Recent reviews by Waris

Small preamble. I'm not a huge 40k Nerd. I'm not in the lore or anything. I bought this game as 2 of my mates got it for free via Discord nitro and the XBox game pass (I think). I'd usually say I try to stay spoiler free, but there is no real story as far as i can tell anyway, apart from some really small setup.

Pros:
- Decent, gorey fights
- Good Graphics
- Nice soundtrack/ambient sounds

Cons:
- essentially nonexistant Story
- extremly lacking amount of content
- performance issues/crashes
- premise gets boring quickly.
- nonexistant variety in actual gameplay.

The setup is fine. You can make some sort of backstory for your character, which i am as of yet unsure as of what it's use is. It feels very reminiscent of Mass Effect or other Bioware RPGs, but Darktide isn't really a RPG. It's a hack'n'slay. So be it. The intro is fine, getting the player used to controls and setting the "story" up. Graphically it's great. I did not have FPS problems on a decent rig, but I have read reviews of players with massive stability/performance issues. One of my mates for example is affected, with a better rig than mine. The game did crash more than a couple of times though. The gunplay early on feels good. Nothing to really write home about, but it certainly could've been worse.

After the intro the game throws you in the main hub. You see players of essentially every level running around, and are somewhat guided as to what to do next. As i bought this game to play with my friends, I tried to invite them to a firing squad. And that's where my gripe with this game begins. There is no crossplay on PC. Someone owning the game from a different source, like the XBox Game pass, can't play with you if you bought it via Steam.

And that's when the flaws just sprang out at me. There is an ingame cosmetic shop. Fine, most (even fullprice) games have one at this point, but you have to buy a secondary currency to actually buy the item ingame. The twist: you can never exactly match the price of the sets. A set costs 2400, the closest amount you can buy is for 2100, and you can buy a smaller amount for 500, leaving you always with at least some currency left. This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ system was all the rage in oldschool, like 2008, f2p MMORPGs, but in a 40€ game in 2022? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

But, it get's worse. There are only 4 classes you can play. As far as i know, there are only 5 different maps you can play your characters on. And all the maps can have a modifier. Reduced vision and/or pick up some items for additional ressources, in one of 4 difficulty settings. A map usually takes around 20-30 mins to complete. That's it. That's the variety this game has to offer at this point. The only real difference I could spot as of the difficulty level was more dmg/hp on the enemies. I'm not even sure if there are more the higher you tune the difficulty, but it did not feel like it.
The entire progress is leveling your character via similar maps slaughtering a couple of hundred or thousand enemies per map. That's the content of the game. This got boring so incredibly quick, I can't even. As far as i can see, there is no proper endgame, just mindlessly running the same old 5 maps for more exp or money. This kind of design can be fun. I like grinding PoE or Diablo 3 for dozens or hundreds of hours for that one perfect itemdrop which will fully perfect my set. But here, all you can do to your character to make him stronger is buy him another gun or meele weapon. That's 2 slots you can properly edit. 2! Even armor is only cosmetic. You can run around in some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tunic you get from the start of the game or be the biggest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tank in plate armor looking like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Space Marine, it makes literally no difference apart from you looking cooler. Honestly, this is such a bizarre decision it kind of breaks my brain.

And even worse: The way you have to deal with these waves of enemies is essentially the same for every single class. Playing the Sniper/Veteran class? Tough luck, here's a horde of enemies, better use your meele weapon. Psyker? If there's a horde, get your meele weapon out. That's essentially all you do. Ranged weapon are so underpowered compared to a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shovel you start your game out with, they're essentially not even worth using. They run out of ammo far to quickly for the amount of bullets a single enemy needs (even with HS) and the amount of enemies in a horde. Even grenades feel way to weak to ever really be of use. A grenade at the feet of an enemy is not a guaranteed onehit kill. You're just better off using meele all the time. So even the different playstyles of different classes is neutered.
Literally the only time a ranged weapon is better than a meele one is for the bossfights, which appear to be random spawns on each map. Can't really say if there's more variety there, but out of 3 encounters I had the same Boss twice, with him being incredibly bugged once. Mechanically, they are essentially bullet sponges.

There are sound Issues. While the soundtrack is good, I got cought multiple times with a Horde essentially right behing me not making a sound apart from the occasional yell, which could easily be chalked up to ambience. No footsteps, no weapon ratteling, nothing really to alert me to their presence. The second or third time this happened my emersion was shattered. Like a group of 50 guys which are essentially zombies sneaking up on me like they are Ninjas? Come the ♥♥♥♥ on.

This game seems like the kind of game which can be fun if you're a full group of 4 friends, hanging out in voicecoms, preferably with a beer or 2 and a good bag of weed. Just slapping some idiots around. But, be careful, because as I said there is no crossplay.

This got longer than expected. Appareantly, there will be more features added, like proper crafting of weapons, hopefully more classes and maps, and maybe a bit of balancing done to actually make some weapons useful. As of now, this game is not worth the money.

Great Game.

It runs really smooth, I had only some minor framedrops which is quite impressive for a game which looks this great. I realize that some people have struggeled with crashes etc., but i can say, that has in no way affected me. Maybe this was fixed, maybe I am just lucky, I really can't say.

The graphics and design are beautiful, every territory has a unique flair, and every machine you can hunt is a new thrill. There is no easy one-kills-all way to fighting, which keeps combat against the machines fresh and makes hunting a blast, that you can spent hours doing.

The story is probably one of the best storylines I have had the pleasure of experiencing in a video game. I won't go into spoilers here, i just want to say, that is reminiscent of the writing done in games and television before big studios intervened and changed aspects to better fit certain markets. It feels like the actual vision of the creative team coming to life, and they have done a marvelous job.

The main storyline took me about 24h to complete, while i did a couple of sidequests.

The one slight problem i had with it was the limited bagspace, which can get a bit annoying when you want to loot EVERYTHING, as well as the quite shallow talent trees. They are fine, but don't really change the way you can play the game, which is a slight missed opportunity in my book.

Still, it's one of the best singleplayer games I've played in quite a while, on par with games such as Witcher 3 or SW:KotOR in terms of storytelling and design, and the visuals are breathtaking. Would definetly recommend for everyone.

I will write my summary here, as the next part may include some spoilers.
This game is great. You have just a lot of stuff to do. If you don't fell like liberating an outpost, you have a huge spectrum i things you can do. There is always a secondary mission for you, or you can go hunting/fishing. The coop works fine so far, some slight bugs with a bad internet connection causing slight bugs/not registered shots. But i don't think that is the games fault. I can recommend the game, it feels like a welcome breath of fresh air compared to the stale FarCry 4 and Primal.

(may include some spoilers from here)
Pros:

-The graphics look amazing. While steadily running at 120 fps, for a map this size with basically no load times, well done, devs.

-The main story is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up enough for you to really enjoy it. (untill the end, more on that in my edit) You're kinda always wondering what hapens next, it really keeps you going. And the antagonists have at least some backstory, they're not just straight up villains.

-The secondary characters in there. A diabetic bear named Cheeseburger. Do i need to say more?

-The size of the map and secondary activities like having to drive a burning car through sprinklers as a stunt with awesome rock music playing. Like honestly, ♥♥♥♥ yeah. (or you can spend hours fishing)

-I really like the new leveling system, that basically completly removed the xp. You lern through challenges you can complete (you know, like get 20 AR kills) and by finding Perk Magazines. This feels quite well balanced and forces you to use different strats/weapons/buddys and try different stuff.

Cons:

-The amount of weapons and availability of them. In FarCry 3 you had to do special activities to get your signature ones, like the shredder, which was just an awesome gun. Here, your "signature weapons" (called prestige or something) are just reskinned weapons, that already exist as an unlockable one, and just cost a bit more. No activities or special achievments needed (except for the best fishing rod). They don't even have better stats or anything. It's literally just another skin for the same gun. And the price for the weapon attachments is a bit high. you can for example get an AR for like 4500, and 3 attachments will cost you at least the same if not more.

-The crafting system that's now gone. You can still hunt a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of different animals, including fish, birds, big game like bison and bears, skunks, wolverines, deer, pronghorns, elch, mountainlions, wolves, and so on. But all you can use them for is selling the skins/fur to gain money. Let me just craft a bigger backpack with that stuff.

-The Perks feel underwhelming and don't give you a massive andvantage. They are decent, not just neerly as strong as they felt in other games.

EDIT: After finishing the game, i have to say i am hugely disappointed with the ending(s). The 2 main endings are both incredibly nihilistic, and to me make no sense in the narrative perspective. They both are tries at an incredible twist, which was just never setup in any way other than some radio talks (appareantly; i didn't notice them). The problem i have is, that this seems to validate the actions of a religious cult which is on an ISIS level of evil with constant indoctrination, torture, murder, drug abuse and so on. I don't have a problem with "bad" endings in the sense that the player doesn't win. I usually enjoy these. But this ending leaves open plot holes you could fly your helicopter through, like how a basically destroyed cult, with no bliss production and no territory left, with the local population fighting back, managed to capture EVERY SINGLE NPC that's in any way important to the story, how a shackled and shot John Seed managed to 1.get in the bunker where it all began, and 2. OVERPOWERS Dutch. How the ♥♥♥♥ are these interviews in the beginning with the priest and the other NPCs set up, as they should not be alive anymore (they very much felt like flashbacks to me). How the timing of the ending makes this more like an intervention of god than anything else. This is basically a huge reverse Deus Ex Machina. It invaldites everything the player as a police deputy stands for trying to fight the cult. My main issue with this ending (the "good" one) is,though, that this game sets up the isolation of this region. There is no more cell service, no phone lines, no newspapers, nothing. Just isoaltion. You do have the ability do use a helicopter or planes to theoretically escape the valley, or you could hike across the mountains, which are not that high, and contact the national guard. But noone ever talks about the outside world. You feel like you're in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up version of a theme park, the outside world doesn't matter. The ending pulls out the rug right from under you, and makes this a global catastrophe. Saying you should see the bigger picture here. It just feels cheap, and stupid, and like a disservice to the player that wholly disrespect’s said player’s intelligence and ability to follow a plot.

This game is something else. it's not your typical action packed fps or your survival game trying to stack as many resources as you can to survive as long as possible.

what this game does better than basically every game i've ever played is generating an emersive atmosphere. have you ever finished a book, a movie or a good series and just stood there, thinking of the experience? that's basically this game. you get sucked in so deep that you just can't stop. The scenery is stunning, the voiceacting is very well done, a lot better than in a lot of triple-A titles with tenfold the money this team had. The story has some nice twists and turns, while learning about the past of the characters in the game.

The one thing that is klind of sad, is that it generates duration simply by hiking thorugh the wilderness. if you choose the right paths, you can basically finish the game in 2 hours, maybe even less. This makes the price of 20 € atm a bit much for my taste. Maybe get it while it's on sale for like half the price. but that's just my opinion.

If the creators should read this. maybe, just maybe let some small things happen during the early stages of the game to give it some more length. not every minor thing in the beginning of these games needs to be resolved by the end. some things can be left as they are.

Very nice jump n run, with a very unique sense of humor, which completly fits mine. Graphically it isn't the best, but that is definetly not the point of this game. In SP, it's a fun game early on, trying to make the jumps and find some coins, until you reach the end of the level the first time. That's when you realize what the possible time for the map is as you see the scoreboard for the first time, and you either quit because you're frustrated, or you spend your entire weekend getting that one tenth of a second to get faster and faster again, find a better route, find other jumps you can use or abuse, and so on. This game is incerdibly easy to start, but has one of the highest skill ceilings of any game i came across for quite some time.

And in MP, it sadly becomes more of a speedrunner-clone, with some unique ideas, like the skybeam of death, but still.. It certainly is fun, especially playing the game with some mates with voicechatbut it can also be incredibly frustrating, when you get hooked and stopped through some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ from first to last. As of right now, playing with premates is sadly the only way to play the game in MP, as you can't rely on finding a game online.

There are even some possibilities to make your rumpy unique with some fairly special hats, capes, and t-shirts.

i would certainly recommend a buy here, especially for this price. And there is more than enough content to keep you playing for some hours, even if you just rush through the levels, without wanting to actually get a top tier time on them.