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I've been looking for a worthy successor to Left 4 Dead 2 for a very long time. My friends and I have played a bunch of co-op shooters such as Borderlands 1&2, Vermintide 1&2, Killing Floor, Back 4 Blood, Deep Rock Galactic, Strange Brigade, Payday 2, The Forest, Destiny 2, Space Marine 2 and more. It's a mixed bag, each title having its own strengths and weaknesses. But I feel like our quest has come to an end with Darktide as it raises the genre to a new level.
The four keys of to great horde shooter are its gunplay, bestiary, level design and replay value. The devs of Darktide have made their homework and delivered above and beyond my expectations in all of these fields.
First, the combat system is brilliant. Melee no longer feels like a last resort solution and can be embraced as a primary role. The combat pace is intense, especially on high difficulty levels, however the action remains readable at all times. There's an outstanding variety of weapons and playstyles, from shovels and riot shields to flamethrowers and the iconic boltgun. They pack a punch and sound great. Successful hits are rewarded with satisfying VFX: bodies are torn apart by chainswords and explosive ammo, heads and limbs fly off, torrents of maggots flow out of dismembered plague cultists…
Talking about cultists, there's a decent roster of foes to be faced, each playing a different role in the field: disabler, area denier, damage dealer, armored tank, distractor… They'll put your target priorization, repositioning and dodging/parrying skills to the test. Each enemy type uses distinct barks and sound cues, and comes in two flavors for extra variety: Chaos Undivided and Nurgle.
The world of Darktide looks gorgeous in its own grimdark way. It isn't the great colorful outdoors paraded by vainglorious Space Marines, but an ageing, sprawling hive city similar to Necromunda. I wish there was a 'tourist mode' like the discovery tour of Assassin's Creed so I could look around and enjoy the details, because missions require focusing full attention on combat. Level design is in the vein of Left 4 Dead: mostly linear and cleverly signed by lightning, though with more verticality. Mission completion typically requires between 20 and 40 minutes. There are currently 21 missions set on 8 maps, and after 120 hours of gameplay I start to wish there were more. Fortunately special conditions such as toxic fog or power outage can refresh the experience.
Action on screen is supported by a soundtrack full of bangers composed by Jesper Kyd. The resulting combo of ultraviolent gameplay and electro beats reminds me of Hotline Miami.
Replay value is provided by progression through the talent trees of each of the four classes, mastery of the arsenal of weapons, and the penance system which provides challenges and rewards. Exploring builds for my favorite class, the Veteran, has kept me busy since January.
Now a multiplayer game is only as good as its community. When my friends are unavailable for a private game I turn to the matchmaking system and play with randoms. So far I haven't had any bad experience. It's a Warhammer game but surprisingly there's none of the far-right nuts that unfortunately tend to hang around this community. People play the mission, help out each other (you have to if you want to succeed) and use the excellent pinging system and audio bindings to communicate. From time to time there's someone with an open mic urging the team to "get to the choppa" or whatever, but most runs are quiet, and voice chat can be disabled. It's worth noting that crossplay between Steam, PC Game Pass and Xbox is implemented.
Darktide has only a handful of weaknesses. Don't be misled by the character creation options: this isn't a RPG like Rogue Trader but a pure action game with storytelling added as an afterthought. New content arrives at a rather slow pace: maybe two to three major updates per year. This doesn't stop Darktide from being a really solid shooter which I'm always happy to get back to when new maps or weapons become available.