Games

[shock therapy]

https://www.playdarktide.com

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361 ... 0_Darktide







Official Teaser Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp44GNRzvCc

[ChevRage]

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (Malice) with ChevRage, Dos, ShAdOwS and Relaxey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZboSjePKtk



I've played quite a bit of this game with some friends since it came out. It's a spiritual sequel to the Vermintide series, but set in the 40k universe, and it's a bit of a mixed bag really. While the combat is significantly improved with much more of a ranged focus, the game is overall uglier. The character creation options don't look good, and you won't be getting a cool-looking set of armour unless you pay for it with real money through the cosmetic store. The sparse cool-looking environs almost make up for the large amount of dark corridors you have to trudge through. Almost.

What kept me playing is the combat. The game has a lot more ranged options, and you're unlikely to run out of ammo, provided you and your friends scour the corners and side rooms of the map for ammo boxes. There are tons of enemy types that shoot at you too, with a subtle suppression mechanic, both for you and your enemies. I heavily enjoyed shooting chunks out of enemies with the shotgun, and chopping any survivors in half with the cleaver while in time to the beats of the music. The combat is VERY satisfying, and it can get extremely hairy. There's no friendly fire however, which is a letdown.

The worst part though is that they got rid of the campaign missions, replacing them with a mission select screen filled with a bunch of random levels. And they swap out every half an hour. And they are randomly tied to a difficulty level. So the Hab Drayko investigation might be on difficulty Malice now, but in half an hour it might be on Damnation, or it might not even be selectable at all. There's no mission order, you are expected to just grab random missions and grind them.

The "plot", such as it is, is instead tied to your character's experience level. Every few successful missions, or a whole bunch of failed ones, you'll get treated to a cutscene where you go to see a higher up, they tell you good work, but you need to keep rising up the ranks. Rinse and repeat. Nothing particularly interesting, and certainly no finale to speak of, unlike Vermintide 1 & 2 which had great final missions.

[icycalm]

I wish more game devs and founders would handle criticism this way
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comment ... uld_handle



I still don't get the appeal of these games. Some people have 2k, 4k hours in Vermintide. What do they do all those hours in the same handful of levels? Why not just have a normal campaign? I will never understand. I tried the first one for a few hours, full team even, and couldn't be bothered to try again. Such a drab game, and so many far superior campaigns out there you could be playing. I would struggle to give it 3/5. I prefer even The Division, and that's a certified 3/5 game. But at least the setting and environments are sick, and it has a story, and you play each level once. Still didn't finish it of course because it's boring.