Warhammer 40K: Darktide

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

Rejects Will Rise

Darktide is an upcoming co-op first-person shooter made by Vermintide developer Fatshark. The game will likely have the same gameplay as Vermintide, only in space and facing Chaos cults in an Underhive.

Story

Writing Brought to you by motherfucking Dan Abnett, with help form your favourite Spiritual Liege, Matthew Ward

The game takes place on the Hive World of Atoma Prime, where a group of Nurgle worshiping assholes called The Admonition are plotting to take over the planet from the city of Tertium with the extensive use of pox gases, turning the infected on their side. Thankfully (or not), an inquisitor has come to cleanse the heretical arsehole. Instead of doing the mercy killing, or calling 911, the inquisitor believes the situation is still somewhat salvageable, and scooping out the convicts they've collected, giving them weapons and thrown them to the meat grinder, hopefully they could find out what the hell is going on while purging some fucking heretics.

Actually, according to the devblog, the true antagonist is a concept known as the Darktide(role credits!), a boogeyman threat that must be kept at bay, or so they said. It's just a collected terms referring to the brutal horrors of the Warhammer 40,000 universe: alien creatures, predators, xenos species, monsters, and worse - who want nothing more than to extinguish the fluttering flame of human civilization. The young people recruited to regiments like the Sixth have no idea where they’re being sent, or what they will face. They are as ignorant of the "Darktide" as any other regular citizen, for they were all citizens themselves. Out on the death worlds of the Fringe, the lasmen are thrown into the meat grinder and come face to face with unimaginable danger. Their world-view changes. They learn the nature of the Darktide and fight it tooth and nail.

Sometimes, they learn too much.

Long tours result in trauma, both physical and psychological. Some are broken by the experience. Some are made bitter and resentful that the grueling combat they experience is generally unrecognized back home, because the Imperial Administratum tends to keep all details of the ongoing conflict quiet so as not to generate public alarm. There might be a few news broadcasts about "great victories", but the rest of the turmoil is screened by propaganda.

Some troopers, of course, serve brilliantly and bravely, and remain loyal. Despite everything they experience. But others fall prey to the insidious touch of the Darktide. They encounter the malevolent effect of the Warp, and it changes them. They become - literally, in some cases - the very thing they are fighting against.

In summary, the Darktide is basically traumatic experience brought to life by the warp (specifically Nurgle's because he specialized in emotion state of despair and other negativity), turning into a meat grinder, in the form of numberless Nurgle followers with pox that not only grinds meat, but also brainwash them to become one with the grinder. It is no wonder why Adeptus Astartes were not sent, perhaps the Inquisitor fears that the Astartes might fall and made the grinder even stronger?

And that's where our heroes, the convicts comes in. They are invaluable yet expendable. From Ogryns, guards veterans, excommunicated Ministorum Priests, Psykers, they are the meat grinder of the Imperium, ready to purge the enemies of the Imperium with their remarkable abilities.

The Rejects Will Rise!

Gameplay

The game excitingly is one of the very few 40k video games to feature the Guardsmen in the starring role and not the Space Marines, and will play just as similar to Vermintide, only probably leaning more towards the shooty parts of the game. As such it will likely be much closer to the L4D2 style of play than Vermintide. The game will also feature a class style of character system like in Vermintide, and given that an Ogryn is featured in some concept art, we may get an interesting list of characters to pick from.

More will come as more info comes out, but Guardsmen fans rejoice as they are put in the spotlight for once.

As of the magazine spot, playable classes are to be a Zealot, an Ogryn, Veteran, and Psyker, The classes are also apparently very customizable, both visually and gameplay-wise with lots of interchangeable weapons for classes and while no weapons have been specifically mentioned, plasma weapons, hellguns, long-las, ripper guns, and flamers seem like obvious choices for different classes. Also, you can play as four Ogryns.

The trailer also showed off Poxwalkers, traitor guardsmen, Hounds of Xaphan (actually pox hound), and fucking Plague Ogryns as enemy types so even though FW disconnected the Renegade and heretic line, they will hopefully live on in the game.

Darktide was featured on Edge magazine with a 15-page article stating that there will be some form of character creator and that you start as a newly conscripted prisoner snatched off a transport ship by the Inquisition, also ability leaks and a shield system like Payday 2.

For new introduced features unlike in vermintide or L4D, certain enemies now "infect" players, reduce their maximum health by the purple bar (just like in vermintide where the players are cursed for carrying grimoire). Be aware the effects can stacks so the players better stick together and ready kill any specials in order to prevent further health reduce. The infections cannot not be heal by normal means however (normal health pack are health sprays that can group heal btw), but it can be treated by healing stations that appears at certain point of the run, also fully heal any players that use it. Also, there are no more infinite ammo box like in vermintide, so the players should have some awareness about their range weapon usage, but there will always be at least 3 stacks of ammos waiting at the healing stations .

Classes

• Veteran: Has the ability to grant themself extra gun zooming range and increased headshot damage. By default, they wield a Lasgun, a Chainsword and Frag Grenades. For other weapons, they have Lucius patterned shotgun and a Stub Revolver.

• Zealot: Your happy go purging Ministorum Priest. Since player characters are all convicts for a reason, the Zealots was probably excommunicated for certain reason, but let's hope it is not something too severe. They have the same ability as the Zealot from Vermintide 2 to charge at the enemies, only this in game it forced the enemies to fight them in melee. By default, they wield an Autogun, a Power Hammer and Incendiary grenades.

• Psyker: A wizard type character with the exact same play style and mechanics as Sienna from vermintide, but no fire (because Psyker drawn their powers directly from the warp while human wizards in fantasy drawn theirs from one of the 8 winds of magic for safety reasons). As mentioned previously in Vermintide, this type of character has unlimited ammo, but will explode if they overuse their powers. They will also suffers damage when trying to cooldown from overheating by "reloading", but not for the Psyker in Darktide however, bless the Emperor. As for other new features, the Psyker can get new spell powers in their grenade slot (which every class now gets their own unique grenades) to smite the enemies for the Emprah! One of the many demonstrated spell is the headlock spell that deal massive damage to a single enemies' head, to the point of crushing their skull, killing them instantly. When blocking, they are able to conjure a psychic shield that not only blocks ranged fire, but also stagger enemies when they try to hit it, and it works on even the hardest hitting elites like the Crushers or the Maulers. Other powers include pushing away a horde of enemies in a burst of psychic wind, and imbuing the powers of the warp into their blades and to deal lethal damage in one swing. Their unique ability allows them to instantly erase any overcharge they had. By default, they wield a Force Sword, a Force Staff (aka the conflagration staff from vermintide) and the aforementioned head busting power (speculated to be able to switched for other psyker powers in future updates).

• Ogryn: Will be taller than the other characters (said to be the height of three Bardins tall) and can send smaller enemies flying back with his attacks. Has the same charging move as Foot Knight Kruber in Vermintide 2, which pushes enemies away. By default, they wield a ripper gun (which has an alt-firing move that allows it to go full auto), a combat knife and their own unique Ogryn patterned grenades (a cluster bomb that scatters and explodes in a large area, randomly). Due to how tall and big the Ogryn is and since this is a sci-fi game where majority of the enemies and characters use guns, the Ogryn will have to do the heavy lifting, acting as a distracting/cover for his teammates. But that's fine since Ogryn is big and strong, and being tall allows him to score headshots in melee with relative accuracy and ease.

Other Characters

• Sergeant Major Morrow: Think of him as the Mission Control from Deep Rock Galactic or Lohner from vermintide. Now with the power of Vox technology(bless the Omnissiah!), he will constantly providing mission details for the players team in a sarcastic tone. Voiced by Kruber's VA.

Enemies

• Poxwalkers: Civilians of Atoma Hive who were infected by Moebian Sixth's pox gas. They are the trash enemy of this game that comes in hordes, whose purpose is to tarpit the players.
  • Poxburster: Suicide bomber. Think of him as a boomer from left 4 dead. He not only deal massive damage with his explosion, he also inflict poison that decrease the player's HP. Kill him from afar as soon as possible. Can be detect by the beeping sounds from their bomb.

• Moebian Sixth regiments These regiments were known for being the toughest out of all Moebian regiments. However, with a bit of war trauma and a bit of warp power shenanigans, it corrupts them into Nurgle worships, turning them against the Imperium. They now seek to "save" the citizens of Atoma and its sister worlds by giving them pox gas filled with papa Nurgle's "truth", freeing them from the corpse Emperor's lies... So that Papa Nurgle's can take their place.
  • Traitor Guards: Your typical wall of guns. Smarter than Poxwalkers, knows how to cover and knows how to shoot your ass. There are two types of them: One that can shoot, and one that hit yo ass with a stick.
  • Scab Bomber: Think of them as the Spitter/Globadier of this game, but use firebomb to create puddles of flame to burn the player's arse.
  • Dreg Tox Flamer: Literally the Warpfire thrower of this game. Ironically the traitor decided to use a chemical thrower instead of a regular flamer when their Bomber use normal firebomb, probably has to do with Nurgle worship, but also raised another question as to why their Bomber didn't chose to use poison gas bomb if they are going for the pestilence theme army? Anyways, their Tox thrower glow so bright, one could mistook as some kind of Necron tech (as if any human were capable of wielding it, let alone some fucking low-born heretics. only the inquisition knows how.)
  • Scab Trapper: The Packmaster of this game. Actually clever than the ratmens that the Trapper use a net gun to capture the players from a far instead of using a long-stick-with-a-hook (aka Man catcher).
  • Scab Gunner: The Rattling Gunner of this game, but shoots the players with Hotshot Volley Gun instead.
  • Scab Shot Gunner: The berserker/plague monks enemies equivalent of this game. Suicidal and deals a lot of damage at close range with their shotgun.
  • Scab Mauler: Literally Mauler from vermintide 2, but fully armored, tough as nail like chaos warriors (probably more so since it fucking resists power weapon attacks!) and is armed with a two-handed chain-axe.
  • Scab Sniper: Does what it says judging by its name. Their Long-Las ignore player's range shield and dealt a shit ton of damage in one shot from a far against the player and really likes to fucking hide and run. He is the most dangerous when he has his pals to tarpit for him while he take his sweet ass time to downing the players' entire team. He can only be spotted by their laser sight. The best way to defend against him is to take cover behind a wall or a structure where he can't shoot, and hopefully the Abominable Intelligence is dumb enough to order him to get closer to the players behind the wall, in melee range where he is the most vurnable so the players could take their everlasting revenge against that fucking heretic.

• Pox Hound: A straightforward gutter runner, but not as agile nor stealthy since it likes to bark. It sometimes comes in a squad of 2 or 3 mixed in with hordes. It's bite contains powerful pox that decrease players' HP. It is very fast and tanky so like the poxburster, it should be another enemies to be taken out afar, as soon as possible.

• Chaos Ogryn: The Chaos Warriors of this game, tough dumb bastards that comes in three variants:
  • Crusher:The offensive variant that's armored and armed with great weapon. A classic reminiscent of the Chaos Warriors from vermintide 2.
  • Bulwark:The defensive variant that's armed with a chainsword and a big sturdy shield, but not armored, thankfully.
  • Reaper:The range variant that carries a big fucking Heavy Stubber that would filled the players full of lead. Think of it as a mobile, meatier version of the Scab Gunner.

• Plague Ogryn: The first revealed randomly encountered boss of this game. Just a big rotting mutated Ogryn that wants to eat you and stuff you inside its shitty rotten intestine.

• Enforcer: Shown in trailer with a plasma pistol. Most likely will make enemies retreat when killed.

• Mutant: Mutants that were enhanced with cybernetics. Inspired by Charger from left 4 dead whose role is to charge at the player to separate them from their team, then give them a bit ground pounding, followed by throw them even further. It is a pretty big abomination, about the size of an Ogryn, and it is pretty fast and tanky. Hilarious, it copied Chaos Spawn's throwing animation from Vermintide 2.