First, let me start by saying Darktide is probably the best 40k game atmospherically speaking since Space Hulk: Deathwing. My friend group has been loving playing it and between the closed beta, pre-order beta and release I’ve put in ~70 hours so far.
I’m greatly enjoying the combat feel but, while the core gameplay loop is great in mission, what is out of mission seems like a step back from the two previous games from Fatshark.
As the title says I think when we’re back on The Mourningstar it feels worse then when the Ubersreik Five come back to Taal’s Horn Keep or even the Red Moon Inn.
This is because of two things that both stem from the same issue: a lack of cross-character compatibility.
Firstly we have shared resources, or rather the lack of them.
In VT1 and VT2 we had the ability that if I break down materials for weapons this could be used across all of my characters. Why can’t this still be the case in Darktide?
While we are rejects in Darktide, and you could argue that each prisoner gangpressed into Inquisitorial duties probably doesn’t want to share their loot I could also say that there is likely no way Kerillian would have let anyone melt down her elven swords to recast them into pistols for Saltzpyre or Bardin. And yet that is exactly how the game plays out.
Secondly we have the post-max-level progress and progress carry-over to new characters.
In VT2 you would ALWAYS get items after a completed mission, while most of these would get melted down into crafting components you also had the options to choose who these items would be for by opening them with a specific character. You would also continue to get commendation chests upon reaching a ‘prestige level up’ after hitting max level.
This allowed you to play your favorite character but still choose to gear-up your weaker choices if you wanted to try someone new.
While weapons didn’t carry over between characters (especially considering Kruber, Saltzpyre and Sienna all were Empire and had similar weapon types such as sword and greatsword) trinkets, charms and necklaces did.
Darktide has since replaced those three slots with three curio spaces but they act the same. However the curios are not shared between rejects on your account. This leads to two issues in and of itself.
First being that a good curio for one class can be given to a class that it isn’t as good for, for example getting +toughness on the ogryn or +health on the veteran. In VT2 if I got a good trinket for Saltzpyre while playing Kruber I could still equip it on Saltzpyre.
Secondly, because you cannot give curios to other rejects on your account and because there is currently no benefit to XP gain at max level, the ‘+% XP’ curios become worthless the moment you hit level 30 on that character. In VT2 if you could have gotten a +XP trinket it would ease in both leveling up lower level characters and getting more commendation chests via prestige level ups on max level characters.
As a compromise/solution to the curio issue, if we can’t have a direct shared inventory then at the very least allow us to swap curio for curio between characters. I’d assume canonically they’re trading and bartering amongst themselves.
Overall, while I am greatly enjoying the in-mission gameplay I think changes need to be made to bring the crafting mechanics more in line with previous Warhammer ‘tide’ games Fatshark has put out.
TL:DR - Crafting and inventory systems are lacking compared to Vermintide 1 and 2’s and all characters on your account should share resources.