Warhammer 40,000 Darktide Arbites Review
For those the Emperor finds worthy, he sends his angels—but unfortunately for us, we are heretics bound for redemption one skirmish at a time. Hard times bring people together despite which world we come from. Lean on your comrades and push back followers of Horus and purge any evil that dares confront us!
If you are already a fan of Vermintide, then this will be a natural progression to the 40K version. While stomping on Skaven is fun, purging the heretic can also feel rewarding. Instead of investing time in a specific character, Darktide Arbites allows you to create your own avatar from the beginning. You choose your origin story, class, voice/personality, and the events that shaped your destiny leading up to our imprisonment.
The prisoner transport that was carrying us to death was intercepted by Chaos’ minions. Where we were once distrusted, now we are the only hope of survival. Once we prove ourselves worthy of a second chance, we are offered a place in the resistance against Chaos. Our mission is to serve the Inquisition in the dark corners of the Imperium cities and hives. We are warriors!
Darktide Arbites operates how I imagined a modern 40K MMO would. You earn in-game currency and can spend it on skins and improve your loadout. You earn experience from your missions and can advance your career along multiple skill trees. If you get bored with your current operative, you are free to switch out to another. This is certainly a title that is not intended for you to battle Chaos alone, and it is not hard to find a party.
When we enter the mission, we see the world in first person. I kept thinking about Vermintide but with lasers. We can quickly swap between melee and ranged weapons. Sprinting and attacks drain your stamina. Depending on your class, you can also activate a special ability. Enemies vary, but the typical one-hit mobs come in the dozens. You can’t help but feel powerful when you are mowing them down. Even in the tutorial, you can smack the grunts around with a shovel.
Arbites, the newest class, enters the scene clad in armor that made me think of Robocop. Great thing too—because we are bringers of justice. The Arbites have their own skill tree, specialization in shorter-range weapons, and a canine companion. My impression is that this class can act as an effective crowd controller when equipped with a tower shield and mace (the shotgun is pretty badass too). The Cyber-Mastiff is an effective support unit that complements this style of gameplay like an auxiliary. I don’t think I would recommend an entire squad of Arbites, but I think it’s an interesting addition to the squad dynamic. The theme I hear over and over is to play your way, so maybe there are various takes on Arbites.
I wanted to mention that the frame rate was quite good, and the game looked great while running. Lately I have been having issues with my graphics card, but it was not a problem here. I remember being prompted about a setting that would actually reduce frame rate dropping, either optimizing graphics or gameplay.
While I don’t have anything negative to say about this title, I would only comment that it feels somewhat typical of a cooperative shooter. I did not feel that I was missing a lot of things that could be served up by Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, GTFO, or even Vermintide itself. I feel more drawn to the zeal of the Inquisition and being surrounded by characters that speak in CAPS LOCK.
Onto some closing notes, the soundtrack is good and much appreciated as a 40K fan. I felt engaged and immersed in how I imagined Imperial hives to look. I personally like RPGs that give our characters their own voice. The game is advertised as playing your character your way, and you do get that. I sense there can be more, but for now I will need to keep an eye out in dev announcements. I think a fair score for this title is an 8.5 out of 10.
Warhammer 40,000 Darktide Arbites is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by John Pruitt
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
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