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I’m honestly sick of unfinished games where the only thing that people can say about it is ‘Well the core gameplay is fun!’ My brother in Christ, that’s the minimum expectation for a video game’s gameplay. I want an actual full product for once, I’m done playing games for their ‘potential’ and not their actual quality in front of me.
exactly! most games are either live service or promise updates later with patches leaving games months without new content to chew on or have a baked in battle pass in a single player focused game. Wild times we live in
The sad thing is there more ppl than not that will call these comments extra or that your complaining to much you should just enjoy the game... those remarks would be very wrong 😕
@@blackout1518 It's an integral game in his history admittedly, but yeah he has a love/hate relationship with it. Meanwhile most people got burned after 1&2 launches & moved the fuck on & stopped touching the garbage.
@BLACKOUT why shouldn't he talk about something that is not only entirely relevant in comparison, but also something that he enjoys/is very knowledgeable in? Darktide is a live-service game, and it is very clearly suffering from the exact same mistakes Bungie made, so I don't really understand your point.
Honestly, after spending 150 hours in Vermintide 2 earlier this year, it's kind of mind-boggling that they'd launch DT with so many incomplete features that were completely functional in VT2
yeah. I only played Vermintide 2 after they gave it away (did give 'em a bit of money when I got a few of the DLC), and still have it installed...so I was pretty surprised and disappointed at the state of Darktide (bought it a bit after launch, I really should've waited). At the very least they could've just used the same crafting system, if they couldn't think of one that's better (Darktide's shop is bad/annoying, and I don't like how the crafting is shaping up, if the current 'half' that's present is indicative of what's coming)
@@vahlen5281 100%. I doubt devs want the game released in its current state, but they’ve been pressured to do it, at the cost of half-baked subsystems.
Anyway I didn't liked Vermintide 2, because they copied LEFT 4 DEAD mechanics but they didn't added mechanics that LEFT4DEAD2 have which leads to some issues the Vermintide 2 have...
thank you for always putting the conclusion in the title and not clickbaiting us. that coupled with stellar scriptwriting means your videos are always awesome!
As someone who has played Darktide, I’ve got to say that you’ve pretty much voiced all my issues with it and all the reasons I still love it. The gameplay is just that good. It’s really unfortunate they dropped the ball on so many other aspects of the game though.
100% agree. The game FEELS so good, the guns FEEL punchy and powerful and in-genre, and the missions are the standard you'd expect from Vermantide (though they can feel a bit too samey in this title). Still, this game is Early Access. It doesnt matter what the steam page says, this game is incomplete and should not have been released in this state.
I'll be the damn clown here, but game told me at start that it won't run on my system and I'm playing with friends at sub 20 fps at times. I have to delete the game and physically play Vermintide 2 or something else in that vein, cause I really want to keep playing Darktide even for all the warts and issues I'm enduring right now. Who knows hopefully in a few months when I can get a new GPU that can run it better they'll have patched the game some more closer to the polish Vermintide 2 reached.
@@aaronhumphrey3514 exactly if they really wanted to release it it should’ve been early access cause from what he’s saying it sounds like a early access game
The fact you could not make the video any shorter than 40 minutes shows me, how much you care for it. I play it, i love it and i hate the fact it is so unfinished. Really hope they'll put in some good ol' effort.
While they're very, very different experiences I'm reminded allot about dark souls 2's launch. My reaction was pretty much "man this is worse in almost everyway to the previous one. Game of the year though, can't put it down". I think Darktide invented new problems for itself, and while I still find it excellent and expect to play for awhile longer this is definitely a design choice issue, and those can be hard to dig yourself out of.
As much as I love and play it since the Closed Beta I can't pretend that it has no flaws such as the lack of content and another few issues. I am still optimistic about the game down the line, but cautiously so.
He never mentions Division which gave his journo creds, now he shills like the jounro he is and GOD FORBID A GAME DOESN'T PLAY GOOD IN 4K OR LATEST GPU
@@Tallmios it's called sarcasm, lighten up. also reading seems hard for you, also never heard the "potato pc joke before". don't ever what some one says literally, my thin-skinned friend. instead of calling some one a jack ass when they what they're talking then yeah. your the idiot that all releases are made for new thing right? or the fact the game market every has a 4k super monitor and 3090 or 4 series gpu? teams develop games for period, they may have concept for what coming but the processes are done and set in certain era or series of gpus. you and skill up seem to think FAT SHARK fully optimizes their stuff right. the same for any developer or team but some are better than others. if you want to yank your engine out for latest and greatest system specs or gpus, but your product will launch badly or be bad. halo infinite or battlefield 2042 anyone? go with God anday he bless you
@@Tallmios play a drinking game with this video or your average skill up video. take a shot when you hear these words. destiny, performance, 4k , gpu , design, story then post how drunk you are, Pardon my sarcasm but I've this man since his division days. he took the game journo route and the same since.p
@@Brandelwyn Yeah dude its a totally reasonable expectation that devs lose their jobs because they defied their bosses, guess their kids are just going to have to go hungry since they took the moral highroad on a childrens entertainment product
My disappointment in the launch state of Darktide actually made me go back and install Vermintide 1 and 2. Those games are fantastic. There's been so little change to the core game mechanics that the player skills do transfer. I'm way better at these games now than I was when I played V1, and teaching new players how to play and where all the books are has been very rewarding.
After the first 10 or so hours of Darktide I kept feeling like I'm just playing a worse Vermintide, made me go back to VT2 real quick. The only thing I don't like about them is the books, grimoire debuffs are fine but it's the restriction of inventory that really annoys me, and the fact that they are required to get emp vaults makes pubs a chore sometimes. Still leagues above Darktide however.
VT2 launched in a similar state, still one of the better horde games out there and dark tide will be the same. Just don’t buy it full price if you haven’t already(for those of you reading this
@@toptiertech7291 I think that depends on if they kept the full production staff or dumped a ton of people. (Or shifted them to other projects.) If they did? Yeah, I could see another year putting it up to near release quality.
Where is no crossplay between steam and gamepass version. Gamepass version have much less playerbase, ppl are constrantly creating posts about hard time finding players at higher difficulties on gamepass
It's kinda funny how all Ralph's gripes with the story are basically solved in Vermintide 2: - we do progress to a certain goal while going through the missions - each mission has a distinct objective instead of just "go kill things and fiddle with machinery" - there is big climactic final boss battle where can finally see results of our efforts - there are cool characters with distinct personalities and interesting dialogues
Most of the issues are solved in Vermintide. Unfortunately, Fatshark apparently forgot they made that game and decided to completely ignore any of their previous solutions.
This has been the most difficult part of Darktide for me. They really seem like they stepped so far back, when I was really hoping they'd move forward. I love Vermintide, and the gameplay in Darktide is great, but it probably needed another year honestly.
Agreeing with Skillup, Vermintide 2 was very similar, it only became fully fleshed out around a year after launch so I was expecting similar things for darktide. Gave the prerelease version a try and refunded after a couple days because there were many obvious issues. Will be checking back on it in around 6 months.
vermintide 2 had bucketloads of better content on release than darktide though, actually different maps, 5 classes with a unique weapon pool for each plus 2 subclasses for each, out of these 3 things the only thing darktide kind of even remotely touches is its large variety of shared weapons, but it is what it is, and darktide is lacking both in performance content and endgame
One thing I'm surprised you didn't mention (or maybe I just missed it) is the terrible penance system. Many of them completely interrupt the flow of the game and encourage players to play in a way that can completely sabotage missions. Had one run where a zealot demanded that we keep up with him for his speed run penance, zoomed off, aggroed a horde, blew me off a cliff with a barrel trying to self damage, and then he died. If you want to finish higher tier penances do them in premade teams dedicated to completing them.
Very fair review. Harsh criticism for failures and absolute adoration for what they got so right. I played a whole bunch of Vermintide and this is kinda just how Fatshark works. On the bright side, 4 years after launch we are still getting DLC and they continuously released new content, both free and paid. Vermintide 2 was a game that my party could always come back to for a solid month of fun with each major update and I hope Darktide is in that good place soon.
BTW, you are right about not giving Vermintide 2 enough time. Every character has a ranged focused subclass, a melee focus subclass, and a subclass that does both, so you can absolutely tailor your game play to your preference, especially when you unlock more types of weapons.
Vt2 is amazing. Unique classes and levels that look different. Oh and a crafting system, 3 game play modes and it doesn’t crash non stop. Uniques are actually unique and you can see them… my friends are 40k nerds and keep playing this utter garbage of a release. “Omg it’s so authentic”. Best line of the video is comparing the weapon loot to the universe. Assassins are so much more scary then wussy hounds. Just trust me, if you like the combat in 40k, just play vermtide2.
As much as the game does encourage you to play as a team, most of the penances (in-game challenges) actively discourage you from working with your team. Challenges ranging from not using your ranged weapon (forcing your team to pick up the slack in skirmishes) to solo-killing a boss on a high difficulty. Some people will say, just play with bots! But unfortunately, private games are currently limited to a 2 human player minimum, rather than 1 with 3 bots. So for people with a friend who plays the game, you can at least work with them. But Solo players who don't have anyone to play with, they're either screwed in regards to some of these challenges, or are forced to grief other players in matchmaking.
I disagree regarding the penances. The game has chat after all, and pretty much every player i've come across has agreed to help with penances, all you need to do is communicate. And from the moment someone agrees, teamplay becomes crucial for the sake of that one boi that wants to get the penances done. If anything, i see the penances as making teamwork even more crucial. Also bots actively fuck some penances, like they never stop attacking, of course, and if they do too much damage to the boss, you'll never get that Psyker penance to solo it.
@@lovebunny2652 it is a bit diffrent from verm 2, verm 2 is toxic as all get out, but it seems darktide players actuly play together for the most part.
I disagree, same amount of crashes as DMZ... Annoying, but still playable and worthwhile. I think console won't be great, even series X might have issues with the number of enemy NPCs. Raytracing is a must. I think it's streaming a lot from servers, and likely the cause of most of the stability issues. Recent update (2 days ago) has made a difference, you can always reconnect now and crashes less frequent.
Honestly the part that hurts the most is that between all the unfinished, unoptimized things the gameplay is so damn good, it's borderline addicting, they had such a good opportunity in their hand...
So much is missing from this game but I’m still having so much fun playing it. The combat is just unreal. I don’t regret my imperial edition purchase but I’ve also been playing since beta. I was expecting launch day to not just literally be the beta though lol.
Abnett and Aaron Dempski-Bowden are the best. The night lord omnibus in particular are the best books I have ever read. For Abnett the inquisitor series is now 8 books long so it’s an amazing journey, just need to wait for the last one now. I have to mention the book helsreach.
Some of the standalone books could be good, too. McNeill's 'Storm of Iron' was great, if memory serves. 'Fifteen Hours' by Scanlon is great, too. Eisenhorn and Gaunt are, of course great, but I think my favourite WH40k series is Mitchell/Stewart's Ciaphas Cain.
@@GottHammer Nerdist listed off a few books the new Amazon/Cavill stuff should be based on and Ciaphas Cain was one of them. Others were Gaunt's Ghosts, Eisenhorn and Helsreach.
You should read the Eisenhorn novels if you liked those other ones. Also by Dan Abnett, they are probably the best Warhammer 40k books. And yes, you should absolutely try getting into Verminitide 2. The combat system, spells, weapons and characters are fantastic, as are the missions.
Been loving Darktide, this review is spot on. If you're able to ignore the progression/gear systems and don't have any technical issues (which is actually common for most I've played with), it's still pretty damn enjoyable.
I've been playing the game since release and i absolutely love it. The weapons, the feeling you get from them and cutting hordes of ennemies in half with your eviscerator, the insane soundtrack. Ever since the last 2 patches which made my game run perfectly and now I'm never getting under 60fps even when there is 300 ennemies on screen, im having a lot of fun
Let me get this straight - Fatshark as a company are liars. Fatshark straight up lied at advertising. A lot of promo material weapons or cosmetics are unobtainable in game, ability to obtain premium currency through gameplay was removed (and they were sneaky enough to edit this out of the discord post right before release), the crafting system that was supposed to be ready on release (and after that it was promised to be done in December) is not here, and it is Christmas already, so no way players get it this year. The promised story just used Dan Abnett big name as a promotion and in fact does not exist at all. Weapon modifications system is scrapped, so you can't just attach flashlight/bayonet to a gun or get a better scope, despite it apparently being in the works not so long ago. The game reeks of "effective management", "players engagement" and "retention". Also, in game shop exploiting FOMO and does not allow you to buy items directly, instead forcing you to buy aquilas in packs and then spending aquilas on cosmetics.
Words cannot express how happy I am to see Shillup fall down deeper into the 40k warphole. Gaunt’s Ghosts is a fantastic series. Hope he continues reading it!
I agree that the game could be mindblowingly good within 1 year. That being said, as someone who played a ridiculous amount of Vermintide 2 over the years; Fatshark have proven many many times that they are largely incompetent developers beyond creating an extremely solid core game. Progression systems, crafting, cosmetics, all of these auxiliary systems are just completely misunderstood and incoherently addressed. Even when they try to 'listen to players' they just do it in the worst way possible.
@@noway718 VT2 has a pretty decent narrative. The problem with DT is that they went with random faceless mooks as the playable character, vs VT2's actual proper characters.
It is DLC/FLC that really let V2 down. At the beginning, with the Nurgle theme, I was so excited for what they could have added. Realm of Chaos was great, but NO DAEMONS IN THE REALM OF CHAOS? Be'Lakor had no BE'LAKOR, and at the end of it all, a swarm of Nurglings was all they could muster.
@@noway718 They did, they hired Dan Abnett, who has written dozen of good books in the 40K universe. They just don't seem to have actually implimented anything he done for them.
people really just need to admit that after Tencent got their hands in the shares, FS just changed to worse. If you google it, chairman of the board is now Chinese, same goes for non-executive, and whole bunch of staff from Level Infinite studio is listed in the credits for Darktide. In case you don't know, Level Infinite is studio that helps to design monetization for Tencent owned projects if original studio can't make it itself. I am not putting all blame on them ofc, because this amount of incompetence and selling out should be okayed by the studio head honchos.
@@darthsparrow1358 understandable take, and vermintide is way more fleshed out. but i dont think id call it a reskin. they did a really good job with the world and the ranged combat is much more expanded in this game.
80hrs played since launch, two crashes total. One of the lucky ones for sure. Fatshark cashed in a lot of good faith with the state of the release. The gameplay is what keeps pulling me back in though, so much fun.
@@Gortanckla because if you overexagerate everything you say it doesn't mean anything anymore and besides that you are rworded for asking dumb questions lmao deal with that! 🤣
@@Diegoshadow85 Why would it lose meaning, and why would asking questions make me dumb? Is the pursuit of information not how one becomes more intelligent?
20:36 With itemization, one of the updates - the one which added the %s to the bars on weapons which you can see in the review on occasion - added a very in-depth item UI. If you inspect an item with [V] then you can mouse-over icons like Relentless and Assassin to see what they mean, and mouse-over the bars to see what they do. You can find out what most things are now. Other than that, the review is basically spot on.
That still isn't sufficient, the perks/blessings and their functions aren't explained. Stuff like 'Impact', 'Rending', 'Hit Mass' and other terms that aren't defined to the player. The UI is convoluted in comparison to similar games.
The most disappointing and addictive game I’ve played in years. You nailed everything with the title alone. It’s heart ache inducing when they got the hard part right and everything else is still in tatters. ;-; Edit: Also, this is the one time you bringing up Destiny is both apt and tolerable.
@candyman always when TenCent shows up, stuff just dies or becomes soulless. Fast getting sick of corpo speak and decisions made by the CCP sanctioned entities destroying everything I love. Be it the wanton pollution of our world, the undermining of our democracies or the shitifying of our video games.
Fatshark did the same thing with Vermintide 2, released it too soon. By the time Vermintide 2 was up to snuff everyone had moved on, I fear Darktide will suffer a similar fate.
Absolutely stellar review. Nailed every point me and my 1k+ hour Vermintide series veteran playgroup have been talking about since the Darktide launch. This will be a great title... In 2 years, when it's done. And I love the core enough to suffer through all the BS until then... But I'm not happy to be suffering.
Again please no misinformation: Your Toughness bar only blocks RANGED damage, anything hitting you in melee if you aren't on 100% toughness will cause damage and bleed through your health bar! It doesn't slowly regenerate when you aren't near your team, it doesn't regenerate AT ALL if you aren't near them. These are massive problems that they still need to fix.
I found this review interesting and its a great example of why you should see multiple trusted reviews before making a purchase. A lot of reviewers I trust gave it a good score but they were Warhammer fan so they are willing to overlook the rough edges, warhammer games in general is kinda like that, my brother loved Space Marine but I thought it was only okay. Ralph is reviewing it from the eyes of a average gamer and his review makes a lot of sense. Definitely a buy it during steam sales for me.
I think it's worth it's base price, especially for a 40$ price tag, but it really needs to fix the optimization and actually add in all the crafting mechanics.
There were a few things he missed the mark on in this review imo, overall fair review however. This game is definitely worth playing. It's objectively more fun than Vermintide, and I say that having over 100 hours in Vermintide. The gameplay loop is a lot more enjoyable than Vermintide. Only thing more satisfactory in VM2 is the weapon/crafting system
Yeah. Warhammer 40k fans, like me, tend to ignore the bad or unfinished aspects on the wh40k games, because we just want to enjoy the franchise content over gameplay. Like Sonic frontier. While not really good at gameplay, Sonic fans enjoy it because it's Sonic games
Oh man that segment on D1 was a nostalgia trip. Still remember being so hyped playing the open beta, and having such a blast in the full release game..... for the week it took to clear all content and try vault of glass
Thank you for talking about the cosmetics. I keep seeing people say "it's just cosmetics, it doesn't have an effect on gameplay so it's fine." But when the game is advertising that you make your own character, and (after hard work with stupid achievements) you're given the choice between a helmet with a chip in the visor, the same helmet but a red cloth mask, the same helmet but a BLACK camo cloth mask; I DON'T exactly think I can agree with this thought process on a $40-$60 game.
I think this is a v solid review and it's interesting having put a lot of time in VT2 to see areas where others complain that Skill Up doesn't agree with fully. (Like level's not standing out, not having enough subclasses, elites/enemy variety, or even the fact that all the major bones of the combat[minus some degree of gunplay] is lifted from VT/VT2 etc) This is a very realistic review that I think is tempered by the fact that Skill Up didn't play VT2, I could only imagine the contrast between the two if he had
I saw the title and disagreed, but then I watched the intro and as a Destiny fan I completely understand. Fair play mate, hopefully the game gets the expansions it deserves
The issue I rose with my friend the other day is "by the time this game is good will i have the care or time anymore?" if you're a fan of this game (and i was really enjoying it) then you will most likely return to the game. But think about how many games are coming in 2023 and the amount of games that players are excited for. When this game is all good and ready I will most likely be playing all the games I am looking forward to and juggling with responsibilities in 2023. Games launch and me personally plan the time around that I will have to play/invest in them based on if they're single player or multiplayer and I just don't know if I will have the space in 2023 to invest in this game like I currently want to with how much I am looking forward to next year and currently juggling.
A thousand times this sentiment. Instead of fuckin' around with inserting a shitty predatory cash shop into a PAID PRODUCT, maybe they should have used the salaries they paid the cash shop engineers for more actual developers to, y'know, finish the core game.
What I appriciate most on your reviews is its always your opinion, no holding back. The good the bad and the ugly. Keep up the great work and I see this channel continuing to grow and become an even larger force in the gaming world. I'm totally enjoying darktide with about 50 hours in but all of your criticisms are absolutely true.
Really great review, speaks from my heart. Darktide has extremely great gameplay and playing in a 4 man voice-chat, going into Tier 4 missions, getting your ass handed to you... what a great experience! But there simply is nothing between that. My 2 lvl 30 characters (Ogryn and Zealot) both have "perfect" gear for their jobs and I don't really look into the item shops anymore because of that. So there's basically no reason to keep running missions with them... besides the fun of running missions in Darktide! You kind of missed the whole Penance system. Basically it's Achievements that you have to jump through some hoops for. But some Penances are pretty easy ("Finish 50 missions", "kill 5 enemies with headshots without missing a shot in 10s", "Block 500 dmg"), while others are pretty much ridiculous ("Finish a mission with 100% accuracy with 0 ammo left"). But you need to finish them, to get the cool free cosmetics (and they often are pretty rad). This is an area where they need to rebalance some more... they made certain penances much easier, but often they are still infuriatingly hard. On the story part: There are certain hints to sinister things going on aboard the Mourningstar... so I'm really, really hoping this will come into play later in the lifecycle, as that would be something where Dan Abnett could show us his creativity and his knowledge of the 40k universe. But so far... it's like the 2 pages of background fluff for your PnP campaign given by the core rulebook.
To say it short, the game doesn't have maps and enemy varieties is low. The difficulty is the only replayability. The game is fun. Up to you to decide whether 40 is alot but the joy with friends or solo is definitely worth it.
A fantastic review as always. I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and to let you know that you are one of the only gaming channels worth subscribing to. I hope 2023 will treat you well.
Dang the nostalgia at 34:40. I completely forgot about that hive level in destiny one. Hopefully they fix Darktide in the future cause this game was definitely catching my eye, but as Shell Imp was saying I can't bring myself to buy it yet with all these issues.
I'm currently playing Darktide and having fun with it. But, after 100 hours or so, I can tell there is no real end game, no real story... just not a lot of content in general. Playing in Hersey or Higher gives no further reward if you just played on Malice. Even taking in secondary challenge doesn't give further rewards except for more coins or weekly contracts, which become useless after awhile. Penence Challenges feel like a after thought with some challenges being completely absurd, which requires a dedicated team willing to help you out. I find myself cycling the shop to get higher tier blessing, perk and rating weapons... that's it. What even sad is, their cash skin shop seems more polished then the overall game. Nothing really to replay afterwards once you hit level 30, because there is really no motivation to continue, except to farm materials to cycle perks or upgrade weapons. This pretty much feels like the game hasn't been thought-out completely, the framework is there, they really needed to polish the game-up. Especially with performance and optimization... You'd think Fatshark would take the elements they learned from VT2 and bring it over but it honestly feels like they just started over, got lost and rushed out a release so they can cash in on their nicely polished monetization shop.
I have faith. Vermintide 2 was also busted as all hell on release. A year after it came out, huge talents - integral components of entire careers' builds - were either mislabeled or just outright didn't work. Fatshark is a hot mess, but lordy is she ever hot when she cleans up. They're still adding maps, careers, voice lines, weapons, entire game modes, and other such to the game to this day - much of it free - and they're *still* not done. The game came out nearly 5 years ago now.
The best way I've seen someone sum up the "story" in this game Prove yourself Prove yourself some more Prove yourself even more Congratulations, you've proven yourself, now go and continue to prove yourself
I swear, the editing on these videos are always, *always* so pitch perfect. Absolutely elevates the quality of this content to the next level. Kudos to you Austin, and kudos to Skillup for pointing out his contributions so frequently.
My friend and I played Deep Rock for 500 hours together and still play on and off. He got Dartide first, played it for about 50 hours, and told me 'yeah im not interested right now." That was the most telling moment for me.
All they had to do was reskin Vermintide 2 and add gunplay. How in the hell did they mess that up. It is baffling. Vermintide 2 is the funnest game I've ever played, I played it purely to have fun, which sounds silly but that is very rare in a video game.
This review only tells me how much Skill Up would love the hell out of Vermintide 2 if he likes fantasy with how much praise he gives to elements that Vermintide 2 does way better.
I have almost 200hours with this game and this review is 100% on point. If you want to experience the awesome bloody gameplay you can play now , but waiting to get a better experience overall is also advisable.
I wonder if the Xbox release will be like a soft relaunch. Add a bit more content, more refinement on how that content is presented, drastically improved performance, etc
God damn you're a good reviewer. Even if I don't agree with you about some of your tastes (Destiny 2, for example), you describe and explain your analysis so well. I'm not sure a human being could do any better than how well you do your critique.
I don't always agree, but here I agree fully. Good "write"up. That said, I fell so in love with the premium Zealot outfit you showed in your video that I went off and bought it right away, and now I'm gonna play some more. Like you with Destiny way back when, I love the feel ofd this game enough to make up for its shotcomings for now.
The one thing I gotta wonder is we see stuff like “oh we need cash shops to maintain servers” but like wdym? The industry survived and thrived off pure game sales before why have we suddenly decided it wasn’t enough? I think devs are just chasing the Fortnite/Apex cosmetic cash printers, because why make millions when you can make billions like them? As soon as they announced the ‘Hub world’ I knew they were gonna shoe horn monetization in. But it’s also weirdly the one hope that Darktide has for not being abandon-ware because devs are willing to put in the extra cash if it means they have a chance of a low-maintenance/low-overhead/stupidly profitable money printer for years.
RT is enabled by default in the games config files btw. Disabling them only helps mitigate stutter though and probably not so much performance as a whole.
Great review. I also love the combat and feel my head bobbing every time a sick beat drops. I’m lucky in that I’ve barely ever had frame rate or server issues since launch. The loot system and crafting definitely “meh” to me. I think the biggest let down is that despite how fun the game is, leveling a character feels boring.
Gah. I'm sick of it, man. I've got thousands of hours in Destiny, and that experience has ruined me for this kind of thing. I'm just going to wait. Thank you, brother. Appreciate the heads-up.
This review is down to earth thank goodness some people are out here telling it as it is. Game has problems, and this shouldn't be hand waved over. When you ask for any amount of money from someone it should reflect the product you get at release not one you'll get in a year. $40 I'd expect at least the core functions to be there.
When I mean down to earth, he's telling it as is not just saying it's got the graphics and the gameplay, but also called out it's faults. Very few people who I've watched have only talked about how great it's graphics look and the gameplay is great(which yes is true), but they leave it at that. Ends up being a 11min long video talking about those two things
@@StinkyBusterHow does that in any way mean it’s not down to earth? Regardless, that seems like a bit of a comprehension issue as it definitely was not so extreme throughout the entire review.
I haven’t had an issue with Darktide since it released. The maps are nice. Cosmetics are expensive but I don’t care for them. Still having fun playing it on game pass.
150 hours in the game My best advice for new players is to learn the mechanics of combat. Map knowledge, understanding melee combos and dance, and the importance of communication trump better gear, especially after the speed runner mechanics added in after Vermintide. After that, it is weapon type, and playing into your class' special focus. Specific Advice: Range ambushes almost always occur in areas where there are at least one flanking path. The demon host, or witch, always spawns in an area where you can move around him. For some reason, your melee weapons will clip through walls, ceilings, and doors, which will allow you to kill enemies as they spawn in. The dodge, block, and strike dances will allow you to horde control better than any horde killing weapon. Just don't expect to kill said horde without said weapon or a teammate to pick up your slack. Only the mutant, ogryns, and monstrosities ignore pushes. So you can push a hound out of a leap. (I do believe pushes are still 360, or so. They are much larger then you think.) Highlighting specials only works for one special at a time. You have to audibly communicate some of the specials, if not all of them. Sometimes the characters will not call them out. Like on a hunting pack area, rarely did I hear the characters call out hounds when four hounds spawn and run at the team. You have two mechanics designed to keep the team together. Toughness, which regens quickly near teammates, and also lends to many of the perk boosts, and the speed runner mechanic. Basically, if you stray too far from your teammates, then the director will keep releasing hounds, till you all group back up together. On lower difficulties, this is may not even occur. On higher difficulties, it is worse then the hunting ground characteristic. (I wish we could test how many hounds will spawn on damnation, with hunting grounds, and triggering speed runners prevention. I know it is suppose to be less than 3, but I swear I have seen 5 hounds spawn in. They behave in an odd manner, with the hounds just giving up on you, to give you a chance to revive or help a teammate for a period of time.)
I understand all the complaints but I have to say that there is a pretty in depth item break down if you Inspect the weapon and hit the View Attack Breakdown. Still requires a little googling but it really helps once you know some of the terms.
I find something underrated about your channel is how you actually spend an adequate amount of time talking about performance. Too many youtubers just gloss over it or don't care about performance at all - as if frame drops don't bother them. I'm so glad you're not like that. Stellar review as always. Gonna uninstall this and try it again next year.
Honestly, if you were engaged in Destiny throughout year 1, it was phenomenal. My biggest regret is not recording the journey to be able to write a video on why fans loved it so much
Are you high? D1 Y1 was a shitfest. Leveling up weapons, farming helium for days, the only meaningful content being VOG and that thing was bugged as hell, nightfalls being so stupidly designed that you are forced to cheese them.
Agreed, love it the same way we did Destiny. It is painful to see Fatshark take major steps backwards from v2. I have a laundry list of issues but one in particular baffles me, the hub world. It’s unnecessary, adds extensive load time, and there’s no way to change characters in the squad menu. The last one is a serious problem on high difficulty missions.
The lack of complete features and poor performance are an interesting contrast to the perfectly working cash shop. Let that sink in for where their priorities lie.
It reminds me of B4B a year ago. Really solid base for a great L4D successor, bogged down by issues such as balancing, technical and other issues and takes a year to truly meet the potential it has. B4B by now has reached it imo and I'm very excited to pick Darktide up down the line as it gets improved
You are a master of your craft sir. One of the best reviewers out there. I remember how good it felt to play Destiny for the first time...those headshots felt sooo good.
I feel the need to point out that Dan Abnett is also responsible for giving us the iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy that we've come to know (there had previously been a different roster in the 70s consisting of characters that later appeared in GotG v2 as the ravagers). Dan Abnett's book from 2008, taking place after Annihilation, was where Star Lord puts the new GotG together
I appreciate the little references to Gaunts Ghosts. I recently reread the series and every book is a page turner. Damn shame darktide doesn't shine in the story department. Maybe by the time I have a machine that can play it, it will be playable without disconnects etc
IMO this is spot on. I really do enjoy the gameplay loop but that is just not enough. This is especially true due to the "all or nothing" progression system. As you said, if the game crashes at the end, which it did for me a number of times, I just completely wasted 20-30 minutes. Given my limited time for playing games, I just have to set this to the side and hope the game as a whole gets better over time.
I cannot force myself to play more than one game at a time with darktide. Not even my 3090 can give me a consistent 60+ fps and my eyes are so strained after each session
These devs should stop using 4k 8k unoptimised textures and stuff and call it next gen, like Plague tale. I've seen older games that look better or comparable to the current gen games yet run significantly better, also they should stop using dx12 (last one is a person opinion).
@@Lewisjordan719 that’s the thing with dark tide performance, it’s completely fucking random. One person can have a completely different experience than another with similar hardware.
I implore you to play V2 a bit more. It will blow your mind how many mechanics are the same, but better in their older title. It did class variety, without being Borderlands, for example. Even if the loot was bad, at least you look forward to unlocking classes and talents that had huge impact on how you played the character. All the ranged guns feel different, all the melee weapons feel different. Vermintide 2 feels like a sequel to Darktide.
This game is so much better than Left 4 Dead 2 it's not even comparable. The enemy design, the soundtrack, the shooting, the melee, the weapon design, fucking everything leaves Left 4 Dead 2 in the dust. This game isn't a Left 4 Dead 2 successor. It's the true first hybrid combat game ever made and It just happens to be co-op.
I have over 1k hours on Vermintide 2, I played the closed and preorder betas for Darktide. I've maxed the 4 classes and completed a bunch of penances, and I completely agree with every single point on this review. Darktide is broken right now, but it's already perfect for me, and I think it will be even better in the future.
If you inspect a weapon you can hover over all the stats jargon and itll tell you what they do including the numbers, the tutorial also explains things like wounds in the psykanium but it is optional to do
Play with GeForce 1040, Intel core I7 , 32gb of ram. Been running pretty smooth with 1080p medium to high settings (game still looks fantastic) without any of the big crashes maybe a disconnect every once in awhile so been having a great time grinding out materials and currencies to stock up for future content drops. Unfortunate people are having issues with better setups but overall not a bad experience at all. I would definitely recommend to pick up Darktide for 40$ as I think it's definitely worth it. But everyone has there own experiences and can only suggest things from those experiences.
Speaking as a forever 40k fan. at least half of the enjoyment is derived from the IP alone. This game nails that. It's so beautiful. I'd spend many hours just sitting around in the environment.
It should be noted that it took Fatshark around 2 years to bring Vermintide 2 from a broken, incomplete mess upon release, like Darktide is currently, to a fully fleshed-out & finished product with additional free content that was overall very well received by the community. To say this game will take at least 1 year to feel complete is a massive understatement, it will likely take close to 2 years before this game is anywhere near Vermintide 2 in its current form. I'd advise players who enjoy this sort of horde fighting, 1st person melee/ranged combat game to play Vermintide 2. The Chaos Wastes game mode is a really fun, very well executed rogue-lite game mode in Vermintide 2 - to see that game mode not being present in Darktide was expected by all my friends & we are all still very disappointed.
So let me get this straight.....there's no story , but what little story there is , you are going to completely spoil by telling how it ends.....Thanks Dick
Thank god a big reviewer is bringing all these things to light to put some pressure of Fatshark. It is baffling how much they effed up this launch. Hope they turn the ship around soon...
Australians, try GeForce Now for free and lock in your permanent Founders discount by hitting this link: bit.ly/GeForceNOW5. Thanks to GeForce Now Powered by Pentanet for sponsoring the video.
Bro this video was scheduled lol
Pretty sure they are scrapping Geforce now at the start of 2023
Yea this release was really shot by the technical performance
Skill up do you think it's shooting is destiny level?
@Skill Up you can't name a character Herzog because the last 3 letters is a no-no word, not due to the film maker.
I’m honestly sick of unfinished games where the only thing that people can say about it is ‘Well the core gameplay is fun!’ My brother in Christ, that’s the minimum expectation for a video game’s gameplay. I want an actual full product for once, I’m done playing games for their ‘potential’ and not their actual quality in front of me.
They have a full cash shop
exactly! most games are either live service or promise updates later with patches leaving games months without new content to chew on or have a baked in battle pass in a single player focused game. Wild times we live in
It’s not going to happen. They complain about this game but will hype Bethesda stuff regardless
The sad thing is there more ppl than not that will call these comments extra or that your complaining to much you should just enjoy the game... those remarks would be very wrong 😕
I remember when games were sold as a complete product, when you bought a game and just got to play without micro transactions.
Never underestimate this man’s ability to insert Destiny into any conversation.
Fr man doesn’t know when to stop talking about that trash
@@blackout1518 It's an integral game in his history admittedly, but yeah he has a love/hate relationship with it. Meanwhile most people got burned after 1&2 launches & moved the fuck on & stopped touching the garbage.
Well considering how similar some of this game’s systems are to Destiny this is one of the least egregious examples
@BLACKOUT why shouldn't he talk about something that is not only entirely relevant in comparison, but also something that he enjoys/is very knowledgeable in? Darktide is a live-service game, and it is very clearly suffering from the exact same mistakes Bungie made, so I don't really understand your point.
Y'all allowed to not like something and not absolutely trash on it lmao
Honestly, after spending 150 hours in Vermintide 2 earlier this year, it's kind of mind-boggling that they'd launch DT with so many incomplete features that were completely functional in VT2
yeah. I only played Vermintide 2 after they gave it away (did give 'em a bit of money when I got a few of the DLC), and still have it installed...so I was pretty surprised and disappointed at the state of Darktide (bought it a bit after launch, I really should've waited).
At the very least they could've just used the same crafting system, if they couldn't think of one that's better (Darktide's shop is bad/annoying, and I don't like how the crafting is shaping up, if the current 'half' that's present is indicative of what's coming)
The reason for that is easily explained, higher management wanted the game to be released in 2022 at any cost.
@@vahlen5281 100%. I doubt devs want the game released in its current state, but they’ve been pressured to do it, at the cost of half-baked subsystems.
didnt know this game was vermintide 3
Anyway I didn't liked Vermintide 2, because they copied LEFT 4 DEAD mechanics but they didn't added mechanics that LEFT4DEAD2 have which leads to some issues the Vermintide 2 have...
thank you for always putting the conclusion in the title and not clickbaiting us. that coupled with stellar scriptwriting means your videos are always awesome!
Destiny bum
As someone who has played Darktide, I’ve got to say that you’ve pretty much voiced all my issues with it and all the reasons I still love it. The gameplay is just that good. It’s really unfortunate they dropped the ball on so many other aspects of the game though.
100% agree. The game FEELS so good, the guns FEEL punchy and powerful and in-genre, and the missions are the standard you'd expect from Vermantide (though they can feel a bit too samey in this title). Still, this game is Early Access. It doesnt matter what the steam page says, this game is incomplete and should not have been released in this state.
@@Lupus_Intus I think that’s precisely what they should’ve done: release it under early access and finish over the next year.
I'll be the damn clown here, but game told me at start that it won't run on my system and I'm playing with friends at sub 20 fps at times. I have to delete the game and physically play Vermintide 2 or something else in that vein, cause I really want to keep playing Darktide even for all the warts and issues I'm enduring right now. Who knows hopefully in a few months when I can get a new GPU that can run it better they'll have patched the game some more closer to the polish Vermintide 2 reached.
@@aaronhumphrey3514 exactly if they really wanted to release it it should’ve been early access cause from what he’s saying it sounds like a early access game
The fact you could not make the video any shorter than 40 minutes shows me, how much you care for it. I play it, i love it and i hate the fact it is so unfinished. Really hope they'll put in some good ol' effort.
While they're very, very different experiences I'm reminded allot about dark souls 2's launch. My reaction was pretty much "man this is worse in almost everyway to the previous one. Game of the year though, can't put it down".
I think Darktide invented new problems for itself, and while I still find it excellent and expect to play for awhile longer this is definitely a design choice issue, and those can be hard to dig yourself out of.
40 minutes for a 40k game
As much as I love and play it since the Closed Beta I can't pretend that it has no flaws such as the lack of content and another few issues. I am still optimistic about the game down the line, but cautiously so.
Games a buggy mess but god the feel of the gameplay is unreal
Skill Ups determination to mention Destiny in damn near every video amazes me every time he does it.
He never mentions Division which gave his journo creds, now he shills like the jounro he is and GOD FORBID A GAME DOESN'T PLAY GOOD IN 4K OR LATEST GPU
@@Tiamatdlord If a game doesn't play right with a 4090, just imagine how it'd run on an RX580...
@@Tiamatdlord You're behaving like a dick and I can hardly understand what you mean by the second paragraph. Merry Christmas.
@@Tallmios it's called sarcasm, lighten up. also reading seems hard for you, also never heard the "potato pc joke before". don't ever what some one says literally, my thin-skinned friend.
instead of calling some one a jack ass when they what they're talking then yeah. your the idiot that all releases are made for new thing right? or the fact the game market every has a 4k super monitor and 3090 or 4 series gpu?
teams develop games for period, they may have concept for what coming but the processes are done and set in certain era or series of gpus. you and skill up seem to think FAT SHARK fully optimizes their stuff right. the same for any developer or team but some are better than others.
if you want to yank your engine out for latest and greatest system specs or gpus, but your product will launch badly or be bad. halo infinite or battlefield 2042 anyone?
go with God anday he bless you
@@Tallmios play a drinking game with this video or your average skill up video. take a shot when you hear these words.
destiny, performance, 4k , gpu , design, story
then post how drunk you are, Pardon my sarcasm but I've this man since his division days. he took the game journo route and the same since.p
This is definitely a "come back in 12/18 months" game.
Another top review mate.
Or just "dont support irresponsible devs by coming back"
@@diomedes7971 congrats, youre a part of the problem
@Mr Spitsworth who cares if the end result is the same.
@bootsmcgee69 devs let people who dont care about games to ruin their child, so yeah, its on them too
@@Brandelwyn Yeah dude its a totally reasonable expectation that devs lose their jobs because they defied their bosses, guess their kids are just going to have to go hungry since they took the moral highroad on a childrens entertainment product
My disappointment in the launch state of Darktide actually made me go back and install Vermintide 1 and 2. Those games are fantastic. There's been so little change to the core game mechanics that the player skills do transfer. I'm way better at these games now than I was when I played V1, and teaching new players how to play and where all the books are has been very rewarding.
After the first 10 or so hours of Darktide I kept feeling like I'm just playing a worse Vermintide, made me go back to VT2 real quick. The only thing I don't like about them is the books, grimoire debuffs are fine but it's the restriction of inventory that really annoys me, and the fact that they are required to get emp vaults makes pubs a chore sometimes. Still leagues above Darktide however.
Have hundreds of hours on Vermintide 2. It's the best coop game after L4D.
Same I've been considering reinstalling Vermintide 2 and playing the DLC I never played.
VT2 launched in a similar state, still one of the better horde games out there and dark tide will be the same. Just don’t buy it full price if you haven’t already(for those of you reading this
I thought about this but damn 94 gig redownload... ahhhhh
It's been a month since release and it still feels like a game that should have released Q2/3 of 2023.
Potentially another game sacrificed to the 'we want Christmas sales!' demand of fools in positions of power.
You think this game will be ready by the fall of 2023?
@@toptiertech7291 I think that depends on if they kept the full production staff or dumped a ton of people. (Or shifted them to other projects.) If they did? Yeah, I could see another year putting it up to near release quality.
@@toptiertech7291what’s funny is that a lot of depth and fixes have been added as of now
My biggest gripe with this game is how much less value you get for your money compared to Vermintide 2
Um gamepass value?
@@richardsmith5803 Gamepass sadly isn't available in my region. And I'm not buying a VPN and Gamepass for 1 game :D
Where is no crossplay between steam and gamepass version. Gamepass version have much less playerbase, ppl are constrantly creating posts about hard time finding players at higher difficulties on gamepass
@candyman Preach! 🙌
@TheMacel66 yes it does if you got game pass lol
It's kinda funny how all Ralph's gripes with the story are basically solved in Vermintide 2:
- we do progress to a certain goal while going through the missions
- each mission has a distinct objective instead of just "go kill things and fiddle with machinery"
- there is big climactic final boss battle where can finally see results of our efforts
- there are cool characters with distinct personalities and interesting dialogues
Most of the issues are solved in Vermintide. Unfortunately, Fatshark apparently forgot they made that game and decided to completely ignore any of their previous solutions.
They might be solved in vermintide, but this ain't vermintide
@@CatCubed Exactly what I was thinking. Why not use experiences from the old game? Studios do this all the time.
@@stefanchiric3691 To some of its detriment
This has been the most difficult part of Darktide for me. They really seem like they stepped so far back, when I was really hoping they'd move forward. I love Vermintide, and the gameplay in Darktide is great, but it probably needed another year honestly.
Agreeing with Skillup, Vermintide 2 was very similar, it only became fully fleshed out around a year after launch so I was expecting similar things for darktide. Gave the prerelease version a try and refunded after a couple days because there were many obvious issues. Will be checking back on it in around 6 months.
wish they just make game complete at launch, I'm sick lets half baked the game on release and fix it later, very tried of this shit
@@kyotheman69 they don’t want the hype to die off so they release as soon as possible
vermintide 2 had bucketloads of better content on release than darktide though, actually different maps, 5 classes with a unique weapon pool for each plus 2 subclasses for each, out of these 3 things the only thing darktide kind of even remotely touches is its large variety of shared weapons, but it is what it is, and darktide is lacking both in performance content and endgame
@@IVslam the hype? What hype
I love vermintide 2 but it still isn't well optimized.
One thing I'm surprised you didn't mention (or maybe I just missed it) is the terrible penance system. Many of them completely interrupt the flow of the game and encourage players to play in a way that can completely sabotage missions. Had one run where a zealot demanded that we keep up with him for his speed run penance, zoomed off, aggroed a horde, blew me off a cliff with a barrel trying to self damage, and then he died. If you want to finish higher tier penances do them in premade teams dedicated to completing them.
Very fair review. Harsh criticism for failures and absolute adoration for what they got so right. I played a whole bunch of Vermintide and this is kinda just how Fatshark works. On the bright side, 4 years after launch we are still getting DLC and they continuously released new content, both free and paid. Vermintide 2 was a game that my party could always come back to for a solid month of fun with each major update and I hope Darktide is in that good place soon.
BTW, you are right about not giving Vermintide 2 enough time. Every character has a ranged focused subclass, a melee focus subclass, and a subclass that does both, so you can absolutely tailor your game play to your preference, especially when you unlock more types of weapons.
Waiting for a sale to get Vermintide 2 Ultimate :P
Vt2 is amazing. Unique classes and levels that look different. Oh and a crafting system, 3 game play modes and it doesn’t crash non stop. Uniques are actually unique and you can see them… my friends are 40k nerds and keep playing this utter garbage of a release. “Omg it’s so authentic”. Best line of the video is comparing the weapon loot to the universe.
Assassins are so much more scary then wussy hounds.
Just trust me, if you like the combat in 40k, just play vermtide2.
100%, pretty much everything he praised about this was done in Vermintide 2
@@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299 what are you talking about? verm 2 is ALWAYS on sale, its a bargen bin game
@@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299 its on sale
As much as the game does encourage you to play as a team, most of the penances (in-game challenges) actively discourage you from working with your team. Challenges ranging from not using your ranged weapon (forcing your team to pick up the slack in skirmishes) to solo-killing a boss on a high difficulty. Some people will say, just play with bots! But unfortunately, private games are currently limited to a 2 human player minimum, rather than 1 with 3 bots. So for people with a friend who plays the game, you can at least work with them. But Solo players who don't have anyone to play with, they're either screwed in regards to some of these challenges, or are forced to grief other players in matchmaking.
I disagree regarding the penances. The game has chat after all, and pretty much every player i've come across has agreed to help with penances, all you need to do is communicate. And from the moment someone agrees, teamplay becomes crucial for the sake of that one boi that wants to get the penances done. If anything, i see the penances as making teamwork even more crucial. Also bots actively fuck some penances, like they never stop attacking, of course, and if they do too much damage to the boss, you'll never get that Psyker penance to solo it.
@@Secret_Takodachi I'm speaking from experience you dumbass
I was ranting about players not letting me get pents, and how I wish I could just solo missions, and folks were like, "hay, you need help my man?"
@@wainmundt8062 The community is usually always chill and helpful
@@lovebunny2652 it is a bit diffrent from verm 2, verm 2 is toxic as all get out, but it seems darktide players actuly play together for the most part.
Absolutely agree, in its current unfinished state it's hard to recommend, even if the core mechanics of the game are fun.
I disagree, same amount of crashes as DMZ... Annoying, but still playable and worthwhile. I think console won't be great, even series X might have issues with the number of enemy NPCs. Raytracing is a must. I think it's streaming a lot from servers, and likely the cause of most of the stability issues. Recent update (2 days ago) has made a difference, you can always reconnect now and crashes less frequent.
Honestly the part that hurts the most is that between all the unfinished, unoptimized things the gameplay is so damn good, it's borderline addicting, they had such a good opportunity in their hand...
So much is missing from this game but I’m still having so much fun playing it. The combat is just unreal. I don’t regret my imperial edition purchase but I’ve also been playing since beta. I was expecting launch day to not just literally be the beta though lol.
If you're reading Abnett, you really need to read 'Eisenhorn' as that's his iconic series that turned a lot of people into fans of the setting.
Abnett and Aaron Dempski-Bowden are the best. The night lord omnibus in particular are the best books I have ever read. For Abnett the inquisitor series is now 8 books long so it’s an amazing journey, just need to wait for the last one now. I have to mention the book helsreach.
Some of the standalone books could be good, too. McNeill's 'Storm of Iron' was great, if memory serves. 'Fifteen Hours' by Scanlon is great, too.
Eisenhorn and Gaunt are, of course great, but I think my favourite WH40k series is Mitchell/Stewart's Ciaphas Cain.
@@GottHammer Nerdist listed off a few books the new Amazon/Cavill stuff should be based on and Ciaphas Cain was one of them. Others were Gaunt's Ghosts, Eisenhorn and Helsreach.
You should read the Eisenhorn novels if you liked those other ones. Also by Dan Abnett, they are probably the best Warhammer 40k books.
And yes, you should absolutely try getting into Verminitide 2. The combat system, spells, weapons and characters are fantastic, as are the missions.
Especially recently after it was given away for free on Steam
Been loving Darktide, this review is spot on. If you're able to ignore the progression/gear systems and don't have any technical issues (which is actually common for most I've played with), it's still pretty damn enjoyable.
Same, I love the combat, but progression is lacking
I've been playing the game since release and i absolutely love it. The weapons, the feeling you get from them and cutting hordes of ennemies in half with your eviscerator, the insane soundtrack. Ever since the last 2 patches which made my game run perfectly and now I'm never getting under 60fps even when there is 300 ennemies on screen, im having a lot of fun
This game is in such a awful state 😮fatshark shouldn’t of launch this. As a fatshark fan. Even I’m here like “wtf”
Let me get this straight - Fatshark as a company are liars.
Fatshark straight up lied at advertising. A lot of promo material weapons or cosmetics are unobtainable in game, ability to obtain premium currency through gameplay was removed (and they were sneaky enough to edit this out of the discord post right before release), the crafting system that was supposed to be ready on release (and after that it was promised to be done in December) is not here, and it is Christmas already, so no way players get it this year. The promised story just used Dan Abnett big name as a promotion and in fact does not exist at all. Weapon modifications system is scrapped, so you can't just attach flashlight/bayonet to a gun or get a better scope, despite it apparently being in the works not so long ago.
The game reeks of "effective management", "players engagement" and "retention". Also, in game shop exploiting FOMO and does not allow you to buy items directly, instead forcing you to buy aquilas in packs and then spending aquilas on cosmetics.
Words cannot express how happy I am to see Shillup fall down deeper into the 40k warphole. Gaunt’s Ghosts is a fantastic series. Hope he continues reading it!
And also the Ciaphas Cain series!
don't you mean the 4k warphole? lol
I agree that the game could be mindblowingly good within 1 year. That being said, as someone who played a ridiculous amount of Vermintide 2 over the years; Fatshark have proven many many times that they are largely incompetent developers beyond creating an extremely solid core game. Progression systems, crafting, cosmetics, all of these auxiliary systems are just completely misunderstood and incoherently addressed. Even when they try to 'listen to players' they just do it in the worst way possible.
Also, my God, they're 3 games into the Tide series. Can they please hire SOMEONE who knows how to write a decent narrative?
@@noway718 VT2 has a pretty decent narrative. The problem with DT is that they went with random faceless mooks as the playable character, vs VT2's actual proper characters.
It is DLC/FLC that really let V2 down. At the beginning, with the Nurgle theme, I was so excited for what they could have added.
Realm of Chaos was great, but NO DAEMONS IN THE REALM OF CHAOS?
Be'Lakor had no BE'LAKOR, and at the end of it all, a swarm of Nurglings was all they could muster.
@@noway718 They did, they hired Dan Abnett, who has written dozen of good books in the 40K universe. They just don't seem to have actually implimented anything he done for them.
Did not play V2 but god they fucked V1. Some mind blowing stupid decisions and complete lack of understanding of basic common sense stuff.
people really just need to admit that after Tencent got their hands in the shares, FS just changed to worse. If you google it, chairman of the board is now Chinese, same goes for non-executive, and whole bunch of staff from Level Infinite studio is listed in the credits for Darktide. In case you don't know, Level Infinite is studio that helps to design monetization for Tencent owned projects if original studio can't make it itself. I am not putting all blame on them ofc, because this amount of incompetence and selling out should be okayed by the studio head honchos.
love your reviews. i have been loving this game despite the problems. first "left 4 dead" style game ive actually liked. im excited for more updates
So it is a vermintide reskin lol
Replace the enemies with giant rats get rid of the assault rifles and boom! Vermintide 3
@@darthsparrow1358 understandable take, and vermintide is way more fleshed out. but i dont think id call it a reskin. they did a really good job with the world and the ranged combat is much more expanded in this game.
@@JohnnyNocturne I just said reskin because of the left 4 dead type of gameplay
@@darthsparrow1358 definitely said reskin.
80hrs played since launch, two crashes total. One of the lucky ones for sure. Fatshark cashed in a lot of good faith with the state of the release. The gameplay is what keeps pulling me back in though, so much fun.
Your ability to bridge from one topic to another seamlessly is out of this world. Great review as always, master of your craft my guy.
"out of this world" guys can you stop exagerating everything you say
@@Diegoshadow85 Why
@@Gortanckla because if you overexagerate everything you say it doesn't mean anything anymore and besides that you are rworded for asking dumb questions lmao deal with that! 🤣
@@Diegoshadow85 Why would it lose meaning, and why would asking questions make me dumb? Is the pursuit of information not how one becomes more intelligent?
20:36 With itemization, one of the updates - the one which added the %s to the bars on weapons which you can see in the review on occasion - added a very in-depth item UI. If you inspect an item with [V] then you can mouse-over icons like Relentless and Assassin to see what they mean, and mouse-over the bars to see what they do. You can find out what most things are now.
Other than that, the review is basically spot on.
too late, review is out, should have released with it already there.
That still isn't sufficient, the perks/blessings and their functions aren't explained. Stuff like 'Impact', 'Rending', 'Hit Mass' and other terms that aren't defined to the player. The UI is convoluted in comparison to similar games.
The most disappointing and addictive game I’ve played in years.
You nailed everything with the title alone. It’s heart ache inducing when they got the hard part right and everything else is still in tatters. ;-;
Edit: Also, this is the one time you bringing up Destiny is both apt and tolerable.
@candyman always when TenCent shows up, stuff just dies or becomes soulless.
Fast getting sick of corpo speak and decisions made by the CCP sanctioned entities destroying everything I love. Be it the wanton pollution of our world, the undermining of our democracies or the shitifying of our video games.
Fatshark did the same thing with Vermintide 2, released it too soon. By the time Vermintide 2 was up to snuff everyone had moved on, I fear Darktide will suffer a similar fate.
Darktide will always be subpar unless they remove the timegates. Something Vermintide 2 never had an issue with even at launch.
Absolutely stellar review. Nailed every point me and my 1k+ hour Vermintide series veteran playgroup have been talking about since the Darktide launch. This will be a great title... In 2 years, when it's done. And I love the core enough to suffer through all the BS until then... But I'm not happy to be suffering.
Again please no misinformation: Your Toughness bar only blocks RANGED damage, anything hitting you in melee if you aren't on 100% toughness will cause damage and bleed through your health bar!
It doesn't slowly regenerate when you aren't near your team, it doesn't regenerate AT ALL if you aren't near them. These are massive problems that they still need to fix.
I found this review interesting and its a great example of why you should see multiple trusted reviews before making a purchase. A lot of reviewers I trust gave it a good score but they were Warhammer fan so they are willing to overlook the rough edges, warhammer games in general is kinda like that, my brother loved Space Marine but I thought it was only okay. Ralph is reviewing it from the eyes of a average gamer and his review makes a lot of sense. Definitely a buy it during steam sales for me.
I think it's worth it's base price, especially for a 40$ price tag, but it really needs to fix the optimization and actually add in all the crafting mechanics.
@@sexylazercatwizard honestly kinda wanna try vermentide first
There were a few things he missed the mark on in this review imo, overall fair review however. This game is definitely worth playing. It's objectively more fun than Vermintide, and I say that having over 100 hours in Vermintide. The gameplay loop is a lot more enjoyable than Vermintide. Only thing more satisfactory in VM2 is the weapon/crafting system
@@ajwaddanwarr3409 more power to you, I'd just say, don't disregard darktide.
Yeah. Warhammer 40k fans, like me, tend to ignore the bad or unfinished aspects on the wh40k games, because we just want to enjoy the franchise content over gameplay.
Like Sonic frontier. While not really good at gameplay, Sonic fans enjoy it because it's Sonic games
Oh man that segment on D1 was a nostalgia trip. Still remember being so hyped playing the open beta, and having such a blast in the full release game..... for the week it took to clear all content and try vault of glass
damn you got a lot of time on your hands if you 100%'d all four classes in just a week time o_o
Deep Rock Galactic is another example of awesome team play in a video game.
imo drg is the absolute best
I was looking for some DRG comments lol, Rock and Stone!
Thank you for talking about the cosmetics. I keep seeing people say "it's just cosmetics, it doesn't have an effect on gameplay so it's fine."
But when the game is advertising that you make your own character, and (after hard work with stupid achievements) you're given the choice between a helmet with a chip in the visor, the same helmet but a red cloth mask, the same helmet but a BLACK camo cloth mask; I DON'T exactly think I can agree with this thought process on a $40-$60 game.
I think this is a v solid review and it's interesting having put a lot of time in VT2 to see areas where others complain that Skill Up doesn't agree with fully.
(Like level's not standing out, not having enough subclasses, elites/enemy variety, or even the fact that all the major bones of the combat[minus some degree of gunplay] is lifted from VT/VT2 etc)
This is a very realistic review that I think is tempered by the fact that Skill Up didn't play VT2, I could only imagine the contrast between the two if he had
I saw the title and disagreed, but then I watched the intro and as a Destiny fan I completely understand. Fair play mate, hopefully the game gets the expansions it deserves
The issue I rose with my friend the other day is "by the time this game is good will i have the care or time anymore?" if you're a fan of this game (and i was really enjoying it) then you will most likely return to the game. But think about how many games are coming in 2023 and the amount of games that players are excited for. When this game is all good and ready I will most likely be playing all the games I am looking forward to and juggling with responsibilities in 2023. Games launch and me personally plan the time around that I will have to play/invest in them based on if they're single player or multiplayer and I just don't know if I will have the space in 2023 to invest in this game like I currently want to with how much I am looking forward to next year and currently juggling.
A thousand times this sentiment. Instead of fuckin' around with inserting a shitty predatory cash shop into a PAID PRODUCT, maybe they should have used the salaries they paid the cash shop engineers for more actual developers to, y'know, finish the core game.
When Armored Core 6 comes out that will be my life for the following year, poor Darktide :(
What I appriciate most on your reviews is its always your opinion, no holding back. The good the bad and the ugly. Keep up the great work and I see this channel continuing to grow and become an even larger force in the gaming world.
I'm totally enjoying darktide with about 50 hours in but all of your criticisms are absolutely true.
Really great review, speaks from my heart. Darktide has extremely great gameplay and playing in a 4 man voice-chat, going into Tier 4 missions, getting your ass handed to you... what a great experience! But there simply is nothing between that. My 2 lvl 30 characters (Ogryn and Zealot) both have "perfect" gear for their jobs and I don't really look into the item shops anymore because of that. So there's basically no reason to keep running missions with them... besides the fun of running missions in Darktide!
You kind of missed the whole Penance system. Basically it's Achievements that you have to jump through some hoops for. But some Penances are pretty easy ("Finish 50 missions", "kill 5 enemies with headshots without missing a shot in 10s", "Block 500 dmg"), while others are pretty much ridiculous ("Finish a mission with 100% accuracy with 0 ammo left"). But you need to finish them, to get the cool free cosmetics (and they often are pretty rad). This is an area where they need to rebalance some more... they made certain penances much easier, but often they are still infuriatingly hard.
On the story part: There are certain hints to sinister things going on aboard the Mourningstar... so I'm really, really hoping this will come into play later in the lifecycle, as that would be something where Dan Abnett could show us his creativity and his knowledge of the 40k universe. But so far... it's like the 2 pages of background fluff for your PnP campaign given by the core rulebook.
To say it short, the game doesn't have maps and enemy varieties is low. The difficulty is the only replayability. The game is fun. Up to you to decide whether 40 is alot but the joy with friends or solo is definitely worth it.
A fantastic review as always. I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and to let you know that you are one of the only gaming channels worth subscribing to.
I hope 2023 will treat you well.
Dang the nostalgia at 34:40. I completely forgot about that hive level in destiny one. Hopefully they fix Darktide in the future cause this game was definitely catching my eye, but as Shell Imp was saying I can't bring myself to buy it yet with all these issues.
I'm currently playing Darktide and having fun with it. But, after 100 hours or so, I can tell there is no real end game, no real story... just not a lot of content in general. Playing in Hersey or Higher gives no further reward if you just played on Malice. Even taking in secondary challenge doesn't give further rewards except for more coins or weekly contracts, which become useless after awhile. Penence Challenges feel like a after thought with some challenges being completely absurd, which requires a dedicated team willing to help you out. I find myself cycling the shop to get higher tier blessing, perk and rating weapons... that's it. What even sad is, their cash skin shop seems more polished then the overall game. Nothing really to replay afterwards once you hit level 30, because there is really no motivation to continue, except to farm materials to cycle perks or upgrade weapons. This pretty much feels like the game hasn't been thought-out completely, the framework is there, they really needed to polish the game-up. Especially with performance and optimization... You'd think Fatshark would take the elements they learned from VT2 and bring it over but it honestly feels like they just started over, got lost and rushed out a release so they can cash in on their nicely polished monetization shop.
I have faith. Vermintide 2 was also busted as all hell on release. A year after it came out, huge talents - integral components of entire careers' builds - were either mislabeled or just outright didn't work. Fatshark is a hot mess, but lordy is she ever hot when she cleans up. They're still adding maps, careers, voice lines, weapons, entire game modes, and other such to the game to this day - much of it free - and they're *still* not done.
The game came out nearly 5 years ago now.
The best way I've seen someone sum up the "story" in this game
Prove yourself
Prove yourself some more
Prove yourself even more
Congratulations, you've proven yourself, now go and continue to prove yourself
I swear, the editing on these videos are always, *always* so pitch perfect. Absolutely elevates the quality of this content to the next level. Kudos to you Austin, and kudos to Skillup for pointing out his contributions so frequently.
I'm so with you on your view about this game. It really needs a lot of work but hot damn, I cannot stop playing it. It is so good.
My friend and I played Deep Rock for 500 hours together and still play on and off. He got Dartide first, played it for about 50 hours, and told me 'yeah im not interested right now." That was the most telling moment for me.
All they had to do was reskin Vermintide 2 and add gunplay. How in the hell did they mess that up. It is baffling. Vermintide 2 is the funnest game I've ever played, I played it purely to have fun, which sounds silly but that is very rare in a video game.
This review only tells me how much Skill Up would love the hell out of Vermintide 2 if he likes fantasy with how much praise he gives to elements that Vermintide 2 does way better.
I have almost 200hours with this game and this review is 100% on point. If you want to experience the awesome bloody gameplay you can play now , but waiting to get a better experience overall is also advisable.
I wonder if the Xbox release will be like a soft relaunch. Add a bit more content, more refinement on how that content is presented, drastically improved performance, etc
@@coleG112 I hope so because I have Xbox friends I want to play this with as well. I would love a better launch for it than what we got for PC.
God damn you're a good reviewer. Even if I don't agree with you about some of your tastes (Destiny 2, for example), you describe and explain your analysis so well. I'm not sure a human being could do any better than how well you do your critique.
I don't always agree, but here I agree fully. Good "write"up. That said, I fell so in love with the premium Zealot outfit you showed in your video that I went off and bought it right away, and now I'm gonna play some more. Like you with Destiny way back when, I love the feel ofd this game enough to make up for its shotcomings for now.
The one thing I gotta wonder is we see stuff like “oh we need cash shops to maintain servers” but like wdym? The industry survived and thrived off pure game sales before why have we suddenly decided it wasn’t enough? I think devs are just chasing the Fortnite/Apex cosmetic cash printers, because why make millions when you can make billions like them?
As soon as they announced the ‘Hub world’ I knew they were gonna shoe horn monetization in. But it’s also weirdly the one hope that Darktide has for not being abandon-ware because devs are willing to put in the extra cash if it means they have a chance of a low-maintenance/low-overhead/stupidly profitable money printer for years.
RT is enabled by default in the games config files btw. Disabling them only helps mitigate stutter though and probably not so much performance as a whole.
Great review. I also love the combat and feel my head bobbing every time a sick beat drops. I’m lucky in that I’ve barely ever had frame rate or server issues since launch. The loot system and crafting definitely “meh” to me. I think the biggest let down is that despite how fun the game is, leveling a character feels boring.
Steam Deck 45fps is being very generous. As soon as enemies are on the screen, you're going to see a sub 30 framerate.
Gah. I'm sick of it, man. I've got thousands of hours in Destiny, and that experience has ruined me for this kind of thing. I'm just going to wait. Thank you, brother. Appreciate the heads-up.
1440p max settings, i9 with 1080ti. Consistent 60fps. Bounce between 50 to 60. You were right about Darktide being CPU dependent
How to stay warm this Christmas:
- Have a graphics card that can play darktide
- Play darktide
This review is down to earth thank goodness some people are out here telling it as it is. Game has problems, and this shouldn't be hand waved over. When you ask for any amount of money from someone it should reflect the product you get at release not one you'll get in a year. $40 I'd expect at least the core functions to be there.
Is it down to earth? Every aspect he describes as either absolutely terrible or amazingly superb
When I mean down to earth, he's telling it as is not just saying it's got the graphics and the gameplay, but also called out it's faults. Very few people who I've watched have only talked about how great it's graphics look and the gameplay is great(which yes is true), but they leave it at that. Ends up being a 11min long video talking about those two things
@@StinkyBusterHow does that in any way mean it’s not down to earth? Regardless, that seems like a bit of a comprehension issue as it definitely was not so extreme throughout the entire review.
@@TheHeadincharge ok 👍
Great review, wouldn't change a word. It's so unfinished, but so fun. Now, please excuse me, but I feel like playing some Darktide now.
I haven’t had an issue with Darktide since it released. The maps are nice. Cosmetics are expensive but I don’t care for them. Still having fun playing it on game pass.
150 hours in the game
My best advice for new players is to learn the mechanics of combat.
Map knowledge, understanding melee combos and dance, and the importance of communication trump better gear, especially after the speed runner mechanics added in after Vermintide.
After that, it is weapon type, and playing into your class' special focus.
Specific Advice:
Range ambushes almost always occur in areas where there are at least one flanking path.
The demon host, or witch, always spawns in an area where you can move around him.
For some reason, your melee weapons will clip through walls, ceilings, and doors, which will allow you to kill enemies as they spawn in.
The dodge, block, and strike dances will allow you to horde control better than any horde killing weapon. Just don't expect to kill said horde without said weapon or a teammate to pick up your slack.
Only the mutant, ogryns, and monstrosities ignore pushes. So you can push a hound out of a leap. (I do believe pushes are still 360, or so. They are much larger then you think.)
Highlighting specials only works for one special at a time. You have to audibly communicate some of the specials, if not all of them. Sometimes the characters will not call them out. Like on a hunting pack area, rarely did I hear the characters call out hounds when four hounds spawn and run at the team.
You have two mechanics designed to keep the team together. Toughness, which regens quickly near teammates, and also lends to many of the perk boosts, and the speed runner mechanic. Basically, if you stray too far from your teammates, then the director will keep releasing hounds, till you all group back up together. On lower difficulties, this is may not even occur. On higher difficulties, it is worse then the hunting ground characteristic. (I wish we could test how many hounds will spawn on damnation, with hunting grounds, and triggering speed runners prevention. I know it is suppose to be less than 3, but I swear I have seen 5 hounds spawn in. They behave in an odd manner, with the hounds just giving up on you, to give you a chance to revive or help a teammate for a period of time.)
I understand all the complaints but I have to say that there is a pretty in depth item break down if you Inspect the weapon and hit the View Attack Breakdown.
Still requires a little googling but it really helps once you know some of the terms.
I find something underrated about your channel is how you actually spend an adequate amount of time talking about performance. Too many youtubers just gloss over it or don't care about performance at all - as if frame drops don't bother them. I'm so glad you're not like that.
Stellar review as always. Gonna uninstall this and try it again next year.
Honestly, if you were engaged in Destiny throughout year 1, it was phenomenal. My biggest regret is not recording the journey to be able to write a video on why fans loved it so much
Are you high? D1 Y1 was a shitfest. Leveling up weapons, farming helium for days, the only meaningful content being VOG and that thing was bugged as hell, nightfalls being so stupidly designed that you are forced to cheese them.
Agreed, love it the same way we did Destiny. It is painful to see Fatshark take major steps backwards from v2. I have a laundry list of issues but one in particular baffles me, the hub world. It’s unnecessary, adds extensive load time, and there’s no way to change characters in the squad menu. The last one is a serious problem on high difficulty missions.
The lack of complete features and poor performance are an interesting contrast to the perfectly working cash shop. Let that sink in for where their priorities lie.
Well said
Let's not forget it's only £30ish and free on game pass, from an indie studio. Destiny was from bungie
It reminds me of B4B a year ago. Really solid base for a great L4D successor, bogged down by issues such as balancing, technical and other issues and takes a year to truly meet the potential it has.
B4B by now has reached it imo and I'm very excited to pick Darktide up down the line as it gets improved
You are a master of your craft sir. One of the best reviewers out there.
I remember how good it felt to play Destiny for the first time...those headshots felt sooo good.
darktide is a beta claiming its a full release
I can’t fathom how a game can be so unfinished yet have a completely working cash shop
I feel the need to point out that Dan Abnett is also responsible for giving us the iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy that we've come to know (there had previously been a different roster in the 70s consisting of characters that later appeared in GotG v2 as the ravagers). Dan Abnett's book from 2008, taking place after Annihilation, was where Star Lord puts the new GotG together
I appreciate the little references to Gaunts Ghosts. I recently reread the series and every book is a page turner.
Damn shame darktide doesn't shine in the story department.
Maybe by the time I have a machine that can play it, it will be playable without disconnects etc
IMO this is spot on. I really do enjoy the gameplay loop but that is just not enough. This is especially true due to the "all or nothing" progression system. As you said, if the game crashes at the end, which it did for me a number of times, I just completely wasted 20-30 minutes. Given my limited time for playing games, I just have to set this to the side and hope the game as a whole gets better over time.
Spot on mate - not sure how your performance looks but with a 3080 I can just about manage high with RT off
@@thesongoflunch I have a regular 2080 with an I9 9900K CPU. I am able to get fairly decent performance, but still have crashes.
I cannot force myself to play more than one game at a time with darktide. Not even my 3090 can give me a consistent 60+ fps and my eyes are so strained after each session
These devs should stop using 4k 8k unoptimised textures and stuff and call it next gen, like Plague tale. I've seen older games that look better or comparable to the current gen games yet run significantly better, also they should stop using dx12 (last one is a person opinion).
I have a 6800xt and get 60+ frames on 4K on max settings man what are you on about
@@Lewisjordan719 that’s the thing with dark tide performance, it’s completely fucking random. One person can have a completely different experience than another with similar hardware.
Small thing... But as someone who works in televion, it always makes me smile to hear you talk about different "blocks" lol
I implore you to play V2 a bit more. It will blow your mind how many mechanics are the same, but better in their older title. It did class variety, without being Borderlands, for example. Even if the loot was bad, at least you look forward to unlocking classes and talents that had huge impact on how you played the character. All the ranged guns feel different, all the melee weapons feel different. Vermintide 2 feels like a sequel to Darktide.
This game is really a beautiful successor to L4D2. It improves upon that gameplay loop in so many meaningful ways.
This game is so much better than Left 4 Dead 2 it's not even comparable. The enemy design, the soundtrack, the shooting, the melee, the weapon design, fucking everything leaves Left 4 Dead 2 in the dust.
This game isn't a Left 4 Dead 2 successor. It's the true first hybrid combat game ever made and It just happens to be co-op.
@@StrengthScholar0 paid comment
rofl l4d is way better than this heap of shit...
@@StrengthScholar0 false
If this is a beautiful successor to L4D2... Things are looking fucking uglier than a boomer
I have over 1k hours on Vermintide 2, I played the closed and preorder betas for Darktide. I've maxed the 4 classes and completed a bunch of penances, and I completely agree with every single point on this review. Darktide is broken right now, but it's already perfect for me, and I think it will be even better in the future.
If you inspect a weapon you can hover over all the stats jargon and itll tell you what they do including the numbers, the tutorial also explains things like wounds in the psykanium but it is optional to do
Those specific numbers and descriptions were not there at launch
@@richardsmith5803 at the time of this video's release that feature has been in the game for weeks
Having 2k hours in Vermintide 2, I look at Darktide and realise its just a downgrade in every single possible way.
Play with GeForce 1040, Intel core I7 , 32gb of ram. Been running pretty smooth with 1080p medium to high settings (game still looks fantastic) without any of the big crashes maybe a disconnect every once in awhile so been having a great time grinding out materials and currencies to stock up for future content drops. Unfortunate people are having issues with better setups but overall not a bad experience at all. I would definitely recommend to pick up Darktide for 40$ as I think it's definitely worth it. But everyone has there own experiences and can only suggest things from those experiences.
Don't feel like skill up gave enough credit to the voice actors here. The voice work in this game is phenomenal.
Speaking as a forever 40k fan. at least half of the enjoyment is derived from the IP alone. This game nails that. It's so beautiful. I'd spend many hours just sitting around in the environment.
Tencent ruined this game and Fatshark
A big tip is to press V to Inspect items as that gives you more details and explanations, then head into The Meat Grinder to test it all out!
It should be noted that it took Fatshark around 2 years to bring Vermintide 2 from a broken, incomplete mess upon release, like Darktide is currently, to a fully fleshed-out & finished product with additional free content that was overall very well received by the community. To say this game will take at least 1 year to feel complete is a massive understatement, it will likely take close to 2 years before this game is anywhere near Vermintide 2 in its current form.
I'd advise players who enjoy this sort of horde fighting, 1st person melee/ranged combat game to play Vermintide 2. The Chaos Wastes game mode is a really fun, very well executed rogue-lite game mode in Vermintide 2 - to see that game mode not being present in Darktide was expected by all my friends & we are all still very disappointed.
So let me get this straight.....there's no story , but what little story there is , you are going to completely spoil by telling how it ends.....Thanks Dick
I’m glad I saw this before watching
WUT I AM FIRST
Thank god a big reviewer is bringing all these things to light to put some pressure of Fatshark. It is baffling how much they effed up this launch. Hope they turn the ship around soon...
When it's fixed I have to buy this just to play as my favorite action hero Werner Herzog ♥️