Summary of my grievances of Darktide

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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This is going to be a negative post. Given that I’ve played and got to level 27 on one character(Zealot), I feel like it’s safe to say I am enjoying the game. But it could be better. I love the visuals, the gore, the music, and the guns. I don’t care for the NPCs since cutscenes of “you need to do more” over and over doesn’t explain anything to me other than they don’t like me. Vermintide 2 had a lot of charm because of their character development and gameplay combined. I will be referencing it a lot because darkTIDE is similar too verminTIDE.

First elephant in the room, giving every ranged enemy the ability to stagger was a huge mistake. Melee makes sense because of the dodge mechanics from Vermintide. This needs to be addressed to be on only bosses/one special, or removed entirely. Currently the game feels more like a cover based shooter more than a mix between guns and melee, because stepping out into 10+ ranged units is how you get your toughness destroyed in a second and can’t move.

Chip damage from melee makes classes like Zealot feel impossible to play. You’ll get down to 2 HP from your passive, and then get hit once by a random grunt and fall over. I’m indifferent to corruption to the amount of medicae available, and I think toughness is fine over the temporary HP sponge fest that was V2. As it stands, this is forcing only Veteran and Psyker to be viable in higher difficulties since they have the range to deal with these enemies. Ogryn and Zealot do not, and do not have the tools to engage along with survive going into ranged units.

Specials unless they’re the scab with a gun different than a lasgun should not spawn more than one. This feels like a step back from Vermintide 2. I never remembered having to dodge 3 leaping sneak rats at once, why do I need to dodge 3 mutants? Specials are currently balanced, but there’s a reason people hate Back 4 Blood on higher difficulties. Sure it’s a difficulty increase if you spawn 5 pox hounds on top of the party, but is that really fun to fight against? Please keep the Left 4 Dead 2 formula, 3 different specials at a time that can pin the players, and one disruptive/damage special (flamer or bomber, for example.) Also a side note, the bomber needs a longer cool down on grenades, or frag grenades instead of flame ones. Being able to spam area of denial when you’re under crunch as soon as the last one ends feels bad, especially since they are default programmed to run away. And add two on top of that? Good luck moving without a psyker.

The shop is a downgrade from the random loot of Vermintide 2, and the gear progression system is way too high in terms of levels. I don’t understand why you haven’t copied your formula from Vermintide 2 for multiple things. Mission difficulty shouldn’t give more XP, grimories + scriptures should give a LOT more reward, and players should have access to all of their classes weapons by 10-15. Now here’s the thing, what about balancing?

Well, considering that you can only play Merciless with a pre-made group, I don’t think this harms balance at all. I’ve seen a zealot with a chain axe and bolter flounder at difficulty 2. Tweak the damagae numbers so they make sense at the level. Otherwise those bars are meaningless. Along with this, shops should at minimum give 1 of every weapon, and money/weapons should be shared across characters. Use the weekly to give people purple/legendaries, normal shop gray-blue. The inventory should be similar to Vermintide 2, your characters have access to all of your weapons/curios, but are class restricted to weapons they can use. Currently you have made it very painful to make alts if you want a fresh outlook of the game.

Finally, don’t release without private lobbies. This beta has only highlighted the problem of playing with randoms, and it will get worse at launch. Even if I have the competency to play difficulty 3, unless I’m in a sweaty voice call with people I trust I cannot play it with randoms. Between being stunlocked by ranged fire and the absurd amount of special spawns, it feels impossible to play above even level 2 at times unless I am running a set up that can clear hordes AND kill specials, which is hard to do both at the same time.

Vermintide 2 I switched between characters because each class played differently and had weapons I liked. Darktide I feel like I am switching between classes because my current one feels weak in terms of its abilities, and I want to use different weapons because the ones I’m using are pigeon holing me into only two of them. Fatshark games are eventually good, but these are some of the points I’d like addressed that aren’t class specific. Also, buff classes, don’t nerf them. Make a class feel fun to play, not the loadout you use.

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Very well written. Maybe they’ll take your advice 2 years down the line.

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Sprinting allows you to avoid getting shot long enough to get to cover in almost any situation, but cover does almost nothing. I think this wouldn’t be so bad if cover actually worked and gave a significant tactical advantage.

Cover often isn’t tall enough to keep your hitboxes safe, and even little holes in cover and such seem to allow you to get hit. I think cover should work as it does in a lot of shooters: when you aim down sites while crouched the player peeks just above the cover or around the side so that the varying heights of cover do not obstruct you from shooting while crouched or holding a corner. Enemy shooter NPCs seem to be able to use cover effectively by peeking around the corner, or over the top, but players don’t seem to have this advantage and get shot behind cover almost as easily as outside of cover.

I also think cover should also provide a functional buff to the player that reduces enemy accuracy by 20%-40%~ when aiming at them and increases player accuracy by 20%-40%~. In reality, leaning on an object or doorframe gives you more accurate shots, and it makes you a smaller target so that it’s more difficult to hit you. Although this game is far from reality, I think in this instance, it would provide players a much-needed strategic option for fighting ranged enemies. It’s intuitive to rush for cover, but it practically does nothing since apparently, it’s not designed or coded to do much.

I think Fatshark does not want people to intentionally reduce their HP to take advantage of the Martyrdom attack speed buffs. It’s more there when you desperately need a buff close to death, but not a constant thing.

That said, you can go an entire mission without ever falling below 50% health and it makes Zealot feel a lot less useful since he’s not quite the tank that Ogryn is, and that’s all your doing when you can’t take advantage of any damage buffs. I’ve gone through about 10 matches in a row now without going below 50% health.

I think the solution is to make the Retribution talent work like Martyrdom so that they work together effectively. Just have it give more stacks, perhaps 4 providing 5% attack speed each for every 15HP missing. (15HP doesn’t mean much to me since I have no idea how much health total Zealot has, so my suggestion might not line up perfectly with the 50% and 20% health thresholds for the Retribution Talent.)

I like the shop because I am not using any of my money till I hit max level. I’m relying solely upon my mission rewards. The random loot system of Vermintide 2 gives so much trash that it turned into a huge chore to craft items and dispose of items.

I didn’t know mission difficulty gave more XP. I thought the point was to make it so that players don’t feel they have to amp up the difficulty to max out their players. Now, I’m definitely going to try higher difficulties to alleviate some of this grinding.

Providing more XP for playing on higher difficulties is only an incentive for players who haven’t yet maxed out their level while the higher difficulties are also easier if you are at a higher level. That’s straight-up awful design. One of the biggest issues with this game is how grindy it is to open up some gameplay options. It gets so boring trying to open up some options to keep the game fresh. So what Fatshark has done is made it so that the game is even more grindy for new players who would struggle with higher difficulties and likely get bored before they even realize how many different weapons and items exist.

I don’t think difficulty should matter for anything besides cosmetic rewards. It shouldn’t provide additional gameplay advantages like XP or money or items. It should be there specifically for people who desire a challenge and the rewards should be some nice cosmetics that don’t influence gameplay but still have some value to the player.

YES! I despise it so much. In Vermintide 2, at least the crafting supplies were shared between every character, I don’t see why money or marks in Darktide can’t be shared between your characters. I’m gonna just stick to Zealot until this changes.

Not only that, but my friend who almost pre-ordered refuses to buy the game until its private lobbies exist. He has played too many games where players get too competitive or too toxic if you don’t do things how they prefer, and to be honest, I know exactly what he’s talking about. I play Vermintide 2 with randos all the time. He recently started playing VT2, but he only plays with me and a few others in private lobbies.

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I think Fatshark does not want people to intentionally reduce their HP to take advantage of the Martyrdom attack speed buffs. It’s more there when you desperately need a buff close to death, but not a constant thing.

Martyrdom gives 5 damage per 15 health on description. In practice, it is 1 stack at max hp, and an additional stack per 50 hp lost. V2 Zealot had DR and ways to stay alive at low HP. Current Zealot is suffering from bugs/nerfs from the previous CBT, which nothing should be nerfed. If the values return to what they’re stated, and the cooldown/range of the ability is restored, this would help with the class. But that’s more of a Zealot in depth discussion.

I like the shop because I am not using any of my money till I hit max level. I’m relying solely upon my mission rewards. The random loot system of Vermintide 2 gives so much trash that it turned into a huge chore to craft items and dispose of items.

Currently Darktide does the same thing, except you wait an hour for the shop to reset. If people are unlucky, they can have weapons they were grinding for not show up until later levels. As someone that’s active, 25+ you start seeing less of the weapons you want, and more of the “random crap” you got from lower levels. I’m not saying to implement the crafting system from V2, it obviously had flaws and I didn’t enjoy the lootboxes. But even if they keep giving me grays of the weapon I just unlocked in the shop, it’s at least something until the shop rolls it into green/blue or better stats. I also just realized the idea I stole for the shop isn’t in that paragraph. Basically, 1 guaranteed of every item you have unlocked (shop is filled in more at lower levels) but you’ll still have to wait for higher rarities.

I didn’t know mission difficulty gave more XP. I thought the point was to make it so that players don’t feel they have to amp up the difficulty to max out their players. Now, I’m definitely going to try higher difficulties to alleviate some of this grinding.

Currently with randoms, 1-2 difficulty is about all you can manage. Randoms on difficulty 3 even with lower hordes can get everyone killed by running ahead. I don’t recommend playing 3 unless you have 3-4 people for a premade. Also since I didn’t touch on the side objectives, if they gave better chance for loot to drop after mission (similar to how they boosted Vermintide’s loot quality) that might incentivize people to get them even if their reward is mediocre.