Warhammer 40’000: Darktide Review

Warhammer 40’000: Darktide is the long-awaited first-person action game by Swedish studio Fatshark, and the spiritual successor to the Warhammer Vermintide series – this time set in the Warhammer 40k universe.

If you’re familiar with the Vermintide games, then you know exactly what to expect from Darktide. If you aren’t… you’re missing out!

I only played Darktide after its release on PlayStation, a full three years after its initial launch on Steam and xBox. This coincided with a major redesign of some crucial gameplay aspects, including the entire weapon crafting system. Since I didn’t play at launch, I can’t compare the current state to the original version, but I’m aware that Darktide had a rough reception and struggled with player retention early on.

Plot and Game Structure

Warhammer 40’000: Darktide is the long-awaited first-person action game by Swedish studio Fatshark, and the spiritual successor to the Warhammer Vermintide series – this time set in the Warhammer 40k universe.

If you’re familiar with the Vermintide games, then you know exactly what to expect from Darktide. If you aren’t… you’re missing out!

I only played Darktide after its release on PlayStation, a full three years after its initial launch on Steam and xBox. This coincided with a major redesign of some crucial gameplay aspects, including the entire weapon crafting system. Since I didn’t play at launch, I can’t compare the current state to the original version, but I’m aware that Darktide had a rough reception and struggled with player retention early on.

The first task for new players is to create a new character. After selecting one of four available classes, customizing your appearance and putting together an entire background story, you’re thrown straight into the tutorial mission – the only one that must be played solo, as lobbies become only accessible after its conclusion.

You start aboard a prison transport when the ship is suddenly attacked. Not only do you fight for survival, but you also manage to save Explicator Zola, a high-ranking member of the inquisitorial forces. In return, she offers to spare you from execution – on the condition that you agree to fight for the Inquisition.

Once aboard the Mourningstar, the Inquisition’s base ship, the game really opens up. You start seeing other players – new players still in their prisoner’s garb – and gain access to multiplayer options.

The Mourningstar serves as the game’s safe zone and main hub. From here, you can embark on missions, access vendors and services (like weapon crafting), or use the training room to play the available tutorials or test your weapon movesets against various enemy types. Most shops and services are initially locked, but available as we rank up. That’s fine though, since there’s no need to jump into higher difficulties right away, and the lower ones don’t require optimized gear.

When I first selected a mission, I expected to find a clear progression path – similar to how End Times – Vermintide and Vermintide 2 handled their respective story playthroughs. Not so in Darktide.

Instead, the mission select screen displays a rotating set of available missions. Overall, there are three missions in each of the seven zones, and seven distinct mission types. For example, Assassination missions end with a boss fight, Repair missions require fixing malfunctioning machines, and Investigation missions involve scanning your environment.

Missions remain available for a limited time before being replaced by new ones. There are always missions available for each difficulty (or “threat”) level, of which there are five, and you can always use quick play to join a random game.

This system has some drawbacks. For one, there’s no guarantee you’ll find the exact mission type or zone you want, on your preferred threat level. You just have to work with what’s available. Missions also don’t feel unique, as the same zones are reused for different mission types, leading to repetitive layouts.

More importantly, there’s no real sense of progression – no specific missions to complete that advance a story. Random cutscenes at the end of some missions attempt to create a narrative, but for me, they fell flat There are random cutscenes at the end of some missions that do try to instill one – but at least in my case, they fell flat. Instead, progression is tied to character experience and levels, which isn’t particularly satisfying.

Presentation and Gameplay

Visually and audibly, Darktide is excellent. The environments, though limited, feel distinct and well-designed to intuitively guide players through the intended path. They are filled with narrow corridors and large open areas that allow for strategic group decisions. Incoming hordes can be funneled into choke points for an advantage, while miniboss fights can be taken to open spaces for more maneuverability.

Enemy variety is decent, though given the setting, most foes are humanoid. That said, enemy types are distinct enough to be easily recognizable, which is crucial since prioritizing targets is a key combat mechanic.

Like its predecessors, Darktide is a horde-based game. While individual enemies or small groups are scattered throughout the map, they rarely pose a threat. The real challenge comes when hordes spawn – massive waves of enemies emerging from every direction, crawling from the sewers, dropping from the ceiling, swarming you and your team. While most are weak and slow, their sheer numbers can be overwhelming – especially when you’re just starting out.

But note that I said mostly… Elite enemies are stronger, often armored versions of fodder enemies, and can hit hard – often being able to one-shot you on harder difficulties. Their armor also makes it difficult to cleave through them, thus fighting an Elite enemy can also make it much harder to fight off a group of fodder enemies, making them deadly.

Then there are specialists – not as strong or sturdy as elites, but designed to disrupt and split the team, or incapacitate players. The Trapper shoots a net that incapacitates a player until freed by a teammate. The Dreg Tox Flamer forces the group to reposition by covering the ground in flames. The Pox Hound leaps at a player and pins them to the ground. What’s brilliant is that each specialist announces its arrival with a unique sound cue, allowing experienced players to react preemptively and find an advantageous position, or prioritize these specialists while fighting off a horde. Without those cues, the specialists might feel unfair and unpredictable, but this audible signal enables quick strategizing.

Now, while I can’t provide a fully accurate description of how the system works, both horde and specialist spawns are tied to separate timers, as well as progress through a level. There are many more mechanics that can influence the spawns, such as temporary pauses if a player dies, an upper limit on the amount of enemies that can spawn simultaneously, or additional specialist spawns when the team is too spread out.

It’s these systems and enemy types that encourage (and on higher difficulties, require) groups to communicate and advance together, strategize on the fly and adapt to the current situation. While it is certainly possible to become so good at the game that you can carry a team solo, the cooperative focus is what drew me into the franchise and what makes this franchise shine, and I’m happy to see it preserved in Darktide.

There are differences to previous games, though. For one, previous games enabled ranged friendly fire on higher difficulties, and I was expecting this to be the case in Darktide as well. To my surprise, friendly fire is entirely absent. Given that ranged combat is more than simply “sniping specials” and plays a much bigger role here – especially since some classes are even designed around it – I understand the change. Most enemies engage in combat at range initially, only drawing their melee weapons when you close the gap. It is thus commonplace to engage with enemies at range.
My main is Ogryn, a massive tower of a mutant, and the tank of the group. Being this big of a target, I initially struggled with taking cover from incoming fire, and if friendly fire were present, I’d likely get shredded by both enemies, and my own team.
Still, I preferred Vermintide’s melee-heavy combat.

All of this brings me to a second point I dislike, but I need to delve into build customization first.

Build Customization & Loadout

Darktide features four classes, each with a three-branch talent tree that allows for build diversity, though I’d still argue that each class has a canonical role. Some excel at crowd control, while other classes have an easier time focusing on ranged combat, others are excellent elite or boss killers.
Weapon choice further defines your character’s role. This isn’t a game where you just spam attacks. Each weapon has various attack chains that can – and often should – be reset to be as effective as possible. For example, you may have an attack chain that consists of two horizontal, cleaving swipes, followed by an overhead strike. When fighting off a horde, you might not want to use the third attack in the chain, since it isn’t useful against a large group of enemies. Thus, you can reset the attack chain by briefly blocking after the second swipe, allowing you to chain horizontal swipes only. Some weapons even have hidden attacks that can be triggered by specific inputs. Mastering your character means, among other things, learning how to cycle through attack patterns efficiently and knowing when to switch tactics.

Succeeding in higher difficulties requires team composition awareness. Unlike previous Vermintide games, where classes couldn’t be repeated in a squad, Darktide allows duplicate classes. You may join a random group as an Ogryn, only to find out that your group… is composed of Ogryns only. Not only does this feel off, it can also lead to unbalanced teams that may struggle with certain situations.

Conclusion

Warhammer 40’000: Darktide is a worthy successor to the Vermintide series, offering a cooperative experience that demands communication and on-the-fly strategizing. The recent overhaul to many of its core systems significantly improves the experience.

While the mission structure lacks a sense of progression, the depth and complexity of combat remain as engaging as ever. If you enjoy cooperative games, this is absolutely worth your time.