HIVE TOURS
It’s a prime holiday destination – just ask Nurglethe most fundamental, perhaps, is
melee and ranged combat now
sharing the spotlight. Vermintide is a
first-person melee series with several
ranged options, but in Darktide it’s an
even split. Guns are extremely
common in 40K, but the tabletop
fights still frequently devolve into
close-quarters brawls; and this makes
even more sense within the confines
of a hive city. What you use depends
on the mission you’re on, as well as
the specific encounter, so character
builds are becoming more situational.
“Expanding the gameplay loop to
include a ranged component and
seeing how we can push that to
provide a better variety of gameplay
experiences also connects with the
loadout choices that you make both
personally and as a team,” says game
designer Mats Andersson. “You get to
play very targeted group setups, or
make one with a very wide variety
of different playstyles. If you look
at Vermintide II, you are more
pigeonholed than we want to make
this type of game. We want to provide
more options for you to approach the
same kind of content.”HIVE MINDS
Before they delve back into the
infested hive for another mission, the
squad can prepare for the challenge
with more granular customisation- it’s not just about picking the right
tools and accessories for the job.
Fatshark is also considering things
like talents for weapons, not just
characters, and generally more ways
to let you refine your character and
get that alluring progression buzz.
“As we’ve seen in Vermintide, players
really enjoy tweaking their loadouts,”
says creative director Anders De
Geer. “And since we have a lot of
great modders, they also want to
tweak individual weapons, talents
and other stuff. So we are working
with a system right now that will
allow players to have way more
freedom than they had in Vermintide
to customise their toolkit when they
go into a mission.”
This is something Fatshark’s
already been trying to do more in
Vermintide II – letting players have
more control over their rat-slaying
adventures, via everything from
rebalancing weapon choices to
introducing entirely new subclasses
as DLC. In Darktide, though, it
sounds like an even more targeted
approach is going to be cropping up
everywhere from the off.
You can’t make choices about
loadouts and talents without proper
intel, and that’s where the mission
map comes into play. This is the
evolution of Vermintide II’s rather
plain mission board and offers up a
selection of crises affecting the
various sectors of the gargantuan city.
The idea is that you’ll be able to see,
at a glance, just how intense the
mission will be and what modifiers
are affecting it, like acid rain or
blackouts. The city is constantly
changing, too, with missions
vanishing and maps you’ve already
explored getting a refresh thanks to
some fresh quirks.
“In Vermintide II, a lot of the
dynamism came from the conflict
director and how we spawned themedieval fantasy element amid the
gun-toting sci-fi, which means there’s
the potential for a lot more flexibility.
“We want to make it possible for
players to play in more ways,” says
Wahlund. “So we’re going to have
way more customisation than we had
in Vermintide. We work in a lot of
that, and you’ll see more varied
characters.” He stops short of actually
unveiling the full list of who exactly
we’ll be playing, unfortunately. The
Imperial guardsman is the only one
that’s been confirmed, though more
have been shown off in concept art
and trailers, including a huge ogryn.
Fatshark’s desire for variety has
manifested itself in several ways, and
4
SERVICE TUNNELS
Why not explore the guts of the
hive? Though the weather isn’t great- we’ll warn you, an umbrella doesn’t
protect you from acid rain.
5
PRISON
Don’t forget to be on your best
behaviour. The Imperium isn’t delicate
when it comes to upholding the law.
Hence all the blood stains.1
HABZONES
The hive’s billions live in the
habzones, where you might even find
some survivors holding out against the
tide of Nurgle’s abominations.2
WALKWAYS
If you want an idea of the scale of
the hive, why not visit one of our gothic,
picturesque bridges and walkways.
Don’t look down.3
MARKET
Come to the underground water market to admire the uplifting graffiti and
cheery atmosphere. It’s probably even nicer now that Nurgle’s moved in.MAIN: We haven’t
seen any yet, but
apparently there will
occasionally be NPCs
in the streets.Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
COVER FEATURE