As some of you know, there were a couple of L4D-influenced games, like Killing Floor, Dead Island and Yakuza: Dead Souls for some reason.
One of these, Warhammer: Vermintide, developed by swedes in FatShark, flew under radar for a long time, until their second Vermintide game, where, with much pain, they finally brought out the product that is a highly addicting PvE coop shooter\slasher. Just like in games of old, there were certain mechanics you could abuse to become invincible, but instead of bunnyhope, there were enemy positioning mechanics and evasive dodge. It led me to put in hundreds of hours, and due to the PvE nature I rarely had any toxicity as a newby and learnt to care about other gamers as we as a squad were moving through the map to the common goal. I won’t say about outstanding voice acting, character writing and stuff, there are a lot of things to love besides the gameplay, but the gameplay is the core to why I liked it.
BUT
FatShark decided to get EasyAnticheat there, and with their setup it completely prevents any online gaming from Linux unless you are a host - you get kicked out from other’s games every other minute. Hosting games means waiting for others to connect or playing with bots, so it means they slashed a game in half for those not indulging into the windowsphere.
After leaving Windows for good, I had this one reason to be sad - that my favorite game is no longer playable in full. But later they shipped another one of their games.
Enter the Darktide.
This one does have anticheat, but it works right with Linux, and it presents another spin on the same formula.
When Vermintide was mostly melee based, and ranged enemies felt like cheaters, there nearly every threat has a gun like it’s the US. It’s narrative is based around being a random escapee from a prison camp slowly going up the hierarchy of faschist Inquisition, and every quote and every loading screen title reminds you that you are a disposable resource.
And it’s gameplay, while in moba fashion depends on individual skills and equipment, still has this L4D breaking points: this games shoots hundreds of heretics onto you, and your positioning and clever timing is the only way to survive. Unless special enemies, that can disable you or deny area, would arrive. Unless someone from your team walks off and go solo only to die.
Skip the antifascist messaging, skip the cooperation implied there, this game has a hard and vulgar core of purely kinetic violence. Since the first game, they made sure, that your melee attacks feel like you are swinging the blade youself, and coming to Darktide, they worked on making the same for the guns that making the show there. Shooting there from various guns feels like in Doom 2016, and that’s very enjoyable too.
I joined this hype train long after release, but I’m joyful to find a game that scratches me in all the right places without kicking me, and the one that shows real progress over what I’ve seen and got addicted to before.
Fatshark has a bad habit of half-baked releases that take a year or more to get right. When they finally do, they leave it that way for a bit and then swing back around and completely change everything again even if we liked it. They just keep doing this shit.
I will not be buying Fatshark games until at least 2 years after release at this point.
You are right from a consumer standpoint and it also perfectly fits the sub we are in, heh.
I think that I’m of another type of gamer, maybe, and I in general learnt to enjoy that more than just good products, especially because of resulting comedy, drama and user content. Ranald’s middle finger, huntsman Kruber brushing the map off with a weapon turned into a minigun, never working host migration after someone ragequits, troll-healing Saltzpyre, accidentially throwing the grimoire for the first time, surprise patrols from the thin air… I don’t think I could’ve played that much time if not for these additional shenanigans and laughs after I stopped to care. And FatShark’s role there, with their overly ambitious early roadmap, hilarious miscommunications and\or absence, seemingly random decisions before they patch it right - that too played a role there and causes user engagement whatever they want it or not. It feels like your local punk gig: raw, honest, and only a drummer they share between all bands really knows how to play shit. Going into Darktide, I don’t have a community anymore 'cause fuck reddit, but dying to numerous bugs, watching all your bad decisions unfold in real time, and seeing teammates mistakingly shooting our Ogrin instead of enemy Ogrins is an on-brand fun of their games, and I’m all for it.
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A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it’s price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don’t meet the system requirements, or just haven’t had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
Fatshark has a bad habit of half-baked releases that take a year or more to get right. When they finally do, they leave it that way for a bit and then swing back around and completely change everything again even if we liked it. They just keep doing this shit.
I will not be buying Fatshark games until at least 2 years after release at this point.
You are right from a consumer standpoint and it also perfectly fits the sub we are in, heh.
I think that I’m of another type of gamer, maybe, and I in general learnt to enjoy that more than just good products, especially because of resulting comedy, drama and user content. Ranald’s middle finger, huntsman Kruber brushing the map off with a weapon turned into a minigun, never working host migration after someone ragequits, troll-healing Saltzpyre, accidentially throwing the grimoire for the first time, surprise patrols from the thin air… I don’t think I could’ve played that much time if not for these additional shenanigans and laughs after I stopped to care. And FatShark’s role there, with their overly ambitious early roadmap, hilarious miscommunications and\or absence, seemingly random decisions before they patch it right - that too played a role there and causes user engagement whatever they want it or not. It feels like your local punk gig: raw, honest, and only a drummer they share between all bands really knows how to play shit. Going into Darktide, I don’t have a community anymore 'cause fuck reddit, but dying to numerous bugs, watching all your bad decisions unfold in real time, and seeing teammates mistakingly shooting our Ogrin instead of enemy Ogrins is an on-brand fun of their games, and I’m all for it.