Microsoft Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC - 30 November 2022, Xbox Series X|S - "later") - update: reviews from OpenCritic posted

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Darktide Performance Deep Dive & System Requirements

 

 

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I am Rikard Blomberg, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of Fatshark. The first computer I did programming on (or even had access to) back in 1983 was an ABC80, on which anything resembling graphics was what we nowadays consider ASCII art. The development since has been mindblowing.

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Today,  we are releasing our extended system requirements for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide that covers higher-end machines and those looking to enable NVIDIA-supported technologies such as RTX and DLSS 3. At the same time, we wanted to dive a bit deeper on the performance of Darktide, what to expect and provide guidance on how best to get the optimal experience with your hardware. 

 

 

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At Fatshark, we believe that the best games result from striking a balance such that no single aspect is given priority over all others. This does not mean that there is no room for improvement over time; rather, we must always be mindful of our priorities. 

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Games like Vermintide, Vermintide 2, and Darktide are all good examples of this approach. In no way are they perfect in terms of having a high and steady framerate, but that was the approach we chose rather than, for example, making too big compromises regarding the number of enemies or the graphical quality of levels. We believe that most players can accept a short temporary loss of frame-rate to be able to get the overall gameplay we offer. We know this is a harder sell in a competitive game, but felt that this was a necessary trade-off for games in our category - cooperative play.  But then - are we satisfied with the current level of performance in our games? No - we aren’t and will never be. It is and will continue to be, an ongoing battle for as long as we have people on the project. 

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Given this context, one needs to understand that we put in an incredible amount of work to make our games as performant as possible both before release but also after when we can use actual player data and feedback to set our priorities. 

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Generally speaking, our games have faced similar challenges. We have a lot of stuff going on in the game world, many enemies, all having detailed rigs and attachments and an AI to guide them. We also have to rely heavily on physics simulation to handle primarily melee combat, where countless entities move and interact with each other. 

 

 

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With modern processors, there has always been the promise of parallelism using the many cores that have become commonplace in recent hardware. As any game developer would tell you, this is in no way a silver bullet. The thing with parallelism is that it requires things to be conducted in parallel instead of in a sequence, which means that they need to be independent of each other. Large parts of gameplay code - especially involving the player and her direct interactions with the world can be tough to parallelize because the rules governing those are typically highly interconnected as opposed to independent. In our games, parallelized things are rather systems that one might consider more low-level, like updating animations, resource handling, dispatching of commands to the GPU, etc. But even with those things done, our games still tend to be heavy on the CPU side. 

 

It's a pretty lengthy post and well worth reading!

[Zaku3]

7900XTX comon.

 

It ran well enough on my 6800XT ultrawide. No RT though. Will dabble once I get the 7900XTX. AMD i need the 8900XTX the day after I get a 7900XTX.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

Recommending a 4080 for high already!

[Zaku3]

1 hour ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Recommending a 4080 for high already!

 

My 6800XT gets about 47FPS average. I think my settings sre high with RT turned off. Dips into the high 30s and can get into the mid 50s. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Zaku3]

Who is gonna join me this evening to defend mankind?

[Moa]

I'd have to refund a lot fewer games on Steam if I just checked Game Pass first.

[XxEvil AshxX]

Downloading thru Game Pass right now. I've heard some horror stories about the optimization already. I'll play it on Low settings just to see how the game is and then when it releases for Series X I'll dig into it with friends.

[Zaku3]

No crossplay unfortunately. (Bought it on steam and ended up buying it for my boy that normally used PC game pass for stuff.)

[XxEvil AshxX]

I played on PC with the settings the game auto-detected... It was around Medium settings (I did go in and manually turn on FXAA and V-sync) and it ran well enough for me to hop in and play a round.

 

The only thing I had to scratch my head over was that there didn't seem to be any settings for a private match? I played with randoms which was fine for now but kind of annoying when they keep running ahead and leaving you behind to get mauled by a dog.

 

I did install the game to a HDD instead of the NVMe, which was probably a mistake lol

[Moa]

8 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

I played on PC with the settings the game auto-detected... It was around Medium settings (I did go in and manually turn on FXAA and V-sync) and it ran well enough for me to hop in and play a round.

 

The only thing I had to scratch my head over was that there didn't seem to be any settings for a private match? I played with randoms which was fine for now but kind of annoying when they keep running ahead and leaving you behind to get mauled by a dog.

 

I did install the game to a HDD instead of the NVMe, which was probably a mistake lol

 

I instantly uninstalled from my HDD to my SSD. It feels like modern games are now designed around being installed on an SSD and I was getting multi-minute load times on my HDD. Performance has been pretty bad on my GTX 1080 system, but with custom config settings found on reddit I've managed to get it running smoothly and looking fine. Looks like it's about time to start looking at a new computer.

 

Game is fun though. I want a bolter.

[CitizenVectron]

Hmm. What are the chances this will even run on low settings on my 7700k and 1080ti?

 

Honestly up until now I haven't really felt the CPU and GPU were that outdated, everything I play (including some newer games) runs fine. But it sounds like this one needs some high-end hardware.

[Keyser_Soze]

18 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Hmm. What are the chances this will even run on low settings on my 7700k and 1080ti?

 

Honestly up until now I haven't really felt the CPU and GPU were that outdated, everything I play (including some newer games) runs fine. But it sounds like this one needs some high-end hardware.

 

Looks like slightly above minimum specs.

[stepee]

Can you play this single player? Gamepass and DLSS3 support along with insane requirements means I gotta try it.

[Zaku3]

23 minutes ago, stepee said:

Can you play this single player? Gamepass and DLSS3 support along with insane requirements means I gotta try it.

 

I don't think so. Bots will replace nonhuman players.

[stepee]

9 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

 

I don't think so. Bots will replace nonhuman players.

 

Well that’s single player then :P It’s fine as long as the AI is decent and there is an actual game to play with level goals and story and stuff.

[Keyser_Soze]

You could play Vermintide single player so I assume you could do the same in this.

[HardAct]

On 7/15/2021 at 9:30 PM, XxEvil AshxX said:

Looking forward to this one cuz I really like Vermintide II... but it's not a game I NEED to play asap. I'm okay with waiting till then if it means more polish.

   I'm ALWAYS easily willing to wait for a game developer to put out their vision rather than meet a deadline. In this day and age is far to easy to just pick up another game that is on the same level and let them do their things. This just alsong as Dead Space Remake and RE4 Remake don't release late that is...lol

[stepee]

I played a little on my lunch break and it seems like it’s probably a good one of this type of game but nothing special stood out yet.

 

Definitely a looker but no DLSS3 on Gamepass booooo. There have been other releases like this where GP has some functionality missing, like the Ascent, but it got added later so maybe that’ll happen. 

 

Still manages to hang above 60fps completely maxed with RT at 4k dlss quality, besides the hub dips to the 50s on my 10850k (yes this is very cpu bound). It’s weird that the hub which has like nothing going on hits the cpu so much harder than stages with a million enemy’s running at you. The game hits the gpu hard too and my cpu is actually working so at least it’s not like Batman and is somewhat earned.

 

Maybe I’ll give it an honest go if they patch dlss3 in to the GP version as it seemed fun enough and it is quite nice looking.

[stepee]

Ohhh

 

imgur.com

IMGUR.COM

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Imgur: The magic of the Internet

 

 

 

This works and I could enable FG now, they just forgot to include the dlls? lol

 

Now it dips to 80s-90s in the hub area and is 100~fps in missions. Lovvve dlss3 being able to brute force past cpu limitations via magic

 

Not that I’m super excited by this game though it’s nice looking. But definitely bodes well for a super performant future on pc, when you can just skip past issues in games like this. At least until consoles get FG and the target moves closers!

[HardAct]

On 11/18/2022 at 8:13 AM, Keyser_Soze said:

Recommending a 4080 for high already!

OUCHY........lol

      The pull to build an overpriced gaming rig is getting quite bad. { Overpriced meaning only that I overspend I visuals and unneeded top tier components } I've waited this long though I had a weird thought last night on just how far off a 5080ti is. Funny I know but that might be my new plan. Hold off another 18 months and then build a Top tier rig. I have NEVER made it 3 generations {GPU} ever but the 4080Ti is dream worthy just imagine the 5080Ti 

[Zaku3]

All hail tech mommy

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Game Information

Game Title: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

 

Platforms:

• PC (Nov 30, 2022)
• Xbox Series X/S (Nov 30, 2022)

 

Developer: Fatshark

Publisher: Sold Out

 

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 74 average - 63% recommended

 

Critic Reviews

But Why Tho? - 9 / 10

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It is hard to translate just how satisfying it feels to tear through a horde of heathens in Darktide as its thunderous soundtrack plays to words. The best way to do so seems to be simply saying that it is spot-on enough to surely please any fan of Warhammer or horde shooters. Darktide is a Primarch amongst Warhammer games, and it serves the corpse emperor admirably.

Chalgyr's Game Room - 8.5 / 10

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Overall, Fatshark’s latest four person co-op, first person shooter, and hack and slash Darktide is a blast. The modifications to the core gameplay design from Vermintide and Vermintide 2, as well as the support to fix unforeseen issues, continue to show Fatshark’s stride for creating great gameplay experiences.

Gaming Nexus - 8.5 / 10

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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a true successor to Fatshark's previous Vermintide series. If you were afraid the jump from fantasy to 40K would ruin the experience, fear not, it's even better. Darktide feels less linear than the previous takes, the story takes place between cutscenes of missions. Levels are linear, but do a great job of hiding that fact. Loadouts are a great improvement, along with a wide array of weapons to specialize and unlock. The only unfortunate part is that Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is still best enjoyed with a full party.

The Games Machine - Italian - 8.5 / 10

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Darktide would have deserved a better score, because the game itself is good, real good. But poor optimization (not entirely justified by the game's looks), far too common game crashes, and a loot economy that cannot help but raise some eyebrows end up impacting the user experience. It's still a great 40k game, but you might want to wait for some patches if you're on the fence.

XboxEra - 8.5 / 10

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Hilarious banter, ridiculous fights, a great mission structure, and satisfying progression show that Fatshark is only getting better.  Being available day one on Game Pass for PC means no one, either alone or with friends should pass on giving this one a go.

COGconnected - 82 / 100

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Fans of Vermintide will definitely enjoy Darktide’s slightly more creative approach to character building, and anyone into fast-paced cooperative shooters — lovers of Warhammer 40,000 or not — will have a great time. Best of all, Warhammer 40,000 Darktide has all the elements for an extended life, provided Fatshark keeps fixing bugs, adding content and rewarding its fans. Darktide is off to a great start.

3DNews - Russian - 8 / 10

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Darktide is easily the best first-person experience of all Warhammer 40,000 games.

GameGrin - 8 / 10

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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a beautiful-looking and sounding game with fun team-combat, even for players who are new to the universe. There are some issues with loading times and connectivity that are sure to be patched in the future.

Gamepur - 8 / 10

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Developer Fatshark’s newest outing builds upon the great foundation of its work on Vermintide. Darktide offers a refined and evolved co-op experience with expanded, thrilling combat and more robust customization. While a lack of an engaging story and network issues hamper its potential, this co-op shooter still offers one of the best Warhammer games I've seen in recent years.

Gamers Heroes - 80 / 100

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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a worthy successor to Vermintide. Fans of good first-person melee combat shouldn't hesitate to check this one out.

GamesHub - 4 / 5

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Even as omnipresent as Darktide‘s technical woes are, it’s the exhilarating thrill of a mission run that shines most brightly in my mind when I think about my experience with it. Even on low graphics settings, shining your rifle’s underslung torch down a dark corridor, only to see a horde of Poxwalkers glaring back at you before your whole squad unloads on them, provides an utterly giddying rush.

GamingBolt - 8 / 10

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Some occasional technical issues and an unwillingness to truly burst out of the norms for the genre keep Darktide from reaching enormous heights, but within the confines it sets for itself, this is about as good as it gets.

GamingTrend - 80 / 100

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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is one of those games that oozes fun, no matter how you play it. It lends itself perfectly to all playstyles, and has this natural way of immersing the player in its world. That might be from the unique RPG system, the insanely detailed environments that make you feel like you're really walking through this huge hellscape, or maybe it's just the gratuitous violence. Whatever the cause, it's doing a great job of keeping me hooked. Of course, the game isn't without its cons, and these do detract from an otherwise solid experience. Regardless, it's a game that I will absolutely be coming back to time and time again.

IGN - 8 / 10

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Performance issues aside, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's ferocious battles make for some of the most thrilling co-op action in years.

Kakuchopurei - 80 / 100

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[Warhammer 40K Darktide] is clearly 2022's best feel-good multiplayer group game with dark humour, carnage, and accents aplenty, evolving from Vermintide in all the right and satisfying ways.

PC Gamer - 80 / 100

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Though Warhammer 40K: Darktide needs more time to develop, its core gameplay is the best Fatshark has ever created.

Saving Content - 4 / 5

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Fatshark has ruled the co-op horde game for years, but I find aspects of the game lacking or not as enjoyable as it should be. Darktide has a strong core to build upon, and so thankfully Fatshark has earned enough goodwill over the years that I trust this’ll only get better over time. Knowing Warhammer is not a requisite to enjoy what’s here, anyone will be able to play this and embrace the chaos. As it stands today, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has more than enough content in classes, weapons, and mission to enjoy, and it’s clear that the best is yet to come.

Screen Rant - 4 / 5

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With Darktide being more of a live service game, there isn't necessarily an ending to its narrative to speak of. Players will rank up and be treated to short cutscenes reflecting the increase in trust and standing the spaceship's NPCs hold for the player. However, each character feels rooted in the dark sci-fi future the Warhammer series takes place in, as they deliver hints of its complex lore. More story will likely be introduced over time, with hopefully new locations to explore, because players may be left hungry for more narrative and beautiful levels to look at. Still, mowing down enemies with friends has rarely felt as satisfying as it does in Warhammer 40K: Darktide.

WellPlayed - 8 / 10

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Darktide is a game that has atmosphere seeping out of every orifice. Its design brings a crushingly depressing and oppressive aesthetic to life in new and exciting ways, transporting the player to the grimy underbelly of Tertium. The most shocking realisation is that you don't want to leave.

DualShockers - 7.8 / 10

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Once you get down into the dilapidated yet impressive levels of the Hive and start swinging, Darktide is as great a swarm shooter experience as any, but it needs to improve much of the surrounding infrastructure to make that core combat experience feel rewarding and meaningful. Who knows? I may even come back in a year to re-review the game (which is something that should generally happen with more game reviews), but in the meantime it’s a simmering cauldron of potential that still feels a little raw.

Gamersky - Chinese - 7.8 / 10

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As a "survival" game, Fat Shark games has absorbed a lot of successful experience from Vermintide. Darktide inherited the classic "cooperation + grinding" gameplay, it has shown good quality in the plot; game settings; and background music, but the annoying network, poor optimization, mistranslation and half-finished equipment system also dragged down the game experience of players. I hope that Fat Shark games can solve these problems in the future updates, so that I can continue the journey of "killing mice" nicely.

Fextralife - 8 / 10

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Despite its many flaws, Darktide's adrenaline-fueled gameplay and grimdark atmosphere are captivating enough to keep you playing for multiple hours on end.

Everyeye.it - Italian - 7.5 / 10

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Warhammer 40,000 Darktide is a title that needs more content and some adjustments. Graphically it is excellent and the play of light and shadow, in particular, make some moments even memorable. However, the balance between the classes is to be reviewed, as well as the in-game economy and the cost of aesthetic elements.

GRYOnline.pl - Polish - 7.5 / 10

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The developers should be yelled at for giving us an Early Access game disguised as a full release, but their fans are used to it. I have no doubt that, over time, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will get new content, fixed bugs and an overall boost in quality.

SECTOR.sk - Slovak - 7.5 / 10

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The gameplay is great, brutal and dynamic, at the same time the game came straight with a decent selection of maps, albeit very similar. You will enjoy slashing, shooting and throwing out hordes of enemies with grenades. But the authors have literally not put many systems into the game yet, and more content will come later.

FingerGuns - 7 / 10

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Overall then, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has the makings of an incredible Warhammer 40k game – the gameplay loop is excellent, with the visual and sound design to match. Unfortunately, a lot of other aspects of the game do mar the experience somewhat, and it does feel unfinished in some areas. That being said, if Fatshark can build and improve upon the existing content, there is potentially a very special game here in future.

Game Rant - 3.5 / 5

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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a solid horde shooter that is otherwise held back by technical issues and weak live-service elements.

GameSpot - 7 / 10

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Darktide captures the most essential parts of its genre, though it sometimes stumbles when trying to build metagame content on top of that foundation.

Gameblog - French - 7 / 10

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Warhammer 40,000  : Darktide offers a very pleasant and fun cooperative multiplayer experience. However, we hope that the bugs (especially on PC) will be solved as soon as possible.

GamesRadar+ - 3.5 / 5

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"As Darktide's levels aren't grouped into acts, it's much harder for Fatshark to tell coherent stories across them"

Hardcore Gamer - 3.5 / 5

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Warhammer: 40,000: Darktide is one of the most enjoyable games of the year, but it's tremendously rough around the edges.

Metro GameCentral - 7 / 10

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Although it feels more like an early access release at this point, this is a promising start for what should eventually eclipse Vermintide 2 and all the other Left 4 Dead wannabes.

PC Invasion - 7 / 10

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Enjoyably frantic, and gory, Darktide is gratifying to play, but the experience is softened by performance issues and dreadful load times.

Shacknews - 7 / 10

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Despite the growing pains, Darktide is a solid co-operative action game that’s great for a group of friends to play in spurts. At launch, the experience is limited in progression and variety, but the gameplay is challenging and viscerally satisfying enough to keep your attention. It doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack slaps and, performance issues aside, the graphics pack a punch. Since Fatshark is known for updating the Vermintide series over time with frequent content updates, Darktide is expected to improve as well. It may even deserve a higher score within the next six months, but I can only review what’s available now. So if you’re considering a purchase of the game, think of it as an investment that will likely pay off in a few years. It’s more than understandable, though, if you would rather wait for Darktide to meet your standards for a full release.

We Got This Covered - 3.5 / 5

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One day, Warhammer 40K: Darktide will be a great game. Fatshark, like many developers, has yet to perfect the art of the rough landing. A polished core experience can't overcome woeful performance and blatantly unfinished features, like the (almost) entirely missing crafting system. I'm confident, however, support will continue until Darktide ends up being the game we all hoped it would be.

ZTGD - 7 / 10

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I have no doubt that these will be fixed in time but when are WE as gamers/consumers going to stop allowing this to be the norm. I feel like I say this on far too many reviews, fact of the matter is the game should have launched without these technical issues but I won’t start preaching here… we have a podcast for that. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is coming to Xbox at a later date and my hope is that all of its extremely rough edges are grind down to perfection by then, the moment to moment in battles is a blast to play but the pitiful rewards and technical issues just turns it into more of a chore than a joy to serve the Emperor.

GameWatcher - 6.5 / 10

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In a month or five or twelve, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide may reach the state it should have launched in. In a month or five or twelve, it may become a co-op game that's easy to recommend. But while I undoubtedly had fun during the missions I completed over 40+ hours playing both the pre-order beta and full versions, it's clear that we're dealing with yet another title whose potential isn't allowed to fully shine through at launch.

New Game Network - 62 / 100

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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide offers an authentic representation of the 40k lore, and while the cooperative action gameplay can be occasionally satisfying, it lacks content, has a few strange design choices, and suffers from too many performance issues.

TheGamer - 3 / 5

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Darktide is built on great foundations and I enjoy playing it a lot – especially with friends. There’s a brilliant game buried deep within this Hive World, filled with exciting combat and gruesome enemies in equal measure. However, to properly enjoy those glorious moments, you have to break through the pustular skin of Darktide’s pointless upgrade systems and wade through the poisoned viscera of dull progression. I just hope that the countless obstructions in the live service elements don’t turn too many players away from the game mired underneath.

Thumb Culture - 3 / 5

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Overall, I enjoyed the time I spent with this game. Its immersive surroundings, sounds and action made you feel in the thick of the action. The graphics were extremely detailed. The sound was fitting with the feel of the game. The voice acting was great and so were the animations by all of the characters. It could be overwhelming at times with constant hordes being thrown at you. This just meant teamwork and sticking together were vital for survival and completing the levels. It may not be for some, however. I tend not to choose these types of games but I do appreciate them. For those who like the visceral action given by games like Doom Eternal, Metal: Hellsinger, and Vermintide this game is for you. With updates and additions planned for the game by the developers, it’s well worth getting if you have been meaning to for a while.

 

I award Warhammer 40,000: Darktide the Thumb Culture Silver Award!

 

Twinfinite - 3 / 5

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Warhammer 40k: Darktide is definitely worth buying if you love the franchise, but even then, just barely at the moment, due to being hollow and unstable. Here is to hoping they can fix it up so that it can be considered equal or better to Vermintide 2.

IGN Italy - Italian - 5.9 / 10

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One should expect more from the extremely rich Warhammer 40k lore. Darktide has some good ideas but commits the ultimate sin for a game: it becomes boring due to its extreme repetitiveness.

Checkpoint Gaming - Unscored

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If you are a fan of horde-like games then Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will no doubt scratch that itch. Whilst the gameplay can become repetitive and the grind seems to offer little value at this stage, I cannot deny that I had a blast playing it with a group of friends. Some incredible “oh crap” moments occurred during combat when we were overrun by a horde of enemies and had to work together to stay alive. It’s moments like these that keep you coming back for more. As this is a games-as-a-service title, we expect many more improvements and features to be added with time to enhance the experience and features.

Eurogamer - Recommended

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Much like its endless enemies, Darktide's many small issues add up to a real nuisance - but stupendous atmosphere and vicious action just about prevails.

PCGamesN - Unscored

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I’ll have more to say about Darktide once I’ve spent some time with the newly stabilised release build. For now, be aware of the technical issues players faced during the beta before diving in. I’m hopeful that Fatshark has been able to sort most of them out, because this is some of the most fun I’ve ever had in the 40k universe to date – when it works.

Polygon - Unscored

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Still, knowing Fatshark’s previous work, I’m confident Darktide will be in much better shape in just a few months’ time. And perhaps, in a year or two, after a couple of expansions and numerous updates, it may be something extraordinary. As things stand right now, it’s only very good… which is hard to complain about. A fantastic setting with tons of replayability and the same old juicy combat? There’s plenty to get sucked into, and no signs of slowing down.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored

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Fatshark's bone-crunching co-op is deliciously gory and grim, but an uninspiring progression system and short, repetitive missions hold this Vermintide successor back from reaching peak rampage.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Updated the OpenCritic reviews post.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This game might as well pack up shop now.

 

[stepee]

Ouch, I didn’t realize it was so poorly received. Nice looking game though not my cup of tea.