more of a negative than a positive imo, i spent arby level 1-25 in chat with other people similarly decked out in late game cosmetics complaining about being forced to play lower threat levels
You need to add to the AH/HD2 list that AH actually knows what a HOTfix is and has implemented them for game-breaking issues. They’re not rock stars in the development competency department, but they at least understand that one.
I’m honestly not on good terms with either game.
Helldivers 2 is trying to pay off their tech. debt by fixing less bugs per update than they (re)introduce each update. Essentially; you don’t pay off your debts by only paying the intrest rate or less. But their CEO thinks that’s the best strategy for them. He even straight up lied that Performance is a focus for them since there wasn’t a single performance related change in the patch that he was taliking about. Their performance also gets worse every single update and it’s now at the point where it can straight up break your hardware beyond repair. What did AH do to address this? Have the CEO tweet defense and try to sweep it under the rug instead of informing their players about the issues. They may release content at an acceptable / engaging pace but it’s **always** untested, buggy, unstable and doesn’t work properly.
DT is releasing more premium skins than actual content and not even the skins are being released at a decent pace. Not that it would matter if they had been, since there is an arbitrary limitation on how many you can look at and/ or purchase. DTs most substantial QoL features are being developped by modders and not the actual devs. Balance is a bit of a mess and has been for a long time.
That’s only a postitive until HD2 gets their next update where you can be 1000% certain that the recently fixed issue will return. Then it will be fixed again, only to return, again. It’s also more likely than not that when their notes say that an issue is fixed, you can boot the game up and get it to occur within seconds on your first attempt.
Sure, a HD2 hotfix is actually coming in hot but it’s very often temporary. FS may not really have hotfixes and they may also only be temporary but there is less of a consistant back and forth with which issues are currently in the game, which are actually fixed, which are back, which are fixed again and so on.
Could this be a Stingray thing rather than a development issue? this seems consistent accross multiple developers. Although we don’t know for sure if either or both (AH and Fatshark) took a page from the bethesda book and resigned from having design documentation, making mantaining and updating a “live service” game this nightmare you described.
Not keeping design docs would also somewhat explain the wild difference/inconsistencies between certain weapons/game modes/difficulties etc, darktide has.
I highly doubt their version control (or complete lack there of) has something to do with their engine.
It’s much more likely that they don’t have proper protocols to prevent version control issues. Their CEO admited as much when he talked about “needing a hardened pipeline”.
HD2’s content release pipeline makes DT look like abandonware.
HD2s warbonds are a huge driver of high play rates. The regular introduction of new Warbonds means players are constantly logging in to earn and play with the new toys, and coupled with the fact that HD2s premium currency can be earned in-game means they’re also logging on to do that, driving a lot more engagement than we get with DT, on top of the constantly running story and changing mission elements.
The game is also just much more accessible than DT. There aren’t any complex talent trees, the muscle memory requirements are far lower, and the mechanics in general are much simpler. It’s way easier for a casual set of friends to hop in and play a couple games than to sweat through Darktide.
My playgroup has been running a ton of HD2 recently, but people kinda bailed on DT after leveling their Arbites to 30 just to have FS go on vacation for the summer.
I personally believe that developers should not directly interact with the player-base, like getting into discussions on discord, reddit, whatever. However, I strongly believe that developers must make it obvious that they listen to the player-base with their actions.
I have 300 hours in Darktide and funnily enough it gives me the impression of abandonware. Like a very good game that was unfortunately abandoned a while ago but people just can’t stop playing it for nostalgic reasons. So many bugs and performance issues that date back to a year and a half, so many half-assed changes made to the game. There is a clear disconnect between the devs and players and that’s obvious to me.
I jumped on the HD2 bandwagon with the latest update. So far looks good but only have 5 hours in the game so cannot make a healthy comparison, but all I can say is I had enough of Darktide’s stale nature. Hopefully they prove me wrong and I come back on my knees because I want to love Darktide so much!
I think this is kinda the result of Fatshark utterly refusing to communicate.
Because while it objectively isn’t abandonware (we just got more events), it feels like that because there’s absolutely no idea of what to expect, what to see next, what has priorities for fixing and what they think is actually a feature.
There’s zero trust or thought in them actually being present and developing, and yes, I’m probably a driver of that feeling to some degree since I point out often how little gets done.
But that’s just it. My complaints would have no foundation if Darktide wasn’t getting the bare minimum done for it.
Can’t talk about difficulty argument as I haven’t unlocked top difficulty yet, but other two are simply wrong. So much so that makes me think you didn’t even play the game and talking based on videos you watched or something. That’s how baseless your arguments are.
Simple fact of the matter is darktide/vermintide has significantly better combat, Helldivers is one dimensional with no depth. Helldivers cannot handle actual density because Fatshark works actual miracles with the trash engine they designed.
HD2 has plenty of intensity and depth, it’s just not in twitch-reflex melee combat.
You’re certainly never going to be stuck facing a large installation jamming your abilities dropping indirect fire on you while also being engaged from the air in DT, as large armored vehicles drop around you amidst hordes of infantry advancing on your position, all while a clock is ticking and you’re having to navigate landmines to get into said installation. That’s an entirely different kind of intensity and stress than Darktide.
Helldivers has all the difficulty one can want, especially since it has true-solo play. Try solo’ing an EHVA mission on Super Helldive sometime if you truly really need a near-futile experience.
Both games have their fair share of dumpster fires, arrowhead has update frequency but it doesn’t really do anything for me. I don’t think I’ll ever sink as many hours into helldivers as I have in darktide.
HD2 has plenty of intensity and depth, it’s just not in twitch-reflex melee combat.
You’re certainly never going to be stuck facing a large installation jamming your abilities dropping indirect fire on you while also being engaged from the air in DT, as large armored vehicles drop around you amidst hordes of infantry advancing on your position, all while a clock is ticking and you’re having to navigate landmines to get into said installation. That’s an entirely different kind of intensity and stress than Darktide.
I remember at launch the evacuation missions used to be bugged, you had automatons spawning everwhere all the time. Real sh*t.
With that said I don’t know what hd2 is like now, but it’s probably not as demanding/deep as darktide. It is stressful and demanding in its own right, but it’s hard to compare a regular shooter to darktide.
A lot of the nuances and difficulties in helldivers can be said about darktide as well, but in darktide you have a foundation with faster and arguably harder combat system, a lot of mechanics, then obscure mechanics xd, it’s more punishing, harder to learn and whatnot.
