DISCLAIMER: I want to be transparent on my feedback and where it’s coming from. I worked at Fatshark on the V2 account (and very briefly on the Darktide account) from late 2021 to mid-2024. Saying that, while I understand the general tone of the forum right now, this is not the place for me to answer questions about my employer; I just want the comms team and the devs to know where the feedback comes from the context surrounding around it. I do hope that everyone in the tank knows I love their work and have played it for years, and this feedback comes from a good place and not through any malice.
So I’ve been playing pretty heavily recently (though definitely not as long as many people here, so some of this feedback may be pretty newbish) and have found a new love in this game, coming from V2. However, there’s some standout feedback that I wanted to share as a player that I hope the team can take into consideration; some new, some old-timers. I will not be addressing crafting and materials here as I want to wait until the update to feedback. (No, I don’t know what it entails as I have not worked on the account since launch and unfortunately didn’t get the time to participate in internal play tests before I left the studio.)
For easy parsing, I’ll split my feedback up into relevant sections.
Sound
You all know where I’m going to go with this. 
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Some specials are hard to hear:
Especially trappers. I understand they are supposed to be “difficult to track”, but I also would like you all to understand I cannot hear them at all. I could not hear them pre-launch, pre-cochlear implant, post-cochlear implant, and I still can’t hear them now. I also have no directional hearing, so cannot hear where things are coming from. Hearing is integral to 'Tide games, and in absence of hearing, there should be some other indicator for those who can’t (I don’t mean an accessibility indicator, I mean gameplay in general). There’s, of course, larger accessibility improvements to be made in this game, but that’s a post for another day I can deep dive into.
I’ve heard your sound designer has been working on this issue, which is great, so if they want any feedback on someone who can’t hear high pitches (like backstabs), I am at your disposal. -
Sound mush:
Sound in this game, especially when there’s a lot of it, really blends together into this mushy ball of sound. What’s important doesn’t seem to take precedence, and it all just blends together, which just compounds the problem in the first point.
Visibility
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Everything looks the same:
I’ve been playing 'Tide games for seven years now, and this is the first one in the series I really could not tell you what map is what. The names don’t stick out to me, and the scenery all seems to follow the very similar 40k industrial sci fi pattern. This isn’t a dig at the level designers, I want to be clear, just that the levels aren’t distinct enough to stick out in my head. I can tell you what horn of Magnus looks like. I can tell you what Wheat and Chaff looks like, despite not playing V1 in over three years. …I cannot tell you what Maelstrom looks like off the top of my head, and even in a map, I can’t tell you what map I’m on. The names seem to lack some level of distinction as well. (More on this later, as it’s UI feedback.) On this note, it’s also hard for me to tell direction of ranged projectiles on allies and enemies as it’s all just short red lines. -
Too much happening:
Especially explosions. Do you like red fire? Do you like green fire? Do you like fire in general? Everything is on fire in this game and sometimes it’s overwhelming, washing everything out and obscuring other things. I cannot tell when an ally is throwing a bomb vs when an enemy is (though I can spot the blinky light a bit better).
UI
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Unclear talent descriptions:
While the rework helped a lot in giving players agency on how they want to play and making different builds, the following complexity is compounded because as a player, I have no idea what the talents do. For example, “Peril” is briefly introduced in basic training, but then it’s on the user to remember what all the in-game vocabulary is. Peril, Warp, Blitz, Special…etc. etc. Sometimes it’s best to just call it what it is and/or terms players are familiar with. If it’s on G and replaces the grenade…it’s a grenade. Perhaps a different type of one, but one nonetheless (it’s called this in the keybindings too, which with no intro in the prologue, how do I know what it is?). It would really help here to do something similar to BG3 where I can go into game vocab and get a 101 on what it is at any time. I had not played since before talent rework and found the entire thing overwhelming, and rather just looked up some guides and slapped on the talent map. I can say this with Stims too; sometimes the language is unclear, both in name and symbol, whereas in V2 it’s speed/strength/concentration. Overall makes sense. -
Cluttered UI:
I need to disclaimer I love the UX designers and they do great work, so this feedback doesn’t come out of any malice towards them (love you guys, I miss our weekly sessions!). That said, I find the UI both on the mission board and in combat really cluttered. Particularly the overcharge meter on Psyker. I have never blown myself up as much as I have in Darktide because that part of the interface does not stick out to me. Many UIs, while very clean and give the technical vibe, are a lot of reading, words, and numbers, which can make at a glance info kind of difficult. There should be other ways to absorb this info that is not just reading everything in the middle of combat. I think this clutter is also what makes it difficult for me to remember map names.
Progression
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Cutscenes are tedious on new characters:
They’re beautifully done, animated well, and in the first character creation are fun to watch. By my second, third, and fourth character…not so much. It’s very long, tedious, and I’ve seen it all before. Even skipping them by pressing a key feels like a timesink I don’t want to put in when I’d rather just hit the ground running and go. -
Leveling up on new characters feels extended:
I think this is what the community calls #breakthelocks? Not sure. In any case, starting the process over on new characters feels very painful, earning all the levels of trust again, and overall is grind that feels like a necessary evil just to have one of each class. Different strokes for different folks, but I can’t find it in myself to try and grind again past four characters. -
Character customization seems out of place:
I think it’s fun and I’m invested in the first one; the other ones…not so much. It’s a lot of reading and clicking for things that wind up having not too much consequence on the game, and I found myself disappointed it didn’t really extend more into an ARPG element as I expected. The customizations themselves seem a bit limited, which is fine, but facial aspects seem like caricatures of ethnicities they are supposed to be than customization options so players can be who they want to be. Also, not sure why they have such thick hair lines? I think effective character customization has some subtly to it. My opinion only, of course.
Social
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There’s no incentive for teams to continue playing together:
It’s said 'Tide games are games best played with friends, and many people find friends through 'Tide games. While I understand there’s likely networking reasons why Darktide is designed socially the way it is, it feels like there’s no incentive for teams running well and geling well to hit that “merge strike team” button. The social aspects seem somewhat empty, and even the Mourningstar chat is otherwise void of much interaction (versus say, hubs like Warframe where it’s always going). -
Why is the walk to the mission board so long?
Why is the walk to most places so long? Are there keyboard shortcuts I’m missing out on? The Mourningstar is huge, which is cool, but it feels like another time sink where I’d rather gear up and play.
I’ll leave my statement about the locks for posterity so everyone can point and laugh. 
While in V2 I can load in and go “this is empire in flames” immediately, see what it’s called immediately in very segmented info sections, and if I QP into it, I can immediately tell where I am.