Every so often, a game launches with sky-high expectations and a massive fanbase, only for its wings to bug out and send the whole thing crashing to the ground. Think No Man's Sky or Cyberpunk - games that had everything going for them... except an actually finished product.

In late 2022, Darktide was supposed to be the next evolution of Vermintide 2's phenomenal co-op formula. We're talking tighter combat, deeper customization, bigger levels, and all the juicy Warhammer 40k flavored grimdark you could possibly want. But what we got... was a mess.

So what happened to Darktide? And how did it claw its way back into the light?

Video version of this retrospective (~13 minutes)

What happened?

While we'll likely never get the full story, the answer to that big "what happened" question can be boiled down to one word: pandemic. According to datamining from early in Darktide's life, and a few scattered interviews over the years, it seems that Darktide was originally meant to be far more ambitious. However, with the pandemic throwing everything into disarray, a lot of stuff - like the extensive weapon customization system - ended up getting cut in order to make sure Darktide hits that all-important 2022 holiday launch window. That... was a mistake.

Darktide launched in November 2022 alongside more bugs and maladies that your average Nurgle cultist. The game crashed constantly. The servers crashed constantly. The performance was a rollercoaster. The class balance was a joke. The enemy balance? Also a joke. And to top it all off, the weapon crafting system was about as reliable as a roulette wheel in a tumble dryer. But hey, at least the cash shop worked flawlessly!

And yet, despite all of that, the core gameplay was so damn fun that I found it hard to pull myself away. No matter how many crashes I endured or missions I lost progress on, I kept coming back - because even at its worst, Darktide was still something special.

To this day, I haven’t found another game that gives me the kind of exhilarating stress as Darktide at its highest difficulty. It's that razor thin margin between glorious victory and complete catastrophe that makes it so incredibly addictive. And so I stuck with it - and I’m incredibly glad I did.

I became very familiar with the out-of-bounds world in those early days

The road to redemption

The first step on the road to redemption came in January 2023, when Fatshark's CEO released a formal apology and promised to put everything on hold to focus on fixing the game over the next few months. That time frame turned out to be... wildly optimistic, but the fact that the usually secretive Fatshark had broken radio silence and was actively engaging with the community gave people hope that maybe, just maybe, this whole mess could be resolved.

We didn’t have to wait long for the first update. In February 2023, Patch #4 - Blessings of the Omnissiah launched with a couple of much-requested additions. Most notably, loadouts were finally added, and the weapon crafting system received its first of many major overhaul. You could now buy blank weapons from the armory to (hopefully) get a solid base to start crafting with, and you could extract blessings from your gear to slap onto other weapons.

It was a big help... but also kind of like going from being covered in lava to merely being on fire. The crafting was still, quite frankly, a mess as you had layers upon layers of RNG to wade through before you got something usable. First, you had to buy random items until one finally rolled a high enough level with the right stat spread. Then you'd have to enchant that weapon and hope it rolled the right perks & blessings. Only then could you actually start fine-tuning your build. And if at any point in the process you got unlucky, the weapon would frequently end up bricked and fit only to serve as a very expensive doorstop.

We used to have to destroy weapons to get blessings!

I played religiously during this period, and the only thing that kept me sane was the auto-reroll mod that, bless its creator, automated just enough of the mind-numbing tedium to make crafting bearable.

The next big update landed in May 2023. Patch #10 - Rejects Unite brought with it two of my all-time favorite maps, Archivum Sycorax and Ascension Riser 31, alongside the Chaos Spawn boss that was teased way back before launch. On top of that, every class also got a bundle of free cosmetics! They weren't much but, hey, they were free!

While the previous update was a bit shaky, Patch #10 landed with a bang and felt like a proper, meaty update you could really sink your teeth into. And best of all, by this point most of the technical problems had been ironed out. And so, for the first time since launch, it genuinely felt like Darktide was on the verge of a big comeback.

Archivum Sycorax is such a phenomenal map!

The turning point

That momentum carried into August 2023 with Patch #12 - Into the Maelstrom. Once again, the crafting system got reworked, and this time around it was like going from being on fire to being doused with water. You were still limited in the number of things you could change, but the crushing randomness was finally toned down. As long as you had a decent base weapon, you were almost guaranteed to get a decent weapon out of it - and that really helped players branch out into all sorts of new builds.

A good thing too, because Patch #12 also massively expanded the endgame. It introduced an entirely new set of high-difficulty Auric-tier missions, as well as an even tougher category of Maelstrom missions that always came stacked with crazy modifiers. This was a phenomenal addition, and it really felt like everything had finally clicked into place. I poured hundreds of hours into Darktide during this period, exploring all sorts of different classes and playstyles, and so I consider Patch #12 to be the definitive turning point - the moment where Darktide went from a cautionary tale to a genuine comeback story.

The comeback

In October 2023, things got even better thanks to Patch #13 - Class Overhaul. This might honestly be the single most important update Darktide has ever seen. Not only did it mark the long-awaited launch of the Xbox version, but it also reworked every single class and rebalanced every single enemy. It was kind of insane!

Instead of an overly simplistic talent tree with only a handful of choices, each class got a sprawling forest full of powerful options that could radically reshape how it played. In essence, this update tripled the number of playable classes as each branch of the talent tree focused on a different fantasy, offered different abilities and encouraged completely different strategies. And with the enemy rework making combat feel far more consistent and fair, this update shot Darktide way up my list of best games ever made.

The old 'builds' offered hardly any choice. The new ones were astonishingly good!

After Patch #13 things quieted down a bit. Fatshark shifted their focus towards polishing the Xbox version, as well as working on the PlayStation port. It wouldn't be until September 2024 that the next major patch would land. But let me tell you - it was absolutely worth the wait!

Unlocked and Loaded, the first patch that dropped the traditional naming scheme, finally tackled Darktide's longest-running and most frustrating problem - the crafting system. And for once, I don't need a snappy analogy because it just worked, and it worked well!

There was no RNG. No gambling. No tedious rerolling. You could literally pick and choose the exact perks and blessings you wanted. The catch? You had to play a couple of rounds with each weapon in order to unlock the top-tier blessings, though even that could be skipped if you were willing to spend a bit of in-game currency.

And so, for the first time in Darktide's history, there was nothing standing between you and whatever wild build idea popped into your head. If you wanted to go full meme or try something totally off-meta, you could have it up and running in minutes. And personally? I absolutely thrived during this era!

Many Chaos Spawn were 'bonked' during those days. Good memories!

Going from strength to strength

Not content to simply rest on their laurels, Fatshark dropped another heavy-hitter in December 2024 with Grim Protocols. This patch introduced Dark Communion, another all-star map, a fresh batch of weapons, and a brand-new endgame mode designed specifically for the most hardened players - Havoc. To call these missions brutal would be putting it lightly. At the highest difficulty, the AI director starts roleplaying a Commissar and shows no mercy and gives no respite. If your team isn't operating like a well oiled machine, even a single mistake can doom the entire run. So naturally, I've been absolutely obsessed with Havoc missions ever since. There's simply nothing else out there that delivers this kind of an intense co-op experience!

And just after I thought Fatshark might ease off the gas a bit, they surprised everyone once again with Nightmares & Visions in March 2025. This time, instead of catering to the hardcore crowd, they leaned hard into power fantasy with the roguelike-inspired Mortis Trials mode.

In the Mortis Trials, you face increasingly stronger waves of enemies while unlocking new abilities that will send your power level soaring far beyond what's possible in the main game. It's chaotic, over-the-top and a whole lot of fun. While it's not something I play every single day, it's definitely a nice addition and one that really rounded out Darktide's game modes.

Closing thoughts

And with that, we arrive at the present day - right on the eve of Darktide's very first new class - the Adeptus Arbites and their loyal cyber-mastiff. It's a massive milestone, and one that genuinely feels earned.

Because looking back, it's kind of incredibly how far Darktide has come. What launched as a barely functioning mess of half-finished systems has, over the past couple of years, transformed itself into one of the best co-op shooters ever made - and that is not an exaggeration! A proper redemption arc, and one that wouldn't feel out of place in any Warhammer 40k story.

So whether you bounced off Darktide during its rough early days or just never checked it out to begin with, I'd say now is a fantastic time to jump in. The combat is tight. The builds are flexible. The difficulty curve is brutal yet never unfair. And best of all, the Emperor-forsaken crafting system has finally been purged and replaced with one that actually works. It might not be perfect, but it's definitely worth playing!