I just wanted to know whether the current Steam reviews reflect the true state of the game or if the negative feedback is primarily driven by the lack of community updates.
I did ask in discord but didn’t get a response.
The end goal is to purchase the game but reading mixed reviews across multiple sources.
(Apologies if it’s the wrong category)
save your money atm, wait 6 months and see how the game is then, yes the reviews reflect the state of the game
This ^^^^ You’re not missing anything yet…
I would say its both, there are clear issues with the game such as stability issues, balance issues, massive layers of RNG tied to the progression system, as well as missing features, and other issues i wont get into.
On top of all of that is the lack of any substantial communication from the developers besides corporate speak and delays. That whole “next week” meme basically came into existence because the devs has been delaying what is essentially an update on the next update for about three weeks now.
Cheers all. Not the answer I wanted but appreciate the honesty. I’m going to save my money and revisit in the future.
Check back in a few months, the game is in a bit of a dire state right now, but there is a foundation for a good game in there, so hopefully the devs can manage to turn it around eventually.
It’s an unfinished game, you will definitely notice that past character level 11.
And it’s unclear when it will be finished (if ever will).
It will be such a shame if this happens from what I’ve seen so far.
100%
hidden poll detected. but yes they are not talking to the community no updates no roadmap (except community managers, who can’t do anything). if i had known that, i would have waited for a sale. sad.
Most of the reviews are legit - as they say gameplay is awesome the rest sucks.
I personally keep playing as I can still enjoy the great gameplay and love the grimdark atmosphere this game creates very competently.
But the ugly side is true as well which made basically ALL of my friends stop playing the game…
Botom line: On average I’d say everyone who buys now can get around 60 hours of great fun out of the game for the 40 bucks they charge - which is actually quite a fair money/fun ratio I’d say. But if the above stuff should ever get adressed 400+ hours are propably realistic - so waiting might be a good way to go…
For me however - gotta go and purge some filthy heretics in the name of the god emperor of mankind.
Cadia stands!
The steam reviews reflect the current state of the mismanagement of the game and the way they abandoned it to go on vacation for 4 weeks. If this was day 1 of the game reviews would most likely be like 80% positive because its a good shell that people are expecting to be filled.
I would purchase it in current state for less than $15 maybe.
Full price? No way, ain’t worth it. Game is so far from finished product like me from changing my review to positive.
Vermintide 2 took around 2 years to be in the state where you can say game is completed and good. Expect nothing less from Darktide, if they will even do that.
Money is tight for us at the moment (saving for wedding) so I can’t really justify spending that kind of money on a game if it’s not finished. With the hours that people have been playing, I was hoping it was better but after everyones replies, I’m not going to risk it.
Hey bud, one thing I do for a game when I am not sure is sort by reviews that have a certain number of hours since it sorts out the people that left bad reviews within 20 min of installing due to “bugs”. It gives me a general overview about the health of the game.
Here are the stats for you.
Over 10 hours, including the pre-release beta stands at 56% positive reviews
Over 10 hours, NOT including the pre-release beta stands at 44% positive reviews
Over 100 hours, including the pre-release beta stands at 33% positive reviews
Over 100 hours, NOT including the pre-release beta stands at 33% positive reviews
If you arent including playtime and since January 1rst, which is 1 month after release, the game currently stands at 33% positive reviews.
As for my personal take, the game has great core gameplay but no satisfying end game. The current gear is locked at 80% of their eventual max which means most grinding is useless. There is cosmetic real money shop that is predatory and over priced, and the in game cosmetic shop that is free is just another crappy color over gear you already own. The currency you accumulate on each character isnt account wide nor is the equipment. Most feats on each class doesnt have much repercussions (some do but not many) and the crafting system hasnt been fully implented even tho it was promised back in december (wasnt even fully shipped with the game). There is still an insane amount of disconnection and the player base has been reduced by 95% of what it was at launch. Game pass users are already having a difficult time to find others and some Steam users are reporting the same.
The game has an insane RNG loop that would put most mobile gacha games to shame. There is also no scoreboard to even know if you are doing well, let alone a team scoreboard.
We have had zero communication from the devs even tho they touted the game as live service. The excuses have been the holiday vacations and a CM that couldnt start until recently. Previous CMs of Fatshark have retreated to their own “games” and Fatshark in general has been gloating in gaming articles.
The only info we got at the moment is there is maybe a communication update coming in this week which will talk about hotfixes but it doesnt seem we will get anything major for a while.
You will hear many people say it is the cycle Fatshark has always done but it doesnt excuses it. If the game goes under 20$ and there is still a core community willing to help out new comers, id say go for it in a few months but at this moment, I would stay far away from this game and pay attention to anything Fatshark may release as it is a habit with them since their inception.
yes and no 
on the one hand it is a fantastic game some of the best well designed rewarding fun 4 player co op gameplay , truly top tier, i ahve sunk over 300 hours into it in a few short months and loved every moment.
but as true as that is its also true , the crafting system isnt done, the loot system is a placeholder, there were tons of performance issues and crashs (i was lucky they never got me but that also means i cant speak to them being fixed or not). there are broken promises and well i havent read this thread but im guessing going over the pain points will be redundant soo…
imo if you are intrinsically motivated (playing the missions) is your main drive its worth jumping in. but if you are extrinsicly motivated (getting loot , unlocking stuff, working towards best in slot items etc) then id give it a while yet.
I’d avoid Darktide as things are right now. Maybe it’ll be a better, more complete game in half a year to a year from now.
Warhammer fans, unlike most gamers and their chosen games, are absolutely obsessed with recommending Warhammer games to people… but this one is pretty conflicting.
The game is in a weird spot right now where I feel like I should recommend it due to how stellar the core gameplay is, it is easily the best in its own genre, and even holds its own extremely well in other genres like pure shooters.
Like, I really want to recommend it to people interested in Warhammer 40k because it could and should be the “core” game to introduce people to Warhammer 40k video games.
But I can’t deny it feels unfinished, the hub feels empty and like its missing a ton of things, the number of maps isn’t great, and the lack of classes feels confining.
Fatshark need to take notes from Creative Assembly’s brilliantly executed soft relaunch of total Warhammer 3 with Immortal Empires, that game also had a rough launch.
I’ll summarize my steam review, as someone who has several thousand hours of Vermintide 1 and 2, and pushing 300 hours on Darktide.
The game part of the game has issues in stability, balance, and QoL, but remains very enjoyable to play for the most part. Everything around the game, the progression, item systems, level selector, is a complete mess and does have an undeniable impact on playing.
If you just want something to kill some time and don’t give a damn about meta progression, there’s far worse games you could be doing that on. If you want a game that you can invest in and build up/work towards something, wait until they’ve fixed all that up.
But if you’re getting married, save the cash, good game or not. And congratulations.
I think if you buy it for what is is right now, keeping in mind there are issues you will have a good time.
Gameplay is awsome, even though there are issues with server perf like hit reg etc on highest difficulties.
I think most ppl (like myself) have an issue with how the release was and the lack of content that was promised. Some missing features completely alter the game (crafting, weap customisation) and all the missing weapons.
I bought it in large part due to these features and untill they deliver, ill be complaining and ranting about it 
That said, I have also played 250h of darktide which speaks to how much fun the the core gameplay really is!