I’ll start by prefixing by saying I was one of the most hyped people possible for this game. I did the Closed beta, the pre order beta and now have 478 hours of play time currently in the game.
In that time, it has become increasingly apparent that we, the customers of Fatshark who have paid for this game and still continue to pay into it, are paying to help Fatshark beta test and finish their game.
Go look at the bug feedback forum and scroll. Scroll and scroll and scroll.
Never mind the boring, uninspired grindfest that is the meta game right now. Never mind the absence of a finished crafting system. Never mind the completely stupid, counter intuitive mission board that sometimes doesn’t even let you participate in the dull and uninspired weekly grind fest at the difficulty you want. Never mind the complete absence of any kind of narrative structure, or announcement of any plans to release one.
Let’s just focus on how UNFINISHED this game is, how even the limited stuff you have bothered to patch hasn’t even worked, how you clearly released the game in this pathetic state in order to get some quick short term holiday season buck and then promptly buggered off for 2 weeks, and how you are CONTINUING to extract money from your player base via the absolutely despicable inclusion of a fully planned out and fledged cosmetics shop in a game that is currently in a less finished state than some actual betas.
The contempt and disregard you have for your player bases is so nakedly transparent that at this point I just feel like a massive mug. I’ve mugged myself off fully for hoping that you would be able to deliver on at least some of the promises of pre release. I then continued to mug myself off by hoping you guys would have competency and the dedication to at least start fixing some of the enormous amounts of work required to get to an acceptable build of the game. I’m still mugging myself off now by even playing this game.
I’ve had some pretty awful consumer experiences in my lifetime, but the sheer contempt that you’ve demonstrated towards your player base and even your own game has astounded me. You have bankrupted yourselves of any good will it might be possible to scrape back even with a year of perfect and rapid development, which, based on your current level of nonchalance, I very much doubt we will see.
I loved you guys for Vermintide 2. I had so much hope for Darktide. I will never, ever trust this game developer again.
And I doubt my story is unique or special in anyway. Hope the short term gain was worth it.