Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - co-op action from Vermintide devs

[Biscotti]

Those are few and far between luckily. Either way, my remark was in the context of the game having a character creator. I know exactly what the ability to make waifus would entail.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

More importantly, do these background choices change much? The game is a Left4Dead clone after all.
Perhaps if there's a hub to interact with stuff between missions it would be better, but no idea if that's the case.

It changes the chatter among the characters during the missions (ie different backgrounds for each class say different things).

 

[Haba]

Here's one random example.

High heels and long hair. Totally combat ready.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I was thinking about Cadia but seems like other answers brings more attention.
whatever

 

[J1M]

What's the enemy and location variety like? My assumption is that the license from Games Workshop is too narrow and you'll just be fighting convicts on dirty ships instead of seeing the real bestiary of the setting.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Enemy variety is on par with Vermintide, in the Beta there are melee cultists with variety of mutations, big mutants, chaos hounds (they pin players to the ground with special attack), chaos ogryns (melee and ranged), multiple types of ranged cultists (including snipers, flamers, shotgunners and a few others including basic grunts with lasguns), armored melee and ranged enemies (including several mini bosses). There is also one actual boss (one of the mission types is assassination) with special mechanics. The enemy design is really great from graphics point of view and very faithful to the lore.

Environments are typical underhive/industrial interriors.

 

[randir14]

Enemy variety is on par with Vermintide, in the Beta there are melee cultists with variety of mutations, big mutants, chaos hounds (they pin players to the ground with special attack), chaos ogryns (melee and ranged), multiple types of ranged cultists (including snipers, flamers, shotgunners and a few others including basic grunts with lasguns), armored melee and ranged enemies (including several mini bosses). There is also one actual boss (one of the mission types is assassination) with special mechanics. The enemy design is really great from graphics point of view and very faithful to the lore.

Environments are typical underhive/industrial interriors.

I hope they have a better variety in the full game, it's weird not even having a single demon. It feels like the devs were restrained to things normal humans could defeat, even though in the grand scheme of the universe they're cannon fodder for a single Space Marine.

 

[ADL]

Performance is fucked.
58FPS average on a 4090 at 4K on DLSS quality but if I enable ray traced global illumination and ray traced reflections on high using the same exact settings, I get 63FPS average and it looks noticeably better. Also noticed that I get better frame rates without DLSS using non-RT settings than I do with it enabled.

 

[thesheeep]

It feels like the devs were restrained to things normal humans could defeat, even though in the grand scheme of the universe they're cannon fodder for a single Space Marine.

It's lower power level in the same way that Vermintide is.
You don't play some high level lord in Vermintide, either, you play what would be a single mid-tier unit in TW: Warhammer.

I'm honestly glad there's finally a 40k game where you DON'T play as a Space Marine.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

I guess it's canon that humans in 40k are all endless generations of inbred? Suppose any decent looking women will NOT be thrown as cannon fodder into the meat grinder but instead married off to high ranking (((magistratum))) members.

So basically, I do hate the design and with Swedish development team fat shark I cannot tell if the intention really was lore accuracy, but if it ever makes sense in a setting, it would be in WH 40k

Also yes pick Cadia, it gets mentioned a lot, as opposed to not at all, and comes with two Cadian exclusive eye colors.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

It feels like the devs were restrained to things normal humans could defeat, even though in the grand scheme of the universe they're cannon fodder for a single Space Marine.

The background for the game basically makes no fucking sense. You're normal humans, except you kill a thousand enemies every mission so you're insanely overpowered. And the guys in charge both do and don't recognise this at the same time. They treat you like you're some useless prisoner instead of a killing machine, but they still send your four man squad on important missions so they know you're up to it.
Normally I wouldn't bring it up since nearly every game has your character be a million times more competent than everyone else since that's important to the game being fun, but it's weird this time since the devs keep specifically saying that you're a normal guy and not a space marine. Except the entire gameplay is doing space marine tier feats. It's weird.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Not really, small squads of normal guardsmen/humans can do plenty of cool shit and mow down hundreds of enemies - see the Last Chancers series of books for example. I actually think that the Last Chancers are the main inspiration that the game is based on, ie. the characters belong to something like a penal legion (though they work directly for the Inquisition in this case). Vast majority of the enemies you encounter on missions are cultists with melee weapons, so four people with lasguns can rack up massive kill counts (imagine four soldiers with assault rifles vs 100 people with knives and bats). It would be space marine tier if you were actually going up against chaos marines and demons all the time (like for example in the Space Marine).

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

Also you potentially have an Inquisition sanctioned psyker and an ogryn skullbreaker. These are no joke.
The mainstay enemies seem to be just random citizens with Nurgle mutations and rusty pipes.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

The majority of enemies are zombies or cultists but there are a lot of traitor guard too. You'll kill hundreds of them per mission no problem. And the funny thing is that I was mostly playing zealot (because I didn't have time to level multiple characters and didn't want to stick entirely to low level play) so I was actually the guy with a melee weapon charging groups of enemies with rifles and murdering them all with my axe. But not hammer, even though I wanted to try that too. Too bad it took so much effort to unlock.

 

[Theodora]

By no means a 40k fan, but was sold on this by Skillup's impression video.



A little old compared to some more recent media, but he describes a lot of elements in detail, and leaves the overall impression of a developer taking their charge with the series very seriously, while being committed to making something of quality in a fashion that is unfortunately rarer than it should be among gamedevs today, though obviously it's still being finished. (And in general I like devs giving media people meaningful access to a game prior to launch.)

Never even liked the idea of cooperative 'horde shooters', but I remember thinking from the above that Darktide has enough signs of differentiation and meaningful AI that it doesn't look like it'll simply be another repetitive grind through mobs that's mind numbingly boring without close friends playing it alongside you.

Would be curious if anyone in the closed beta has contrasting or similar experiences to what he had to say a few months ago.

I'm honestly glad there's finally a 40k game where you DON'T play as a Space Marine.

Surprised people want more SM so badly. I thought that was all 99% of 40k games were, from afar.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

As far as these co op horde shoot games go, I don't think it's a huge standout..
For setting though, my bf is very versed in 40k and he went on quite a bit pointing out all the accuracy of little details that they apparently got right.
Example, psyker in a vat, has ice on the glass because warp stuff makes everything cold or something.

Also also, traitor guard is actually a big problem on harder difficulty if your marksman can't shoot for crap or brought a shotgun for some reason and can't pick them off from afar as he should.

 

[Reever]

it's weird not even having a single demon.

If I recall correctly there's some random chatter in the hub about some demons in the lower parts of the hive. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fight in one of the missions as a boss.

Surprised people want more SM so badly. I thought that was all 99% of 40k games were, from afar.

There is some variety (Mechanicus, Hired Gun and Inquisitor) but I assume the amount of games with Space Marines in them coincides with how popular they are in general. I haven't seen any numbers but I doubt there's an army that surpasses Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines in popularity (and sale numbers).

 

[randir14]

I made a thread on the Steam forum talking about the normal human/Space Marine thing and a dev responded, it sounds like he insinuated they'll show up as part of the story even though they're not playable:

So the beta doesn't really introduce you to the game narrative, we're saving that for 1.0. But you send in a Space Marine when all is lost, or close to. Tertium is falling, but it's not fallen -- yet

 

[Harthwain]

I made a thread on the Steam forum talking about the normal human/Space Marine thing and a dev responded, it sounds like he insinuated they'll show up as part of the story even though they're not playable:

So the beta doesn't really introduce you to the game narrative, we're saving that for 1.0. But you send in a Space Marine when all is lost, or close to. Tertium is falling, but it's not fallen -- yet

I am smelling DLC material.

 

[lightbane]

Here's one random example.

High heels and long hair. Totally combat ready.

Really? Playing the realism card in WH40k?

I guess it's canon that humans in 40k are all endless generations of inbred? Suppose any decent looking women will NOT be thrown as cannon fodder into the meat grinder but instead married off to high ranking (((magistratum))) members.

Eh, Sororitas are usually cute, and so are Rogue Trader's female retinue members (although in the latter's case there's good genetics for sure).

One of the latest theories of humanity in WH40k was that they were supposed to be servants for the "real" humans but the latter perished, Megaman Legends style. Doesn't change much even if it's true.

As for Daemons, a squad of well-armed inquisitor acolytes can take down minor Daemons with ease, the issue in the PnP games is their fear aura that incapacitates party members upon starting combat.

 

[Haba]

Really? Playing the realism card in WH40k?

No, dear dumbfuck, I am talking about internal coherence. No matter how silly it is, WH40k places great deal of effort into explaining how certain units can wield certain absurdly sized weapons. Something that is even reflected in the ruleset.

Your barbiedoll waifus break this logic, and therefore make you forever a target of ridicule.

Not even the Dark Eldar wear stripper shoes to battle.

 

[lightbane]

No, dear dumbfuck, I am talking about internal coherence.

Shove your insults down your ass. Also, internal coherence, in a setting where depending on the writer hi-tech ships have windmills to load ammo for the main guns?
Extra points if the ammo is moved around by Servitors.

Your barbiedoll waifus break this logic, and therefore make you forever a target of ridicule.

Ridicule for you I suppose. I also didn't say anything about waifus, only that I didn't like ugly women which are omni-present in recent games.

Not even the Dark Eldar wear stripper shoes to battle.

I'm sure I could find a DE doing just that somewhere if I look hard enough. Wytches and Succubus are a thing, for one.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Another game that fucks up the lasgun.

 

[Luka-boy]

Asked a friend who is playing the game his opinion on it so far.

The only reply I got was "My gunsight is a gothic arch, D1P"

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Yes, the arch-shaped reflex sight was a good move.

Anyway, still torn between the D1P and waiting for more polish and content - guess I will have to toss a coin at some point...

 

[throwaway69420]

They fucked it up, bros. It's bad, really bad.