I am cautiously optimistic that they have fixed their cultural problems after the new additions to their latest dlc Shadows of Change. This game is wonderful fun, and I hope they continue to prove their contrition about the previous price gouging and lack of bug fixes. Its still the only game where a bunch of rat people can shoot a laser at a dinosaur riding another dinosaur, and at the end of the day I'll keep coming back if they keep supporting it and their community.

Pros:

Darktide has melded the amazing first person melee of Vermintide with wonderful gunplay to make a very immersive and excellent warhammer 40k l4d. If you like left for dead or Vermintide you will like this game. Purely based on gameplay.

The musical score is everything you could want from a 40k game, no notes, Jesper Kyd is amazing.

They fixed the Vermintide problem of a host dcing causing everyone to disconnect/start the level over from scratch. Vermintide 2 never got its promised dedicated servers, but Darktide did.

The maps are atmospheric and perfectly fitting for 40k, but fairly samey. A couple missions break that mold and I expect future ones to improve that further.

Cons:

It has a lot of bugs, a decent amount of dc's even during full release, feats not working right, weekly contracts not updating.

It is one of the most poorly optimized games ever, even on low settings my Ryzen 7 3800X and GTX 1060 6gb are struggling hard to keep up a usable fps despite task manager not showing them under full load while playing.

Much like Vermintide 2, Darktide has rpg-esque leveling that detracts from the fun of the game. The game is significantly more fun at max level (30) than it is before then. It doesn't take anywhere near the kind of time to max out that it does in most MMOs, but grind is grind, and grinding lessens the experience.

The loot system is heavily rng based and pretty terrible. You get money for completing missions to spend at a shop, but the shop's contents are completely randomized, often times offering a bunch of a weapon you don't want or one with garbage stat rolls. To make matters worse all of your characters are completely separate from one another, no sharing of gear or currencies.

Weapon stats themselves are poorly explained, with many stats being just guessed at by the community. What is the difference between piercing, rending, and brittleness? All interact with armor in what appears to be the same way. Also there are hidden stats like how much penetration ranged weapons have.

Advertised features for the game are not in it, such as crafting, a mini boss, and a couple weapons that were shown in trailers (more are missing from datamined images, but I don't count that against them).

The most egregious con in my opinion however is their premium cosmetics store. It was in day one, despite the game being feature-incomplete, which is already a bad look. Unfortunately, it gets worse from there as it is littered with predatory practices. They have a custom currency which can only be obtained via paying money, which is a sadly much used tactic to create a mental disconnect between money and what you spend in game, in hopes of you spending more than you would otherwise. They have a timer on all of the bundles to exploit FOMO to push more purchases. Even worse, they have a very deliberate structure of offering packs of the premium currency at denominations that mean you would almost always have some remaining after a purchase, but not enough to get anything else. When players pushed back on this clear cash grab, instead of directly addressing the playerbase, or acknowledging the scumminess of these actions, they went to game journalists and only addressed my last point here, saying they "accidentally" left out a pack amount that would make it easier to buy just what you want. 5-6 pack options that don't ever add up to a reasonable purchase without leftovers paint a clear picture of intention, regardless of what they say.

Closing thoughts:

Why did I still recommend this game when I had three nice things to say and a novel of complaining? Its so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun. So fun that I personally believe it outweighs the poor launch and scummy business practices. At the end of the day they didn't go the full EA and lock gameplay mechanics or functional equipment behind a paywall, their premium store is cosmetic only. That means a reasonable person could still support the devs and artists who worked hard on creating an amazing experience, boycott the predatory premium store, and not lose out on any gameplay.

If any of the devs, artists, musicians, etc read this who were not involved in the monetization decisions: I adore you, and the game you made. It is a wonderful game despite the rough launch. Know that most of the community agrees with me on this point, even many of those who are giving the game a thumbs down.

If anyone from Fatshark who made those decisions reads this: do better. I will not be spending any more money on you until and if you take serious steps to make the system less predatory.