Can great core gameplay solely carry this game? My Impressions

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

:scroll: TLDR/Summary:

So, great core gameplay mechanics, I was having a blast because of that. Unacceptably poor variety and painfully boring progression and customization. Also, the optimization is surprisingly poor. Iā€™ve gone from full hype train to cautiously optimistic. I want to play more, but it got stale very quickly. I hate to come across as overwhelmingly negative, because its a fun game. It lacks depth to make it a ā€˜greatā€™ game. The foundation is very strong

The core gameplay loop and combat are excellent. It will keep you coming back for more. Which is good, because very little else about the game will. The game beyond the core loop and good visuals, lacks depth and any sense of meaningful customization/progression; A problem the Vermintide series had, and I thought was the focus of Darktide to fix.

Despite the heavily implied promises of greater variety and depth, the progression is stale and monochromatic. Want a glass cannon Zealot with a focus on ranged horde killing? Too bad, you only get a more bland copy of Saltzpyre, with little to no flexibility to experiment with different playstyles. I donā€™t mind a ton of classes being removed last minute if the alternative was a vast branching skill tree. But it feels like there was no alternative at all.

Leveling up was boring and fruitless. Skills donā€™t change playstyle enough to offer any semblance of
ā€˜choosing your own pathā€™. The same follows for the weapons. Same weapons in the class (lasguns for example), all played the same way, but with different stats. There was no different firing patterns, no different sights, no different attachments. Just slight different stat bars and modifiers.

:white_check_mark: Likes:

General Core Gameplay/combat
The core gameplay loop is well executed. I imagine some tweaks in future updates will only improve on it. Itā€™s immensively satisfying and immersive, and despite not having the supporting material (character progression/customization/etc) carries the game and keeps you coming back.

The OST
Not only the soundtrack, but how Itā€™s implemented is great. My monkey brain is tickled when the beats of the music syncs with the weapon swings. Not sure if that was on purpose, but by the emperor is it satisfying?

The Atmosphere:
Ray tracing really is something to behold, even at 20fps. Some complain itā€™s too dark, I enjoy that, but I am hoping for more varying levels and more exploration into different atmospheres.

The Gunplay:
Is satisfying and well thought out. I think the balance of ammo is fair. The animation and shooting mechanics are challenging without being bothersome.

Enemy spawning system:
It feels smoother and more challenging than vermintide. Still needs some tweaks and more randomness in my opinion, but its impressive as is.

More difficult elites/specials:
I found I really enjoyed the challenge of the tanker heavies and more ā€˜blend inā€™ specials. It makes things tenser and encourages teamwork; Really gives elite killers like psyker and veteran a really important role

Suppression:
I found the suppression mechanic to be quite fun and helpful.

:negative_squared_cross_mark: Major Concerns
These concerns are purely based off the beta or what Fatshark has commented on. These are game breakers in my opinion and the top concerns among my friends who played the beta. Unacceptable to release without addressing.

Class customization and progression
This was a universal concern among all my friends, one that will keep several from buying at all. The class customization is dismal, boring, and uninspiring. If youā€™re gonna get rid of the additional classes, at least have an extensive skill tree that allows players a wide variety of fun and interesting paths to go down. Instead, it feels like VT2 skill trees were tweaked and dumped in. It makes the game go stale rather quickly. Large, diverse skill trees are not a crazy feature, itā€™s been a staple in gaming for a decade. It was heavily implied this game would feature the ability to work towards and make a large variety of unique builds, and in its current state fails that miserably. This will absolutely kill the re-playability for most people.

EDIT: I should reiterate after the discord channel popped off. A large portion of my gaming circle have written off Darktide completely or are planning on revisiting in 6-12mos for this exact reason. Progression and variety that is ā€˜worse than previous gamesā€™, ā€˜boring & dullā€™, ā€˜kills replayabilityā€™, and etc. I see this as the #1 concern at the moment.

The optimization
Letā€™s be real, it is horrendous. Even those with the best modern hardware will have issues running at an acceptable high and/or consistent framerate. The game wasnā€™t even utilizing my GPU, which might be part of the problem. I hope to see this fixed in later betas or at release. While playable, Iā€™dit consider unacceptable to release in current condition.

Weapon Progression
Again, it was heavily implied that there would be a seemingly overwhelming amount of diverse weapon customization and diversity. I saw none of that in the Beta. All of the higher level unlocked weapons felt exactly the same with slightly different stat bars and stat modifiers. More or less the same as vermintide. varying stats =/= variety.

Stats
This is a common complaintā€¦ The weapon/ability stats are confusing and frustrating to decipher. Look, I donā€™t need specific numbers, but I do need to understand at a glance what an ability does and how itā€™ll affect my gameplay. Showing me a symbol or calling a fancy name like ā€˜agonyā€™ but not explaining doesnā€™t help. If the game is gonna lean heavily into weapon customization, at least make it more intuitive.

:triangular_flag_on_post: Minor Concerns/QoL issues
Issues I feel are concerning and annoying, but not necessarily deal breakers. Acceptable to be fixed after release (But please not years after). Some of these are confusing because they were simple issues that were discussed extensively, had near universal player consensus, fixed in previous games, but then totally ignored/removed in Darktide.

  1. Some of the weapon specials (like the Catachan) feel fun to use, but worthless in gameplay.
  2. No easy way to compare current weapons and one in the shop.
  3. No shared loot. It encourages anti-teamwork behavior.
  4. The spatial audio for elites isnā€™t quite right. If they are above or below a floor, they still sound like itā€™s right next to you.
  5. No post match stats/scoreboard. I donā€™t care if its just my stats shown privately. itā€™s dumb not to have it.
  6. Spaces in name not allowed, why?
  7. The game should put the entire squad in the same lobby automatically
  8. Character creation could use more variation, sliders, and etc.
  9. The dialogue, while good, repeated itself a lot. Fun at first, but quickly got annoying. Shame because the acting is great.
  10. UI/HUD is missing a lot of QOL features (IE team ammo count/health).
  11. Health/ammo/grenade items are difficult to ping
  12. The Mourningstar feels lifeless and boring.
  13. No way to test equipment loadouts on the Mourningstar
  14. Flashlights are too dim.
  15. No way to cancel dash special moves, making them a severe liability.
  16. The cutscenes are jarring, the jump between scenes is harsh. Needs better transitions.
  17. Swapping to some ranged weapons is annoyingly clunky and slow.
  18. No 3rd person swap during revive
  19. There needs to be adjustment slides to camera shakes and effects and tuning to the player stagger.

:fly: Bugs
List of bugs I personally encountered consistently during my 20hrs.

  1. Weapon graphic glitches in level start cutscreen. Scrambled models and/or wrong positioning. Happens about 35% of the time
  2. Player models will sometimes freeze to statues and glide instead of walk. Happens in Mourningstar and in maps (usually at beginning)
  3. Final intro scene (with them walking towards camera) often the playable models will appear behind cutscene, resulting in twins of the same player.
  4. Pillar decorations in bottom corners in the pre-match lobby cuts off part of player name tag (2660x1440)
  5. You ridiculously trampoline from some grenade explosions
  6. Loading screens often freeze and stutter
  7. Cursor in the character name box skips around when you try to move with mouse or arrow keys.
  8. Keybindings and other settings donā€™t save after restarting the game.
  9. Enemies occasionally spawn into existence literally right next to you
  10. Rarely a loaded horde will blink in and out of existence as you look at them.
  11. Sometimes the revolver animation shows animation for one shell loading, but actually loads 2-3
  12. Sometimes AI has unbelievable combat range and accuracy, especially when they fire from or behind cover.
16 Likes
2

Good job. This is a great feedback and I agree with everything. Iā€™ll review each item later and add anything if I remember something that is not listed.

1 Like
3

Agree. And very nice feedback.
For me, the main problem is character development, from poor talents to just 2 weapons? And this is supposed to be the entire EQ of with the 6-window form of the skins? kinda poorly compared with V2

Another issue is the problem with character development and bravely with the rest of your operators. The V2 crates made sense because you could have opened them on another character, so you didnā€™t have to build the whole new character from scratch. Too much grind in that regard

5

Fantastic write-up!

I agree with everything here. And one more:

MISSION LENGTH
Iā€™m currently seeing about 25-30 minute missions. Maybe because Iā€™m new to the franchise but I think Iā€™d like to choose a variety of missions by the length of time depending on how much time I have.

Such as:

  • Quick (~15 minutes)
  • Normal (~30 minutes)

MUSIC
Loving the music and the ramp-up when hordes are coming. Music is normally the first thing I turn off in a game. But not this time.

6

Yall replying to a post that was made in the closed beta.

Personally, i feel like tha game is very good. Just needs to have crafting added

7

This is a concern for me as well. What is the most frustrating about this you ask? The fact my character literally says ā€œHey teammate, need some ammo?ā€ as Iā€™m picking it up!

I feel like such a lumberfart I have started actively avoiding items, to avoid interaction, to avoid voice lines, and its only day 1. Ill probably get over it soon.

This is equivalent to someone at the dinner table saying, hey want the last piece of pizza? As they finish the last piece and tell you how good it was!! Donā€™t even get me started on the character that says ā€œgo find your own ammoā€ Like geez I get weā€™re all prisoners under a lot of stress but ammo is literally the only thing keeping us alive. Ammo should be a celebrated sight in 40k becauseā€¦wellā€¦there is only war n stuff. dakka dakka dakka

8

its still relevant, why does that matter?

10

My biggest gripe is that none of the damage or skill mechanics are properly explained or viewable if you forget!

What is the psykers stacks? What do they do!? What is the difference between enemy armor types!??

That and Psykers staff is crapā€¦The one that causes the aoe explosion when charged like Siennaā€™s from Vermintide. Please buff the staff because itā€™s R1/Mouse 1 is too expensive to use and does not aoe and the charge doesnā€™t completely kill mobs despite burning a ton of your meterā€¦

And the skill that burns enemies when you kill a special tested in the second tree does so little damage it may as well not exist at all. Itā€™s like 12 damage to enemies with 120+ health pools. Itā€™s laughable and by the time you get there if they werenā€™t there at your throat to begin with itā€™s not even going to phase the mobs around them.

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Thereā€™s just a huge lack of information in general that itā€™s embarrassing. Like anything related to weapon special attacks.