I’ve progressed a little bit and feel like I’m qualified to make this observation now. This gamemode has no actual new mechanics other the map and salvage shop. Every single location in during gameplay is just yet another tired old recycle of an existing minigame.
It’s not enough that every base mission has you do the auspex minigame and carry batteries, no, Mortis Trials and Expeditions have to have it everywhere too.
Why not come up with something new? You had the option to make a variety of fun PoI (points of interest) locations with cool little puzzles, gimmicks, unique mechanics to figure out. Instead it’s just “yeah stand on this while it solves” or “carry this thing” once again. Mortis Trials added “capture this zone” to the repertoire to be fair, which already existed in previous games but the base missions lack. And even WITHIN THAT FRAMEWORK it’s uninspired and samey.
For example, Vermintide does a lot more with the SAME CONCEPTS creating far more variety. Examples:
- Load things into a boat, roaming the area around a central point to gather a few things into one spot
- Explosive barrels that make you start over your progress on carrying them if you get hit with them
- capture the zone missions are varied, for example in convocation of decay you have a very unique arena layout and can speed it up by taking higher risks
That is, fresh takes on concepts WE ALREADY HAVE. There are many concepts that we don’t have, yet expeditions just reuses the same two things for EVERY SINGLE POI which causes extreme repetition with this gamemode and takes away from it heavily. I’ve not even played it for very long yet but already every single blip on the radar just feels like a chore because I already know it’s just going to be the same skull or bring-battery thing again.
Examples of such things there could be as part of PoI objectives:
- PoI contains a boss and must be killed to clear it
- PoI has a dark basement you must navigate through
- bespoke puzzles a la athel yenlui, just one example, a variety of them
- break things around the PoI to clear it
- the PoI is a gauntlet and you must reach the end to clear it
- PoI needs you to push a cart to the goal
- PoI needs you to defend an object that cultists will try to break
- PoI needs you to catch a nurgling
- PoI has a shooting gallery of ranged enemies you need to clear
- PoI is inhabited by a specific set of enemies that must be cleared
Keep in mind that’s just my limited imagination and 5 minutes of thinking about this. These aren’t incredibly high brow concepts or anything, they’re specifically kept to things that Fatshark has already done in other games, proving that it’s possible.
If the gamemode didn’t have such actual bottom-tier effort and variety concerning the MEAT OF THE GAMEPLAY, the points of interest, then it would be far better.
The gamemode is extremely lacking because every location feels the same. Other games with similar concepts, such as for example Elden Ring: Nightreign (which I believe to be a very similar concept as Expeditions: It’s using an established combat system and building another game type around it, and it happens to also follow the “time limited scavenge” idea while doing it better in a variety of ways, such as for example actual roguelike mechanics) will make sure to diversify their points of interests so picking between them becomes decisionmaking in itself. For example, you know location X will have a hard boss, but pays out better, whereas location Y takes a different approach to clear but has less rewards. You then fight a boss at the end of the day and get another choice of perk, etc. It culminates in a grand boss fight.
In Darktide expeditions, this doesn’t exist. You just know from the get go that every single objective is going to be either that little auspex minigame, or waiting on a skull to finish, or bringing a battery (or a combination of the 3). That is unfortunately literally all there is to location design in this game. It turns the entire gamemode into a grindy chore from almost the moment you realize this, second or third mission. You have the same “3 Days” as ER Nightreign, but there’s no actual payoff or milestones. In Darktide Expeditions you just buy some OP grenades to clear the same 3 PoI you have been clearing since the beginning. And it doesn’t even utilize all the things Darktide already has! Haven’t come across any corruptor eyes yet.
In a meta sense, this also holds up for out of mission design. The only new mechanic is “tech remnants” but the only actual purpose they serve is unlocking another mission. Missed opportunities.
To summarize, this gamemode is conceptually wacky and unusual, but it would’ve been fine and enjoyable if it wasn’t also so damn undercooked. If you have weird ideas like this, at least put the effort in to make them work.
