Recent reviews by JanZaber

Spreading managed democracy could not be more fun

Darktide got it's core game-play loop figured out. The visuals of the vast scenery is beautiful and has variety that follows the lore accurately for the Warhammer 40k universe. Combat systems is strategic and tactical, forcing you to learn positions for not only close combat enemies but ranged as well. Team play is very important especially for higher difficulties. If you enjoyed the Vermintide series you would enjoy this.

The issue however is that this game is very much early access. There is not a vast variety of missions to play, the crafting system is still under development, the shop will drop a powerful weapon every 1 out of 20 shop refreshes which happens hourly, there are only 2 types of monstrosities (bosses) and there is still jank to a few of the specials (looking at you hound), and only 4 classes with no variety for them to start off with.

What keeps me engaged is the fact that I love the challenge. Getting better at the game is so rewarding since there are so many different skills to sharpen. From learning the different combo attacks for the different melee weapons to positioning to how to play your characters role perfectly.

If the challenge is what you seek then you can pickup the game otherwise wait a couple of months before picking it up.

4/5

If you like Left 4 Dead then I recommend picking up this game. The TL;DR for this is that it is L4D(2) just modernized. The card system introduced to the game is amazing and changes the same level up with every play-through.

The same level can smother you in fog and the next time you have special common zombies instead.
The card system is also implemented on the cleaners (playable characters) where each character has their own set of perks and team perks (perks that are given to you and your team as well). You get to also build a deck of 15 cards where each card can either give you a stat bonus, an extra perk, or just an ability like breaking free from stalkers (hunters from L4D). This allows you to 'specialize' in a certain class like medic. What makes the deck building better is that you can build a custom medic such as having cards to buff other players when giving them pills instead of reviving them faster.

Furthermore, teamwork is highly encouraged in the game especially in the Veteran and Nightmare difficulties where teams that do not have decks that work together will crawl through or not even be able to finish the next level. The special zombies also have weak spots on them but they smartly try and hide them. This forces players on later difficulties to co-ordinate through ways such as getting agro on one player so that he can expose the weakness to other players. If not targetting the weak spots then the specials can be absolute bullet sponges.

The game itself is gorgeous and has a lot of fun maps. Like the pub map where Ace of Spades plays while you and your team fend of hordes of ridden (zombies) that tries to destroy the jukebox. Another aesthetically pleasing map for me is one at a dock where shipping containers from a cargo ship are spilled into the ocean making it a great battleground.

The game is not without its flaws. In my opinion, later difficulties should only have been unlocked after completing the previous one. Recruit difficult is too easy for some new players and they jump to Veteran immediately without having a few decent cards or a basic understanding of how hordes are triggered thus absolutely getting rekt on the first level. Adding a difficulty in between Veteran and Recruit would also have solved this issue. Now Veteran difficulty is blasted with newbies (mostly in Act 1) and makes it tuff to find a well-coordinated team.

Specials spawn rates are just bonkers where you would face from 4 to 6 specials at the same time. The bots can be your best friend or worst enemy as they will sometimes just stand still and look at enemies, not revive you. These are bugs at the moment that the developers are working on. You can track their progress on their Trello board. Other than the above-mentioned issues the game is one of the most stable games on release I have seen recently.

All and all. I have almost finished Veteran and have made tons of new zombie-fighting friends (talking in-game helps a lot). There are still tons of cards for me to unlock and have nightmare difficulty to play through. With unique character builds and interesting ways the level gets shaken up I have still tons of hours to sink into this game before I am burnt out.

See you on the battlefield cleaner!

Not really a reviewer but the game caught me off guard. The game started off slow but boy when the game picked up steam it was fun.