There probably isnt much new critisism here that havent already been said elsewere.
Ive seen alot of critisism that i dont really consider an issue or a big deal, and myself i had some annoyances i didnt hear anyone else complain about.
Even the things here is really no dealbreakers for me, more like things that i feel probably could be “tweaked to be better”, for that extra goldplating that makes it feel just right.
For me the game seemed to run fine, my rig is fairly old, though finely tuned OC wise, running a 8700k at 5.0ghz, cache 4.7ghz and tight ram timings at 3600mhz 1-15-15-15-28 120-80-34ohm configuration. A 1080ti FE reflashed with kingpin and custom curve allowing for 2100mhz on the core, i could with low settings hold 80-120fps at 1440p just fine. Wich was way higher than i feared going into the game, so Gj to the devs on that i guess. Performance wise a thumbs up from me.
Gameplay wise for me it felt more or less the same as vt2 wich is Good, though i felt there werent as big af difference in how the classes played compared to VT2, it might be due to the lack of endgame content, my max level was 9after all and the 3 other trailing behind at only lvl 3.
The levels felt alot alike, but the bottomed out visual settings might have been the cause.
I tended to entirely skipping any use of ranged weapons, they just didnt feel that usefull or powerfull, and the weapon swap felt slow and sometimes failed all together resulting in me taking a hit enstead of getting the parry in i expected. Compared to my goto weapons in vt2, it actually felt less ranged oriented overall.
The whole “more focus on ranged” was something i didnt feel at all during the time i got to play. So some more polishing might be needed here.
As for the mele weapons i got to try they basically all felt like “Elf 1handed sword”, and thus the playstyle for me felt like that aswell no matter class. That excluded the axe on zealot, that felt like axe on the well… zealot, wich got swapped with the “Elf 1handed sword”, as soon as possible wich well… ended up making the gameplay feel like “Elf 1handed sword”-play on zealot aswell.
I dont have a really big issue with this, i expect to eventually unlock a broarder range of weapon in the actual game when it comes out.
Something that really bugged me was the complete lack of setttings compared to vt2.
Now i know vt2 have had alot of time to mature, but i would have expected that most of the settings from vt2 would be directly “copy-able” over in Darktide, and from a development perspective i expect it to be something that requires less time to implement/develop compared to some of the other stuff. I mean it just felt bad having to rely on a third party “haxx” for eg invert-y on mouse, it was a part that made me feel like - wow will they actually get it done in time or do we end with another 2077 incident.
But i might be wrong its after all viewed from a normal software developers perspective, with no experience in game development.
As for specials being annoying and rage enducing, i actually felt it was less in Darktide, never felt i was on the edge of ragequitting in over the weekend, as i so often happened in vt2. But i am sure at the higher difficulties it will cost me many a mouse and keyboards just as vt2 has since it was released.
The new “rpg” elements added nothing for me personally, with no impact on actual gameplay, i personally felt it grossly misplaced, and would rather have the development time used at actual gameplay ect. But then again im not the type to waste time to equip useless cosmetics ect, have they not some impact on the actual game itself. But people seems to enjoy it, and who am i to take that joy away.
Some of the magic of vt2 i felt was kinda missing, but personally im not that concerned, it was a beta after all.
Edit: Personally i really dislike the “multiple of same class”, joining and then seeing 2-3 of the same class of you just felt bad, and on top you were not able to swap character without dropping out of the session entirely. So i would personally like to see a option to make games with class limitation much like in vt2.
Edit-Edit: Oh, and i REALLY missed the target dummies!