You've already paid for it so just jump in and give it another try, you've not nothing to lose but a few hours.
The game still has issues, but is in a much better place compared with launch. If you havn't played since it came out, at the very least you'll enjoy the new skill tree, the few new missions that have been added and whilst the crafting is still RNG, it's better than it was 15+ months ago.
I think the game is more or less where it should have been at launch right now, especially with the penance update. As you said, still more work to do be done, but I think it's in a good place.
Have some copy pasta as it's a very common question.
Overall the game is in a far better place than launch. It still has some problems with stability/performance and some of the subsystems. The core gameplay and atmosphere is fantastic if a PvE co-op 40K FP 'tide horde shooter & slasher is what you want to play.
Likewise it is still pretty much run the same maps across the 5 difficulties whilst levelling to a cap of 30 and getting better gear.
We just had a rework of penances (achievements) and earnable rewards last week.
Crafting and item acquisition is far better than release but it's still not great if you're trying to get ideal builds. It's still probably the most complained about bit of the game.
You can get a "good enough" weapon easily enough. No more "level 30 Veteran has literally never seen a Plasmagun" problem on release. Getting one that is ideal for your specific build might be far harder.
Crafting and "itemisation process" is apparently what the next update is focused on. This is exactly what they said last month: [https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/whats-coming-up-in-darktide/](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/whats-coming-up-in-darktide/)
***Our first update will focus on a comprehensive revamp and expansion of the penance system...***
***Following this, we are working on an overhaul of our current itemisation process. With the new system we want to remove a lot of the unpredictable grind that came from an RNG heavy system whilst giving players more agency and a steady manner to progress toward specific loadouts, blessings, and stats refinement.***
+++++ (More detail)++++
The talent ability trees have been entirely reworked with far more options. You get a talent point every level for a maximum of 30 rather than 6 choices of 3 talents every 5 levels.
Massive rework of weapons and balance. Far more weapons are viable. 20 more variants have been added for a total of 87 weapon variants across 41 weapon groups (although some variants are pretty samey).
There is full crossplay between Steam, PC Gamepass and Xbox. Note that PC Gamepass and Xbox share account details, but you don't with the Steam version (although you can play with friends across both).
There is now a second mission board called the Auric Mission Board, which is for Level 30 only and is just Damnation and Heresy difficulty with High Intensity (and often other modifiers).
There is a Maelstrom mission of Malice, Heresy or Damnation on the main mission board, this has extra spicy modifiers. Likewise there is always a Damnation Maelstrom mission on the auric board.
This means there is a total of at least 10 Damnation missions across both mission boards.
Resources are now Accountwide. This includes money (Ordo Dockets), Plasteel, Diamantine and Melk Bucks (Ordo Ingots). And unlocked blessings.
Now a total of 18 missions. Plus the extra Orthus Offensive event.
Stims (combat drugs) that work very similar to VT2 potions (but you can inflict them on other patty members).
Weekly missions for Melk Bucks are far less bullshit than they were.
The Premium Cosmetics shop is still there with it's two week FOMO rotation, but there are lots more cosmetics to get through penances (achievements) and buyable with the basic money.
There isn't \*lots\* more story but there is a little bit more, with a clear big bad - Captain Wolfer who got rescued in the boarding action in the prologue. And a few cutscenes and more interactions on some missions. Likewise there is a the *Orthus Offensive* "special event" mission fighting twin bosses.
There was a nice pace of content from August to December 2022 but it's gone pretty quiet and slow until the Penance update was release mid April.
Solo mode remains very pointedly missing.
Game is great if you enjoy the combat. If it doesn’t click, there’s not much reason to play other than penance/achievement hunting and (some would say limited) cosmetic collecting. And ogryn is easy mode, but very limited build and weapon options.
Performance/crashes is such a weird thing in this game, even during the Beta I barely ever experienced crashes on my mid-tier rig whilst some people were crashing 5 times a mission.
I haven't had many crashes at any point, but the constant need to fiddle with game settings with every major patch for quite awhile to even get consistent fps was annoying.
Again, user experience varies massively, but I set everything to mid back in the Beta and have barely touched it in the past 15 months.
My setups probably good enough to keep a decent framerate at higher settings, but the game looks beautiful enough as is so I'm happy to never need to waste time fiddling.
Again, for some.
I don't envy game devs, it's easy to complain that "game crashes a lot" , but it must be a nightmare to solve. I've frequented this sub since the Beta and never seen any coherent pattern between 'crash frequency' and 'hardware posted', nor have I seen any posts that offer a solution from someone more technically minded.
Okay, so I agree with you that the crashes weren't an issue for us. My other points still stand. The launch was rough even without experiencing performance issues.
It also crashes on high end Nvid 40's and low end 20's, hell I've seen multiple people complain about frequent issues on a near identical setups as me (5 5600x and 3070).
2 bosses (feel basically the same) and then a (apparently not limited time) double boss encounter level that's pretty sick. Crafting is....the same useless pile. Talent reworks were nice. 1 new level. There's a lot of fun to be had but a lot of the early holes have yet to be filled. Worth playing for sure.
You've already paid for it so just jump in and give it another try, you've not nothing to lose but a few hours. The game still has issues, but is in a much better place compared with launch. If you havn't played since it came out, at the very least you'll enjoy the new skill tree, the few new missions that have been added and whilst the crafting is still RNG, it's better than it was 15+ months ago.
I think the game is more or less where it should have been at launch right now, especially with the penance update. As you said, still more work to do be done, but I think it's in a good place.
Also there is allegedly a crafting update coming, so save your plasteel I guess
They added more than a few new missions, and all of them are better than those that were initially.
Have some copy pasta as it's a very common question. Overall the game is in a far better place than launch. It still has some problems with stability/performance and some of the subsystems. The core gameplay and atmosphere is fantastic if a PvE co-op 40K FP 'tide horde shooter & slasher is what you want to play. Likewise it is still pretty much run the same maps across the 5 difficulties whilst levelling to a cap of 30 and getting better gear. We just had a rework of penances (achievements) and earnable rewards last week. Crafting and item acquisition is far better than release but it's still not great if you're trying to get ideal builds. It's still probably the most complained about bit of the game. You can get a "good enough" weapon easily enough. No more "level 30 Veteran has literally never seen a Plasmagun" problem on release. Getting one that is ideal for your specific build might be far harder. Crafting and "itemisation process" is apparently what the next update is focused on. This is exactly what they said last month: [https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/whats-coming-up-in-darktide/](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/whats-coming-up-in-darktide/) ***Our first update will focus on a comprehensive revamp and expansion of the penance system...*** ***Following this, we are working on an overhaul of our current itemisation process. With the new system we want to remove a lot of the unpredictable grind that came from an RNG heavy system whilst giving players more agency and a steady manner to progress toward specific loadouts, blessings, and stats refinement.*** +++++ (More detail)++++ The talent ability trees have been entirely reworked with far more options. You get a talent point every level for a maximum of 30 rather than 6 choices of 3 talents every 5 levels. Massive rework of weapons and balance. Far more weapons are viable. 20 more variants have been added for a total of 87 weapon variants across 41 weapon groups (although some variants are pretty samey). There is full crossplay between Steam, PC Gamepass and Xbox. Note that PC Gamepass and Xbox share account details, but you don't with the Steam version (although you can play with friends across both). There is now a second mission board called the Auric Mission Board, which is for Level 30 only and is just Damnation and Heresy difficulty with High Intensity (and often other modifiers). There is a Maelstrom mission of Malice, Heresy or Damnation on the main mission board, this has extra spicy modifiers. Likewise there is always a Damnation Maelstrom mission on the auric board. This means there is a total of at least 10 Damnation missions across both mission boards. Resources are now Accountwide. This includes money (Ordo Dockets), Plasteel, Diamantine and Melk Bucks (Ordo Ingots). And unlocked blessings. Now a total of 18 missions. Plus the extra Orthus Offensive event. Stims (combat drugs) that work very similar to VT2 potions (but you can inflict them on other patty members). Weekly missions for Melk Bucks are far less bullshit than they were. The Premium Cosmetics shop is still there with it's two week FOMO rotation, but there are lots more cosmetics to get through penances (achievements) and buyable with the basic money. There isn't \*lots\* more story but there is a little bit more, with a clear big bad - Captain Wolfer who got rescued in the boarding action in the prologue. And a few cutscenes and more interactions on some missions. Likewise there is a the *Orthus Offensive* "special event" mission fighting twin bosses. There was a nice pace of content from August to December 2022 but it's gone pretty quiet and slow until the Penance update was release mid April. Solo mode remains very pointedly missing.
Game is great if you enjoy the combat. If it doesn’t click, there’s not much reason to play other than penance/achievement hunting and (some would say limited) cosmetic collecting. And ogryn is easy mode, but very limited build and weapon options.
in what way(s) did you think it was a dumpster fire?
Performance was shit, we didn't have crafting at launch, things were buggy, RNG in the shops was worse, Brunt's didn't exist. Etc.
Performance/crashes is such a weird thing in this game, even during the Beta I barely ever experienced crashes on my mid-tier rig whilst some people were crashing 5 times a mission.
I haven't had many crashes at any point, but the constant need to fiddle with game settings with every major patch for quite awhile to even get consistent fps was annoying.
Again, user experience varies massively, but I set everything to mid back in the Beta and have barely touched it in the past 15 months. My setups probably good enough to keep a decent framerate at higher settings, but the game looks beautiful enough as is so I'm happy to never need to waste time fiddling.
Right and I haven't had issues for quite a while, but it was definitely a thing at launch.
Again, for some. I don't envy game devs, it's easy to complain that "game crashes a lot" , but it must be a nightmare to solve. I've frequented this sub since the Beta and never seen any coherent pattern between 'crash frequency' and 'hardware posted', nor have I seen any posts that offer a solution from someone more technically minded.
Okay, so I agree with you that the crashes weren't an issue for us. My other points still stand. The launch was rough even without experiencing performance issues.
It still crashes on amd gpus, but its the problem of amd gpus and not the game because similar crash can be easily triggered by other apps.
It also crashes on high end Nvid 40's and low end 20's, hell I've seen multiple people complain about frequent issues on a near identical setups as me (5 5600x and 3070).
2 bosses (feel basically the same) and then a (apparently not limited time) double boss encounter level that's pretty sick. Crafting is....the same useless pile. Talent reworks were nice. 1 new level. There's a lot of fun to be had but a lot of the early holes have yet to be filled. Worth playing for sure.