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FatShark did a great job bringing the Warhammer 40,000 universe to life with Darktide. Everything from the ludicrous scale to the disturbing and opulent nature of the Imperium is here, and it’s a joy to see and experience. When all is said and done, the game is undeniably good, even for people who aren’t already versed in the lore.
But no game is perfect, and all games can be improved. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has enough flaws in fact that it does hamper the experience, and that pulls it away from greatness. With a bit more polish, this could be truly exceptional, so we’ve compiled a list of improvements that could help expedite that process somewhat.
More Warhammer 40,000: Darktide content:
Combat Guide | Beginner’s Guide | How To Kill The Plague Ogryn
Performance
One thing that has plagued Darktide since its initial closed beta is its poor performance. Since this is my job, I have a pretty beefy rig, and like many people, Darktide inexplicably jerked, stuttered, crashed, and burned regularly. As betas came and went, performance got worse, which was a grim look for the soon-to-be-released game.
Then came the launch, and whilst performance had been smoothed out (slightly), the servers struggled for what felt like weeks. Even to this day – months later – Darktide has issues surrounding performance and many people can’t play reliably. This has, understandably, led to a backlash within the community. This is the most obvious thing that needs to be fixed if Darktide wants to elevate itself to greatness.
Cash Shop
If there is one thing I cannot stand is the inclusion of microtransactions in bought products. Darktide is not priced like a ‘Triple-A’ game, but that doesn’t excuse the shop. To be frank, the shop needs to take a hike. It needs to be purged in fire (ideally heavy fire) and never spoken of again.
Whilst the cash shop is only cosmetic (as far as I am aware), the fact it exists means the game had to be fundamentally changed to include it. Nobody makes a shop with the intention of not making sales. This can be felt in Darktide, as the cosmetic rewards you get for playing the game are not only fairly mundane but are a slog to get. It’s a not-so-subtle nod to nab some kit with cash instead. Especially when all of the good stuff is being advertised by the random teammates you are playing with. It all feels slimy and unnecessary.
Progression
Following on from that, the progression system in Darktide is generally pretty bland and poorly implemented. Even outside of cosmetic rewards, Darktide is a slog to get through since very little matters, and levelling up does nothing the vast majority of the time.
Let’s break down everything Darktide does wrong when it comes to progression
- Every five levels you unlock a Feat.
- It takes 2-3 missions to level up once at higher levels.
- Mission rewards are mostly pointless since you are inundated with cash and have very little to spend it on.
- The concept of ‘Power’ is nebulous and unexplained.
- Blessings are good but completely random.
- Doing Challenges rewards you with mostly nothing
- Higher Difficulties don’t provide any meaningful reward
- Emperor’s Gifts are so sporadic, a portion of the community doesn’t know they exist
For a game designed to be replayed over, and over, your reward for engaging with it is shockingly sparse.
More Content
Then we come to the other elephant – the lack of content. How much content does Darktide have? Honestly, without looking it up, I have no idea. But it doesn’t feel like a lot. This is despite the efforts of FatShark to obfuscate the content in Darktide. You see, Darktide has a rotating selection of missions you can tackle.
By this I mean there are only a handful of available missions at any given time, and you are stuck playing these missions until the game decides to generate new ones. This is more frustrating than anything – especially with Quick Play – as you are sent on the same mission over, and over, and over, and, over, and over again. If that sentence seemed overly long and repetitive, then now you understand my frustration with Darktide.
Class Variety
Darktide has a great selection of classes to choose from. All four classes bring something different to the table, and there is a lot of variety when jumping between them. The thing is, there are still only 4, and that does start to get a bit stale after a while. Sure you have Feats that you can swap and change for a different build, but it doesn’t do enough.
This will be jarring for anyone who is coming off of Vermintide 2, as that game currently sits at over 3x as many classes (or subclasses). Sure, that game has had years of extra development, but it’s still a massive step back when you make the transition. More variety is always a good thing, and once Darktide gets a healthy dose of it, things will be golden.
That’s all we have for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. We have plenty of other content covering the game, so be sure to check it out for more tips, tricks, guides, and lists.
