Long awaited by fans of the Warhammer 40K universe and by all veterans of Vermintide games, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is finally available. And Fatshark offers us an explosive release unfortunately weighed down by a dying technique.
[Mis à jour le 2 décembre 2022 à 13h08] The Warhammer 40,000 universe has spanned more than thirty years, drawing countless fans into its vastness, fascinated by its multiple reading scales, its uncompromising dystopia, and the richness of an ever-expanding story. grow. A universe that fascinates, and which has unfortunately never touched the stars in the world of video games, with releases that are sometimes passable, and often mediocre. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide intended to remedy this. The new hypercombat game from the Swedish studio Fatshark, specialist in the genre and the Warhammer Fantasy universe with its two previous Vermintide, swaps bows and arrows for laser rifles and chainsaw swords, and plunges us without any pity in the gargantuan machine of the 41st century Imperium. An outing that we were able to take in hand, and which brought us emotions… plural.
To begin this review, it is necessary to go back a few weeks to the release of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Early Access. These few days of testing proved to us that Fatshark had not held back in the creation of its new title. Darktide offers us breathtaking landscapes, grandiose visual and sound atmospheres and an uncompromising gore that makes its hypercombat deeply enjoyable. Add to that an arsenal of weapons to make even an Adeptus Astartes shiver with pleasure and you have something to satisfy all fans of a universe that has never really seen an adaptation that does it justice. Because it must be said that in terms of video games and Warhammer 40K, tolerance has been the key word for fans who are often faced with disappointing products.
But we had to remember something negative from this beta, something which, like the many positive points stated above, unfortunately followed Darktide in its final version: the game is not far from being unplayable. Repeated crashes and bugs prevent many enthusiastic servants of the Emperor from enjoying a full game session, even after the day 1 patches (although the situation has greatly improved). We can also talk about the game’s performance that makes the most high-end PC configurations creak, with combat that inexorably drags your frames per second down, making the experience frankly unpleasant for players with the minimum configurations recommended by Fatshark. themselves.
Yes, the game is gorgeous, the lighting effects are incredible, the volumetric fogs make you wish you weren’t wearing a gas mask, and the dismemberments and ragdolls take combat to the level of violence expected of a Warhammer 40,000 adventure. But it seems that Fatshark’s ambition has finally failed him, since although it is possible to manage all the effects mentioned above in the graphics options menu, frame drops remain far too numerous on modest machines like on the beefiest ones, not to mention the many inexplicable crashes.
However, we must not forget that there is a great advantage in the technical suffering of Darktide, an advantage which is that the problems of optimization and operation can (and must) be corrected in the coming weeks. We can’t help thinking that Fatshark has slipped slightly into the release schedule of a game that could surely have stayed a few more weeks warm. At a time when postponements have almost become common, the gaming community would have much preferred a shift in the release date rather than a finished product struggling so much for its survival in the first days of its existence.
It should also be noted that despite these massive technical problems, Fatshark has not been shy about in-game monetization, setting up a cosmetics store and a virtual currency as soon as it is released. So no, it’s no longer surprising or disturbing to see this kind of practice flourish in 2022, and it must be said that the cosmetic potential of the Warhammer 40,000 universe is extremely engaging (a Krieg Deathkorps mask? take my silver). But what is surprising is that this shop coexists with gameplay problems so deep that it would be almost legitimate to think that we are being laughed at a little.
Again, Fatshark remains extremely close to its community, and has already walked almost a half marathon since the early days of Early Access, implementing player-requested features like weapon and endgame stats more enhancements, more interface customization options, and many other optimizations and bug fixes. But the road will be long for the Swedish publisher in the coming weeks, and the video game world has its eyes fixed on teams who really have no interest in falling into the trap of totally uninhibited monetization, to the detriment game performance.
The way is clear for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide: technical optimization and bug fixes must be the watchword for the next few weeks at Fatshark, the cosmetic shop must be discreet, clearer and separate from its timer weekly reset (which clearly seems designed to push players into impulse purchases), at least until Darktide becomes a playable title for everyone. We touch the grandiose with this new release, and Fatshark has done very hard to transcribe the immeasurable scale of the hive city of Tertium, offering us grandiose environments, alive and built in the smallest details, finally bringing the ruthless machine to life. and violent of the Imperium, the one that molds you, grinds you and spits you out without the slightest consideration. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will be a great game, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. He just isn’t at the moment.
As for the gameplay of Warhammer 40,000 Darktide, you don’t have to rack your brains for long to know what you’re dealing with. Fatshark has taken over the formula that made the success of Vermintide and Vermintide 2, i.e. cooperative FPS where a team of four players must go from point A to point B while being attacked by successive waves more or less tough enemies. The Left 4 Dead inspiration is obviously glaring, but assumed, and generally fits very well with the brutality of the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 universes, where the enemies of humanity are legion and the heroes so rare. Only, in Darktide, you will trade your halberd and your bow for a laser rifle and a chainsword, and trade the hordes of Skaven and cultists of Nurgle against… the hordes of cultists of Nurgle from the depths of the hive cities of the Empire. Of course, everything is to be done for Fatshark, who will have the heavy task of bringing to the screen the gigantic scales typical of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
For the moment, the scenario of Darktide remains very mysterious, we know that we will embody an atypical squad of the Imperial Guard sent to the planet Atoma-Prime to try to prevent an incursion of Chaos into the hive city of Tertium . We know, however, that the story of this new project was written in collaboration with Dan Abnett, the veteran author of the Warhammer 40,000 novels, to whom we owe several dozen books and comic books revered by the fan community of the universe. He also insisted that Darktide would be “about basic humans trying to survive against all odds“, and less centered around the more “traditional” adventures of the Spacemarines or the Inquisition.
Regarding the classes available in the game, know that they are made up of four archetypes. You will find there the Ogryn, a semi-human despised by his peers, expert in hand-to-hand combat and fond of heavy weapons. At his side, you can embody a Imperial Guard Veteran, a soldier loyal to the Imperium but rejected by his army, and who does not leave his precious laser rifle. But that’s not all, if the voices of the Emperor resonate in your ears, you also have the opportunity to play a Zealot, a devout believer in the Imperial Faith, determined to defeat any heretics who stand in his way. Useful against waves of enemies and bosses. Finally, magic lovers can choose the Psyker class, a skilled manipulator of Warp energies using its exceptional abilities to defeat the enemies of the Imperium, particularly useful against elites.
Each class has 4 intrinsic passive skills and a special active ability. Leveling up will allow you to unlock various ranks of additional passive skills, from which you can choose one of three options, every five levels. Builds vary quite heavily between different characters, but your class customization isn’t very deep in the skill tree. You will have to look in more detail at the build of your hero, by skillfully choosing a melee weapon, a ranged weapon and three magic items.