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

[Spark Mandriller]

How else are they going to release all the "SeAsOnAl CoNtEnT" like classes, weapons and maps (that they've clearly not cut from the base game) without the support of their whales fans?

Milking paypigs with cosmetics and then releasing actual content for free is much better for long-term engagement.

The actual content is probably going to be paid too though. The only reason the aquila shop isn't full of gameplay DLC is because it's not finished yet.
Maybe if the steam review score stays low they'll get desperate enough to make some of the planned paid stuff free instead. That'd be nice.

 

[Dexter]

bad developer

Which developer is making better First Person Action CoOp games than them nowadays? I mean, Valve did a bunch of better ones, but that's like 15 years ago now. Who's on top of the game and outclasses Fatshark nowadays and they have to measure up to though? I'd like to know. Turtle Rock? lol

 

[Harthwain]

Which developer is making better First Person Action CoOp games than them nowadays? I mean, Valve did a bunch of better ones, but that's like 15 years ago now. Who's on top of the game and outclasses Fatshark nowadays and they have to measure up to though? I'd like to know. Turtle Rock? lol

Deep Rock Galactic made by Ghost Ship Games?

 

[Dexter]

Deep Rock Galactic made by Ghost Ship Games?

Played it for a bunch of hours during one or two of their Free Weekends and didn't really like it. I think it's vastly Overhyped and doesn't hold up to Vermintide 1/2. I also didn't really like the gameplay, where it seems to be more about digging through rocks, collecting shit and traversal than combat or fighting enemies. And that it looks like a combo between Team Fortress 2 and Minecraft back when they came out visually. Anything else?

I haven't bought Darktide yet after playing the game for 2 days in the Beta. It didn't seem as good or fun as Vermintide 2 for instance and since release it seems obvious that they put it out there before it was ready, so I'm willing to wait it out and see if things improve in the next year or so and buy it on Sale, but is there anything else recent that one could buy and play instead scratching the same itch?

 

[A-Minish]

The actual content is probably going to be paid too though. The only reason the aquila shop isn't full of gameplay DLC is because it's not finished yet.
Maybe if the steam review score stays low they'll get desperate enough to make some of the planned paid stuff free instead. That'd be nice.

This, this is the only thing for which I am truly pessimistic. Remember Fatshark started to sell this abomination while they already were selling skins at high price. If Darktide economic model is scummier than VT2 then you can bet they are going to sell overpowered/play-to-have-skill weapons and classes again in Darktide.

It's strange that this is yet another WH40k game that somehow expects you to already know the lore

Also the people I have played with have been suprisingly friendly. Apperantly a game about fascists committing religiously motivated genocide brings out the best in people

When the end-goal is having fun, having a challenge, to survive or to finish the mission and not some type of Achievements/Penance, looting or money then the players are generaly nicer, friendlier or simpler even. But yes, like VT2, there is something beautiful in this kind of lethal dance/mortal ballet/chaotic slaughter, something that brings the best in us.

Pictures related

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It's strange that this is yet another WH40k game that somehow expects you to already know the lore

the lore is dead simple, ignore the handful of weirdos who try to turn every product they consume into ~deep lore~
big guys in armor shoot aliens

 

[Alienman]

And some times the aliens eat man. Or have sex with man, and makes him feel weird. Or give him green aids.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

It's strange that this is yet another WH40k game that somehow expects you to already know the lore

Also the people I have played with have been suprisingly friendly. Apperantly a game about fascists committing religiously motivated genocide brings out the best in people

Nigga its almost 2023. If you don´t have at least basic knowledge of W40K, you must have made a whole lot of questionable life decisions up to this point. Its 40K, what else do you need to know?

 

[Matalarata]

big guys in armor shoot aliens

No. For beside the mutants and xenos, you have the heretics. Sometimes big guys in armor shoot men, for variety.

 

[Tyranicon]

 

[Harthwain]

Nigga its almost 2023. If you don´t have at least basic knowledge of W40K, you must have made a whole lot of questionable life decisions up to this point. Its 40K, what else do you need to know?

There is also the intro, the post tutorial cinematic, some lore tidbits from the character creation and conversations between team members. You really don't need much more than that to understand what's going on.

 

[Tyranicon]

Ok after 5 or so hours with it, I can confirm that the zealot dagger bleed build is absolutely broken and will let you solo tank anything in the game (except ragers, their hit arcs are too wide to dodge reliably, so use the bolter, the only real gun for a proper man) up to at least Heresy 4. Once you have experience with the very lenient dodge mechanic, you're basically invincible. Makes you feel like a fucking astartes. 11/10 jimmy space power fantasy.

On Damnation 5 you actually have to play as a team again and stop your leroy jenkins attitude.

 

[Matalarata]

dagger

I'm waiting for the game to drop me a fucking combat blade with bleed to try that. Up untill now, I have fun with my yolo Thunderhammer build. I win more than I lose.

bolter

Bolter is fun, iconic and damaging af but very slow and unwieldy. I fell in love with the stubnose revolver. Thing packs a punch, can be drawn immediately for quick shotgunner or trapper kill and can reliably hit at very long distances, if you're good with the iron sight. Except for the heaviest enemies, I can easily kill anything if I unload a full chamber. For the heavies there's the charged hammer.

 

[Tyranicon]

dagger

I'm waiting for the game to drop me a fucking combat blade with bleed to try that. Up untill now, I have fun with my yolo Thunderhammer build. I win more than I lose.

bolter

Bolter is fun, iconic and damaging af but very slow and unwieldy. I fell in love with the stubnose revolver. Thing packs a punch, can be drawn immediately for quick shotgunner or trapper kill and can reliably hit at very long distances, if you're good with the iron sight. Except for the heaviest enemies, I can easily kill anything if I unload a full chamber. For the heavies there's the charged hammer.

Yeah the store is so badly designed. They might as well have slapped a sign on it saying "artificially designed to make you play more regularly since you have to check in to gamble see what weapons you get."

That's mobile gaming style monetization. The ultimate and grossest manifestation of the industry's corporate greed to date. disgusting.

so anyway,

With the dagger you NEED a bolter. It will kill Oggies, Ragers, and basically everything else your dagger doesn't work well on. Even on Damnation 5 it takes a spray or two of bolter fire to kill a rager. With your dagger, it'll take you like a second. Which doesn't sound like much, but it'll be taking like 3/4 slashes at you, with its buddies, and you probably wont dodge all of them.

Can't trade on Damnation.

Bolter I find better than the revolver because of ammo count and how it deletes specials. If there was a tier list, bolter would absolutely be S tier for Zealot.

Get dagger (not sure if the lacerate blessing got removed, but that would work best since it procs bleed. Not necessary since I don't have it.), stack crit/bleed blessings (are we gambling yet?), get bolter, get full HP curios (Toughness still kinda sucks/buggy) nevermind bug's been fixed, so full toughness curios, and get the bleed feat build (forgot what it was but you can probably google it).

Have fun hard carrying all your strike teams

 

[Matalarata]

With the dagger you NEED a bolter.

Well, I suppose the fast draw of the dagger combines well with the slow bolter. Playing with the Meme Hammer, I tried both but it's not even close. The rev I'm currently using gives me 48% mobility (+dodge and +movement speed). I use it as general tool to get around the slow melee. Hammer also lacks reach on the fast vertical attacks, a revolver round puts anything human sized on his ass and comes out in a split second, even when I have to switch.

Funny thing is I never tried braced autogun or any lasgun. Bolter/Revolver/Flamer are just too fun, depending on the melee weapon and build.

(Toughness still kinda sucks/buggy

What bugs? I played multiple matches today and it was apparently working as intended. Full protection from ranged and % based on melee, I was getting no chip damage when at or above 100.

 

[Tyranicon]

(Toughness still kinda sucks/buggy

What bugs? I played multiple matches today and it was apparently working as intended. Full protection from ranged and % based on melee, I was getting no chip damage when at or above 100.

So it's probably me reading how toughness works wrong, but I suspect there's something wrong with how damage gets calculated with toughness. It feels like your 100 toughness lasts only one or two hits in the last two difficulties, but your health is much more.

That might have something to do with the damage reduction formula (is there a breakdown of how it works somewhere?), I might have to play around with it more.

 

[Matalarata]

(is there a breakdown of how it works somewhere?)

I rly don't know but as far as I can tell the bug worked by going above 100 toughness. You'd get chip damage, instead of 100% protection. Try stacking some +Toughness gear now, with a bleed build 10-20 points more should really make a difference.

 

[Harthwain]

(except ragers, their hit arcs are too wide to dodge reliably

I think I was able to dodge them backwards.

On Damnation 5 you actually have to play as a team again and stop your leroy jenkins attitude.

I'd argue you have to play as a team even on Malice 3, because of how the shield works. Plenty of people try to play it like Vermintide 2 and get owned.

Bolter I find better than the revolver because of ammo count and how it deletes specials. If there was a tier list, bolter would absolutely be S tier for Zealot.

Heresy! Holy Flamer is the only true answer! Its only downside is the range.

 

[Harthwain]

By the way, while everyone pretty much agrees how much of a trainwreck this release is, there are some pretty impressive aspects to the gameplay. Gunplay in particular.

Somebody already made a pretty good comment on that on Reddit, so I will just copy it:

Spoiler

For all its flaws, Darktide translated Tabletop mechanics into actual fun gameplay.​

Now for all its flaws, the core gameplay is surprisingly deep. I was surprised at just how faithfully FS managed to keep the TT (tabletop) rules intact for a FPS team game. Now I don’t play shooters much anymore so I may be out of the loop but I just want to show some appreciation for this game. (Fix your crap though FS, this game could be WAY better.)

1. Flamers ignore cover and prevent assault charges by causing full Toughness damage and denying floorspace. Check.
2. Suppression causing Snap Fire rules by preventing you from shooting straight. Check.
3. Coherency being a thing by encouraging players to stay in the squad with bonuses. Check.
4. Armour types and armour penetrating weapons being a tangible effect in the game. Check.
5. Toughness ACTUALLY being translated into something that makes sense. Check.
6. Perils is… ok. Standard overheat mechanic just like plasma guns. Check.
7. Human-sized bolters still being scary AF and showing why it’s the human’s iconic weapon in the 40kverse? Check.
8. Enemies switching to melee in close range may be a ‘normal’ reaction but it always feels right in a 40k game. Check.
9. Grimdark? Is it ever. Check.
10. Daemonhosts were a surprise and a good one too. Seeing one implemented ingame matching codex and novel descriptions just give it oomph.
11. Seeing actual Astra Militarum tanks and hardware from up close through a regular human’s eyes being cool AF. Check.
12. Putting a Guardsman’s ‘flashlights and T-Shirt’ into perspective - big check.
13. Edit: u/RuinedSilence reminded me Wounds exist and are actually a significant mechanic. Feel No Pain when tho.

Now we just need the rest of the game fixed and this would be a sublime 40k experience!

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkTide/comments/zcrgzf/for_all_its_flaws_darktide_translated_tabletop/

Even I am impressed by the gunplay - enemies get supressed, your aim gets worse when under fire and your shield/health can drop really fast when focused by the barrage of fire, which forces YOU to actively seek cover. Had some cool fire exchanges because of this. Pure action shooters could actually learn something from Darktide here.

 

[lightbane]

Now someone has to reproduce the critical damage tables from the PnP games and we're good.

 

[Tyranicon]

(is there a breakdown of how it works somewhere?)

I rly don't know but as far as I can tell the bug worked by going above 100 toughness. You'd get chip damage, instead of 100% protection. Try stacking some +Toughness gear now, with a bleed build 10-20 points more should really make a difference.

You're right, I think it was just lingering mistrust from when 100 toughness was bugged. Now that I stacked toughness curios, it appears to be what the bleed build was meant for, and it's even more broken now.

By the way, while everyone pretty much agrees how much of a trainwreck this release is, there are some pretty impressive aspects to the gameplay. Gunplay in particular.

There's a lot of stupid design issues, but the gameplay is fun, which is what a lot of developers forget. Darktide does the 40k power fantasy justice in the sheer audacity of shit you can do.

One memorable moment I had going from meleeing a plague ogryn -> dodge, pull out bolter to countersnipe a sniper, sidestep doggo, go back to meleeing ogryn + everpresent horde that you get in heresy+, empty bolter mag into a rager, duck behind pillar to reload (and the bolter has such a satisfying, if slow, reload. Someone said it's like reloading a truck, and it's 100% on point).

I'm not even good at the game, this is what the average player can pull off. Having a good team is *chef's kiss*.

Makes you feel like an 80s action hero, which is exactly what I like.

 

[Matalarata]

Having a good team

Unfortunately none of my so called friends (a good deal of which I hope will be reading this thread and this message) has bought the game yet so I'm purgin' with randos. Otherwise, agree 100% with the sentiment.

 

[Great Deceiver]

My 5800X3D arrived today, and I can confirm this game is laughably unoptimized. Laughably. There's almost zero performance gain from a 3800x or a 5600G (a chip with 1/6 of the L3 cache - 16MB vs 96MB), even at 1080p.

These developers don't deserve a penny.

edit: Updated the game/Windows, did some tinkering with PBO2 Tuner and now I'm getting 100-120fps quite consistently at 2k. About 30-40% more than what I was getting before. Quite a leap.

I also set Worker Threads to 8 (the number of my physical cores) down from 13. Maybe that made a difference, too.

Anyway, the fact that AMD locks 5800X3D users out of Ryzen Master is a major fucking dick move.

 

[Peachcurl]

Is this any fun to play alone? Asking for a friend.

 

[Matalarata]

Is this any fun to play alone?

You can definitely play this by yourself and just join random groups. I've been doing just that. You can easily git gud enough to manage missions up to diff 4 with randos, although completing those consistently and/or beating level 5 diff requires coordination and is hard to do without a voice channel and a full group of people that know what they are doing.

Additionally, in VT parties where imho more consistent due to the limited characters pool and the no duplicate rule. Sure, careers changed the way they played, but you could always count on Kerillian players to have a bow of some sort and be able to deal with distant nuisances. In DT you can double, triple and quadruple dip on classes, having a full party oof zealots (3 out of 4 armed with flamers) is loads of fun, untill you're besieged by an infinite horde and the game spawns 3 snipers and a bomber on you. True story.