Warhammer 40K eats people. I don't mean that it will consume your life, or that your home will be taken over by the countless models that you don't have time to paint. No, I mean the setting itself is fuelled on corpses - whether it's the soldiers of the Astra Militarum dying in crusades, the Administratum clerks toiling over documents, or the criminals forced into permanent sentence.
It’s a truth that Warhammer 40K: Darktide understands; whether it’s you or the Poxwalker you’re about to cleave in half, you’re both just meat in some god’s army. In a not-sodifferent life, that medicae servitor, tending to the wounded while encased in machinery, might have had your face instead. Plainly stated, it sucks to be a human – or an ogryn – in 40K. You probably told some sergeant you were tired of eating corpse starch, and now you’re here, a prisoner of the Inquisition, sent to liberate Hive Tertium with a shovel and some old lasgun, to burn your life at the altar of a mute god.
It’s easy to understand why playing as a Space Marine makes for a far better power fantasy, but just like Vermintide before it, Darktide is not about the most powerful characters in the setting. That’s not to say it doesn’t make you feel powerful, but it’s a kind of measured power. A handful of Space Marines could probably free Tertium by lunchtime, but alas, it’s up to you and your band of misfits to save the hive; or what’s left to be saved anyway.
SEA CHANGE
This story is from the February 2023 edition of PC Gamer.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2023 edition of PC Gamer.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
VIVE LA RESISTANCE!
Be the deadly dagger in Nazi-occupied France in CLASSIFIED: FRANCE '44
CUTTER STAID
OUTCAST A NEW BEGINNING rekindles the original game's epic scope
OLD WORLD BLUES
The beautiful HORIZON: FORBIDDEN WEST COMPLETE EDITION struggles to move on
OFF PUTTING
Lee Carvallo's PUTTING CHALLENGE 2: another great Simpsons fan game
ALMA MATER
Horror is a family affair in FEAR
ELDEN RING REBORN
A Scholar of the First Sin-style total conversion mod for Elden Ring.
EIYUDEN CHRONICLE: HUNDRED HEROES
Spiritual successor to Suikoden promises an grand adventure
JEDI REMASTER
DARK FORCES REMASTER is the classic Star Wars FPS upgrade you've been looking for
PAWN COCKTAIL
DRAGON'S DOGMA 2 is an exceptional and sometimes infuriating RPG
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE
Few online RPGs have transformed as much in the past decade as The Elder Scrolls Online. First debuting in April of 2014 as a confused, awkward thing, loved by few. Today, it proudly stands alongside its singleplayer peers. Here's how TESO escaped Oblivion's grasp and reconnected with Elder Scrolls fans.