Warhammer 40,000: Darktidehas been released, but sadly toa bit of a lackluster reception from the dedicated fanbase. The game is one of the more popularWarhammer-based titles and a ton of people are currently playing it. But, there are just as many complaints about the current state of the game as there are compliments, especially when seeinghow bombastic Space Marine II looks.
RELATED:The Hardest Co-Op Games Ever Made, Ranked
There’s a lot that the developers at Fatshark need to change, fix, or remedy aboutWarhammer 40K: Darktideto get the player base to pipe down just a bit.
10General Connectivity, Bugs, & Crashing Issues
First and foremost, the game works but is relatively unreliable in terms of connectivity and performance. In fact, the idea that it’s unreliable is also unreliable as half of the community is swearing they’ve had no problems at all while the other half apparently crashes every mission.
In either case, the game is obviously not quite as polished or optimized as it could be, given the long loading times, disconnects, and constant glitches.
9The Promised Content & New Content
Currently, inDarktide, there are around 63 different weapons, with many of them using the same weapon “base” but differing slightly in how they work or what they do.
In a blog post on Steam, the developers said that the game would be rolling out with 70+ weapons. This is just one example of a promised or assumed feature not being in the full release. Currently, the game also only has:
And, while theydid release a Community Update on December 8th, 2022about this specific complaint saying they’re addingtwo more weapons for the Ogryn, there’s still a lot more work to be done.
8The Fully Implemented Crafting System
Speaking of Crafting, let’s talk a bit about the crafting system. On November 25th, 2022, just a few days before the full release, the devs at Fatshark released a Steam page blog going over all aspects of their crafting system inDarktide. They talk about all four parts of it including the Consecrate, Refine Item, Earn Blessing, and Re-Bless features.
The blog post didn’t specify if crafting would be in the launch version of the game or not, but considering that the title wasn’t launching as an Early Access game, fans assumed that it would be there. Sadly, it wasn’t, and the Consecrate feature is all that made it.
Now, they did again address this in their Community Update on December 8th, but it only mentioned bringing the Refine Item feature and not the other two. While this helps, players who want better gear are still basically held hostage by the shop refresh timer.
7More Premium & Free Cosmetics
There are a lot of loud complaints aboutDarktide’sin-game Cash Shop. Many people are admonishing it, and others are saying it’s really not that bad. No matter what side people fall on, they can all agree that one outfit per character at launch is not a lot, and that’s all this Cash Shop basically offers.
RELATED:Video Games Geralt Of Rivia Would Play
Even in regards to Cosmetics bought with the in-game currency, Ordo Dockets, the options are lacking. Every option is just a camo recolor of the armor players already earn from leveling, and the weapon skins aren’t much better. If there were more, at least it would give players more of a reason to grind at level cap.
6A Real Endgame
The current lackluster endgame ofDarktideis primarily the result of the lack of Crafting as well as Fatshark trying to do something different than the whole chest system fromVermintide 2.
They didn’t want to just copy and paste the old end-game system from one game to the other, but this is worse. The only real reasons for players to keep grinding after reaching level 30 are:
And even that’s stretching it as far as reasons to keep going are concerned. Again, this was addressed vaguely in the Community Update, but no specific plans were mentioned.
5Aquilas Pricing & Bundle Changes
It probably goes without mentioning, butWarhammer 40kisn’t the most “mainstream” property. Yes, it’s one of the more well-known and popular tabletop franchises around, but in comparison to something likeFortniteor anything Marvel-related,Warhammer 40kisn’t pulling in the same number of people from as wide of a demographic
That said, just because the fanbase forDarktideis a bit more niche doesn’t mean that those same fans will overlook Fatshark’s way of pricing things in their Cash Shop. As things are currently, if players want to buy the full outfit bundle for their Class it costs 2,400 Aquilas. But, the only purchase options close to 2,400 is 2,100 Aquilas for about 10 dollars or 4,500 Aquilas for 20 dollars.
Thankfully, this is the one thing that the Community Update did directly mention fixing and specified how. Fatshark plans to adjust the pricing so that players can pay exactly what they need to in order to purchase a bundle, which is a great step in the right direction.
4More Special Conditions
Special Conditions inDarktideessentially work as Mission modifiers that change some aspect of the mission (regardless of its type) for bonus rewards. Currently, there seem to only be about 4 Special Conditions inDarktide:
Now, the idea of Special Conditions is great, as they’re a fantastic way for Fatshark to add variety and replayability to the same number of missions. But, 4 just isn’t enough.
3Better Rewards For Grimoires & Scriptures
This is another systemthat has transferred over fromVermintide 2, the Grimoires, and the Tomes. But, inVT2,Tomes and Grimoires were added to a player’s ‘score’ at the end that decided which reward box they would receive from the Vault, so it was a net positive to grab them.
RELATED:Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – Best Weapons For Kerillian
InDarktide, outside of completing Weekly Requests, there’s not much incentive to ever collect these things in a mission. Looking for them takes forever since their locations are now randomized from a pool of possible spawns, the Corruption from grabbing them makes missions more difficult to complete, and the material/money rewards are barely noticeable.
2Change Everything About Player Character At Barber-Chirurgeon
Out of everything on here, this is likely the thing that would be easiest for Fatshark to implement. Instead of having the Barber-Chirurgeon be only able to modify a player’s appearance, let them modify everything about the character. Whether it’s their gender, appearance, backstory, voice, or even their name.
Many players have already expressed disinterest in the voice lines that come from the backstory and voice actor they chose, but they can’t exactly try again without making a whole new Reject and re-leveling them up.
1Actual Hub Activities
And finally, let’s end things by talking about the Mourningstar. The Mourningstar is the Adeptus Hereticus Imperium ship that the Rejects are aboard, and it’s a beautiful ship. It serves as the hub area inDarktideand visually, it’s fantastic. But, in terms of how it compares to the castle hub ofVT2, there’s just not much to do in the Mourningstar.
Players have to leave their Strike Squad and even go through a loading screen to try out weapons in the Psykhanium, there’s no real “exploration” of the ship to be had, and even though players can see each other in the hub it’s not like they can do any activities together in it. This will likely slowly change over time, as there are plenty of doors in the Mourningstar that are currently closed, but the game is out and it’s not early access, so there’s really no excuse.
