Hi everyone,
I’m a Fatshark tester, and I’ve been playing the Expedition game mode for about two days.
As a Partner Creator, I’m not entirely sure if it’s appropriate for me to say negative things about a patch to the developers. But I’d still like to share my honest thoughts.
Before getting into the main points, if you need a quick overview of what the Expedition mode actually looks like, this video might help:
In this post, I’ll only be talking about Expedition mode, since it’s the biggest part of this update and the newly introduced game mode.
As for the balance changes, opinions vary a lot depending on the region anyway, so I’m just going to go with the flow on that.
(Though personally I still think the Pickpocket nerf shouldn’t have happened, or at least should have been handled in a different way… but I’m sure many people here will disagree.)
To put it bluntly, I feel like Expedition might end up following the same path as Trials of Mortis — a mode that just doesn’t really fit Darktide.
The first reason is that it’s hard to feel the core fun of Darktide.
To me, the fundamental appeal of Vermintide and Darktide has always been the same:
four players working together to fight off hundreds, sometimes thousands of enemies rushing them all at once.
The excitement comes from that teamwork — the intense, deep combat where everyone struggles toward a shared objective and eventually manages to overcome the odds and return to the Mourningstar together. That experience is what made the game so fun for me.
But Expedition seems to be aiming in a completely different direction.
Since it’s structured as an extraction-style mode, farming resources and solving mechanics become far more important than the combat itself.
There’s also a time limit, and multiple objectives can be done simultaneously. Because of that, the most efficient way to clear the mode — meaning collecting as many Tech-Remnants as possible before extracting — is for the team to split up and complete separate objectives individually.
On top of that, since the main goal is farming, avoiding combat often ends up being the most efficient strategy.
It almost feels like Fatshark anticipated this, because the enemy detection range seems extremely small.
In the video below, it almost looks like the enemies are pretending not to notice me.
Because of this, the core fun of Darktide — combat — ends up taking a back seat, while the gameplay becomes mostly about running around the map, completing mechanics, and farming resources.
(Of course you can still engage enemies if you want, but in this mode that’s simply not the efficient way to play.)
When I first tried the mode, it was still interesting thanks to the new system and the high-quality map design. But after playing more rounds, I started missing the standard missions and even Havoc mode.
The second reason is the lack of motivation for repeated play.
In Expedition, the goal is to gather as many Tech-Remnants as possible and return safely to the Mourningstar.
And my first thought after finishing a run was:
“Okay, that’s great… but what can I actually do with these?”
The answer right now is: nothing.
Unlike other extraction games, repeated runs don’t allow you to start the next game with additional buffs or special items.
Every run basically feels identical.
You spawn with your chosen loadout, clear mechanics and farm resources across the three investigation zones, and then extract.
That’s it.
At the very least, there should have been some kind of system to motivate players to keep playing the mode long term.
For example, why is Havoc mode, which has a pretty bad reputation on the forums, still more popular than ‘Mortis Trial’ and able to maintain a stable player base?
Even though Havoc gives players heavy debuffs and makes enemies extremely strong — which can feel unfair — the process of working together with your team to fight off endless waves of enemies is simply more immersive and satisfying.
Even if the rewards aren’t meaningful, it still preserves the core essence of a Tide game.
But Expedition doesn’t feel that way.
Since it’s pursuing a completely different gameplay style, there should have been other elements added to make the mode enjoyable in its own way.
Surprisingly, there’s basically nothing.
(There is the Penances, but honestly I don’t think that was designed to be something players are meant to enjoy…)
Personally, I think there absolutely needs to be a way to spend the resources you extract — whether that’s upgrading existing weapons to higher tiers, unlocking cosmetics, or something similar.
That’s why I feel Expedition mode is somewhat disappointing.
I also showed the preview to other Korean players and asked what they thought, and most of the responses were similar: “It’s a bit underwhelming.”
The most common feedback I heard was simply that people would prefer more new weapons and more new maps for the core game.
I assume many of you here have probably seen Expedition gameplay through other streamers or YouTubers already.
So I’m curious —
what do you all think?
