Warhammer is on a roll these days, with titles set in that universe releasing for all platforms and genres. For example, we recently got the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader RPG, which has both deep role-playing and strong tactical combat. Meanwhile, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 offered a return to that fascinating series with its visceral single-player combat after many years in limbo.
Into this mix came Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, which is a cooperative shooter set in the city of Tertium. The plot is pretty thin but is also kind of unnecessary here. Hordes of violent monsters and other enemies have taken over the city, and it’s up to the rejects (that’s what Darktide calls the players) to slowly take things back over for the Inquisition, one mission at a time. Darktide has been out for the PC on the Steam platform for a few years now, and it recently made its way to consoles like the PlayStation 5 where we picked it up for this review.
Developer Fatshark made Darktide in a lot of ways very similar to their Vermintide series, but with a few key differences and, of course, more modern graphics and sound. One thing to note about Darktide is that it’s a cooperative or co-op type of game, and that playing solo is not an option for it. Whereas many co-op titles are made so that you can play with other people if want or slant the difficulty so that doing so is highly recommended, with Darktide you really don’t have any choice. You can’t play without a squad of three other people (for a four-person strike team) and even if you could, many of its mechanics, such as your innate toughness stat (basically like hit points) only regenerate when you are standing near your teammates.
Darktide starts out with your character in a prison cell, and you are given a second chance after an attack from Poxwalkers breaks you out. This functions as the tutorial showing the fundamentals of combat and how using the environment can really help. There is shooting in Darktide, but there’s also a huge amount of emphasis on melee attacking, which is something else players should keep in mind when considering whether to jump into this.
In fact, there is a lot of depth to the melee combat, more so than with almost any other game in recent memory. For example, you have a lot of options and stats for each kind of attack. There are differences depending on reach, the potential to stagger an opponent, penetration potential, and many others. Even the direction you swing could change attacks somewhat. The skill tree helps to support very specific builds too, so you can really hone in a perfect character depending on your preferences.
Now, I am not normally a co-op player, so the lack of a single player mode was disappointing for me. However, the community of players that I found online for random matches was really good. Every time I formed a party, everyone was really great to play with. They ranged quite a bit in terms of skill level, but everyone was nice and ultimately helpful in completing objectives and moving our group forward.
The level design is such that you won’t get lost or have trouble following your objectives, and the environment looks good and follows the theme of a broken futuristic city that has seen better days. Combat is fast paced and an exciting experience with everything from waves of enemies coming at you in hordes to boss-level bad guys who require serious teamwork to put down.
Darktide was a lot of fun for a while but may not have staying power for players who are not heavily invested in either Warhammer or Darktide specifically. During my first few hours of multiplayer everything was new, and as mentioned before, all of the random team members I met were really great to fight alongside. My biggest problem with Darktide is that after about five hours or so, everything started to get kind of repetitive. I found myself doing the same missions every time with very little variety, which was necessary for grinding out experience and finding materials to upgrade my weapons and gear. I can see where some people might enjoy that grind, but it also might get dull for some players, like it kind of did for me.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is great if you enjoy the dark world that the developers have created and want to commit a lot of time to playing and replaying various levels to increase your power and level. But you really need to think of Darktide as an MMO or live service kind of title where it’s going to demand a lot of your time. In return, Fatshark has been pumping out a lot of free content updates over Darktide’s run and seem committed to doing so in the future too.
The Warhammer universe continues to expand, and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is yet another good entry for players to choose. Depending on your preference, there is probably a Warhammer game that is perfect for everyone these days. For those who like cooperative shooters and the dark dystopian world of Warhammer 40,000, they should enjoy what Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has to offer.