Right now, I cannot recommend: 'Warhammer 40,000: Darktide' (Review) [PC 4k]

Australians, try GeForce Now for free and lock in your permanent Founders discount by hitting this link: bit.ly/GeForceNOW5. Thanks to GeForce Now Powered by Pentanet for sponsoring the video.
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I love Darktide, but I can't recommend it atm. It's not finished, and it's going to take at least another 12 months before this game feels fixed and complete.
#Darktide #Warhammer40k #Review
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00:00 Intro
03:29 Performance: Pre-Release
06:52 Performance: Steam Deck
07:51 Performance: RTX 2080Ti
09:32 Performance: RTX 4090
10:54 Stability
11:52 Cross-play & Cross-save
13:00 Character Creation
14:22 Classes
16:34 Narrative and Lore
18:59 Progression
20:35 Itemisation UI
21:36 Endgame
22:12 Crafting
22:50 Cash Shop
24:52 Soundtrack
26:23 Immersion
27:45 Level Design
29:09 Combat: Melee
30:24 Combat: Ranged
31:16 Enemy design
32:03 Teamplay
34:22 Outro
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[@SkillUp]

Australians, try GeForce Now for free and lock in your permanent Founders discount by hitting this link: bit.ly/GeForceNOW5. Thanks to GeForce Now Powered by Pentanet for sponsoring the video.

[@KarmaRitsu]

Bro this video was scheduled lol

[@AlienYogurtPot123]

Pretty sure they are scrapping Geforce now at the start of 2023

[@eranronen573]

Yea this release was really shot by the technical performance

[@eranronen573]

Skill up do you think it's shooting is destiny level?

[@auto1nfanticid3]

@Skill Up you can't name a character Herzog because the last 3 letters is a no-no word, not due to the film maker.

[@Vin_Venture896]

I’m honestly sick of unfinished games where the only thing that people can say about it is ‘Well the core gameplay is fun!’ My brother in Christ, that’s the minimum expectation for a video game’s gameplay. I want an actual full product for once, I’m done playing games for their ‘potential’ and not their actual quality in front of me.

[@parus8798]

They have a full cash shop

[@Mughen93]

exactly! most games are either live service or promise updates later with patches leaving games months without new content to chew on or have a baked in battle pass in a single player focused game. Wild times we live in

[@gwar180]

It’s not going to happen. They complain about this game but will hype Bethesda stuff regardless

[@dangarcia1617]

The sad thing is there more ppl than not that will call these comments extra or that your complaining to much you should just enjoy the game... those remarks would be very wrong 😕

[@UnknownPerson-cq3qv]

I remember when games were sold as a complete product, when you bought a game and just got to play without micro transactions.

[@worldscoolestperson7672]

Never underestimate this man’s ability to insert Destiny into any conversation.

[@blackout1518]

Fr man doesn’t know when to stop talking about that trash

[@IAmTheBugInsideYou]

@@blackout1518 It's an integral game in his history admittedly, but yeah he has a love/hate relationship with it. Meanwhile most people got burned after 1&2 launches & moved the fuck on & stopped touching the garbage.

[@dingus2k]

Well considering how similar some of this game’s systems are to Destiny this is one of the least egregious examples

[@bloodblacknothing]

@BLACKOUT why shouldn't he talk about something that is not only entirely relevant in comparison, but also something that he enjoys/is very knowledgeable in? Darktide is a live-service game, and it is very clearly suffering from the exact same mistakes Bungie made, so I don't really understand your point.

[@syluxassassin]

Y'all allowed to not like something and not absolutely trash on it lmao

[@icesharkk6399]

thank you for always putting the conclusion in the title and not clickbaiting us. that coupled with stellar scriptwriting means your videos are always awesome!

[@HotPocketEnjoyer]

Destiny bum

[@jameshill5458]

Skill Ups determination to mention Destiny in damn near every video amazes me every time he does it.

[@Tiamatdlord]

He never mentions Division which gave his journo creds, now he shills like the jounro he is and GOD FORBID A GAME DOESN'T PLAY GOOD IN 4K OR LATEST GPU

[@Tallmios]

@@Tiamatdlord If a game doesn't play right with a 4090, just imagine how it'd run on an RX580...

[@Tallmios]

@@Tiamatdlord You're behaving like a dick and I can hardly understand what you mean by the second paragraph. Merry Christmas.

[@Tiamatdlord]

@@Tallmios it's called sarcasm, lighten up. also reading seems hard for you, also never heard the "potato pc joke before". don't ever what some one says literally, my thin-skinned friend. instead of calling some one a jack ass when they what they're talking then yeah. your the idiot that all releases are made for new thing right? or the fact the game market every has a 4k super monitor and 3090 or 4 series gpu? teams develop games for period, they may have concept for what coming but the processes are done and set in certain era or series of gpus. you and skill up seem to think FAT SHARK fully optimizes their stuff right. the same for any developer or team but some are better than others. if you want to yank your engine out for latest and greatest system specs or gpus, but your product will launch badly or be bad. halo infinite or battlefield 2042 anyone? go with God anday he bless you

[@Tiamatdlord]

@@Tallmios play a drinking game with this video or your average skill up video. take a shot when you hear these words. destiny, performance, 4k , gpu , design, story then post how drunk you are, Pardon my sarcasm but I've this man since his division days. he took the game journo route and the same since.p

[@tythus654]

Honestly, after spending 150 hours in Vermintide 2 earlier this year, it's kind of mind-boggling that they'd launch DT with so many incomplete features that were completely functional in VT2

[@GottHammer]

yeah. I only played Vermintide 2 after they gave it away (did give 'em a bit of money when I got a few of the DLC), and still have it installed...so I was pretty surprised and disappointed at the state of Darktide (bought it a bit after launch, I really should've waited). At the very least they could've just used the same crafting system, if they couldn't think of one that's better (Darktide's shop is bad/annoying, and I don't like how the crafting is shaping up, if the current 'half' that's present is indicative of what's coming)

[@vahlen5281]

The reason for that is easily explained, higher management wanted the game to be released in 2022 at any cost.

[@jacobvriesema6633]

@@vahlen5281 100%. I doubt devs want the game released in its current state, but they’ve been pressured to do it, at the cost of half-baked subsystems.

[@DrPlans]

didnt know this game was vermintide 3

[@WarframeCrunch]

Anyway I didn't liked Vermintide 2, because they copied LEFT 4 DEAD mechanics but they didn't added mechanics that LEFT4DEAD2 have which leads to some issues the Vermintide 2 have...

[@grumpyfatso3071]

The fact you could not make the video any shorter than 40 minutes shows me, how much you care for it. I play it, i love it and i hate the fact it is so unfinished. Really hope they'll put in some good ol' effort.

[@nathancarignan8074]

While they're very, very different experiences I'm reminded allot about dark souls 2's launch. My reaction was pretty much "man this is worse in almost everyway to the previous one. Game of the year though, can't put it down". I think Darktide invented new problems for itself, and while I still find it excellent and expect to play for awhile longer this is definitely a design choice issue, and those can be hard to dig yourself out of.

[@dominicscreativefilms]

40 minutes for a 40k game

[@TheAtomicWarrior]

As much as I love and play it since the Closed Beta I can't pretend that it has no flaws such as the lack of content and another few issues. I am still optimistic about the game down the line, but cautiously so.

[@mattvoelker241]

Games a buggy mess but god the feel of the gameplay is unreal

[@hangryhiggs]

This is definitely a "come back in 12/18 months" game. Another top review mate.

[@Brandelwyn]

Or just "dont support irresponsible devs by coming back"

[@Brandelwyn]

@@diomedes7971 congrats, youre a part of the problem

[@Spitsworth]

@@Brandelwyn are you sure it's the devs and not the investors pushing them to release?

[@FibbonachiCrusader]

@@Spitsworth who cares if the end result is the same.

[@Brandelwyn]

@@Spitsworth devs let people who dont care about games to ruin their child, so yeah, its on them too

[@aaronhumphrey3514]

As someone who has played Darktide, I’ve got to say that you’ve pretty much voiced all my issues with it and all the reasons I still love it. The gameplay is just that good. It’s really unfortunate they dropped the ball on so many other aspects of the game though.

[@Lupus_Intus]

100% agree. The game FEELS so good, the guns FEEL punchy and powerful and in-genre, and the missions are the standard you'd expect from Vermantide (though they can feel a bit too samey in this title). Still, this game is Early Access. It doesnt matter what the steam page says, this game is incomplete and should not have been released in this state.

[@aaronhumphrey3514]

@@Lupus_Intus I think that’s precisely what they should’ve done: release it under early access and finish over the next year.

[@Achiles5th]

I'll be the damn clown here, but game told me at start that it won't run on my system and I'm playing with friends at sub 20 fps at times. I have to delete the game and physically play Vermintide 2 or something else in that vein, cause I really want to keep playing Darktide even for all the warts and issues I'm enduring right now. Who knows hopefully in a few months when I can get a new GPU that can run it better they'll have patched the game some more closer to the polish Vermintide 2 reached.

[@ShinyUmbreon106]

@@aaronhumphrey3514 exactly if they really wanted to release it it should’ve been early access cause from what he’s saying it sounds like a early access game

[@AlienOvermind]

It's kinda funny how all Ralph's gripes with the story are basically solved in Vermintide 2: - we do progress to a certain goal while going through the missions - each mission has a distinct objective instead of just "go kill things and fiddle with machinery" - there is big climactic final boss battle where can finally see results of our efforts - there are cool characters with distinct personalities and interesting dialogues

[@CatCubed]

Most of the issues are solved in Vermintide. Unfortunately, Fatshark apparently forgot they made that game and decided to completely ignore any of their previous solutions.

[@stefanchiric3691]

They might be solved in vermintide, but this ain't vermintide

[@dwrabauke]

@@CatCubed Exactly what I was thinking. Why not use experiences from the old game? Studios do this all the time.

[@theandice8152]

@@stefanchiric3691 To some of its detriment

[@aechean]

This has been the most difficult part of Darktide for me. They really seem like they stepped so far back, when I was really hoping they'd move forward. I love Vermintide, and the gameplay in Darktide is great, but it probably needed another year honestly.

[@raer5373]

My biggest gripe with this game is how much less value you get for your money compared to Vermintide 2

[@richardsmith5803]

Um gamepass value?

[@raer5373]

@@richardsmith5803 Gamepass sadly isn't available in my region. And I'm not buying a VPN and Gamepass for 1 game :D

[@myckat7148]

Where is no crossplay between steam and gamepass version. Gamepass version have much less playerbase, ppl are constrantly creating posts about hard time finding players at higher difficulties on gamepass

[@raer5373]

@candyman Preach! 🙌

[@maonmanak]

@@TheMacel66 yes it does if you got game pass lol

[@mrgoober6320]

My disappointment in the launch state of Darktide actually made me go back and install Vermintide 1 and 2. Those games are fantastic. There's been so little change to the core game mechanics that the player skills do transfer. I'm way better at these games now than I was when I played V1, and teaching new players how to play and where all the books are has been very rewarding.

[@wixardo]

After the first 10 or so hours of Darktide I kept feeling like I'm just playing a worse Vermintide, made me go back to VT2 real quick. The only thing I don't like about them is the books, grimoire debuffs are fine but it's the restriction of inventory that really annoys me, and the fact that they are required to get emp vaults makes pubs a chore sometimes. Still leagues above Darktide however.

[@ivan2795]

Have hundreds of hours on Vermintide 2. It's the best coop game after L4D.

[@LiamMarcon]

Same I've been considering reinstalling Vermintide 2 and playing the DLC I never played.

[@dirpyturtle69]

VT2 launched in a similar state, still one of the better horde games out there and dark tide will be the same. Just don’t buy it full price if you haven’t already(for those of you reading this

[@blakearius]

I thought about this but damn 94 gig redownload... ahhhhh

[@laranjo5999]

It's been a month since release and it still feels like a game that should have released Q2/3 of 2023.

[@Sorain1]

Potentially another game sacrificed to the 'we want Christmas sales!' demand of fools in positions of power.

[@toptiertech7291]

You think this game will be ready by the fall of 2023?

[@Sorain1]

@@toptiertech7291 I think that depends on if they kept the full production staff or dumped a ton of people. (Or shifted them to other projects.) If they did? Yeah, I could see another year putting it up to near release quality.

[@chasedamoni8413]

@@toptiertech7291what’s funny is that a lot of depth and fixes have been added as of now

[@Jasta85]

Agreeing with Skillup, Vermintide 2 was very similar, it only became fully fleshed out around a year after launch so I was expecting similar things for darktide. Gave the prerelease version a try and refunded after a couple days because there were many obvious issues. Will be checking back on it in around 6 months.

[@kyotheman69]

wish they just make game complete at launch, I'm sick lets half baked the game on release and fix it later, very tried of this shit

[@IVslam]

@@kyotheman69 they don’t want the hype to die off so they release as soon as possible

[@xmaracx]

vermintide 2 had bucketloads of better content on release than darktide though, actually different maps, 5 classes with a unique weapon pool for each plus 2 subclasses for each, out of these 3 things the only thing darktide kind of even remotely touches is its large variety of shared weapons, but it is what it is, and darktide is lacking both in performance content and endgame

[@cj5476]

@@IVslam the hype? What hype

[@JustinMartinshrapnel]

I love vermintide 2 but it still isn't well optimized.

[@Wizard_Level_1]

BTW, you are right about not giving Vermintide 2 enough time. Every character has a ranged focused subclass, a melee focus subclass, and a subclass that does both, so you can absolutely tailor your game play to your preference, especially when you unlock more types of weapons.

[@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299]

Waiting for a sale to get Vermintide 2 Ultimate :P

[@Thanatas11]

Vt2 is amazing. Unique classes and levels that look different. Oh and a crafting system, 3 game play modes and it doesn’t crash non stop. Uniques are actually unique and you can see them… my friends are 40k nerds and keep playing this utter garbage of a release. “Omg it’s so authentic”. Best line of the video is comparing the weapon loot to the universe. Assassins are so much more scary then wussy hounds. Just trust me, if you like the combat in 40k, just play vermtide2.

[@griffin1182]

100%, pretty much everything he praised about this was done in Vermintide 2

[@wainmundt8062]

@@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299 what are you talking about? verm 2 is ALWAYS on sale, its a bargen bin game

[@Cerebrums]

@@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299 its on sale

[@cadia7334]

One thing I'm surprised you didn't mention (or maybe I just missed it) is the terrible penance system. Many of them completely interrupt the flow of the game and encourage players to play in a way that can completely sabotage missions. Had one run where a zealot demanded that we keep up with him for his speed run penance, zoomed off, aggroed a horde, blew me off a cliff with a barrel trying to self damage, and then he died. If you want to finish higher tier penances do them in premade teams dedicated to completing them.

[@NoMalarkey]

Very fair review. Harsh criticism for failures and absolute adoration for what they got so right. I played a whole bunch of Vermintide and this is kinda just how Fatshark works. On the bright side, 4 years after launch we are still getting DLC and they continuously released new content, both free and paid. Vermintide 2 was a game that my party could always come back to for a solid month of fun with each major update and I hope Darktide is in that good place soon.

[@poxyllama]

As much as the game does encourage you to play as a team, most of the penances (in-game challenges) actively discourage you from working with your team. Challenges ranging from not using your ranged weapon (forcing your team to pick up the slack in skirmishes) to solo-killing a boss on a high difficulty. Some people will say, just play with bots! But unfortunately, private games are currently limited to a 2 human player minimum, rather than 1 with 3 bots. So for people with a friend who plays the game, you can at least work with them. But Solo players who don't have anyone to play with, they're either screwed in regards to some of these challenges, or are forced to grief other players in matchmaking.

[@lovebunny2652]

I disagree regarding the penances. The game has chat after all, and pretty much every player i've come across has agreed to help with penances, all you need to do is communicate. And from the moment someone agrees, teamplay becomes crucial for the sake of that one boi that wants to get the penances done. If anything, i see the penances as making teamwork even more crucial. Also bots actively fuck some penances, like they never stop attacking, of course, and if they do too much damage to the boss, you'll never get that Psyker penance to solo it.

[@Secret_Takodachi]

@@lovebunny2652 you think that's possible because you personally haven't tried to do it. you're the kind of person who's so confident in their opinion because you haven't had to take your own advice...

[@lovebunny2652]

@@Secret_Takodachi I'm speaking from experience you dumbass

[@wainmundt8062]

I was ranting about players not letting me get pents, and how I wish I could just solo missions, and folks were like, "hay, you need help my man?"

[@lovebunny2652]

@@wainmundt8062 The community is usually always chill and helpful

[@Maehedrose]

If you're reading Abnett, you really need to read 'Eisenhorn' as that's his iconic series that turned a lot of people into fans of the setting.

[@MrDustyGaming]

Abnett and Aaron Dempski-Bowden are the best. The night lord omnibus in particular are the best books I have ever read. For Abnett the inquisitor series is now 8 books long so it’s an amazing journey, just need to wait for the last one now. I have to mention the book helsreach.

[@GottHammer]

Some of the standalone books could be good, too. McNeill's 'Storm of Iron' was great, if memory serves. 'Fifteen Hours' by Scanlon is great, too. Eisenhorn and Gaunt are, of course great, but I think my favourite WH40k series is Mitchell/Stewart's Ciaphas Cain.

[@esaedvik]

@@GottHammer Nerdist listed off a few books the new Amazon/Cavill stuff should be based on and Ciaphas Cain was one of them. Others were Gaunt's Ghosts, Eisenhorn and Helsreach.

[@superpulaski9767]

So much is missing from this game but I’m still having so much fun playing it. The combat is just unreal. I don’t regret my imperial edition purchase but I’ve also been playing since beta. I was expecting launch day to not just literally be the beta though lol.

[@Hysorn]

Honestly the part that hurts the most is that between all the unfinished, unoptimized things the gameplay is so damn good, it's borderline addicting, they had such a good opportunity in their hand...

[@Kai-tn4yx]

You should read the Eisenhorn novels if you liked those other ones. Also by Dan Abnett, they are probably the best Warhammer 40k books. And yes, you should absolutely try getting into Verminitide 2. The combat system, spells, weapons and characters are fantastic, as are the missions.

[@kenbee1957]

Especially recently after it was given away for free on Steam

[@CriticalComplainer]

I agree that the game could be mindblowingly good within 1 year. That being said, as someone who played a ridiculous amount of Vermintide 2 over the years; Fatshark have proven many many times that they are largely incompetent developers beyond creating an extremely solid core game. Progression systems, crafting, cosmetics, all of these auxiliary systems are just completely misunderstood and incoherently addressed. Even when they try to 'listen to players' they just do it in the worst way possible.

[@noway718]

Also, my God, they're 3 games into the Tide series. Can they please hire SOMEONE who knows how to write a decent narrative?

[@frostmourne1986]

@@noway718 VT2 has a pretty decent narrative. The problem with DT is that they went with random faceless mooks as the playable character, vs VT2's actual proper characters.

[@12345langham]

It is DLC/FLC that really let V2 down. At the beginning, with the Nurgle theme, I was so excited for what they could have added. Realm of Chaos was great, but NO DAEMONS IN THE REALM OF CHAOS? Be'Lakor had no BE'LAKOR, and at the end of it all, a swarm of Nurglings was all they could muster.

[@jossland1628]

@@noway718 They did, they hired Dan Abnett, who has written dozen of good books in the 40K universe. They just don't seem to have actually implimented anything he done for them.

[@Fishster]

Did not play V2 but god they fucked V1. Some mind blowing stupid decisions and complete lack of understanding of basic common sense stuff.

[@SultanOfAwesomeness]

Words cannot express how happy I am to see Shillup fall down deeper into the 40k warphole. Gaunt’s Ghosts is a fantastic series. Hope he continues reading it!

[@keonster]

And also the Ciaphas Cain series!

[@thomasclowater9471]

don't you mean the 4k warphole? lol

[@climax050]

For some reason I'm totally addicted to grinding this game even though the grind and gear are less than stellar and i've seen all the maps inside and out a dozen times. I love 40k and I think this is an incredible look into that setting and the game will only improve. The variation is also so cool. I used to take a drink or do something like that while we were waiting in elevators, only for the doors to open one time and a dozen armored enemies backed with maulers, crushers and bulwarks come charging in. Now every time we go into a little scan room I deploy an MG or flamethrower or charge a heavy attack just in case there's an assault team waiting when the doors open. Most of the time there isn't but just in the off chance that there is I'm prepared, I also have certain rooms I dread walking into for various reasons, be that bosses or no cover from massed ranged fire. Just stuff like that keeps me coming back. Theres nothing like playing with the lads on a higher difficulty as say an Ogryn, you walk around a corner and theres just two dozen laz-wielding enemies in front and you have to go running back to your team to get them to clear the room so you can go in without being turned into swiss cheese. They did really well with the enemies and how they're often put together, so perhaps you have to fight a Mauler or Crusher in the hope that your ranged team-mates can kill the shotgunner that is ruining your day. So much of those decisions you have to make all the time are so much fun to me, make the wrong ones and you're in trouble. Theres been other times where I'm being attacked by a horde with two trappers mixed in who have my teammates down, and i have to decide between backing up and trying to clear some chaff or rez teammates or try and grab the trappers, the wrong choice means our mission is over. Stuff like that has a lot of replay-ability to me.

[@Ilumeo]

Absolutely agree, in its current unfinished state it's hard to recommend, even if the core mechanics of the game are fun.

[@MacGuffin1]

I disagree, same amount of crashes as DMZ... Annoying, but still playable and worthwhile. I think console won't be great, even series X might have issues with the number of enemy NPCs. Raytracing is a must. I think it's streaming a lot from servers, and likely the cause of most of the stability issues. Recent update (2 days ago) has made a difference, you can always reconnect now and crashes less frequent.

[@Cifer77]

Been loving Darktide, this review is spot on. If you're able to ignore the progression/gear systems and don't have any technical issues (which is actually common for most I've played with), it's still pretty damn enjoyable.

[@mekawasp]

Same, I love the combat, but progression is lacking

[@mordor1779]

I've been playing the game since release and i absolutely love it. The weapons, the feeling you get from them and cutting hordes of ennemies in half with your eviscerator, the insane soundtrack. Ever since the last 2 patches which made my game run perfectly and now I'm never getting under 60fps even when there is 300 ennemies on screen, im having a lot of fun

[@jellyguides]

This game is in such a awful state 😮fatshark shouldn’t of launch this. As a fatshark fan. Even I’m here like “wtf”

[@Feragore]

20:36 With itemization, one of the updates - the one which added the %s to the bars on weapons which you can see in the review on occasion - added a very in-depth item UI. If you inspect an item with [V] then you can mouse-over icons like Relentless and Assassin to see what they mean, and mouse-over the bars to see what they do. You can find out what most things are now. Other than that, the review is basically spot on.

[@yvonneflop2471]

too late, review is out, should have released with it already there.

[@mohammadalirashed3103]

That still isn't sufficient, the perks/blessings and their functions aren't explained. Stuff like 'Impact', 'Rending', 'Hit Mass' and other terms that aren't defined to the player. The UI is convoluted in comparison to similar games.

[@skupipup]

80hrs played since launch, two crashes total. One of the lucky ones for sure. Fatshark cashed in a lot of good faith with the state of the release. The gameplay is what keeps pulling me back in though, so much fun.

[@ValiantGoat]

Fatshark did the same thing with Vermintide 2, released it too soon. By the time Vermintide 2 was up to snuff everyone had moved on, I fear Darktide will suffer a similar fate.

[@GoodwillWright]

Darktide will always be subpar unless they remove the timegates. Something Vermintide 2 never had an issue with even at launch.

[@JohnnyNocturne]

love your reviews. i have been loving this game despite the problems. first "left 4 dead" style game ive actually liked. im excited for more updates

[@darthsparrow1358]

So it is a vermintide reskin lol

[@darthsparrow1358]

Replace the enemies with giant rats get rid of the assault rifles and boom! Vermintide 3

[@JohnnyNocturne]

@@darthsparrow1358 understandable take, and vermintide is way more fleshed out. but i dont think id call it a reskin. they did a really good job with the world and the ranged combat is much more expanded in this game.

[@darthsparrow1358]

@@JohnnyNocturne I just said reskin because of the left 4 dead type of gameplay

[@xXOPxLunaXx]

@@darthsparrow1358 definitely said reskin.

[@Maddmike]

Your ability to bridge from one topic to another seamlessly is out of this world. Great review as always, master of your craft my guy.

[@Diegoshadow85]

"out of this world" guys can you stop exagerating everything you say

[@Gortanckla]

@@Diegoshadow85 Why

[@Diegoshadow85]

@@Gortanckla because if you overexagerate everything you say it doesn't mean anything anymore and besides that you are rworded for asking dumb questions lmao deal with that! 🤣

[@Gortanckla]

@@Diegoshadow85 Why would it lose meaning, and why would asking questions make me dumb? Is the pursuit of information not how one becomes more intelligent?

[@RyanEdwardsVA]

Absolutely stellar review. Nailed every point me and my 1k+ hour Vermintide series veteran playgroup have been talking about since the Darktide launch. This will be a great title... In 2 years, when it's done. And I love the core enough to suffer through all the BS until then... But I'm not happy to be suffering.

[@ShahbazBokhari]

The most disappointing and addictive game I’ve played in years. You nailed everything with the title alone. It’s heart ache inducing when they got the hard part right and everything else is still in tatters. ;-; Edit: Also, this is the one time you bringing up Destiny is both apt and tolerable.

[@ShahbazBokhari]

@candyman always when TenCent shows up, stuff just dies or becomes soulless. Fast getting sick of corpo speak and decisions made by the CCP sanctioned entities destroying everything I love. Be it the wanton pollution of our world, the undermining of our democracies or the shitifying of our video games.

[@MrProbeNWatch]

The issue I rose with my friend the other day is "by the time this game is good will i have the care or time anymore?" if you're a fan of this game (and i was really enjoying it) then you will most likely return to the game. But think about how many games are coming in 2023 and the amount of games that players are excited for. When this game is all good and ready I will most likely be playing all the games I am looking forward to and juggling with responsibilities in 2023. Games launch and me personally plan the time around that I will have to play/invest in them based on if they're single player or multiplayer and I just don't know if I will have the space in 2023 to invest in this game like I currently want to with how much I am looking forward to next year and currently juggling.

[@MisterZimbabwe]

A thousand times this sentiment. Instead of fuckin' around with inserting a shitty predatory cash shop into a PAID PRODUCT, maybe they should have used the salaries they paid the cash shop engineers for more actual developers to, y'know, finish the core game.

[@mr.b89]

When Armored Core 6 comes out that will be my life for the following year, poor Darktide :(

[@reallybigmistake]

Let me get this straight - Fatshark as a company are liars. Fatshark straight up lied at advertising. A lot of promo material weapons or cosmetics are unobtainable in game, ability to obtain premium currency through gameplay was removed (and they were sneaky enough to edit this out of the discord post right before release), the crafting system that was supposed to be ready on release (and after that it was promised to be done in December) is not here, and it is Christmas already, so no way players get it this year. The promised story just used Dan Abnett big name as a promotion and in fact does not exist at all. Weapon modifications system is scrapped, so you can't just attach flashlight/bayonet to a gun or get a better scope, despite it apparently being in the works not so long ago. The game reeks of "effective management", "players engagement" and "retention". Also, in game shop exploiting FOMO and does not allow you to buy items directly, instead forcing you to buy aquilas in packs and then spending aquilas on cosmetics.

[@Thalkor]

I think this is a v solid review and it's interesting having put a lot of time in VT2 to see areas where others complain that Skill Up doesn't agree with fully. (Like level's not standing out, not having enough subclasses, elites/enemy variety, or even the fact that all the major bones of the combat[minus some degree of gunplay] is lifted from VT/VT2 etc) This is a very realistic review that I think is tempered by the fact that Skill Up didn't play VT2, I could only imagine the contrast between the two if he had

[@rickkybobby8118]

Oh man that segment on D1 was a nostalgia trip. Still remember being so hyped playing the open beta, and having such a blast in the full release game..... for the week it took to clear all content and try vault of glass

[@shoulderpyro]

damn you got a lot of time on your hands if you 100%'d all four classes in just a week time o_o

[@IVISMiLESIVI]

Dang the nostalgia at 34:40. I completely forgot about that hive level in destiny one. Hopefully they fix Darktide in the future cause this game was definitely catching my eye, but as Shell Imp was saying I can't bring myself to buy it yet with all these issues.

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

people really just need to admit that after Tencent got their hands in the shares, FS just changed to worse. If you google it, chairman of the board is now Chinese, same goes for non-executive, and whole bunch of staff from Level Infinite studio is listed in the credits for Darktide. In case you don't know, Level Infinite is studio that helps to design monetization for Tencent owned projects if original studio can't make it itself. I am not putting all blame on them ofc, because this amount of incompetence and selling out should be okayed by the studio head honchos.

[@HoodieGemron]

RT is enabled by default in the games config files btw. Disabling them only helps mitigate stutter though and probably not so much performance as a whole.

[@RgWskate]

Dude, very glad to see this video. I got it on game pass after your initial impressions video. Game looked great and couldn't wait. I haven't watched the video yet, but the 5 hours I have in play time were literally all spent just trying to play lol. Every loading screen took well longer than it felt it should have, connections to other players would drop constantly; this is all assuming you actually got into the mission or actual content lol. I'd love to play, but I just can't dedicate anymore time in the over world trying to get into a game. I'm very curious to hear your thoughts. I'm sure this will be info packed as always! Happy Holidays Ralph :)

[@ajwaddanwarr3409]

I found this review interesting and its a great example of why you should see multiple trusted reviews before making a purchase. A lot of reviewers I trust gave it a good score but they were Warhammer fan so they are willing to overlook the rough edges, warhammer games in general is kinda like that, my brother loved Space Marine but I thought it was only okay. Ralph is reviewing it from the eyes of a average gamer and his review makes a lot of sense. Definitely a buy it during steam sales for me.

[@sexylazercatwizard]

I think it's worth it's base price, especially for a 40$ price tag, but it really needs to fix the optimization and actually add in all the crafting mechanics.

[@ajwaddanwarr3409]

@@sexylazercatwizard honestly kinda wanna try vermentide first

[@zacharyrotkvic6313]

There were a few things he missed the mark on in this review imo, overall fair review however. This game is definitely worth playing. It's objectively more fun than Vermintide, and I say that having over 100 hours in Vermintide. The gameplay loop is a lot more enjoyable than Vermintide. Only thing more satisfactory in VM2 is the weapon/crafting system

[@sexylazercatwizard]

@@ajwaddanwarr3409 more power to you, I'd just say, don't disregard darktide.

[@hafirenggayuda]

Yeah. Warhammer 40k fans, like me, tend to ignore the bad or unfinished aspects on the wh40k games, because we just want to enjoy the franchise content over gameplay. Like Sonic frontier. While not really good at gameplay, Sonic fans enjoy it because it's Sonic games

[@Halteclere]

Deep Rock Galactic is another example of awesome team play in a video game.

[@Revalopod]

imo drg is the absolute best

[@ahlikx6295]

I was looking for some DRG comments lol, Rock and Stone!

[@OneLastEcho]

Thank you for talking about the cosmetics. I keep seeing people say "it's just cosmetics, it doesn't have an effect on gameplay so it's fine." But when the game is advertising that you make your own character, and (after hard work with stupid achievements) you're given the choice between a helmet with a chip in the visor, the same helmet but a red cloth mask, the same helmet but a BLACK camo cloth mask; I DON'T exactly think I can agree with this thought process on a $40-$60 game.

[@Bannschwert]

Really great review, speaks from my heart. Darktide has extremely great gameplay and playing in a 4 man voice-chat, going into Tier 4 missions, getting your ass handed to you... what a great experience! But there simply is nothing between that. My 2 lvl 30 characters (Ogryn and Zealot) both have "perfect" gear for their jobs and I don't really look into the item shops anymore because of that. So there's basically no reason to keep running missions with them... besides the fun of running missions in Darktide! You kind of missed the whole Penance system. Basically it's Achievements that you have to jump through some hoops for. But some Penances are pretty easy ("Finish 50 missions", "kill 5 enemies with headshots without missing a shot in 10s", "Block 500 dmg"), while others are pretty much ridiculous ("Finish a mission with 100% accuracy with 0 ammo left"). But you need to finish them, to get the cool free cosmetics (and they often are pretty rad). This is an area where they need to rebalance some more... they made certain penances much easier, but often they are still infuriatingly hard. On the story part: There are certain hints to sinister things going on aboard the Mourningstar... so I'm really, really hoping this will come into play later in the lifecycle, as that would be something where Dan Abnett could show us his creativity and his knowledge of the 40k universe. But so far... it's like the 2 pages of background fluff for your PnP campaign given by the core rulebook.

[@Trekari]

A fantastic review as always. I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and to let you know that you are one of the only gaming channels worth subscribing to. I hope 2023 will treat you well.

[@roudrosakibkarim2161]

I feel the need to point out that Dan Abnett is also responsible for giving us the iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy that we've come to know (there had previously been a different roster in the 70s consisting of characters that later appeared in GotG v2 as the ravagers). Dan Abnett's book from 2008, taking place after Annihilation, was where Star Lord puts the new GotG together

[@BadBookend]

What I appriciate most on your reviews is its always your opinion, no holding back. The good the bad and the ugly. Keep up the great work and I see this channel continuing to grow and become an even larger force in the gaming world. I'm totally enjoying darktide with about 50 hours in but all of your criticisms are absolutely true.

[@Scelous]

God damn you're a good reviewer. Even if I don't agree with you about some of your tastes (Destiny 2, for example), you describe and explain your analysis so well. I'm not sure a human being could do any better than how well you do your critique.

[@jacobvriesema6633]

Great review. I also love the combat and feel my head bobbing every time a sick beat drops. I’m lucky in that I’ve barely ever had frame rate or server issues since launch. The loot system and crafting definitely “meh” to me. I think the biggest let down is that despite how fun the game is, leveling a character feels boring.

[@keagancloete]

Just a quick note on the section about itemization, you can inspect weapons and it gives you a detailed breakdown of what everything does. I completely agree on the rest though xD

[@enloeeagle7258]

Small thing... But as someone who works in televion, it always makes me smile to hear you talk about different "blocks" lol

[@Boxghost102]

My friend and I played Deep Rock for 500 hours together and still play on and off. He got Dartide first, played it for about 50 hours, and told me 'yeah im not interested right now." That was the most telling moment for me.

[@hannescalitz5347]

I'm so with you on your view about this game. It really needs a lot of work but hot damn, I cannot stop playing it. It is so good.

[@spliterator1981]

I swear, the editing on these videos are always, *always* so pitch perfect. Absolutely elevates the quality of this content to the next level. Kudos to you Austin, and kudos to Skillup for pointing out his contributions so frequently.

[@sergie2822]

I'm currently playing Darktide and having fun with it. But, after 100 hours or so, I can tell there is no real end game, no real story... just not a lot of content in general. Playing in Hersey or Higher gives no further reward if you just played on Malice. Even taking in secondary challenge doesn't give further rewards except for more coins or weekly contracts, which become useless after awhile. Penence Challenges feel like a after thought with some challenges being completely absurd, which requires a dedicated team willing to help you out. I find myself cycling the shop to get higher tier blessing, perk and rating weapons... that's it. What even sad is, their cash skin shop seems more polished then the overall game. Nothing really to replay afterwards once you hit level 30, because there is really no motivation to continue, except to farm materials to cycle perks or upgrade weapons. This pretty much feels like the game hasn't been thought-out completely, the framework is there, they really needed to polish the game-up. Especially with performance and optimization... You'd think Fatshark would take the elements they learned from VT2 and bring it over but it honestly feels like they just started over, got lost and rushed out a release so they can cash in on their nicely polished monetization shop.

[@luisdiaz5767]

To say it short, the game doesn't have maps and enemy varieties is low. The difficulty is the only replayability. The game is fun. Up to you to decide whether 40 is alot but the joy with friends or solo is definitely worth it.

[@Wizard_Level_1]

I just don't understand why Fatshark continues to struggle with gear systems. They have so much experience with them by this point that they should be able to have figured out how to do one that is interesting, fair, and reasonable. It's like, every time they release a game they go back to the days where they didn't know what they were doing.

[@joshpark1]

I expect an updated review when warranted. I just got to believe they’re going to eventually fix all of this

[@fallenangel9614]

One of my favorite things I love was the modifiers to the mission and the one where the power is out and it’s like so dark it make the missions feel so different

[@belsamethtaken4107]

I don't always agree, but here I agree fully. Good "write"up. That said, I fell so in love with the premium Zealot outfit you showed in your video that I went off and bought it right away, and now I'm gonna play some more. Like you with Destiny way back when, I love the feel ofd this game enough to make up for its shotcomings for now.

[@Ryan-uo1sv]

I saw the title and disagreed, but then I watched the intro and as a Destiny fan I completely understand. Fair play mate, hopefully the game gets the expansions it deserves

[@WhompingWalrus]

I have faith. Vermintide 2 was also busted as all hell on release. A year after it came out, huge talents - integral components of entire careers' builds - were either mislabeled or just outright didn't work. Fatshark is a hot mess, but lordy is she ever hot when she cleans up. They're still adding maps, careers, voice lines, weapons, entire game modes, and other such to the game to this day - much of it free - and they're *still* not done. The game came out nearly 5 years ago now.

[@snowstalker36]

Some good news about the Performance, the bottom end is solid. My PC is almost the exact Minimum specs (I have an SSD and more RAM, but otherwise as listed), and it runs the recommended Low settings fine. Sure, I can tell the experience has been scaled back, it would be nice to have better FPS and textures, but it still looks pretty good and it's stable. I only have a bit of chug as the big hordes spawn in, and sometimes the anti-aliasing can't keep up while fighting them, but that's rare and at all other times everything is solid. I get the feeling they focused on bottom end optimization first. The lack of story is just astounding. Dan Abnett is a great writer, while the Ciaphas Cain series is my favorite the rest of the top slots are all Dan Abnett. So they bring him in, and essentially all he ended up doing is writing the background of the enemies... that you don't really ever learn in the game anyway? The intro cinematic, with a clearly major character giving narration, is awesome! It really draws you in and shows a lot of the perils of the setting. The tutorial mission continues a lot of this. And then as soon as you're out of the Tutorial everything stops. You only find out that narrating lady's name and job from occasional in mission callouts, never actually comes up again. It's like they intended us to do the investigation to find the traitor, and then scrapped everything.

[@JRay80]

Gah. I'm sick of it, man. I've got thousands of hours in Destiny, and that experience has ruined me for this kind of thing. I'm just going to wait. Thank you, brother. Appreciate the heads-up.

[@EmergencyChannel]

Steam Deck 45fps is being very generous. As soon as enemies are on the screen, you're going to see a sub 30 framerate.

[@seangorby7468]

I understand all the complaints but I have to say that there is a pretty in depth item break down if you Inspect the weapon and hit the View Attack Breakdown. Still requires a little googling but it really helps once you know some of the terms.

[@vlodlukyanov7318]

Jesper Kyd was particularly amazing in the Handsome Jack's Casino DLC for Borderlands 3, Into the Junker is a precursor to so many of the songs in Darktide

[@caseymantle2097]

If you inspect a weapon you can hover over all the stats jargon and itll tell you what they do including the numbers, the tutorial also explains things like wounds in the psykanium but it is optional to do

[@richardsmith5803]

Those specific numbers and descriptions were not there at launch

[@streven1331]

​@@richardsmith5803 at the time of this video's release that feature has been in the game for weeks

[@Nnamz]

I find something underrated about your channel is how you actually spend an adequate amount of time talking about performance. Too many youtubers just gloss over it or don't care about performance at all - as if frame drops don't bother them. I'm so glad you're not like that. Stellar review as always. Gonna uninstall this and try it again next year.

[@ShapeshifterOS]

I've discovered, going through many videos, that the best way to upgrade is to buy anything in the armory that has a higher score. Doesn't matter if you use it or not. It's one of those systems like with New World where it bookmarks your best gear score. Grey weapons apparently have the best base stat for damage, should be prioritized and upgraded to better rarity. Don't always have to look for purples or golds.

[@leviathan630]

Play with GeForce 1040, Intel core I7 , 32gb of ram. Been running pretty smooth with 1080p medium to high settings (game still looks fantastic) without any of the big crashes maybe a disconnect every once in awhile so been having a great time grinding out materials and currencies to stock up for future content drops. Unfortunate people are having issues with better setups but overall not a bad experience at all. I would definitely recommend to pick up Darktide for 40$ as I think it's definitely worth it. But everyone has there own experiences and can only suggest things from those experiences.

[@b0lt_thr0wer15]

I have almost 200hours with this game and this review is 100% on point. If you want to experience the awesome bloody gameplay you can play now , but waiting to get a better experience overall is also advisable.

[@coleG112]

I wonder if the Xbox release will be like a soft relaunch. Add a bit more content, more refinement on how that content is presented, drastically improved performance, etc

[@b0lt_thr0wer15]

@@coleG112 I hope so because I have Xbox friends I want to play this with as well. I would love a better launch for it than what we got for PC.

[@DeusDracones]

Honestly, if you were engaged in Destiny throughout year 1, it was phenomenal. My biggest regret is not recording the journey to be able to write a video on why fans loved it so much

[@aronaugsburg2166]

Are you high? D1 Y1 was a shitfest. Leveling up weapons, farming helium for days, the only meaningful content being VOG and that thing was bugged as hell, nightfalls being so stupidly designed that you are forced to cheese them.

[@imalcohol5682]

I was surprised how well it worked on my pc. I have a low end pc when it comes to this game. AMd rx580 with a amd fx8350 and i could play it on low 1080 with 40-50 fps pretty constant.

[@shujima4429]

Hey man please keep us up to date on this game with maybe a review of the next DLC and let us know when it's worth jumping in. Thanks for the vid! Boss as usual, my friend!

[@soulshade1265]

This review is down to earth thank goodness some people are out here telling it as it is. Game has problems, and this shouldn't be hand waved over. When you ask for any amount of money from someone it should reflect the product you get at release not one you'll get in a year. $40 I'd expect at least the core functions to be there.

[@StinkyBuster]

Is it down to earth? Every aspect he describes as either absolutely terrible or amazingly superb

[@soulshade1265]

When I mean down to earth, he's telling it as is not just saying it's got the graphics and the gameplay, but also called out it's faults. Very few people who I've watched have only talked about how great it's graphics look and the gameplay is great(which yes is true), but they leave it at that. Ends up being a 11min long video talking about those two things

[@TheHeadincharge]

@@StinkyBusterHow does that in any way mean it’s not down to earth? Regardless, that seems like a bit of a comprehension issue as it definitely was not so extreme throughout the entire review.

[@StinkyBuster]

@@TheHeadincharge ok 👍

[@octagon8705]

I haven’t had an issue with Darktide since it released. The maps are nice. Cosmetics are expensive but I don’t care for them. Still having fun playing it on game pass.

[@azap1378]

Thank you for your honesty, I will definitely keep an eye on this one as it seems very similar to deep rock galactic in how it plays and I love that game to death, but yeah, my tolerance had gone way down for cash shop incentives and poor progression systems ever since the launch of overwatch 2

[@InchonDM]

Ralph, I'd like to note that while you did pick some good books to read, the one you really want for the Darktide experience in particular is actually the third Gaunt's Ghosts one, Necropolis, which comes right after. Necropolis is entirely set in a hive-city defending itself from a massive Chaos assault, the same kind of setting, Stalingrad on steroids, and it's a phenomenal read.

[@iDEATH]

Great review, wouldn't change a word. It's so unfinished, but so fun. Now, please excuse me, but I feel like playing some Darktide now.

[@CrisisKidd]

I’m surprised you didn’t bring up the penances/challenges that unlock cosmetics, it’s kinda cool even if it’s mostly grinding and some of the class ones require a lot of setup and a full party of 4

[@PeriqculosusCZ]

those are not cool they are bullshit annoying and impossible to do most of the time if you dont have full team that actually cooperates(and even then several of them are near impossible), I bet the only reason they made them so hard is so people buy cosmetics from the shop more often then not

[@ShaCaro]

Are those the challenges that require you to either fuck over your team, or have a super coordinated team?

[@grzegorzmarzec7834]

Glad someone with reach noticed the recolours. A great review mate

[@aashilr]

It should be noted that it took Fatshark around 2 years to bring Vermintide 2 from a broken, incomplete mess upon release, like Darktide is currently, to a fully fleshed-out & finished product with additional free content that was overall very well received by the community. To say this game will take at least 1 year to feel complete is a massive understatement, it will likely take close to 2 years before this game is anywhere near Vermintide 2 in its current form. I'd advise players who enjoy this sort of horde fighting, 1st person melee/ranged combat game to play Vermintide 2. The Chaos Wastes game mode is a really fun, very well executed rogue-lite game mode in Vermintide 2 - to see that game mode not being present in Darktide was expected by all my friends & we are all still very disappointed.

[@SSBB8000]

Absolutely nailed it. I personally believe they can solve 90% of their issues by 1) Adding another higher rarity level to items like in Vermintide 2 2) Making the ability to craft gear and create custom builds easier (I could see this being fixed with future crafting patches) 3) Making rewards for completing missions more consistent But like you said, I'm still not going to stop playing any time soon for the sole reason that purging heretics in a video game has never even came close to being this fun.

[@sgtspoon2313]

It should've been goid from the start. Don't accept trash. Fight for good games.

[@mofinebovine1597]

I would rather there was no item reward for completing a mission at all. The shop system is a better way to do things. Most of the items you would get as a mission reward are going to be junk that you'd just scrap or sell anyway. Just getting materials and money skips the scrapping/selling part and saves you a ton of busy work. The problem is that the shop is too stingy. It only ever has junk items in it. The shop is a replacement for loot drops, but its loot always sucks. they just need to put better items in the shop + sort out the crafting system and the item progression will feel a lot more rewarding.

[@mattyjay5163]

You are a master of your craft sir. One of the best reviewers out there. I remember how good it felt to play Destiny for the first time...those headshots felt sooo good.

[@NigelNorman23]

Great review as always! Oh man you should definitely play through Vermintide 2's campaign if you only played it for a couple of hours! Not played Darktide yet as I'll be waiting for the Xbox release but I'm sure you'd enjoy Vermintide 2 as well.

[@nathanlong4658]

I love how you test the game on different hardware! lets me know what it will actually run like for me

[@busdrivertedd983]

It reminds me of B4B a year ago. Really solid base for a great L4D successor, bogged down by issues such as balancing, technical and other issues and takes a year to truly meet the potential it has. B4B by now has reached it imo and I'm very excited to pick Darktide up down the line as it gets improved

[@motodrang4287]

Agreed, love it the same way we did Destiny. It is painful to see Fatshark take major steps backwards from v2. I have a laundry list of issues but one in particular baffles me, the hub world. It’s unnecessary, adds extensive load time, and there’s no way to change characters in the squad menu. The last one is a serious problem on high difficulty missions.

[@intruder313]

A big tip is to press V to Inspect items as that gives you more details and explanations, then head into The Meat Grinder to test it all out!

[@monkfishy6348]

All weapon perks and stats are explained by pressing V (Inspect) and then hovering over them, or perhaps pressing another button I don't recall exactly.

[@jamesodwyer4181]

I appreciate the little references to Gaunts Ghosts. I recently reread the series and every book is a page turner. Damn shame darktide doesn't shine in the story department. Maybe by the time I have a machine that can play it, it will be playable without disconnects etc

[@moewzers9136]

Same with the Destiny Alpha. It became my most played game, and still is, and the love for it I had started there.

[@sapphireshells9826]

146hrs on darktide an i love it so :P i didn't mind the functions not ready but its more like they are letting us play before stuff is ready just if we want to. up to anyone really if they wana play it but ive had fun alot of fun. i expect it to outdo vermintide 2. though its uh plot bits are abit stuffed but meh its needs work but yeah its up to you if you have some friends get them and play ull have a good time I've mostly played with Randoms and well they all be really good. been running it on a GTX 1080 turbo only had 1 crash. afew DCs then no DCs after awhile. Gameplay, Sound and atmospheric-ness are ACED.

[@MorriganJade]

For performance tips: Watch Digital Foundry's video where optimized settings are talked about: note, the INHERENT performance issues WON'T be fixed until Fatshark optimizes the game, but the performance you can SQUEEZE out of it with quality/performance ratio wise, is, however, the best option out there currently for settings :D

[@jacobvriesema6633]

For science, I have an RX6800 with a 5800X and 32GB RAM. Game plays at ~70-90FPS with most setting the on high or ultra at 1440p, with FSR Quality. Game looks and plays very well for me. I think I got lucky.

[@aracron]

IMO this is spot on. I really do enjoy the gameplay loop but that is just not enough. This is especially true due to the "all or nothing" progression system. As you said, if the game crashes at the end, which it did for me a number of times, I just completely wasted 20-30 minutes. Given my limited time for playing games, I just have to set this to the side and hope the game as a whole gets better over time.

[@thesongoflunch]

Spot on mate - not sure how your performance looks but with a 3080 I can just about manage high with RT off

[@aracron]

@@thesongoflunch I have a regular 2080 with an I9 9900K CPU. I am able to get fairly decent performance, but still have crashes.

[@youngthinker1]

150 hours in the game My best advice for new players is to learn the mechanics of combat. Map knowledge, understanding melee combos and dance, and the importance of communication trump better gear, especially after the speed runner mechanics added in after Vermintide. After that, it is weapon type, and playing into your class' special focus. Specific Advice: Range ambushes almost always occur in areas where there are at least one flanking path. The demon host, or witch, always spawns in an area where you can move around him. For some reason, your melee weapons will clip through walls, ceilings, and doors, which will allow you to kill enemies as they spawn in. The dodge, block, and strike dances will allow you to horde control better than any horde killing weapon. Just don't expect to kill said horde without said weapon or a teammate to pick up your slack. Only the mutant, ogryns, and monstrosities ignore pushes. So you can push a hound out of a leap. (I do believe pushes are still 360, or so. They are much larger then you think.) Highlighting specials only works for one special at a time. You have to audibly communicate some of the specials, if not all of them. Sometimes the characters will not call them out. Like on a hunting pack area, rarely did I hear the characters call out hounds when four hounds spawn and run at the team. You have two mechanics designed to keep the team together. Toughness, which regens quickly near teammates, and also lends to many of the perk boosts, and the speed runner mechanic. Basically, if you stray too far from your teammates, then the director will keep releasing hounds, till you all group back up together. On lower difficulties, this is may not even occur. On higher difficulties, it is worse then the hunting ground characteristic. (I wish we could test how many hounds will spawn on damnation, with hunting grounds, and triggering speed runners prevention. I know it is suppose to be less than 3, but I swear I have seen 5 hounds spawn in. They behave in an odd manner, with the hounds just giving up on you, to give you a chance to revive or help a teammate for a period of time.)

[@fireandsharpobjects]

I love how as soon as you said "I hate to bring up Destiny again" the feed cut to an ad. Lmao. I don't know if KZbin dunked on your Destiny love or whether Austin selected that moment, but it was hilarious.