WARHAMMER 40,000: DARKTIDE

After a terrible launch the co-op online shooter is finding its feet.

- Robert Jones

NEED TO KNOW 

RELEASE 2022

PUBLISHER In-house

DEVELOPER Fatshark

LINK rb.gy/wwtwfo

Shortly before last Christmas, after what I can only describe as a football-in-groin launch experience with Darktide, I wrote in PC Gamer issue 380 that I was “praying for death” after largely failing to play the game due to constant crashes and unfinished in-game systems. I finished that write-up hoping that “2023 sees Darktide evolve into the game we all want it to be”.

Fast forward over a quarter of a year, and Darktide has now had five update patches and some serious changes in strategy from developer Fatshark. After a backlash from players over the state of the game at launch, Fatshark issued an apology and announced it was recalibrating its roadmap for the game. The paid-for cosmetics were being put on a back-burner, as too the Xbox Series X/S launch, with game stability and upgrading its half-finished crafting system made a priority.