Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a first-person shooter video game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, developed and published by Fatshark. It was released for Microsoft Windows on 30 November 2022 and for Xbox Series X/S on 4 October 2023.
Gameplay
The game uses a similar formula to that used in Fatshark's prior games Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 in which four players acting in character as baseline Humans or Ogryns in service to the Inquisition cooperate to defeat periodic waves of AI-controlled enemies, including Poxwalkers, Traitoris Militarum of the Moebian 6th Regiment, Chaos Spawn and Plague Ogryns. Rather than a set of pre-made characters as in Vermintide 2, the game allows players to customise their class, appearance, and gender.
Poxwalkers seek to attack Inquisition operatives within Hive Tertium on Atoma Prime.
The four classes consist of a Human Astra Militarum Veteran Sharpshooter who serves as a potent master of ranged weapons and death at a distance, a Human Zealot of the Imperial Creed who is a specialist in melee combat, an Ogryn Skullbreaker who serves as a heavy weapon/melee hybrid, and a Human Sanctioned Psyker Psykinetic who is the game's "spellcaster," in this case using psychic disciplines. All of the classes make use of a regenerating shield system in combat.
Unlike in Vermintide 2, multiple missions take place in the same area, some of which include optional secondary objectives that allow players to obtain better loot. Difficulty is divided between two variables, one affecting enemy count and the other damage received from enemies. Progression will is split between random rewards, an in-game currency that will allow the purchase of new weapons and a contract system to earn a weapon of the player's choice. Crafting also allows the player to upgrade their weapons and increase their character's statistics.
In the year following its release the game received updates adding features missing at launch, such as the first iteration of the game's crafting system. Patch 13, which also marked the delayed Xbox release of Darktide in October 2023, greatly altered the gameplay of the original release. This patch introduced an overhauled talent system, providing each class with new abilities that can be described as subclasses or specialisations.
Character Classes
The game's four primary classes of Ordo Hereticus Acolytes (nicknamed "Rejects") in service to the warband of Inquisitor Grendyl:
Plot
Corruption of Atoma Prime
Hive Tertium, the main setting of the game, as seen from low orbit by the Inquisition's requisitioned Rogue Trader Firestorm-class Frigate Mourningstar above Atoma Prime.
Atoma Prime is an important Imperial Hive World that has long been the centre and capital world of a vast, semi-autonomous region of Imperial space comprising many different Human worlds known as the Moebian Domain.
For centuries, Atoma Prime and the peoples of the Moebian Domain have been under assault by Chaos and xenos forces from the fringe of its territory in the Segmentum Solar that the Adeptus Administratum has chosen to simply classify as the "Darktide." The people of Atoma Prime know little about the nature of these shadowy foes, other than what they hear in Imperial propaganda broadcasts, but are certain that they must be defeated if Atoma Prime is to remain within the light of the God-Emperor.
To deal with the Darktide, Atoma Prime has for centuries raised hundreds of regiments for the Astra Militarum from among its teeming masses, known as the Moebian Regiments. These heroic men and women have kept the Darktide at bay for many standard centuries, fighting in what is known as the "Fringe War."
However, in the Era Indomitus, the Chaos Cult called the Admonition infested the hive city of Hive Tertium on Atoma Prime. When they unleashed a Zombie Plague and a swarm of Poxwalkers began to assault the lower reaches of Hive Tertium, the Moebian 6th Regiment was redirected from frontline deployment to assist in combating the Nurglish corruption. Instead, the corrupted regiment turned on the people it had sworn to protect and began to support the uprising.
Assault on Hive Tertium
Four unwilling Inquisition Acolytes -- a Human Astra Militarum Veteran, a Human Zealot, an Ogryn Skullbreaker, and a Human Sanctioned Psyker -- prepare for their assault upon the Nurglish Chaos Cult called the Admonition infesting Hive Tertium on Atoma Prime.
The game's story, written by author Dan Abnett, focuses on a squad of Inquisition Acolytes and operatives nicknamed "Rejects" in the service of the Inquisitor Grendyl of the Ordo Hereticus who are combating a Chaos infiltration of the hive city of Tertium on the Hive World of Atoma Prime in the Imperium's Moebian Domain during the Era Indomitus.
The player character operative begins the story detained aboard the Imperial prison transport Tancred Bastion for a crime determined during character creation. During transport the Tancred Bastion is suddenly swarmed and overwhelmed by followers of Nurgle, the Chaos God of disease and decay, who are members of the Admonition Chaos Cult and the corrupted Traitoris Militarum Moebian 6th Regiment. They are seeking to free Captain Wolfer, the commander of the Moebian 6th, who has been captured and imprisoned abord the Tancred Bastion. They prove successful in freeing him. During the resulting chaos, the player character rescues Explicator Orgustine Zola, an agent of the Ordo Hereticus, and the two successfully evacuate the ship.
Zola agrees to spare the player character from the death penalty by conscripting them into the Inquisition as a new Acolyte in the service of her master, Inquisitor Grendyl. From their base aboard the Rogue Trader Firestorm-class Frigate Mourningstar which has been requisitioned for use by the Ordo Hereticus by Grendyl, the Inquisition deploys the new operative to different sectors within Hive Tertium to research and suppress the Nurglish infestation and cult.
The plot is set to evolve over time in a manner that parallels a live software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, continuing to develop on a weekly basis and following a set meta narrative.
Development
The game was first announced in July 2020 during the Xbox Series X and Series S showcase event in which Fatshark showed plans for a 2021 release. A gameplay trailer was released on 10 December 2020, which showcased the use of weapons such as a Lasgun and a chainsword being used to defeat hordes of Poxwalkers and Chaos Traitoris Militarum.
Among the playable characters, an Imperial Guardsman and an Ogryn could be observed. The developers commented that Darktide is planned to be less melee focused than Vermintide 2, getting closer to a 50/50 split between melee and ranged combat.
In July 2021 Fatshark announced that due to difficulties arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the release date would be pushed back from 2021 to spring 2022. The release date was again pushed back to 13 September 2022 in an announcement which was accompanied by a new trailer. A further delay pushing the release back to 30 November 2022 was later announced.
A closed beta was made available to some players on 14 October 2022 and ran for two days.
Reception
According to Metacritic, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has received "mixed or average reviews", based on 44 reviews, largely due to the incomplete nature of much of the game at launch.
Sources
- Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (Video Game)
- Wikipedia - Warhammer 40,000: Darktide