Healthy new Warhammer 40,000: Darktide A content update is coming next week, adding two new missions, and possibly preparing for Steam and Windows Store players (that’s you Game Pass gang) to play together. It won’t fix the fundamental flaws of the grimdark Left 4 Dead ’em up, but it’s a welcome change. Darktide is also adding new cosmetics that can be earned through gameplay (yay!) and is resuming the release of new cosmetics that can be sold for real money (yay!).
Update 10 “Rejects Unite” should be launched “by the end of” Games Workshop’s Warhammer Skulls event runs from today until Thursday 1st June. The main feature is two new missions: a raid on the archives and offices in Archivum Sycorax – Throneside and the extraction of crystals from the transit center in Ascension Riser 31 – Transit.
This second one will initially be locked by a community challenge, requiring players to collectively complete 1,400,000 missions. That sounds high, but I guess the developers of Fatshark have calculated that this is possible in a reasonable time frame. To help achieve this dizzying goal, playing on higher difficulty levels will count as more completions.
There is also a new enemy, the Chaos Spawn. You may recognize this twisted mess of flesh and tentacles from Vermintide 2, now modified to match its new home. Fatshark explains: “Changes compared to VT2 include a new jump attack to close distances faster, new combo animations to reinforce the rampant madness theme, tweaked existing attack animations to reduce quick damage time, and new grab animations to match our Ogrins” .
A new shop has opened on the ship, where you can buy hats, pants that can be obtained in the game, as well as new cosmetics. And “after a hiatus spent focusing on improving Darktide,” the Fatshark developers began selling premium cosmetics in a microtransaction store.
According to a press release we received ahead of today’s Warhammer Skulls stream, multiplayer between Steam and the Windows Store is also available alongside Rejects Unite. But the press release version was released after the thread cut out both mentions of crossplay. No Ads by Fatshark No their developer blog post also mention crossplay. So. May be? Maybe not? Last minute change of plans? A failed attempt to make the function a surprise? Either way, crossplay is overdue.
Frankly, it’s surprising that Darktide launched without crossplay. Historically, no one cared when Windows Store players were locked into their own multiplayer pool because no one bought Windows Store games. But when the game is on Game Pass, cutting players off from their Steamy friends is a real bummer. In my own pool, several people were unable to play with us, which of course didn’t help with how quickly we left Darktide.
“We know we missed the mark at launch,” executive producer Juan Martinez said in a press release. “We recognized this, analyzed community feedback, and changed our approach to game maintenance. We update Darktide regularly and have released two content releases, nine updates and numerous fixes since launch. And we don’t stop. Our latest drop, Rejects Unite, adds even more new content that everyone can get their teeth into. I couldn’t be more proud of what the team has achieved so far. And soon there will be more.”
The new levels are certainly welcome, but the main reason I stopped playing Darktide remains unresolved: gear and crafting systems cannot be restored. As I said in February, “It’s a waste of my time, specifically designed to waste my time.” No amount of tweaking and tweaking can be better than just removing all that chatter and just letting you play with the hardware you want. And that’s the worst part of it all: Darktide is actually fun to play, aside from this chatty, loud and dirty game through WH40K with crazy co-op ultraviolence. But like so many games these days, it tries to monopolize your time with work, rather than trusting that you’ll want to play because it’s fun.
See our Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Review more about good and bad.
Darktide has a 30% discount. on Steam right now, which is £23.09/€27.99/$27.99 until June 8th. And it’s still available on PC Game Pass.