Warhammer 40,000: Darktide revealed by Fatshark on Xbox Series X Game Showcase

If you want more co-op PVE fun set in the Warhammer universe, you're in luck. Vermintide Developer Fatshark is venturing into the far future for Warhammer 40K: Darktide.

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Fatshark has been hugely successful in adapting the vast Warhammer franchise into a Left 4 Dead-style PVE co-op game when it came to Warhammer: Vermintide, and there’s no reason to stop now. It would seem that for their next approach, Fatshark is venturing to Warhammer’s futuristic end with new title Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and it’s going to be coming exclusively to Xbox Series X and Steam to start off.

Fatshark revealed the first trailer for  Warhammer 40,000: Darktide during the Xbox Series X Games Showcase on July 23, 2020. Much like the Vermintide games, it would appear that we can expect more PVE co-op gameplay with multiple classes set in various scenarios. Though the Warhammer: Vermintide games featured elves, dwarves, and various human classes, Darktide's trailer exclusively showed Imperium Space Marines. It also appeared we’d be coming up against swarms of zombie-like creatures. You can check out the premiere trailer just below.

Whatever Darktide turns out to be, Fatshark has certainly won our attention with its previous offerings to the Warhammer universe. Warhammer: Vermintide and Vermintide 2 in particular have been fantastic takes on PVE co-op gaming style. Being able to join up with other players and engage against the forces of the Chaos Warriors, Skaven, and Beastmen has been a continuous parade of fun. It was good enough to get Vermintide 2 a solid 8 out of 10 in our Shacknews review and continued to supply the fun through multiple DLC after the fact.

Warhammer 40K: Darktide only had cinematics for us this time around, but given what Fatshark has done with the franchise before, we have every reason to believe we can expect good things when Darktide comes to Xbox Series X and Steam in 2021. Miss any of the Xbox Series X presentation of which Darktide was a part? Be sure to check out our full recap of announcements and reveals from the Xbox Series X Game Showcase.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

From The Chatty
    • reply
      July 23, 2020 2:13 PM

      Please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck

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        July 23, 2020 4:20 PM

        Spoiler: It's gonna suck

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          July 23, 2020 4:30 PM

          Hey now, Vermintide's a ton of fun!

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            July 23, 2020 4:34 PM

            Fair enough. I'm going more by the tradition that 99% of the 417 Warhammer 40K games released each year suck.

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              July 23, 2020 5:26 PM

              Vermintide dev + game that looks like a 40K version of Vermintide or GTFO.

              Probably a high chance of being good.

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              July 24, 2020 3:56 PM

              I want a kick ass 40K FPS so bad, a fucking winner for once. Space Hulk Deathwing was just alright. Darktide trailer gives me similar vibes but with a Vermintide attitude, I'll give it a shot.

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          July 23, 2020 4:34 PM

          Have you played Vermintide?

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          July 23, 2020 5:20 PM

          Vermintide rules

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        July 24, 2020 1:59 AM

        Fatshark are legit. This is going to be Left 4 Dead in 40k, with more to the melee combat. It will 100% nail the lore and atmosphere.
        Going to be great.

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          July 28, 2020 11:43 AM

          They're alright I guess, Vermintide and Vermintide 2 are great but their support is... Well, special. I guess they're too small a team to properly support and create additional content to their games.

          Well, we'll see!

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            July 28, 2020 1:26 PM

            Digging up an old thread here! haha

            I don't know, I've felt both games have been very well supported with additional content. I mean I've got 162 hours in Vermintide 1 and 171 hours in Vermintide 2. And I'm likely not finished with Vermintide 2.

            I didn't care for the separate progress paths for Winds of Magic, but I've always enjoyed the extra missions they put out and I still get a lot of value just playing the original missions.

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              July 28, 2020 1:37 PM

              Didn't take the time to answer you back back then, sorry!

              And kinda samey, I wish I liked the Winds of Magic thingy more but it wasn't that well thought out ; I'm curious to see what their next Chaos DLC will be, which they hinted at after that WH40k announcement!

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      July 23, 2020 3:30 PM

      I seriously hope they have dedicated servers for this, third time's the charm, right?

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        July 23, 2020 5:26 PM

        Or at least host migration that doesn't reset the map & rewards.

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      July 23, 2020 5:36 PM

      I'm interested in seeing that game play in the 40000 k universe.

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      July 23, 2020 7:35 PM

      Second faction: genestealer cult probably?

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        July 23, 2020 7:41 PM

        I hope so. Or just have Genestealers be among the various baddies you fight in one general faction

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          July 23, 2020 8:02 PM

          Tbh I'd prefer that they're at least somewhat separate, so you can have enemy variety by map/mission, as in vermintide 2 with the chaos and skaven.

          Haven't played it since the beastmen expansion came out, but yea hoping for separate factions.

          That said, if it has to be only one, having a genestealer cult that also has weird tzeench connections might be cool.

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      July 23, 2020 7:48 PM

      [deleted]

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      July 23, 2020 8:27 PM

      From the trailer, you play as a puny Imperial Guard, right? It'll be interesting to see how they balance the gameplay.

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        July 23, 2020 8:50 PM

        There's a lot of questions around that. There's a lot of different things they could do. I do hope that they keep the distinct character elements that made vermintide so interesting. Even if they're all just Guardsmen.

        But my dream here would basically be that you end up with distinct classes with their own weapon. You would have a Space Marine, a guardsman, sister of battle, a psyker, mechanicus Tech priest. There are so many options that would make for really cool combinations

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        July 23, 2020 8:51 PM

        Steam page says you're a group of Inquisitors. Given Vermintide I wouldn't be surprised if they have a set of 4-6 classes to choose from from that faction.

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          July 24, 2020 3:01 AM

          I think you're part of an Inquisitors retinue which gives them good scope to almost use anyone even non human races if they wish.

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        July 24, 2020 2:02 AM

        As they only showed guardsmen and not much in terms of facial details for them, I'm wondering if they might do a character creator or something?

        It would be a shame to lose the personality that they did so well in Vermintide though, so I hope we get some good distinct characters.

        Saltspyre is basically an inquisitor anyway so he can just come right across

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