chugs on high end hardware
has too few missions to keep you grinding and player
each mission can and should be broken up into 3 or 4 missions because playing each one for multiple hours sucks. The last 30-45 minutes of each mission you're gonna be ready to wrap it up and move on to the end screen

one of the few Warhammer games that lets you play as a guardsman in first person though, and with them being my main army I enjoy having that

This game has really had a bounce back in the last year or so, with constant QoL changes, bug fixes, and content drops that have really fleshed it out into a satisfying experience to play, similar to Vermintide 2's lifespan. That doesn't mean it is without faults; the cash shop for cosmetics in-game is still somewhat egregious at times and doesn't really respect it's players with quality for the money they'd spend. In addition, the endgame crafting system for best-in-slot gear is still incredibly restrictive, and similar to what you'd find in a mobile gacha game honestly. If you can overlook these problems the experience is immensely fun (especially with the new skill trees), and worth the price you pay for sure if you don't mind the somewhat repetitive gameplay loop.

If only it wasn't always-online...

And the shooting felt satisfying...

And there wasn't a stamina meter...

Okay, so there are a lot of things that could've been fixed here.

Ever since Patch #13 dropped, this game is COMPLETELY different now and absolutely for the better. On launch? It was pretty stanky. But now each character essentially having 3 subclasses is such a literal game changer, never mind all the different adjustments they've made to effects, damage, extra skills added, Plasteel and Diamantine being much more abundant, and so on. However, I still do really wish it had a single-player campaign with a loose story of some sort like Left 4 Dead did. This is a much better game now than it was at launch though; very good of Fatshark to keep at it, and I can't wait to see what else they inject into this game.

not really playing but "waiting" for a dedicated solo mode and new classes to play. The core of the game is an absolute blast but it gets old quick and is mired with performance issues and an absolutely infuriating weapon crafting system. You will NEVER have "the perfect weapon" that you crave since weapon traits are essentially a lottery. Imagine a game where you get a sword, you roll 3 traits on it: one is bonus damage, the other is say, very fast swing speed... and then the third is some shit like "+1 critical damage to lemurs" and you can only reroll once and you already spent it. thats how frustrating it can get.

At first I wanted to hold off on this review because I wanted to give the devs a chance to fix the game, and then they just didn't do that. Core gameplay is good, excellent if you can get a coordinated group together for the higher difficulties, but the game's stability means it's often unplayable.

I've tried to come back to Darktide every couple months since its release, and every time I have to deal with constant crashes. Starting a new mission has a 50/50 shot at crashing the game as soon as it starts for me. Searching for help pops up dozens of threads of people who have all kinds of different crashes - At the end of missions, loading into the character hub, a party member using a specific weapon, one kind of boss loading in. Buying this game is rolling the dice on which kind of bespoke crash you personally will experience every other mission that nobody else has ever had.

The core game here is great, and if you manage to dodge the absolutely infuriating stability issues then it's one of the best co-op experiences I've ever had. There are some issues with itemization and monetization, but these pale in the face of Darktide often being literally unplayable. You're better off just picking up Vermintide 2 while the devs take another few years to actually finish making this game.

Sadly a step down from Vermintide 2. The moment to moment gameplay still feels good and the extra focus on shooting worked pretty well with some of the better gunplay I've felt in a game recently and very and fitting representations of 40k weapons, but the lack of even the loose story of vermintide 2 and the shift from set characters with established personalities to just archetypes do quite hurt it. Adding that to the rough launch and some of the less generous microtransactions and... look the game is still fun (especially if you liked vermintide's melee but wanted a somewhat more traditional focus on gunplay) but it just doesn't quite hit the highs of vermintide to me.

As someone who started off on the first Vermintide game and then the sequel both of which games i really enjoyed, In my opinion darktide is a little bit of a step down but that's not too say it's not fun or good!

Much like the other games there's not a whole lot of choice for levels, One night of fun on Darktide and you'll be likely to of played on all the maps. There is different difficulties on each map plus different effects such as Low enemies, High amount of enemies, no power so you've only got your characters light source and so on to keep it a little fresh atleast.

You also have the choice of 4 different characters to play as, Psykinetic, Sharpshooter, Preacher & the Skullbreaker.
Obviously each character has their own weapons, skills and usefulness for each type. When playing with others you can choose the same character to play as, so a full lobby could end up being just skullbreakers but there's usually a good amount of different characters people play as and achievements related to each seperate character.

To be completely honest, if there is a story to this game i have no clue what it is, this games just been a fun game to jump on and smack enemies heads in and hack n slash.

The Soundtrack is okay aswell, nothing special that gets stuck in your head and find yourself humming along too but i guess being this type of game it'd be weird if there was lol

definitely worth playing with friends for a bit of beat em up fun and just slaughter enemies.

Finished a playthrough on Zealot recently. The new patch brought a lot of improvments which raised the experience for me. Higher level missions are extremely well balanced and intense, if you have the right team, but that's true of all good horde shooters. Never gets as intense as GTFO but reaches about the same heights as LFD2 and the combat is extremely visceral and satisfying. The only element I think game really lags behind its contemporary's is its optimization and at times story. The world building is great, but the clear lack of direction for the story is a bummer in an otherwise fantastic experience.