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.
Awful tanky controls (understandable) didn’t stop me from getting 100% genitals shots in some of it’s missions. Local deathmatch was kinda better because both of you struggled with them. 7\10 for me as a kid, but if I’d play it now as it was back then, I’d quickly drop it in favor of something with a third person perspective. It wasn’t just there yet, and devs did the best they could.
Wait, W H A T?
I think that you can hear, wherever you are, how my heart skipped a couple of beats and then how my PC roared with all it’s fans at a forced redownload of the beloved game.
P.S. Their sound design is always stellar. I already sneaked a couple of VTs pieces into my projects, hehe, and there they fit the new universe perfectly too. With all respects to Mick Gordon, the Witcher 3 of soundtrack composers, I can’t remember any new Doom tracks (besides BFG?) like I do old ExMx tracks, and like I do the melody of failure in VT2 that was put in one of it’s trailers.