I’ve picked up DT during the last winter sale and it quickly became my go-to game when I’ve less than an hour available for gaming.
Now that the penance system has been reworked and more importantly that the terrible crafting RNG is gone, I feel like the game has become safe to recommend, so I’ve come up with a review: https://steamcommunity.com/id/stscylla/recommended/1361210
It sounds really positive, but I can’t help it: DT does feel really satisfying to me, whereas the other games of the genre all suffer from some frustrating flaws. How do you feel about it?
Overall the game is really great and satisfying to play.
Unfortunately, i think the game is heading in a terrible direction and is losing a lot of its identity based off the absurd power creep introduced to the players, which started with the talent tree rework and has only gotten worse. I think Fatshark is scared to touch player power and i dont think they really know what to do with the difficulty at the moment; they’ve back themselves into a corner.
Personally I think the challenge is just fine. I play mostly Heresy, sometimes Damnation, sometimes Heresy Auric to complete penances or just see how it feels.
The lack of balance pass is really something that worry me.
PG, revolver, psyker staff etc. There are a lot of things that are too strong, some from the gun itself, some cause of talents.
I am a little tired to have to leave a game cause I face someone that will spam his PG and deal 2 to 3 times the damages that other do. Same for psyker staffs.
This is not that this is bad players, at contrary! But the problem is not the players, but the lack of will from Fatshark to balance things.
Where we are, they need to buff weaker weapons (so weapons less efficient/useful than a PG/revolver/void strike staff) to make them OP like others. Like that, no more OP weapons.
But then, they need to add a 6th difficulty (yes, this is totally stupid so much work just to, in fact, return to what we had… but only smart move if they refuse to nerf)
I will add that, in auric maelstrom, these situations happen less… cause there si enough things that spawn to give something to kill to every players.
My perception of this game’s difficulty is heavily skewed. I have almost 1300 hours in this game and only play in Auric Damnation. I can’t speak for how hard this game is because it would be unfair to everyone else to have my insane, outlying enjoyment of the game change things.
That being said, Darktide is one of the funnest games I’ve played in a long, long time. I enjoy Vermintide but it did not sink its claws into me like Darktide did. This game has some of the most satisfying hack-and-slash horde combat I’ve ever experienced. Ranged weapons all feel like they have distinct and immersive personalities, even if I find variants to simultaneously be a weak feature. They should have made some variants their own weapons and doubled down on their strengths and weaknesses. I do not think I would enjoy a modular system as much as other thinks they would.
Monstrosities are an inconvenience now. Daemonhosts are just annoying and no longer a game-ending scenario. Mixed, but leaning more toward disappointment on this one at the moment.
I think everyone can agree that Specialist spam is not an engaging way to increase difficulty. I’m not ever thrilled by shooting a conga line of Trappers, Flamers, and Mutants.
Pox Hounds got continuously nerfed into a non-threat. Getting stunned by their leap is annoying and feels bad in a janky way. They get knocked off of you more often by other enemies than your own teammates.
No matter how many times Fatshark tries to buff some Blessings, they feel pointless or boring. I genuinely do not like how many Blessings have features that should have been inherent with the weapons in some way.
Psyker Staves are simultaneously powerful and neglected. 3 out of 4 have the same left click. One has an exploitable issue. Most Staff Blessings are really boring or worthless. I wish they would add more staves already. Sienna neglect continues in yet another Tide game.
It is very bad optics to have to clear out power creep with waves of nerfs. It makes the devs look incompetent and it creates anxiety and anger in the community. The best solution is to introduce more complex enemies and situations. The Tox Bomber is a great example of shifting power away from the player by buffing enemies and being an extremely threatening nuisance without having to instantly incapacitate or deal direct damage to the players. It also makes use of Corruption, which is currently a heavily neglected mechanic.
Despite the critical hatred for Tox Bombers, they are the best thing to be added to the game to counteract the increasingly stagnating and lacking dynamism.
Pros: -Satisfying gameplay*
-Solid visuals and theming**
-Decent specials, albeit nothing particularly inspired.
-A decent variety of modifiers***
-Fantastic OST
-Generally decent variety of builds****
Cons: - *When it works correctly.
-Reused enemies from VT2. Pretty much entirely. Fans of VT2 will immediately be able to recognize many of the enemy types, which is a disappointment when you’re also losing 2 factions.
-**Performance leaves a lot to be desired. Some drops during hordes are to be expected, but dropping 30+ FPS is not exactly ideal, possibly more depending on where on the map you are.
-Similar to the above, the server performance is abysmal and noticeably struggles on High Intensity Shock Gauntlet, where it’s the most important. This has been a problem since release and still isn’t fixed. Hearing the crit headshot noise while the gunner you’re shooting gives no craps is the most frustrating thing, or shooting a dog in the face and having it just not care as it pounces you.
-***Cannot select modifiers and many are heavily limited/very rare. It’s extremely common to get chains of the same maps with the same basic modifiers or lack of modifiers entirely.
-**** Major balance issues that have only gotten worse over time and with the advent of the skill trees. Power creep has gone crazy and forced the highest difficulties to just rely on attempting to spam a conga line of elites and specials to have a chance at killing you.
-Bots are… there. Downgrade from VT2 in every way.
-Lack of peer to peer in conjunction with the above bot blandness and poor servers.
Is it fun overall? Yes. Is it best in genre? Hell no. Vermintide 2 is generally a better feeling game overall as a whole package even if Darktide does some things better, L4D2 is a very tight game and still holds up today, even Back 4 Blood has a lot going for it. (Though I stopped playing with the implementation of burn cards, they made it a lot cheesier, albeit I’m an extreme outlier)
