Warhammer 40K: Darktide is the latest co-op horde action game from Vermintide and Vermintide 2 developer Fatshark. The upcoming game has seen multiple delays, as initially Darktide was set to release in 2021. However, due to development issues and constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the game was pushed to a September 2022 release date, something that Fatshark only revealed in April. Confusingly, the new date was announced on April 1, causing quite the confusion among Darktide's fan base.
With Darktide's release date approaching, Fatshark has begun to roll out more trailers and teases for the game. Darktide's story trailer gave fans a closer look into the Chaos-infested Hiveworld of Warhammer 40K that the players will have to fight through, with extra "Vox Transmissions" giving new details on the game's lore piece by piece. A magazine interview with Fatshark also revealed that there will be a new class coming to Darktide, as well as how the game will implement some live-service elements. Now, fans have gotten a proper look at Darktide gameplay, something they've been wanting for a while.
The new Darktide trailer only runs about two minutes long, but that is enough for fans to get a general sense of how the game and new missions will work. What might be the most obvious change from Fatshark's previous Warhammer horde game Vermintide is that the missions follow a more complex structure than just having the players go to a certain place and wipe out enemies or caputre and destroy certain objectives. It seems that puzzles and minigames will feature in Darktide, using the advanced technology of Warhammer 40K to give players something to do besides killing Chaos worshippers.
The action and combat are of course where Darktide wants to excel, and it seems from the gameplay shown in the trailer that Fatshark has kept much of what made Vermintide and its sequel so successful. There are even re-used enemy attack animations from Vermintide 2, which drew criticism from some of the fan base. Also, it seems that many of the classes in Darktide will have similarities with the playable classes in Warhammer Vermintide, including ultimate abilities that can either help to bring down a particularly strong enemy or rapidly wipe away waves of foes.
While there appear to be similarities between Darktide and Fatshark's other successful Warhammer games, there are plenty of differences to make the newest game stand out, such as the new character creation feature. Previously, each class in Vermintide was tied to a certain character, and in Darktide players will be able to make whatever character they want, complete with a new set of pre-recorded voices to choose from. Some showed concern that this new feature would result in a lack of character banter, but Fatshark was quick to calm those fears in a developer blog where it stated that Warhammer 40K: Darktide will have thousands of voice lines for its characters.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide releases on September 13, 2022, for PC and Xbox Series X/S.