Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, developed and published by Fatshark, thrusts players into its dark sci-fi setting with a beautiful and fun cooperative shooter. Thanks to exciting gameplay and its stunning environments, Warhammer 40K: Darktide makes for an excellent introduction to the franchise for newcomers and a great spin on familiar trappings for those already invested in the series.
This November saw many video games release, like Sonic Frontiers and God of War Ragnarök, that provided great single players experiences. However, Warhammer 40K: Darktide is a 4-player cooperative shooter that takes full advantage of current-gen tech to deliver a multiplayer game combining the best parts of Destiny and Left 4 Dead. Swarms of enemies will overwhelm unprepared teams, and ammo can be scarce in each of Darktide‘s varied and unique maps. Surviving players are rewarded with new weapons, armor, and experience points for unlocking each class’s special abilities.
At the beginning of the game, players create their character by choosing between one of Darktide’s four classes: the long-ranged specialist Veteran Sharpshooter; the deadly magic-wielding Psyker; the brutish bullet sponge Ogryn; and the Zealot Preacher, who grows stronger with the more damage they take and deal to others. A robust character creator not only contains a large selection of cosmetics to customize a player’s look but also allows players to choose the personality and upbringing of their character, which affects how their characters speak and interact with teammates while fighting to survive.
Between missions, players can spend time in the space station, which acts as a hub for buying and upgrading gear, tracking bounties, and selecting further adventures. Each of the game’s missions takes place in a different sector of a colossal Hive City called Tertium. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide‘s gameplay feels fresh thanks to maps shifting objectives, and other clever design choices that help the game from feeling repetitive. Sometimes, special modifiers are added to missions that may add a secondary objective, cast a layer of visually impairing fog over the map, or contain a larger-than-normal concentration of enemies. These ever-changing circumstances will force players to adapt their tactics because Warhammer 40K: Darktide’s enemy behavior can be ruthless thanks to an advanced AI that adjusts to players’ performances, ensuring that every run is a fresh experience.
Each map has a theme that sets it apart, and each looks stunning with ray tracing. The visuals are so impressive they help make Warhammer 40K: Darktide‘s delays worth the wait. Keep in mind it will take a particularly powerful PC to run Warhammer 40K: Darktide with both its ray tracing and graphics settings on high. Still, the ray tracing is a major highlight, with lighting affecting the reflections and colors of Darktide‘s dirty sci-fi world. One particular highlight was seeing lava leaking out of a giant smelter while fog obscured the player’s vision. Witnessing how the lighting reflected the bright lava through the mist was jaw-dropping and is one example of why ray tracing in video games matters.
With Darktide being more of a live service game, there isn’t necessarily an ending to its narrative to speak of. Players will rank up and be treated to short cutscenes reflecting the increase in trust and standing the spaceship’s NPCs hold for the player. However, each character feels rooted in the dark sci-fi future the Warhammer series takes place in, as they deliver hints of its complex lore. More story will likely be introduced over time, with hopefully new locations to explore, because players may be left hungry for more narrative and beautiful levels to look at. Still, mowing down enemies with friends has rarely felt as satisfying as it does in Warhammer 40K: Darktide.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is available on Windows PC. The game has been announced to release on Xbox Series X/S but a release date is currently TBD. A PC code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.
