I’d like to open this post with some positive feedback: the sound design in general, from the music to the voice acting to the weapon sounds is extremely high quality. As a long-time fan of WHFB and 40k it’s wonderful for me to see this company now do justice to both universes, as the presentation in Darktide possibly exceeds the already very high bar set in Vermintide 1 and 2.
Now onto something I would like to see changed, the information conveyed through the sound:
1. In Vermintide 2, all special spawns are very clearly signposted through an audio effect. Although the mutant, hound, and tox-bomber are similarly signposted, I feel that the trapper and bomber also should be. I suspect they are not because they count as ‘elites’, but this doesn’t really do them justice as they fill the same special disabler or area denial role as the Packmaster and Globadier in Vermintide.
I do appreciate that their weapons trigger a sound/visual that is reactable to with a dodge, but still, knowing they are there via a spawn warning would make the game feel much fairer. The trapper and bomber have some rather excellent gibbering/threatening lines that could be leveraged for this purpose.
2. Also in Vermintide 2, enemy attacks approaching from the side or rear are indicated by a loud WHOOSHING sound that triggers my lizard brain to spin around and parry. At present in Darktide, the smaller enemies can often blindside you with a hit that has no warning.
Perhaps this is my own hearing failing here, but even with the music turned very low in the mixer (which saddens me as the music is excellent), I still never hear lone or small groups of enemies trickling in behind me making sounds such as breathing, yelling, or their footsteps to warn me of their presence.
While they generally aren’t getting through my toughness (on Heresy, anyway), being hit this way just feels bad.
I appreciate that Darktide is not Vermintide, but I think that changing the audio to convey the same amount of information as in Vermintide 2 would only enhance Darktide.