In the absence of official heirs, Left 4 Dead's fun cooperative action formula has passed the baton over the years to a small circle of productions, including the exciting tie-ins that Fatshark has dedicated to the different declinations of the universe created by Games Workshop: first the medieval fantasy of Warhammer: Vermintide, then the dystopian future of Warhammer 40.000: Darktide.
The latter debuted on PC exactly a year ago, in November 2022, with an undoubtedly solid and exciting experience, capable of reiterating the proven system of the aforementioned Vermintide and then ending up at the center of controversy for a progression system that in the long term proved to be truly controversial and problematic.
Well, in conjunction with a major update that revises these aspects, Fatshark game finally comes to Xbox Series, included with your Xbox Game Pass subscription at launch. Has the team managed to make the necessary optimizations in recent months to make its cooperative action work better on Microsoft consoles? The answer in ours. Warhammer 40.000 Review: Dark Tide.
Gameplay: Fantastic Four
Although it is true that the narrative section is unnecessary, it is the game constitute the soul of Fatshark's cooperative action. The formula is basically what we talked about in the Warhammer: Vermintide 2 review, with its visceral first-person combat, endless waves of enemies and special abilities to use as needed, but with some interesting variations on the theme.
The four protagonists of Darktide, prisoners determined to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Empire and fight to free the hive city of Tertium from the invasion of ferocious mutants led by a dark force, In fact, they are also equipped with sophisticated firearms. and they can attack from afar, although in terms of balance this doesn't make much of a difference compared to a purely melee approach.
In fact, one takes care to expertly measure our offensive capabilities from a distance. deliberately limited ammunition, with magazines that empty quickly and reload times that do not lend themselves well to situations of very strong numerical inferiority, when enemies are now just a few steps away, ready to attack, and aim with a minimum of precision to hit each bullet. counting is impossible.
Of course, it must be admitted that Vermintide 2's dynamic and random horde system is more effective in moving explorations, also and above all thanks to the use of huge and spectacular monsters that have no adequate correspondence in Darktide: there is no shortage of special enemies, to be clear, they make you wait for a companion to come help, but they are less interesting and impactful.
Structure and novelty
From a purely numerical point of view, there are not many differences compared to what is described in the review of Warhammer 40.000: Darktide for PC, with the four characters modifiable through an editor (which also includes details about the background of each one). one and the same classes of belonging, which are divided between Military, Zealot, Psionic and Bestione.
What has changed, and a lot, is the progression system: Fatshark has completely redesigned it, introducing three different paths (which can also be restored at any time) to which it is possible to assign the talent points obtained from time to time to build really interesting builds with many new facets regarding what that we had. We could define it as version 1.0 of the experience.
That's not all: aware of the criticism, the development team has also taken steps to smooth out the rough edges that characterized the mechanisms for unlocking, purchasing and upgrading weapons and accessories, which are now decidedly more accessible and do not require long waits. . Furthermore, the incidence of microtransactions for obtaining cosmetic items seems to have been revised from the beginning.
Finally, if it is true that in terms of maps and types of missions, the latest updates have not brought anything new, at the same time the authors have taken measures to insert them into the game. a true final sector thanks to Auric rank tasks, designed exclusively for the most experienced players with advanced settings.
Technical realization
So let's get to the nitty-gritty points: Although the Warhammer 40.000: Darktide formula remains solid and fun on Xbox too, thanks to substantial changes to the much-maligned progression system that renew interest in the classes and builds that are now possible. From a technical point of view, the game is a bitter, bitter disappointment..
Let's say that difficulties were in the air, On PC the graphics were quite heavy and practically unmanageable once ray tracing is activated, but we imagine that a whole year would be enough for the guys at Fatshark to carry out the necessary optimization to run the title convincingly on Microsoft consoles. Unfortunately we were wrong.
On Xbox Series two graphics modes, one at 30 fps and one at 60 fps, but the latter is clearly the ideal option. Well, to achieve that frame rate, the developers used the resource of dynamic resolution so aggressively that they recorded pixel counts probably close to 720p, eliminating ray tracing and still encountering frequent uncertainties.
Graphics constantly appear "fuzzy", in a completely similar way to what is seen on Nintendo Switch with the presence of particularly complicated, if not impossible, conversions, but here we are talking about a cooperative action that uses technologies that are not exactly cutting-edge, but certainly beautiful to look at. in its best conditions but far from the concept of "too demanding for Xbox Series
The 30fps mode gains some ground on the definition front, but not enough to justify losing half the frames. Furthermore, in Xbox series with Thirty frames per second represents the only option, but at least they are not subject to drops during explosions or the arrival of waves of enemies, which probably consume both the processor and the GPU.
As if that were not enough, the discussion of the time that has passed also weighs on everyone leak Visuals that still plague the experience, between assets that appear too late, enemies that start breakdancing after falling to their death, objects and character body parts that are temporarily invisible, and loading times that are downright too long compared to the average.
Conclusions
Tested version Xbox Series X digital delivery Xbox store Price 39,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.0 Readers (20) 7.9 your voteWarhammer 40.000: Darktide also includes Game Pass on Xbox Series, but also the new cross-play with Steam (shame about the lack of cross-save), a completely redesigned progression system and fierce end-game content with which to crown your career in the service of the Empire. However, the disappointment is great on a technical level: despite having been available for almost a year only for console optimization, Fatshark has pulled something of a disaster out of its hat. Let's hope it doesn't take another twelve months to sort it out.
PRO
- Solid and fun gameplay.
- Redesigned progression system
- A good number of missions, even at the end of the game.
AGAINST
- Technically it is unjustifiable.
- The formula is basically always the same.
- Little news in terms of unpublished content
