Introduction
Hi all. I think everyone here is really excited for Darktide. The game looks very promising and people seem like they would love to get their hands on the game even at this stage of developement. However, there have been few red flags or concerns pointed out by the community so far. Sure, we are talking about game features exclusively presented in the trailers but even then some things seem to be lacking.
The Zombies Problem
I think by now it is clear many people are not very happy with the types of enemies we will be fighting in Darktide. While this game came out of nowhere if I had to guess what type of enemies we would come across in a Vermintide game set in the realities of 40k I would think of anything but the zombies (I mean the Poxwalkers…). I mean im sure they will be fun to cut through since it’s the universal type of enemy in any swarm/horde shooter but honestly I think it’s kind of a missed shot to put in the game enemies this generic. I dig the traitor guardsman enemy type though!
Expanding the enemy roster and making the missions feel nonlinear
With all the races and units in wh40k lore the sky is the limit really. Personally since im a big fan of chaos cultists I would love to see them in the game. They don’t have to be associated with Nurgle like all the others, they could raid the hive city to undermine his plans and area’s stability. Perhaps to steal an artifact or simply to sabotage some sort of religious structure that amplifies Nurgle’s influence. These would simply come out of nowhere in groups and start cutting down both the players AND Nurgle’s minions. Maybe have them take over traitor guardmen outposts and set up their own. You could sneak by while they’re chanting nonsense or attack them to be granted a blessing straight from the emperor for curing heresy significantly in the region. Be it attack speed, increased damage or better loot at the end of mission. I think this would make it really fun to make player think if they should engage head on or maybe wait for the conflict between enemies to start or maybe just sneak by. This also increases the replayability greatly too, which is really important in maintaining a healthy playerbase in a PVE game. Anyway here’s some concepts I found.
More diverse enemies with different, more recognizable in the dark sillouettes
The one problem with cultist family is that they are human sized just like the traitor guard and the poxwalkers that are going to be a huge majority of enemies we face. So how about plague marines with exclusively melee weapons since the guns can only endure so much. This has been a highly requested feature on youtube and I personally love it. It’s been a while since the last time we saw these bad boys in action. For some reason there are people who want space marines in this game so there’s that at least. Plague marines look really bulky and could serve the chaos warrior “type” enemy we saw in Vermintide. It’d be cool if the had different weapons too. I mean come on, how can you put Nurgle forces in the game and NOT feature the famous plague marines?
Fixing the “Nurgle Fetish”
Speaking of different enemy types, how about we stride away from the chaos god features in both Vermintide and Darktide so prominently. Chaos gods love fighting for power so why not have them invade the region of hivecity. With this feature in the game we could have a huge variety enemies of all body types, silluettes, shapes and forms. Khorne deamons and imps setting everything on fire. This would make players have to think where they fight since they will have to be able to kite this type of enemy. On top of that Slaneesh spawns, it’s a pegi 18+ game after all. With all these guts spilling, limbs flying and cut off heads I’m sure no warhammer fan will find female breasts offensive. At worst this will only sell the game better. Man just imagine these crazy banshees running at you with claws for hands while screeching (perhaps so loud it muffles the other sounds in the game). Aside from that, Slaneesh also creates the most inimaginable horrors with rounds of teeth and claws. Hey if Diablo 4 is going grim dark I think it’s high time warhammer games live it up to the expectation and make the atmosphere really dense and climatic. It’s not a world for little boys to play in. That’s it for my suggestions. If you have any other solutions to things I mentioned in the title then comment below or just tell me what you think of mine. Cheers!
Considering the scale of the game, probably not going to see demons outside of Nurgie boys. The good news is the gameplay trailer highlighted the chaos cultists and daemon beasts more than zombies. Also got to keep in mind, almost nothing from the other Chaos Gods and their army rosters fit the horde shooter genre. Khorne and Slaanesh don’t field mob type daemons. Hell, I’d pay in blood for Tzeentch to highlight a game, but I know that will never happen.
Besides Nurgle, the only other faction you could field a squad of humie Schmoes against are genestealer cults, and as much as I want that, Space Hulk has kind of killed that prospect.
The game features traitor guards, who do not seem to follow a specific god. So the difference between a traitor guard and a cultist is … limited ?
I would not want to see any Chaos Space Marine. If they choose to not include loyalist space marines, why would they put chaos space marines ? they are so powerful they would annihilate the team in a few seconds.
However, adding deamons would be fun indeed. Those traitor guards could invocate them on the battlefield and should act as powerful enemies. I see them in low number, but each type with it’s own power and weakness.
Also, as another type of foe, I would like some mutants from the “lost and damned”. Tankiest than poxwalkers, with various mutations used for melee, and for some, a few range weapons. Not as numerous as poxwalkers, but clever, and not aligned with any god.
We may get other Faction/Demon than Nurgle if they don’t bite to much into them and remain on a more neutral Chaos Insurrection like Chaos Undivided or Chaos Undecided
Chaos Undivided: Lesser force of Chaos band together to call Demon of Chaos (2 or more Chaos Cult of Different Chaos God/Demon)
Chaos Undecided: Chaos Cultist of Different Cult work together to gain power in the Hive/Planet/Regiment/SpaceShip, it’s an unstable alliance where the moment one of the cult gain the upper hand they will betray the others and try to turn the whole cult to their own gain
The second one could be very interesting and give a varied assortment of Chaos Cult and a lot of Character
Central Character (Think Rasknit): Would be from either the biggest Cult (Nurgle, Admonition) or CU (Traitor Regiment Commander)
Side Character (Think Bodvar, Burbelsprue or Skarrik): Could be from the weaker Cult that try to backstab/win over the other Cult
Example of Heretic Special/Boss from each cult:
Khornate Commisar: Buffing the Traitor Guards and putting them in a frenzy (Accompagnied by his friendly Ogryn bodyguard)
I still have my hopes up for the expansions. I believe the mechanics I previously talked about would surely be fun to play with. Vermintide 2 has this whole bestmen thing going on despite being focused on vermins “alone”. Gib demons, half naked creepy banshees and more!
I see your point however I think we could have them bend the rules a little bit since it’s a fun video game more than a lore accurate battle simulation. I still think plague marines as a mini-boss type would be fun to bunch up on ^^
I would love to see an expansion like “Winds of War”* featuring a new faction added into a game (but with a gamemode that is not actually terrible too). Darktide seems to run fantastic with all the effects going on. I don’t know if it’s a new engine but god damn! I would pay good money to see them add expansions based on other chaos gods to the game instead of re-releasing Darktide with other gods.
Then we could have Darktide as the main game with the Nurgle as the main god and also expansions mainly featuring the other chaos gods being Khorne, Slaneesh and Tzeentch. A 6 mission quest chain with new weapons, new enemy types, new challenges would blow up the game on steam charts with each dlc release. I mean how long have we been waiting for a wh40k fps? A decade ? Fatshark could literally invest all their workforce into this game and score free money on all the people craving for the warhammer fps for long years. Release the game and heavily support it with huge expansions and you have yourself a gigantic solid title that will stand the test of time.
Most startup Cult get crushed by Arbitrators as most cultist remain normal human with sometime a Possessed/Blessed Cultist of the Chaos God, the Only War RPG has a lot of encounter possibility that are supposed to be taken on from 2/3 to as many player as your DM can control (better to run it with 5-8 guardsmen)
CSM could appear as a Monster type unit, giving them more freedom/choice as 40k has an lower number of known Monster Unit (Ambull/Ambot could be a possible choice), we don’t need allied unit like in VT2 but Chaos Warrior are also supposed to be very strong in Fantasy
I think it’s the same (Stingray/Maya)
As long as they don’t drop Fantasy I am ok with them running the game for a long time
TTW2 has been kicking it haaard for the longest time and still gets expansions people buy and get excited about. If they made Darktide a solid platform for future expansions I would love to see them expanding it just like they did with the total war series.
