[WH40K] Darktide Launches Tomorrow...

[Dartz]

Released tomorrow, I've been playing through the Open Beta of this this last week and having a blast. You, and three friends (Or randomers from the internet) against a vast swarm of 'zombies', a little like Left 4 Dead but with fire, explosions, two-handed chainswords and fully-automatic rocket-prepelled grenade launches. 4 classes - from a Military Veteran, a Psyker, a Zealot preacher and a big friendly Ogryn - with some customiseability along the way.

Probably the best thing about it are the environments - from the ship you're based on, to the detailed realisations of the Hive City (of about 70-90 billion people constructed over 10-millenia plus as a layer cake of city upon city ) where your missions are based, it gives the 41st Millenium a depth of weight and feeling that's been missing. Take a moment to look around and realise how vast spaces are - and that that is a spaceship several kilometres long parked in the distance - or that you're still Technically Indoors, with a ceiling kilometres above. Or that you're having a full blown way in the cty's depths while far above, life carries on as normal....

The second best thing are the weapons - which range from the effective (The humble lasgun is no mere flashlight but makes mincemeat of anything unarmoured) to the outright brutal. Boltguns especially have an impact befiting the fluff - blasting hordes apart, or cutting people in half with a two-handed eviscerator chainsword.

There're the usual microtransactions for fancy outfits and the like, but I haven't had to dabble in them yet.

So far - I've been playing a Zealot Preacher with a crazy scottish accent. And 'Tiny' - the largest Ogryn possible in the game.

[Dartz]

And one ingame:




The community's mostly non-toxic. Most players go back to help and don't leave people behind. It hasn't had time to really build up a cadre of no-life shitlords.

[Dartz]

"Bug"

While they changed the annoying penance system - they deleted some cosmetic items. I'm okay with this.

Anyway.

After 6 months the game is in a fairly alright place. Gear crafting is still a bit crap. Solo play is worse. But the basic gameplay loop of shredding heretics is Soooooo Good. The last six months were basically spent unfucking a lot of people's launch-time gripes. Some remain. But it's fun to kill 20 minutes on a run.

The community is still mostly non-toxic

Some characters I don't play that often:

TehRei


Jools

[Dartz]

In the 41st Millenium, using a Printer is hard. But comes with an epic soundtrack.

And in typical Darktide fashion, something's critically fucked and everyone's unhappy. AMD systems on Windows 10 implode crash to desktop when the game is booted.

The only thing people agree on is that the soundtrack for the mid-level event utterly slaps.

I'm enjoying the new map. It's big and fancy, with a great mid-level setpiece that's unique and immediately memorable. The end is - challenging. The space is huge and it's a lot easier to get split up and shredded.

Just pray there're no public holidays in Sweden before the patch comes out - or you will be waiting.

----

The recent earnable cosmetics look good. Zealot finally looks like the sort of loon who'd get arrested for taking "Burn 'em all and let The Emperor figure it out" literally. It helps that the Zealot Fanatic is probably the only person having fun the entire time. Until they get really hurt.

The fancy uniforms were a bit "too" fancy - like someone who was actually valuable/respectable might wear them. A good pair of boots and a set of goggles and a facemask to keep the plague out is all you need.

[Dartz]

So.

As one redditor sarcastically noted, The Game is finally coming out of Early access

With the class system that was supposed to be in the game on release last November now being slated for October 4th.

Otherwise, the recent update with the extra difficulty level has the game in the best shape its been in for a while. The basic gameplay loop still satisfied but quality of life outside is so much better.

Also. It's telling that it's only the Ogryns and the Fanatic that're having a good time.

[Dartz]

So....

....this is the game we were supposed to have a year ago.

It's really quite something. .

I know nobody's playing. But the new skill trees are a massive improvement. There's a lot more little things you can do, with a lot of trans-classing and stuff where there's no real cost from jumping from tree to tree to find whatever mix of talents works best for you.

At the same time. There's a lot of relearning to play all over again. And a lot of what really worked doesn't anymore.

If you want to drop by. It's worth a go.