Today's Warhammer 40K: Darktide update overhauls the hated crafting and progression

Warhammer 40k: Darktide seemed like a recipe for certain success when it launched late last year. Developers Fatshark were taking the formula established in their co-op horde shooters Vermintide, throwing in some beefy melee, and moving it over to the 40k universe. Fans were less than happy with the end result, pointing toward technical issues, randomness in the endgame, and a lack of crafting systems, which Fatshark are hoping to fix in today’s update.

Patch #4 Blessings Of The Omnissiah is looking to tackle Darktide’s messy loot problems, starting with a new tab at The Armoury Exchange called Brunt’s Armoury that allows players to buy a specific weapon, rather than waiting for the item shop to refresh with a random selection. Random access to shop items seems like an absurd, but surefire way to limit player’s build options - likely in an attempt to pad playtime. Now, you can buy any common weapon that your character has unlocked and simply upgrade it.

Weekly challenges are also becoming less time-consuming with better rewards attached to them, and players can save up to five loadouts with Wargear Sets. There are plenty of other changes coming to the game and they’re detailed fully in the patch notes.

RPS’s Darktide review had four of our writers give the game a pat down. Despite acknowledging the odd progression problems, they found it to be a “grand old time creeping through towering Gothic factories and bursting heretics with your pals.” Darktide’s situation has only gotten more grim since launch, as the team paused new content and delayed the Xbox version until they can address the “mostly negative” feedback.

AliceO shared her thoughts on Darktide’s attempted gear overhaul, calling the grind “a manifestation of a terrible desire some modern multiplayer games have: to monopolise your gaming time.” Her opinion is that an overhaul won't help much, and the crafting should just be taken out all together. I’m not a Darktide guy, but I am a fan of many run-n-gunners that get progression right. Deep Rock Galactic, for example, has plenty of customisation options, allowing you to mod weapons beyond simply turning numbers into even bigger numbers. We’ll see if Patch #4 is enough to quell the game’s Mixed reception on Steam, or it’s just a temporary bandage.