From the long-awaitedPerfect Darkfollow-upto Striking Distance Studio’s new sci-fi horror IPThe Callisto Protocol,The Game Awards brought with it some substantial new announcements for video game enthusiasts. Included in those new reveals was a fresh trailer forWarhammer 40,000: Darktide,offering a short but significant chunk of gameplay from the upcoming cooperative experience set in the iconic tabletop universe.
Clocking in at just under two minutes long, the new footage makes it plenty clear thatDarktide’sdeveloper, FatShark, has no intention of shifting away from the high-octane,Left-4-Dead-inspired carnage it wielded in its prior work onWarhammer: Vermintide.Taking control of four members of the Imperial Guard, players will have to navigate through the grimy underworld of the game’s bleak futuristic setting, gunning, slashing, and smashing their way through overwhelming hordes of grotesque enemies.
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The general gameplay ofDarktidelooks to be just as brutal asVermintide,with players slaughtering zombified foes by cleaving off heads, blowing them apart with firearms, and eviscerating them with explosives. There appears to also be four classes featured, with each character appearing to wield different types of weapons and have exclusive abilities. Although it’s not immediately clear what specifically separates each hero just yet, one predominately uses a hammer throughout the trailer, while another clearly represents the heavy class, with his giant stature and weightier weapons diversifying him as a powerhouse.
For those who haven’t been following FatShark’s newest game up until now, it follows a squadron of four Imperial Guards tasked with investigating an eerie cult looking to overtake the planet of Atoma Prime. Arriving at the hive city of Tertium, the squad are soon plunged into a war with the faction, forcing them to take up arms and go head to head with their horrifying foes. UnlikeVermintide, Darktidewill take place in theWarhammer 40Kera, meaning it’s set in a dark and twisted dystopian future and will trade in the more melee-focused weaponry of its predecessor for firearms.
The game is currently slated to be an Xbox Series X console exclusive and will ship next year. It will have competition though, withBack 4 Blood- the new cooperative zombie-focused shooter from the studio behindLeft 4 Dead- also primed to drop next June. Nonetheless,Warhammer 40,000: Darktideis shaping up to be one of Microsoft’s biggest shooters of the coming year, enhancingVermintide’sseminal gameplay with firearms, onslaughts of creepy foes, and the dark, twisted far-flung futuristic world ofWarhammer 40,000.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktidewill be available on Xbox Series X and PC next year.
