Rocc

Game is good silly fun both solo and multi, but the real ones play the game for the lore.

Welcome to Steam, Bobby

May 2025 edit: Okay the game is way better now, performance, content and stability-wise. It's still a grind, it's still not perfectly optimised, and the prices for cosmetics and the upcoming class DLC are still a bit egregious, but at least I can recommend the game in its current state now. Pick it up at a discount.

---- Game was received bundled with the purchase of a GPU for no additional cost ----
Review is negative but I've tried my best not to jump into bandwagons, and tried to keep it about my own experience. If you've seen the state of the Darktide subreddit during the last months, you'll know what I mean. TL;DR at the end.

So, Darktide. I really want to love you, Darktide. I even got a bit hyped when I saw the first trailers, and the short video during the Game Awards. Aside from the general issues which are *improving, sort of- very very slowly* (we reportedly still suffer from total game crashes, disconnections, server backend errors, dwindling framerates, mini-freezes, laggy/mistimed/non-accurate hit registration and all kinds of performance and stability issues), the general consensus on the game is that it could've used more time in the backburner before release, because even if it has good things, the systems and other devices within the game feel incomplete at best. And I agree with that.

Okay, okay. Many people that expected this game are Vermintide 2 seasoned veterans like myself, and we all knew that VT2 also had BAD issues when it came out- those issues were ironed out during the upcoming year, and after a not-so-good expansion DLC, VT2 managed to become (and still is, quite frankly) a *great* game. They kept adding content and all- some for free, even! One would've thought the people at Fatshark would've gained lessons from VT2's launch, and wouldn't have pushed a game in such state. But this is the vidya industry and Fatshark's majority stake is Tencent's, lest I forget.

Technical issues aside, I think the game does not feel nearly as rewarding as VT2. You start as a nobody, a fugitive granted a blank slate and a chance to prove themselves in the 40k universe. Scenarios are very nicely crafted. I feel the ambience is great. Playable character appearance is customisable and I feel there is a good amount of options to create interesting character combinations. Character banter is okay. There are four playable classes- your big abhuman tank-bruiser (Ogryn), a melee-oriented dps (Zealot), a ranged weapon specialist (Veteran), and a mage (Psyker)- all sporting a set of fixed abilities, an aura to benefit the team, and an active skill. You can tweak these classes to fit a playstyle by choosing your loadout and your perks. Seems to be a general consensus within the community that some of these perks are notoriously useless- I say, try everything and carry what works best for you; experimenting should be part of the fun. But I'll say that some perks do feel weaker than others if you just want to cruise through the content or tackle the higher difficulty levels- which is kinda the thing that the game leads you to do. You level up to 30, with a couple cutscenes in-between, a very bland plot to speak of, and there you are- Trusted (ish) by your peers, no longer a nobody. What do? Maybe you want a bigger gun. Maybe you are willing to try a twist in your playstyle. Maybe you want to perfect your build so you can to tackle a higher difficulty in a more comfortable way. And now's the moment when it gets grimy.

Every time you complete a mission, you *can* get a random weapon or curio (accessory) as a completion reward (with no guarantee this item'll be better or even nearly useful for you), and as of now, weapon customisation is really limited. "Serviceable" weapons are bought from an NPC, with currency earned by simply playing missions (or even getting wiped), on an in-game store that rotates its goods every hour. I cannot stress how *annoying* this is. If you want a CHANCE at a better weapon, you better be checking that shop, because the random end-of-mission drop is utterly unreliable, at best. Shop rotation does not guarantee the particular weapon that you want, and even if it contains it, the stats that carries can be a nightmare for min-maxers, or the perks and blessings can be total mixed bag. And weapon customisation, limited as it is at this time, does not even allow us to roll the dice on the weapon's blessings, to try and get a better one. Come on, Fatshark. You want us to roll the dice, then let us do so.

Higher quality weapons are available if you set off to complete "Contracts"- a weekly task system that awards another in-game currency, Marks, for each completed contract, and a bonus of Marks for completing the week's active Contracts. This system resets every 7 days, and will grant you a new set of Contracts each week. Progress in a singular Contract will not be carried between weeks. As of now, I think this is an unrewarding, unhealthy system. This system punishes people with little time to play, and promotes unnecessary grindy-ness and tiredness in a game that is already not very rewarding.
(And Emperor save you if you wish to check the shop or Contracts for a different character. You'll have to swap from the menu and that's a full client load-login every time you swap).

So yeah, technical problems, unrewarding systems... But a spanking, fully-functioning in-game cash shop, conveniently placed in the middle of the shortest path from the spawn point to the in-game, rotating-every-hour gear shop. Sporting some egregious prices for cosmetics, this shop had a couple content updates from launch, towards the December Holiday season. I needn't say anymore than this- you get the idea, and you will find a plethora of information about this and all unfulfilled promises and contradictions on Fatshark's side- all the grievances have already been duly noted by this community's subreddit, sadly turned into a Book of Grudges for this game. I will not bash the studio anymore (frankly, it's gotten a bit sad to watch, and I think the horse (shark) has been beaten enough), specially when people on the developer's payroll are picking up the slack after poor management decisions or just the usual corporate greed has led them to this situation.

If I had spent the whole 64€ that the Imperial Edition cost, then this review would've probably been much angrier. I expect the game to be worked on and improved- on a more positive note, Fatshark's CEO has published an open letter to the community, with some corpospeak for "we know we've effed up, but we can't go openly admitting it", but then same day they released a patch with bugfixes aplenty.

Bottom line for me is: Buyers beware. Like many have said, I really wanted to love this game, and even though I do like it, my overall experience has been a mixed bag. I don't think I can look at someone in the eye and sell this game to them. My advice if you want it: Wait for a couple months, check the subreddit's pulse, check the patches, check if someone still streams it, you know what to do. The game feels great when it works. But mind what I'm saying: *WHEN it works*.

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TL;DR
Do I like this game? Yea
Do I like the overall feeling, ambience, weapons? Yea
Can I recommend it to other people in its current state? Sadly, nay

Labor of Love 2022 should've been for DRG tho

buggy mess to the point where fps drops & stuttering audio and video makes it unplayable and needs a game restart. This issue has been unaddressed for years, im back to playing the og DD1. Egregious pricings on some microtransactions.

"It gets easier.
It gets easier. But you gotta do it every day. That's the hard part."
- Running Monkey

Overall good game.

The GOOD:
- Has a crazy dwarf
- Has an edgy elf
- Has a crazy religious zealot
- Has weapon variety, many combinations with weapons/builds are possible and all-out decent
- Has many enemies to kill
- Has grind for loot & levels if you are into this sort of thing
- Overall good level design
- Difficulty feels rewarding
- Many crazy deaths, hilariousness & chaos with the AI director, makes you stay on your toes without being/feeling too punishing
- Easy to pick up, nice skill ceiling
- THE CLUTCH moments make for great, tense gaming fun
- If you're a solo player, you can 'customize' the bots to some degree
- Overall small, nice & dedicated community

The MEH:
- Has crafting because everything has crafting these days, although not so terrible (tons of RNG tho)
- Matchmaking feels pretty random, expect some huge differences in skill level with your mates
- Has this "pick 1 out of 3 talents every 5 levels" modern bullcrap RPG thingie
- Veteran mode (the "normal" difficulty setting) can feel easy real quick, there's some steepness between this and the next difficulty setting
- Players grinding stuff tend to go from beginning to end of the map at the quickest speed they possibly can, which can make it a little unforgiving for new players

The BAD:
- DLC feels it has a weak price-to-content ratio, buy full price at your own risk
- One of the DLC playmodes is literally dead unless you have friends (and we all know you don't)
- Has grind for loot & levels if you are not into this sort of thing

TL;DR - It's Left for Dead with axes & RPG elements. You liked L4D? You will like this even if you're not that much into Warhammer. Also Sigmar memes.

It was GOTY 'cause of something
Now go ride Roach and discover why