Of course, much of all this is true of Vermintide, too. On the class side, The Psyker was able to destroy the minds of far away enemies in glorious fashion with their space magic, but seemed to be the character in most need of ally support in close combat. In my co-op session, another player was armed with an Autogun assault rifle, which while technically ranged seemed better suited to mowing down enemies who were inches away. That divide between long and close range is likely to feel quite different based on which character or equipment you use, though. In the Veteran’s case, that meant swinging around a chainsword and cutting things into wet, sloppy chunks. I really like how Darktide forced me into a different routine when the enemies got in my face.

In Left 4 Dead guns are useful at pretty much any distance, which makes for gameplay that’s similar regardless of range. Just like in the tabletop game, being up close felt like I’d transitioned into a different combat phase, with its own rules and methods.

As a Veteran you can thin out those gangs of gun-wielding foes in order to allow more melee-focussed allies to get into range.īut that lasrifle felt next to useless at close-range, where its single-shot nature meant it was just too slow and unwieldy to deal with the colossal hordes of zombie-like Poxwalkers that flooded the corridors. This is particularly useful against the numerous pockets of ranged enemies you come across, as actually advancing while under fire feels incredibly difficult. Armed with the aforementioned lasrifle, I was able to snipe targets over much longer ranges than I’d ever do with Vermintide’s bows and flintlocks. The mission was a constant push and pull between intense ranged volleys and gory hand-to-hand battles.īecause I wanted to see how much of a role guns would play in Darktide, I played as the Veteran, who Fatshark told me was the most ranged/close hybrid of the four roles available. While Darktide definitely has a lot more shooting than Vermintide, it’s not abandoned the melee brawls that are important to both its fantasy predecessor and Warhammer in general. But perhaps my favourite thing about my short time with Darktide is how it captures the shooting and fight phases of the tabletop game.

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