i started playing on Xbox Ultimate quite a few days after global release - NO PREORDERS :)
at the start Darktide was....amazing in following terms:

1. Graphics and Art-Department
knocked it out of the park - 40k VIBE is awesome and the performance with a 4070 ti is awesome, DLSS Frame generation works well for me and i sometimes use even raytracing. it looks awesome!
At release the performance was pretty bad and i had a ton of problems with an AMD Card - but they fixed most of it

2. Gameplay - Topnotch:
i really struggled with the amount of stress higher difficultiies imposed and i started to really become a god among the guards men. damnation is after 250 hours a walk in the park and its awesome
Slicing, mushing, smashing, rattling or brain bursting, flaming, slashing - what ever you ever wanted to do to some heretics, YOU CAN and the DMG model in the mobs is awesome.
Teamwork is required, otherwise the game director will pick to kill you off quite nicely.
Audio-Queues are perfectly used (most of the time) give away specialists to take care of
Specialist range from tanky smashers, over disablers that take down players instantly to the ground and hold them their, over area effect specialist like bombers, flamers, gunners (close and longrange) - hounds that pounce you and there are mission modifiers to empower specialist
finnaly mini-bosses are added to the mission like Monsters (Plague Ogryn, Chaos Spawn, Beast of Nurgle) and finally even a Demonhost can be battled but is mostly left alone in public games cause it will kill at least 2 people of you dont know what you are doing and the reward is pretty non existent


3. Itemization:
mediocre - you can pick a melee weapon and a ranged weapon as well as 3 Curious (trinkets with passive effects) - 2 things can be changed per Items until the rest of the passive effects or blessings (small skills or buffs that activate in certain conditions) will be LOCKED
There is NO Armor equipment at all - its all just cosmetics that can be obtained by penances (challenges with various objectives and each class has their toxic or quite well crafted penenaces) - BUT it seems like Darktide would BENEFIT from a more diverse setup and introducing more items. otherwise its just a barbie simulation for 40k Fans -> with no effect
the weapon variation so far in 11/2023 is quite good - but to many weapons lack the power to be used in damnation and beyond

4. Crafting
was nonexistent at release, it got better with the Blessing of the omnisiah BUT the bad part still feels like a bad gatcha experience - you roll the dice on a grey weapon and PAY Plasteel, Ordos and Diamantin for UPGRADING or sanctifying the gun - to green, blue, purple and orange status (like in RPG MMOs) its ridicoulus. They should start to think about a system, that Weapons are leveled by USING them and Sanctifying them BY USING them to avoid the gatcha slotmachine of hell that hold us back to build the weapon we want.
give us weapon customization like a mod already does and the blessings should be worked for in playing and ARCHIVING kills with them (combine it with penance system for the weapons to unlock blessings).
Weapons are a holy thing in 40k - and the MORE we and others "believe in them", the more powerful they get. The crafting system is not resembling any of those 40k facts. the most powerfull weapons in 40k are hundreds of years old and battleworn and they are sanctified by their usage - not a techpriest that applies some plasteel and diamantin on it. this sounds much more canon.

5. Classes
- at release - mediocre and the talent trees and abilities were limited greatly. finnaly with PATCH 14 in Oktober 2023 they released the full talent trees and the game makes much more sense now. Every class got 3 unique abilities more or less and 3 unique blitzes that can be more or less combined freely

6. Ingamestore:
great FOMO and i really dont like 90% of the cosmetics and the price strategy
A full outfit costs 2400 Aquilas = 9-10€ in europe (payed ingame currency) there are always 4 full outfits, one for every class in the store, 1 weaponskin or accessory skin, and mostly 2-3 helmets. Sadly the helmets, if they look good cost around 1400 Aquilas. Thats dull and dumb tbh
you dont ever need to buy cosmetics and its just for the style - which is good.

7. Bugs:
some bugs are in every game and it will be like this all the time - but they keep on improving and fixing things

Music:
Jesper Kyd made the OST and it is awesome - some stuff could be bit more like in the modern Doom but the tracks bounce the hell out of you if you fight your way through the hordes. RIP AND TEAR, until it is done!

Finalresult: 7/10
I can recommend it now - if you loved left 4 dead like coop-shooters and love 40k - this is it. Like the guardsmen on the morning star qoutes: "there is nothing better...."
Truly, there is no better 40k teamshooter out there and Fatshark COULD make this a huge success if they start to work on it (which they did, the past month and should continou)

Ideas: Ascencion Riser and Archivum Sicorax made use of some ideas (carrying a payload to the exit) - but i feel that the missions lack a bit of variations. Why not make shortcuts available for some - like a demonhost will open up a shortcut in a level, or if defeated give the players a reward in the game (like a stash of items, relics or cosmetics to be unlocked)
Personally i really loved the idea in Left 4 Dead that DIFFERENT tasks had to be taken care of
Possible Ogryn tasks:
fill up a gastank, close a door while shouting HODOR, block a pathway with debree or destroying a pathway with brute force, pull levers that only the ogryn or the psycher could reach move to open up secrets in the maps

veteran - fix a generator and switch on a fuelpump, electricity, hack a computer to open a shortcut, finding ammo or stashes that others can not see (he is a veteran, he knows his stuff :D - using explosives to blow something up with a charge only the veteran has

Zealot - finding a special relic or leading the team down an alternative path to carry a chaos or holy item to the exit for an extra reward for all, killing destroying some effigies of chaos along the line to weaken corruption and the forces of chaos. purging a special enemy like a demonhost, should release corruption if a zealot does it

Psycher: finding warp-rips that need to be closed by the team for a special reward - team fights and psycher closes it with a few quick time events, finding chaos psychers along a mission and open up a path to them for a reward or a sanctification of a weapon

Overall - i think the missions are currently quite well crafted, but except from killing and clicking buttons - there is not much to do for us and i am desperate to change the course of a mission with my choice of class a bit and open up new opportunities

My ideas could be garbage in game and NOT possible - but 40k was always a bit more than only KILLING and pushing buttons. Send guardmens for the killing and pushing buttons. An Inquisition strike team of specialists should be able to to some more than a mere guards men - EXCEPT only KILLING everything :)

Thanks Fatshark so far, for 250 hours of a great but sometimes depressing time - i even stopped playing out of frustation of the crafting system cause i could not archive the weapon that i would needed.