Darktide, the upcoming Warhammer 40k tie-in from Swedish studio Fatshark, is scheduled for release this year, pandemic permitting. So far there's an announcement and a trailer, which you could argue is a mere sliver of the game, but it's more than enough for me to get very excited and speculate wildly - but in an informed way - about.
Fatshark has confirmed that Darktide will build on its Vermintide franchise. It makes sense: Vermintide 2's game as a service approach has been very successful, with Fatshark claiming five million players across all platforms, and Warhammer 40k is a natural place to extend Vermintide's gameplay loop. Managing hordes and bloody melee combat fit into the gothic ruins of the far future perfectly, while grinding for gear will suit Warhammer 40k's ludicrous arsenal and sumptuous gothic bling. Any changes that Fatshark makes to Vermintide's co-op baddie-bashing formula will be an evolution, not a revolution.
So we already have a good guess at Darktide's gameplay, but what about characters, weapons, and loot? Well, drawing on two years spent studying Warhammer 40k to write a non-fiction book, I'm going to tell you. You may call it guesswork. I call it journalism (Editor: it's guesswork).
RELATED LINKS:
Vermintide follow-up Warhammer 40K: Darktide makes its gameplay debut
Pre-orders are open for these new Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine figurines
Darktide is the Warhammer 40K version of Vermintide
