It’s already one of our most anticipated upcoming games based solely on developer Fatshark’s previous game Warhammer: Vermintide 2, but don’t expect just a futuristic reskin – the team calls Warhammer 40,000: Darktide gameplay a “proper FPS experience” that will “expand” all that was great about Vermintide.
With the Warhammer 40K: Darktide release date set for September, details on the highly-anticipated co-op game are finally beginning to flood in. Along with a brand new trailer, Fatshark has released a new blog post on Steam with details on Darktide’s gameplay and how it differs from Vermintide.
The post explains how Fatshark started off by taking “the core of Vermintide” and focused on creating a “hybrid between meaty melee and classic FPS” gameplay. However, after its initial prototype, the team decided that it needed to ensure “a proper FPS experience for our ranged combat,” including “blend states and dynamic weapons and advanced recoil mechanics and suppression loops and interfacing.” Players will be able to customise their weaponry, and Fatshark is making sure the “rule of cool” always applies even when creating lore-breaking guns. “The balance has always been between lore and fun,” it adds.
The team says its aim is “to keep what was great with Vermintide, expand on it with solid ranged gameplay and provide true hybrid combat.” The developer admits it has “been difficult” as the introduction of ranged combat and enemies, as well as the team’s desire to make the gameplay “involved,” makes the gameplay more “complicated” than Vermintide – as Fatshark admits, “Vermintide wasn’t really well known for explaining things.” Nevertheless, “as long as the enemy behavior is intuitive, and lines up with the lore and the player fantasy, it just works,” it adds.
“The experience found in Darktide is fun and panicky and overwhelming and impactful,” the post concludes, “while our veterans and people who stick around to master it find and explore that depth that makes you stick around. At least, that is what we think we built. We hope you feel the same way.”
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