Warhammer 40K: Darktide Review (PS5) – It’s been two years since Darktide released on the Xbox Series X/S and PC. In those two years, it had many problems that prevented it from achieving the greatness that Fatshark’s Vermintide achieved.
Fast forward two years and the game has finally reached its potential, and now PlayStation gamers can experience pure Chaos in this entertaining co-co shooter.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide Review (PS5) – A Chaotic Good Time
The Forces Of Chaos Rise
Darktide tells the story of your customer-created villain breaking out of prison after chaos forces attack the prison ship. One free, you join forces with the Inquisition as a disposable soldier to stem the tide of Chaos and stop the ever-expanding forces of the heretics in the hive city of Tertium.
The game’s character creator isn’t as expansive as you’ll experience in most RPGs, but it allows you to look uniquely as you progress and join up with other players. The game features many cosmetic items for you to change up the look of your character, which can be unlocked or bought with real-life money.
You can give your character their backstory through various options, which build on your character’s personality and how they communicated with other squad mates. Darktide, since its updates, now allows you to select a class as well. There are four classes, and each one has a different playstyle.
Classes Make Things Interesting
Ogryn, Psyker, Veteran and Zealot. Each class provides different advantages and disadvantages. My favorite was the Psyker, as it essentially let me play as Emperor Palpatine, blasting foes with electric powers and conjuring explosions in a wide area.
Each class is a standard DnD class, such as Tank and DPS, so it’s up to you to find the one you genuinely love and play with. However, I encourage everyone to try each class out, as they all have something to offer.
The game has gotten an overhauled skill system as well. As you level up, you can gain skill points to spend across three skill trees to find a build that best suits you. Weapons also level up, and you can put skill points into your favorite weapons to upgrade them as you see fit. These upgrades vary from faster reloads or extra damage to enemy weak points. Some even allow you to heal yourself after hitting enemies’ weak points.
Plenty of Mission Variety
Darktides missions are varied. Since the game’s release, Fatshark has added more level variety from city slums, desert towns, cathedrals, and sewers. Each location is packed with detail and will surely make Warhammer 40,000 fans drool. The atmosphere of these locations is spot on and as disgusting and decrepit as the world of 40K is.
Missions vary from collecting data, hunting down specific heretics, or taking on raids. There is plenty of variety to keep you from getting bored, but sometimes they tend to drag on a bit too much. Some missions took me close to an hour to get through without exploring the maps.
Levels have a lot of different paths you can take. Though they all lead to the same destination, how you get there depends on you. Each map has a lot of secrets to find. Hidden rooms that you have to find keys to and secret ancient secrets of the human race.
Stem The Tides Of Chaos With Your Friends
Finding all of a stage’s secrets depends on your team. Unfortunately, after two years of pleas from its fans, Darktide still does not feature a single-player mode with bots. The game is online only with either your friends or random players. I had to rescue some people without communication because they loved going off alone.
If you or any of your squad falls in combat, they are captured and put in a room somewhere on the map. You can rescue them if you get to them in a certain amount of time, but it’s game over for them if you don’t.
As I played the game with an early review copy, there weren’t many people playing, so finding a game to jump into was difficult. You can still play the game with bots if no one else joins in, but that won’t last long.
I know it is a co-op-specific experience, but including a single-player bot mode would have been excellent for those who want to enjoy the world of Darktide at their leisure instead of constantly being yelled at to catch up to everyone else who doesn’t want to explore and look for secrets.
Gorgeous Visuals Bring The Ugliness Of The 40K Universe To Life
Visually, Darktide looks stunning when you’re constantly on the move. The level design is exceptional, and the varied enemies and demons look great. Enemy body damage is some of the coolest as well. Melee combat sees you decapitating foes and removing arms and legs true to the 40K universe. Some of using plasma weapons leave a large cauterised wound on the body as well.
Darktide runs stunning on the PS5 Pro, and I never ran into any slowdowns or stutters while running at a smooth 60 FPS, even when there were dozens of enemies and effects happening on screen. It’s quite impressive what Fatshark has been able to pull off.
The game’s voice acting and soundtrack aren’t anything special here, and the dialogue gets stale fast, with many lines constantly repeated. The sound design, though, is exceptional. Guns sound great, and the splatter of flesh against steel is grotesque. Hearing the whales of a demon approaching can give you chills. It’s all very well done.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide In 2024 is the game we should have gotten back when it was released in 2022. For those jumping in for the first time on PlayStation, it’s the perfect time to experience why Fatshark is one of the best when it comes to co-op action shooters.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide is out now for the PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR