The wait for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide on PS5 was made a little more bearable for 40K fans earlier this year with the release of Space Marine 2. Saber Interactive’s surprise sequel to the 2011 hack n’ slash/shooter hybrid has achieved phenomenal success, and is certainly a tough act to follow.
However, Darktide is a markedly different kind of game, hailing from the same school of shooter as Left 4 Dead and indeed developer Fatshark’s flagship title, Warhammer: Vermintide. No doubt seeing how popular their co-op action series has grown, the Swedish studio applied a similar template to Game Workshop’s gritty sci-fi universe.
For the most part, it’s a great fit. Darktide delves deep into the dark underbelly of 40K, far away from the warring Space Marines and their xenos rivals, instead focusing on the spreading corruption of Chaos within the Hive City of Tertium. Here, hiding within a labyrinth of habitat zones, factories, and pleasure districts, sedition manifests in the form of mutant cults who have turned their backs on the Emperor, seeking salvation instead from dark and ancient deities.
One major difference between Darktide and Vermintide is the shift away from named playable heroes. Instead, you create your own avatar, choosing from one of four classes that each have their own distinct weapon loadouts and abilities though all are equally capable in combat. As you’d expect, the hulking Ogryn is a bullet sponge who excels in taunting foes and pulling aggro away from squishier squadmates such as the magic-wielding Psykers. Although Darktide gives you the tools to customise your own grimdark misfit, this isn’t to say they’re devoid of any character. In fact, there’s plenty to be gleaned about the 40K universe from the banter, barbs, and exchanges between heroes as they go about their Chaos-thumping crusade.
We won’t do a complete retread of our original Darktide review, though what we praised about the game at launch still rings true. There’s an immense amount of joy to be had shooting and pummelling huge waves of enemies as you steadily push along each gauntlet-like stage, completing objectives. On the lowest rung of the difficulty ladder it can be presented as mindless fun though there’s plenty of challenge to be had, pressing even the most coordinated of strike teams to work together.
One common critique of Darktide is also still true. Repetition is pretty much baked into the core experience, encouraging players to rerun stages over and over, gradually dialling up the difficulty while earning experience points, as well as new weapons and abilities. This is a game about perfecting your ideal loadout rather than seeing a concise narrative unfold from beginning to end. Thanks to various updates and major content drops – including the recent Grim Protocols – Darktide gives players much more to see and do while expanding the previously limited character progression system.
Through two years of toil and improvements, PlayStation fans get to experience Warhammer 40,000: Darktide at its very best complete with system-specific features such as DualSense haptics and a PS5 Pro performance boost. Online crossplay is another big boon, allowing you to matchmake with Xbox and PC players (something that was disappointingly absent from Vermintide 2). Speaking of which, Fatshark’s Skaven-stomping sequel is now long in the tooth and tail yet remains an ongoing success story within the blighted realm of live service video games – one that Darktide is looking to emulate.
Die hard fans have already managed to wring plenty of value from the game so far and there’s plenty of room to expand, though we doubt Fatshark will want to fragment its matchmaking pool by introducing premium maps. Having launched on all platforms, we’re eager to see what’s next as we go into 2025 and beyond, whether it’s new playable classes, enemies, and endgame modes.
