Darktide in Warhammer 40,000: Should Have Featured You As The Enemy<br>

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide wears its ceramite shoulder pad, inspired by Left 4 Dead, with pride. If you thought Valve’s cooperative shooter Vermintide was just a Warhammer-branded version of a game about fighting waves of Skaven, then Games Workshop’s science-fiction reskin went things a bit farther.

The zombies are primarily to blame for this. Despite being Poxwalkers and diseased Nurgle cultists in theory, many of Darktide’s adversaries behave and look like zombies. Even while you get a rush of adrenaline whenever you see a Plague Ogryn or Beast of Nurgle, fighting hordes of the monsters might get a bit monotonous. But what if you played as a zombie rather than shooting endless zombies?


The stage is set: your heroes are four Chaos champions, each of whom stands in for a cursed god. Although it’s good to see a variety of Imperium perspectives in the current class lineup, the Chaos worshippers would offer a ton of more thrilling gameplay options. Your offensive close-combat monster would be Khorne. Your tank would be Nurgle. Your spellcaster is Tzeentch (which Fatshark could really use to push the boat out), and your glass cannon and agile movement character is Slaanesh. Although I would really miss the Ogryn, I’m prepared to make the trade-off for a squad that is more interesting and diverse.

You might play multiplayer as an infected in Left 4 Dead 2. Pay attention, Fatshark.

Improvements? You can offer your currencies to your preferred God instead of using them to purchase somewhat more powerful weapons. Perhaps Tzeentch will provide you a staff that can transfer a large number of opponents across the map, or perhaps Khorne will reward you with a sharper Chainaxe.

Speaking of adversaries, how are you taking the place of the swarm of Nurgle cultists under your feet? We are not attempting to defend, but rather to conquer the Hive City of Tertium on Atoma Prime. Naturally, the game’s missions would need to be slightly altered, with the more reactive missions being replaced by goals like controlling planetary defense emplacements or passing through important outposts.

Guardsmen are the ideal cannon fodder for the enemy. Though I believe Games Workshop will want troops that have identical models in its tabletop game to be represented, it would also be cool to have a unique, and even weaker, planetary defense force as portrayed in Warhammer novels like the Eisenhorn series.


The only issue with this is that it makes Darktide a far more violent game. Even if you play as the Veteran, it is currently heavily weighted toward melee combat by design, and I doubt Fatshark would want to deviate from that. A option would be to populate Tertium with Hive City Gangers a la Necromunda, but since they lack a 40K force, they are likely to be vetoed along with the planetary defense force. Adding Tyranids or Orks as the opposing race would provide you with a lot of model counterparts for cannon fodder, but Orks are too tough, and both would significantly alter the game’s environment and missions. Tyranids would conquer a city, destroy it, and then move on. Besides, Space Marine 2 provides for them.

Catachans, the hated Astra Militarum regiment with a specialization in jungle warfare, might hold the key. Their machete-based fighting style would be effective for Darktide, judging from Arnie in Predator, but there are still problems. Would the Catachans be stationed on Catachan or some other rainforest planet with a Hive City? Would the enemies be sufficiently varied? In the present period, would Games Workshop be interested in revisiting the range that was modeled loosely on US troops in the Vietnam War?



The solution might be to start a civil war in Chaos and include adversaries of all gods in the same proportion that your team has representatives of each. It’s possible that a stronger force is at work or that Horus’ spirit has reached out to you with a unique mission to bring the Gods together. I’m not sure. I want to be the evil guys in a contemporary Warhammer game, that’s all. Yes, I am aware that the Imperium is far from a model of respectability, but they still make great posters and are frequently depicted in a positive way. Darktide is aware of how horrible the Imperium is, but it would be ideal if we could also adore Chaos.