Warhammer 40K fans got their first real look at the upcoming Darktide at today's Game Awards, with a sneak peek at Darktide's gameplay. The gameplay is exactly what you'd expect from a Warhammer title - swarms of enemies, melee-heavy combat, and very satisfying squelches when hammers and swords bust through poxwalker skulls. Even though there are plenty of guns, grenades, and lascannons ready for bigger swarms, the real fun is in the tactile satisfaction of taking out a poxwalker with one well-placed strike (or two) from a chainsword.
It's the first real look at Warhammer 40K: Darktide's gameplay since it was first announced earlier this year at the Xbox Games Showcase by developer Fatshark, the same studio behind the Warhammer 40K: Vermintide series. While Darktide isn't necessarily a sequel to Vermintide, it follows a similar formula to its spiritual predecessor - a co-op squadron of four players, including an Imperial guardsman, investigating a cult on the planet Atoma Prime, and battling against waves of AI-controlled enemies. While there's no definitive release date, the game is slated to be released sometime in 2021.
The Game Awards dropped a small teaser yesterday that offered up very little about what to expect, other than a ship flying through what is presumably a city on Atoma Prime, nothing players hadn't already seen in the game's first official trailer. But the full gameplay trailer has now been released, and there's much more to see - notably a lack of Space Marines, and an Ogryn. Looking like Vermintide in the very best ways, players can see what to expect in the new first-person co-op dark fantasy adventure below:
The trailer didn't give any further information about a release date, but Vermintide should be getting some new DLC in the future, so it's worth passing the time with. The trailer did also promise that Darktide would be appropriately good and gory, with chainswords ripping through flesh and bone like hot knives through butter. Teamwork is equally valuable, which seems to be in vogue for developers working through the COVID-19 pandemic, ostensibly because the population at large has enough conflict amongst itself without adding it into games. And there's nothing wrong with fostering a little cooperation when taking down swarms of poxwalkers while being relentlessly pursued by a cult.
It's almost like Games Workshop enjoys satire.
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Warhammer 40K: Darktide will be available on PC and Xbox Series X/S in 2021.
Source: Fatshark