Been playing Helldivers 2 recently and

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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So, I’m supposed to enjoy using the exact same build and character for days on end with zero change, zero variety until the magical crafting system deigns to give me something that I can actually use. So I’m supposed to enjoy the great gameplay with the same build because I’m what? That dumb? That simple? That I enjoy cool fight stuff and the repetition of the exact same play style for days on end? Do you even hear yourself, do you ever stop to think how others could possibly enjoy things in a way you dont?

I’m a variety gamer, I enjoy doing other things and not just the exact same thing every single day. Like don’t get me wrong with my autism I can do that for months, but I do eventually reach a burnout point. And after a 3 month straight stretch the last time december 18th was my burnout point. Just because I hit that am I not allowed to want a game to be better than it currently is, does my opinion just magically not matter because I’m not logging in daily grinding melk points? Not logging in hourly to see if the armoury will even give me anything I can work with? Not running a web browser extension to see from the browser if there is an item I could potentially use? Am I supposed to enjoy the Gacha system that is Brunt, go and pull some slot levers and hope he deigns to give me a worthwhile item to offer to Hadron as Sacrifice in hopes she doesn’t spite me?

Please tell me oh mighty enlightened gamer of glorious magnificence who can enjoy something mindlessly. Does my opinion not count in any way shape or form because I cannot bring myself to experience the torment that is this games current gear aquisition system?

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Yup.

Games are meant to be fun, not an annoying fulltime job.

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Yeah, I played a game the other day on 7 (Suicide) and it spawned no less than 20 chargers one after another either from bug holes or patrols spawning in right on top of us.

That not making the game harder, that is just making it annoying and frustraighting.

Funny, it’s the same sort of thing Fatshark did with dark tide, have enemies spawn out of walls or right behind/in front of you, that’s just bs and does nothing more than push people away…

Apart from addicted players.

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So it’s baitposting now?

I mean, it couldn’t possibly have of been posted to encourage the developers to make the game better, get rid of the toxic sinister game mechanics that frustrait people dragging the game and just allowing people to have fun.

But no, according to you it’s baitposting?

Because as it stands, I want both HD2 and DT to roaring successes and for both games to iron out the flaws and improve.

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I don’t know what you are talking about. It’s optional to avoid combat to give you a choice for more tactical/objective focus approach.

I personally play only 8-9 for weeks now (220h in HD2) and I fight whatever there is my way. Sometimes those fights are super long becasue new patrols come in, enemies call reinforcements, new breaches appear and another patrol comes etc. but I chose to play like that. I have all resoruces capped, all warbonds maxed, all superstore armors unlocked (and I didn’t spend a SINGLE $ for anything, all from playing the game) and capped medals so I just play for fun. And for me fun is just combat. If someone is still grinding his samples, stealth approach and minimizing chance of losing samples is good. But once you are maxed out, you play for the challenge and fun only.

I also solo 8-9 sometimes when I don’t feel like playing with others. My usual loadouts are:

bots: Stun Grenades (for Hulks and drops stun), Scorcher, Airstrike, Orbital Laser, 500kg, Autocannon or 500kg->Shieldback pack and Autocannon-> Laser Cannon. That’s my 8-9 loadout

bugs: Impact Grenade, Slugger, 500kg, Orbital Railcannon, Personal Shield, Flamethrower/Arc Thrower/EAT.

Those are general loadouts. I have also specific ones for short 12 min missions for bug hole seals (nade launcher/Eagles), Defense bugs (2x Mortars, Patrior Suit, Arc Thrower), Defense bots etc.

Game gives you plently of freedom to either play tactical, stealthy or more directly. And new upcoming faction (Illuminaties) and new upcoming stratgems (Nuclear bomb, Carpet bombing, teleportaion backpack, quadruple autocannon Patriot Suit and many more will give you a lot of ways to play as you want.

I really enjoy playing the game for the sake of fun gameplay instead of being fked in the ass by RNG and “player retention” mechanics.

You knows whats best player retention mechanic - fun game, fun gameplay, new content.

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I return.

HD2 is much better at building a fun co-op experience than Darktide. Lots of stuff to do in every single mission, lots of variation, team coordination could be better but it’s low difficulty, I’m having a blast.

The shop is basically ‘do these things, invest your time, the community doing so also means you get lots of progress every so often’.

Looking at the ‘battle passes’ and the cosmetic shop…I could spend money, but don’t feel remotely forced to. It doesn’t feel necessary when I can just run a few low difficulty missions and directly buy that cool strategem I wanted or gather enough medals to grab a new gun to try out.

Darktide will always have that visceral melee combat and better-quality sound and music to fall back on, as well as the 40k IP. But in terms of building something where I can enjoy progressing? Where I feel I’m getting out more than I’m putting in?

HD2 thus far is knocking that out of the park. No gacha, no nonsense prices where you have to spend $15 for a single skin. No ‘we built this for player retention purposes’ BS.

It’s…fun.

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Hopping in from Helldivers again and gotta agree. We are on basically month 2 and we’ve already had several major events happen to expand out both the world and the roster of missions and enemies as well as weapons and equipment.

The content pipeline is amazingly fast and has had several big game changers in intermediate updates like the addition of environmental effects.

On top of that I appreciate the world building of using major orders as a way to advance the plot along or throw in some world building.

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I agree with this

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that’s what happens when you plan ahead, not just painstakingly make it to the finish line and then be like, ah we did it time to rest

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You mean trip over before the finish line, have the finish moved line back to where they tripped and lie there face first for the next few months.

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I too was coaxed into Helldiving. Very similar to the original with obvious differences. Terribly optimized. I only picked it up a few weeks ago, played with a friend and their mate a few hours, then dropped into some random matches where some much higher levels who were very nice and on mic dropped in and helped me around… the friends list didn’t work. Couldn’t join into matches listing as available because by the time you try to join an active room outside of quickplay, 9/10 times it’s already full or the host quit, but the ghost of their ship is still lingering. Oh, and because the servers were so overwhelmed they couldn’t keep folks in I wasn’t even able to play for several days in a row after purchasing. That was fun.

At this point the friend issue seems to have been sorted, but… I’ll be honest: I have way more fun in Darktide.

Helldivers 2 retains so much of the original DNA that, while it’s fine enough to quickmatch and pub around without comms, it always feels like you have to adhere to some sense of social contract since you don’t actively want to waste anyone’s time by leaning into the chaos the game can really stir up. In a group of friends, you all KNOW shenanigans are afoot and that’s partly what you’re there for, but in a pub… it loses a ton of what makes it fun IMO.

Don’t get me wrong: some of that same social contract exists in Darktide, but I understand the mechanics more and my lack of mechanical knowledge is usually made up for my ability to play the game fairly effectively (not flawlessly, not “I can carry anyone”, but “good enough”) so that I’m not worrying I’m the one wasting anyone’s time.

I’ve unlocked the Helldive difficulty, but… I’m not even running Extreme solo. The spawns or patrols usually screw me over pretty hard and my brain for some reason is having a hard time wrapping what I’m doing differently from folks who regularly solo Helldive-- so that’s got me frustrated and disinterested in engaging with the game in any capacity outside of a group of friends.

I get the loop. I appreciate it. I just don’t find it to be as deep nor as entertaining.

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helldivers is trash compared to darktide. such a lame game with absolutely no depth of combat. darktide shits all over helldivers in combat

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OK?

I don’t believe that any of us ever stated that Helldivers 2 is directly superior to Darktide in every conceivable way, so I’ll agree with you that Darktide combat (specifically melee) is significantly better than Helldivers 2 combat. However, Darktide combat always ends up boiling down to “kill everything that moves”, whilst Helldivers 2 is almost absolutely objective focused, thus Helldivers 2 doesn’t specifically NEED to be as good as Darktide in the area of combat.

On the subject of other Darktide pros, Darktide also has a significantly better soundtrack and atmosphere, but do you know what pros Helldivers 2 brings to the table? Every mission is unique and fresh, the premium currency is earnable, every weapon that you unlock is just as good as everyone else’s version of it, there are EXTREMELY frequent community events, the only RNG in the game is actually good RNG (like randomly generated maps or in-game pickups), and there is also an interactive Galactic War system which helps HEAVILY with player retention.

To sum things up: Neither of these games are perfect, but the numbers do show that Helldivers 2 is still doing SIGNIFICANTLY better than Darktide ever has.

Edits: I made my argument more concise and readable, but then I got a bit frustrated with my grammar and proceeded to edit it a few too many times :sweat_smile:

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Darktide combat feels like 40k. In that you’re having to hack and slash through an unending horde.

Helldivers combat (especially Automaton missions) feels more…tactical? Everything boils down to ‘gun A or gun B’ but the variety of missions, objectives, and events keep it fresh and make you feel like you’re part of a Forever War.

If Darktide had procedural/randomized maps and something like the Galactic War system, it’d probably still be trucking along at a much higher player count. Is the Galactic War system essentially rigged with the devs playing Dungeon Master? Yes. Does it feel like that? No.

Darktide could’ve assembled a couple dozen map layouts out of the chunks they already use, rigged them to a random number generator, and assigned ‘biomes’ to certain ‘hive sectors’.

…funnily enough, stratagems aside, HD2 feels like more of a 40k game than Darktide in the fact that we’re hurling untold numbers of people into the fight, our own characters are utterly disposable, and it’s a grinding conflict at the behest of a farcical government. Fatshark could learn from this.

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That’s honestly my biggest gripe with Helldivers 2.

They need to add super credits as a base for higher difficulty missions. And more medals. The endgame really is just medals and super credits. Samples and requisition you max out fast and unlock everything associated with it. XP too. So you just do eradicates or low level POI farming (usually difficulty 2 no rare samples and less support weapons )… And technically the fastest way to do it is to do the nic disable/enable, go back to ship, preserve the same map, and go back to the same spawns of medals and super credits and do it fast. If you have a friend to do vaults even better. I have everything unlocked except all the super store armor and I have 5000 super credits and 150 medals now (the 250 medal cap is annoying).

It would also be nice if their discord had a suggestions/feedback area.

But despite all that… Still better than Darktide (progression specifically).

And as for combat as people said, I do think helldivers 2 can feel a lot more strategic. The armoured classes matter a lot more. I can’t just heavy melee swing through all armor. If I don’t have the ordnance… I have to run away/rely on someone else.

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FTFY

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Darktide does a lot more things better than Helldivers 2, however Helldivers 2 maintains engagement. Getting equipment has zero hassle, no gambling away to hope I get something even usable. Constantly new things to do and see… Darktide just stumbles up to a finish line, tells the boys to paint a new line where it is standing and acts like it’s a victory.

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Helldivers 1, and I believe Helldivers 2 at is essence is most fun as a “party game.” It’s certainly not a perfect game, but it facilitates a lot of random funny bs to happen that is best when no one is taking it seriously or perhaps slightly intoxicated. For me the perfect analogy is Super Smash Bros. CAN you get super into the nitty gritty of everything and play super competitively? Yes. But I believe it is at It’s best when you have a group of friends messing around with items on beating each other up with whatever characters and seeing what stupid stuff happens.

Personally I still think HD 1 was able to emphasize and capitalize on that feeling more than HD 2. But I digress. I do think some people can care about HD 2 a little too much.

HD 2 and DT for me don’t compete much as DT I view in a more “”“serious”“” for lack of a better term (hardcore maybe?) light while HD 2 is to mess around and see my friends get turned into water melon pulp after that eagle stratagem bounces a little too close.

HD 2 does a lot of stuff right rhat DT does wrong. But as far as gameplay is concerned I could play DT every day, solo or not, at It’s peak. I cannot say the same thing for Helldivers, as much of a great game I think it is.

I consistently think faster than I type so I have to go back and fix my posts constantly, so I feel your pain.

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Honestly the biggest strength that Helldivers 2 gets over Darktide is presentation and that it understands what people are there for.

It took the idea of just making the gameplay a funny cinematic moments sandbox and just ran with it to the logical conclusion and kept running with it.

There are some parts of Darktide I really wish they had that level of dedication to (40k weapon feel) and didn’t have that level of commitment (the dam crafting system).

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I used to play Imperial Guard and I can assure you that melee is not a big part of my 40k experience.