Coming from Vermintide 2, the first thing I noticed in combat was how awkward it was to transition from melee to ranged and vice versa compared to V2.
Darktide is similar to V2 in that there will be many situations where you are engaged in melee, but then have to quickly switch to ranged to kill some ranged or approaching threat quickly (specials, elites), then immediately getting back into melee, all while keeping yourself safe. This was easier by far in V2, as most ranged weapons can 1-shot headshot virtually all of the above threats while having near-perfect accuracy, meaning that you have minimal downtime out of melee where you are very vulnerable, and the whole sequence of action is fast, precise, and responsive.
In Darktide, the opposite of the above feels true:
- Weapon sway makes precise headshot more difficult
- Even with headshots, ranged enemies, specials, and elites take several shots to kill (from weapons that do not have a fast ROF); recoil between each shot exacerbates the problem, extending the window where you are vulnerable even more
- Ranged weapon equip time after switching off melee is significant; even bigger window of vulnerability
- Stamina regen is stopped with dodge, making it much more difficult now to create space to take a quick ranged shot
- Significant movement speed decrease while firing with some weapons
These above factors make it far harder to kill the elite/special threat quickly while keeping yourself safe, at least compared to V2. Admittedly, some of these are by feel and dependent on the weapons themselves and their stats, which I do not have comprehensive experience with. However, this is by far the most jarring and difficult aspect of the gameplay for me coming from V2. I think this may be a difficult area for the devs to balance as well, since V2 is dominated by low-capacity/high accuracy/low ROF/high damage weapons that favor fast elite/special sniping while the opposite feels true for Darktide. Interested to hear everyone elses’ thoughts on this.