, everyone was quietly on the hype train but too scared to admit it in this day and age. The fear of woke bullshit, or the inability to pull off 40k, or the gameplay feeling derivative of their own genre which unto itself wouldn't be horrible... but just be "oh... okay."
What they produced however is... transcendent. A rarefied glimpse of the power of videogames to come so dangerously close to our Theater of the Mind, that you're stunned at the fidelity of all those precious silly details of TTRPG lore are sitting right in front of you IN PERFECT CONTEXT that your instantly immersed. For the uninitiated, it is a stunning descent into underbelly of a very singular aspect of the 40k universe, and it's ugly and yet gloriously realized.
Teaser hereYou're not an Astartes, so lets get that out of the way. You're effectively the lowest of the low - a criminal doomed to execution, but are pulled from your grisly fate (in a very nicely done prologue mission) to serve the Inquisitors to "investigate" the potential uprising of Chaos in a Hive city called Tertium. Sounds straightforward... and it is. But your character, is built on a mini-lifepath that dictates your interactions with the other PC's in the game. You can completely customize your characters - male/female, tattoos, hair, everything. So it feels very... eerily RPG-like. This *IS* an FPS co-op game. And yet... it feels like you're in a tightly bound RPG doing mission-based adventures of mega-high-octane suicidal danger.
The *detail* of the setting - the underbelly of a Hive City, is *staggering*. It feels exactly like what you would envision from the books and game. Dank. Scary. Wretched. The enemies are horrid and need to be cleansed (for the Emperor of course) and you're entire singular purpose is to survive and cling to life both narratively and literally - with three other souls as doomed as yourself.
Intro Trailer HereCombat is TIGHT. The weaponry is straight out of the game - with the each weapon handling entirely differently. The starting game has over 70+ weapons with more as the game develops. Everything Fatshark learned in Vermintide is now on full display but now heightened due to the fact this game is equally ranged combat as it is melee.
The *music* in the game is FUCKING INSANELY good. The entire game is steeped in atmospheric soundscapes and music that OOOZE what you only imagined 40k sounded like. They're channeling your imagination in front of you and in your ears. It's astounding sound-engineering. You'll hear every squelch, every bone snap, the rattling jangle of your Auto-cannon as it feels recoiling away in your hands, the thudding pounding of your Ogryn pal as he thunders past you into the fray. Gorgeous and gorgeosity!
The Four ClassesPsyker There are Psykers (yep - you can play a Psyker and it's *awesome*). So satisfying to telekinetically decapitate someone.
Ogryn (no females thankfully). They're huge behemoths cutting down swathes of the heretics with each swing!
Veteran Marksman Lasgun glory! Sidearms of chainswords and axes, the bog-standard soldier of the Imperium. SOLID.
Zealot Preacher For the Emperor! Sure you're sentenced to die. But death is the reward for service to the God Emperor. Melee specialist and totally hell on wheels. (and batshit psycho).
Each class has it's own "specialties" but everyone does ranged and melee but some are a little more focused. Each class has *very* tight gameplay and internally can be focused into modes unique to each player. Each class has its own Talent trees but play entirely differently depending on the loadout of weapons and gear you choose and of course the player's own style of combat.
This game has a pretty hefty requirement to deliver this experience - your PC should be beefy and be rocking at *at* least last generation's GPU's. I'm running a monster machine and even I raised my eyebrows that with the full fury of my PC it recommended my Ray Tracing be set to Medium (I'm running a 3070ti with 16gigs of DDR5, and an i12 CPU). BUT everything else is pegged to the max. Without Ray Tracing you can easily play this with a 2000-series (or AMD equivalent) and it will still be superb.
And for those that say "I don't do FPS"... let me just say: this game is special. Vermintide proved even casual play can be done with PUG's and while the controls are simple, the gameplay is extraordinarily deep. There is included a training room where you can literally spawn mobs to stand there and let you beat on them to practice with your weapons. If you have any friends - and can play this together as intended, your experience will be insanely good.
The developers are on the record that they have access to the *entirety* of the 40k universe. This game is their testbed for future stuff. They were asked about specifically about Astartes vs. Tyrannid content in the future. Their response was "Hmm. That would be interesting... wouldn't it?" Yes, the collective "pang" sounds of everyone's dicks slapping against their armored cod-pieces could be heard across the internet (you do wear an armored codpiece don't you?). So yeah there are some big things looming for Darktide.
I *highly* recommend this game, I'm only in the beta and I can see this game is not just setting a standard for 40k gaming, but it's showing what a good game company with passion can deliver. It's one of those really rare moments where a licensed property is given its just due. If you have *any* interest in Warhammer 40k, you're on notice with this game: it has arrived. And it's glorious.