Priority members will be able to enjoy Darktide at a whole other level. RTX-Enabled graphics will bring the world of Warhammer: 40,000 to life with raytracing and experience the grim darkness of the far future like never before.
Being a fan of Warhammer: 40,000 (40K for short) and a gamer is a lot like being a man wandering the desert. Again and again, you will see mirages of hope, shining oases that leave you stumbling towards them, wallet outstretched, only to find yourself face first in the sand and your wallet empty.
There have been many 40K games in the past, and not all of them, indeed, very few of them come close to achieving the heights Warhammer: Fantasy regularly receives with the likes of Total War: Warhammer and Vermintide (both available now on GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet 😉). But that looks fit to change with the rising of Darktide.
If the name didn’t tip you off, this game comes from Fatshark, developers of the fantastic co-op survival game, Vermintide. Which brought the horde combat of Left 4 Dead to the medieval ages, filled it with rats, and then set an angry witch hunter with a flair for the dramatic on it. You could be forgiven for thinking Darktide would be more of the same, an easy cash-grab reskin of the already successful Vermintide, but you’d be wrong.
While undeniably a sibling of Vermintide, sharing much of the same DNA, Darktide really is its own animal. As a servant of Inquisitor Grendel tasked with taking back hive world Tertium from the forces of chaos, you’re not just facing mindless undead (or New-York sewer rats) here; you’re facing the organised, professional offensive of the traitorous Moebian-Six. Your enemies will flank you, use cover, lay down suppressive fire to let one another reposition, and bombard you with grenades if you hunker down.
Unlike Vermintide, which had its cast of named characters, you design your avatar in Darktide, building out their origin story, choosing their voice and making them your own with a robust character creator. Fantastic voice acting brings your character to life as they banter with their comrades on their way into the dark.
For my part, I’ve been playing Father Kolbum, a preacher using the zealot voice, which, incongruously in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, is magnificently Irish. It’s challenging to keep a smile off my face as the good Father runs into hordes of the undead with a knife and a prayer, screaming about, “WEE BONNIE MUTANTS!”
The preacher is the berserker of the game, but there’s no shortage of build choices. With four classes (The Ogryn tank, the Veteran sharpshooter, and the supernatural Psyker included), five levels of feats per class, and dozens of weapons, there’s always a way to make your character your own.
Darktide is still in its early days; we have years of content to look forward to. If Vermintide is anything to go by, we can expect a constantly evolving world, with new levels, sub-classes, weapons, and hours and hours of new voice lines to be added regularly as the conflict to retake the hive world of Tertium continues. If you’re keen to start doing your part for the imperium, start playing today on GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet. For the emperor.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of Pentanet team member "Motley" and do not represent NVIDIA or Pentanet.
