Warhammer 40K: Darktide review: Left 4 Dead-like coop in a sci-fi world

You captured the fun of bashing a scab mouse on the head with the Zweihander. Warhammer: Vermintide 2Swedish developer Fatshark has moved into new territory dark tidetrying to bring left 4 dead– Brawls similar to Games Workshop’s popular Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe. Imagine a surly war hero in Warhammer Fantasy. Now sporting a flashy cybernetic monocle, he wields chainsaws, guns and grenades. It’s violent and dark, and despite years of working in the genre, Fatshark continues to amaze me.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Tides is a cooperative first-person shooter that takes you and your ragtag crew through a series of harrowing missions to a fascist empire — hopefully defeating the Nurgle-infected hordes and returning to your Inquisitor spaceship. , at the central hub “The Morningstar” and try again.

Verminrugged combat Remains very intact. of course, many Now with more guns, I’m happy to say that this massive ranged weapon doesn’t detract too much from the series’ signature chunky melee combat. Melee combat is often another phase, even when you have a heavily armed squad that can rip things apart at range. Reload and reset.add dark tide‘s new “toughness” system (basically a shield that reduces damage and regenerates when you get a melee kill or is near an ally) and dark tide It becomes a clever balancing act between elegant headshots and brutal power sword swings. You’ll want to join the mix together.

one of dark tideThe biggest change in is the way missions are structured, which has resulted in a shift in our general relationship with locations.both and Vermin Campaign, things were very structured in the tradition of fantasy. There were epic and overarching quests, and each mission was unique in getting one step closer to saving the day. All I could describe was forward progress… You traveled from a city in ruins. dots, to the enchanted forest. I often replay old missions, and even though it’s fiction, it really doesn’t make sense to do so.

dark tideThe map in , on the other hand, is a holographic projection of a single location, the “Tertium Hive.” The 40K Lore Hive is a dense arcology housing billions of people. If the Space Marines were unnaturally elevated humans, then this city is a fortified one. Using the tactical map, you and your squad can travel to any of his five areas of the city, though the mission types are slightly different each time. At some point you may be asked to travel to a manufacturing zone to assassinate a high-value target. Your next mission may be in the exact same zone, but with a slightly altered perspective or new rooms or routes opening up, requiring you to use your hacking device to investigate the area.

Image: Fat Shark

In addition to this, Fatshark periodically executes some “conditions”. Two things have appeared so far in the pre-order beta: a ventilation purge that fills rooms and hallways with a dense environmental fog, and a power cut that turns off all the lights and forces you to roam in the dark. . Just a tiny flashlight.Overall, this dark tide More tailored for internal and external play sessions and replayability. It makes sense for teams to perform repeated missions in the same zone. This is because they are fighting a long campaign against the entrenched forces of Chaos. Exactly how far this will go, and whether these evolving conditions and missions will escalate into something closer to a more traditional narrative campaign, is yet to be revealed.

Despite the mission variations, it’s fair to ask if Hive is tiring, since there are only five different zones in total. I’ve been a fan of Tsutomu Nihei’s manga for a long time. condemnation And being a sprawling metropolis in its own right, the Tertium Hive bears a strong resemblance.Typical dark tide In missions, you’ll be trapped underground and navigate endless industrial and sci-fi corridors. But even here, I feel at home. Ask your teammates to slow down as they rush towards the action. Then you can explore all the cool sliding doors and the maze-like network of ventilation pipes and cables. Then suddenly these corridors open up to a vast landscape. A pipe about the size of Godzilla crawls up the castle wall, and a spaceship casually hangs from the ceiling of the hall. In some cases, industrial chimneys spew flames like in the intro. blade runner.

Image: Fat Shark

I’m in awe of the setting and am enamored with the general 40K mood and tone (the cynicism of playing the bad guy, the 80s punk attitude and the regional British accent), but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the hang of it. There are many things that are difficult to put on. All cosmetics look woefully inadequate. (It took me hours to get out of my prison clothes. Even now, I still look like an idiot.) There are also a lot of balance issues that need to be worked out and worked out.I’ve heard of Ogrin “Skullbreaker” Problems in other classes, such as brain-destroying “psychers” It leaves you underpowered, especially on higher difficulty. Add to this the fact that you have to pray to the machine gods to complete the session without crashing to the desktop (or at least it’s easy to get back on the mission). This is not the smoothest game. The launch I witnessed.

Still, I’m confident that I know Fat Shark’s predecessor dark tide In just a few months you will be in much better shape. And maybe in a year or two, after a few expansions and numerous updates, it could become something special.As it stands, it’s just very good…it’s hard to complain. A great setting with tons of replayability and the same old juicy combat? There’s so much to get hooked on and no signs of slowing down.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Tides It was released on November 30th on Windows PC. This game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Fatshark. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.