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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a pretty awesome game. It takes the formula of Left 4 Dead and successfully transfers that into the Warhammer Universe – with a few tweaks of course. The result is a gore-filled slap-fest against all things big, monstrous, and grotesque.
But Darktide was not the first of its kind by Developer Fat Shark. In fact, they made two very similar games before Darktide – Vermintide. With Darktide being a spiritual successor, how does it hold up when compared to its fantasy-based predecessor? What’s better: space zombies or human-sized rats?
More Warhammer 40,000: Darktide content:
Combat Guide | Beginner’s Guide | How To Kill The Plague Ogryn
Ludicrous Scale
One of the defining features of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe – one that is rarely (if ever) shared – is the scale. Everything is supersized to a baffling degree. You don’t just have a spaceship – you have a ship that is the size of a continent that doubles up as a gothic cathedral. You don’t just have guns, you have a weapon that has every round blessed by Omnisiah and the God-Emperor.
Entire planets are multi-layered cities that reach the clouds in height, and the deepest abyss in depth. Heck, some planets are just factories. Everything in Darktide goes back to this scale, and just looking around on your adventures will reveal sights that are awe-inspiring and disturbing in equal measure. Let’s not forget you got here by tearing a hole through Hell to take a shortcut.
Array Of Weapons
Darktide has a lot of weapons, and just about every weapon is a shining beacon of death and destruction. Chainswords – swords that are also chainsaws – cleave through the thickest of armour, lasguns crack and sizzle with every shot, and every explosive round from any Ogryn weapon turns enemies into a red mist.
How about Staves that channel the insanity of its bearer to conjure flames or lightning? Weapons that fire super-heated plasma that reduces everything to slag. Fully automatic rifles that fire rocket-propelled, mass-reactive bolts of death? There are so many weapons on offer, and unlocking a new one is always exciting.
Hub World
Hub worlds are great, and honestly, Vermintide also has an excellent Hub World. However, the Darktide’s Mourningstar is a sight to behold. All that scale we talked about earlier? It’s all here. Opulent to the extreme, and gorgeous to fans and newcomers alike, there is nothing quite like the Mourningstar.
But all of that is just visual. Mechanically, the Mourningstar is well laid out to allow for quick traversal to all of Darktide’s vendors and systems. You are never more than a few steps away from something interesting, and this leads to a seamless transition from being lost, to knowing where everything is whilst still appreciating the view of Tertium.
Sound Design
This is the big one for us. Darktide sounds amazing. Most games sound amazing to be fair – the industry has started to put more effort into making things sound better. However, Darktide manages to make even the weakest weapons in the game sound like a thunderbolt striking a hurricane. Every trigger pull is deafening, and every gibbed Pox Walker is satisfyingly wet.
Then you have the music – by the God-Emperor, the music. Often it takes a backseat, relying on diegetic sound to build a very industrial backdrop. But as things ramp up, the music starts to kick in. Clanking metal, thumping drums – and then you hear it, the pipe organ. Where contemporary music relies on bass drops, Darktide drops an entire church and it’s stunning. Not to mention the guttural choir that comes in to finish off this cacophony of madness. It all comes together to make a rich soundscape that we can’t get enough of.
Enemy Variety
Finally, enemy variety. Another thing Vermintide did fairly well, but Darktide takes it to the next level. Sure, there are endless swarms of Pox Walkers, but interspersed between the ranks are humans and monsters of all shapes and sizes. Oversized hounds capable of mauling ogryns, skilled snipers who land devastating kill shots, and Reapers carrying guns larger than fully-grown men.
It’s all here, and, shockingly, Darktide manages to effortlessly make every enemy instantly recognisable thanks to stellar visual design and clever audio cues. Throw in some excellent mid-level boss fights like the Daemonhost, and you have a roster of filth worthy of Nurgle.
That’s all we have on Warhammer 40,000: Darktide for now. Check out our other lists and guides for more tips, tricks, and info on this killer game.
