Recent reviews by Kuziz

Updated review: just as the Fatshark Cycle foretold, most stuff I complained about in my original review below has been taken care of, tweaked and improved. It only took 2 years after launch, again. The latest update that changed the itemization system was my last real gripe with the game...

About the only thing I still have complaints about is the bland level design (I genuinely cannot tell maps apart besides their finales). That one's a bit better in the last few maps added at least.
And the premium cosmetics store mostly full of recolors of existing assets that still treats me like an idiot who can't do math. But this point is barely relevant to the actual fun parts.

At this stage and point in time I think Darktide is worth buying and playing. I also still think Vermintide 2 did a bunch of things better and it's weird it wasn't used as a foundation and instead they're slowly porting things over. One of the updates this year basically added VT2's potions and healing draught (called Stimms in Darktide).

Fatshark still leaves me jaded at times, so just be wary the live-service ride might be a bit rough. Right now we're at the good part.

Original review from January 2023 below.

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Great and fun core in-mission gameplay with faithful high quality visual and sound direction surrounded by horrid mismanagement, general designer stubbornness, and continuous disrespect for a player's time in everything else. Not a single lesson learned in previous games has been carried over to Darktide.

Over-reliance on RNG and FOMO makes this game a chore when doing everything except actually playing a mission.
Horrible anti-teamwork account-bound challenges attached to cosmetic rewards makes public quick play an obnoxious experience where most players you meet throw the game to fulfil silly objectives like "spend all your ammo and never miss" or "blow yourself up and kill 3 high HP enemies at the same time" because they want some pants to wear.
Management really wanted their holiday bucks so they dumped an unfinished product shortly before sending the entire studio on holidays for a few weeks, leaving the players with a janky mess.
Community Managers are constantly being held on a tight leash and are only allowed to respond in the most vague statements possible. Zero transparency, just being kept in the dark all the time because apparently the players are too stupid to understand anything. "Immeasurably complex to add a new made up premium currency bundle to sell", "This isn't COD so we have no weapon attachments", "We feel that unlimited store pages are likely to create confusion and a bad user experience.".
Weird technical choices like server side hit registration with what appears to be a low tickrate in a PvE game in which milliseconds matter makes for a displeasing experience. Dedicated servers themselves aren't up to par and packets get dropped frequently.
Optimisation isn't the best and drops below 60 frames per second are frequent.
Mod support like in VT2 completely dropped to be in absolute control of the player experience and not allow them to tweak things or express their passion.
For some reason did not launch with crossplay with the Microsoft Store version. People playing there get patches even slower than usual due to Microsoft's certification process and also dead matchmaking due to an absent playerbase.

I really want to like this game, and I loved Vermintide 1 and 2 after Fatshark finally got their stuff together and fixed both games up about 2 years post-launch and in VT2's case - unmade the mess that was the Winds of Magic DLC, but even playing a single mission in Darktide is very tiring and doing anything in the hub seems like it was designed just to waste my time to pad player retention stats. Multiple technical issues surrounding nearly every aspect just results in a generally frustrating experience. The fact nothing quality-of-life related that was added to VT2 was brought over here is genuinely mind-boggling and it makes me have nothing but negative words aimed at the studio's leads.

At the moment I cannot recommend Darktide even though its core gameplay is very fun and satisfying. Interaction with the developers and the speed at which they address issues aren't satisfactory and it seems like I have to wait another 2 years before the game gets good at all fronts (again).

one of the closed betas ever

Randy Pitchford "made" a pile of ♥♥♥♥ colloquially called Aliens: Colonial Marines.
By comparison, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is like a box of chicken nuggets from McDonald's. It's not the healthiest food nor is it a high quality gourmet dish, but it still tastes pretty good, and you often get a pack of sauce on the side.
I like sweet & sour the most with my nuggets, by the way.

chainsaw bayonet goes vrrrr 😎

short and fun puzzle game (takes less than an hour to do everything), cool art, entertaining.
author's also a turbochad

"half life source is a functional and well made port"

a group of cretins make a religion out of glowsticks and they beat each other up with them

A good game. Got completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by Starbreeze's upper management. Mainly marketing and business decisions. It's kinda sad, really. I feel sorry for everyone at Lion Game Lion who had to deal with Bo and his group of executive chumps. Eventually having pulled the plug on the game and effectively murdering it.

Since the player base is pretty much dead, if you can convince at least a single friend to tag along with you, you should have a fun time with this anyway. It's really not as bad as people made it out to be in the past, especially with a more reasonable price tag than the one on release. Would still rather recommend getting it on sale, making sure Starbreeze gets as little money from you as possible.
Just don't expect any updates now, what you see is all we'll ever have.

This is coming from a person who has played it for the first time ever in 2016, never owning the original on the Xbox 360.

I must say, the day I heard this is coming to PC I was exhilarated. Having played all the other available titles on PC (2, OTR, 3) I believe this one is the best in the series.

For starters, the first entry in the franchise was developed by the core japanese team of Capcom. Japanese humor and quirks are noticable here and there, and some cutscenes feel that way. It's not bad nor obnoxious though. It's what made this game fun and memorable back in 2006. It has its own charm. It feels and plays very differently from the ones made by Capcom Vancouver (2 and onwards).

I think I'll pass on reviewing all aspects of the game as much more professional reviews are available from when the game was released, instead I will focus on the port quality.

My experience with the port was flawless. I have used only keyboard and mouse controls which I found to be easy to use and comfortable, but skill moves might be tricky to initiate at first. The camera movement needs some time to get used to, as it feels like you're dragging it around. That "effect" can only be disabled for aiming, sadly. There seems to be no negative mouse acceleration either, which plagued other entries in the series on PC, but even on max sensitivity the camera might turn a bit too slow for someone.
Eventually one can get used to it, and doing swift movements becomes second nature.
I haven't stumbled upon any gamebreaking bugs either, which really made me happy.
Game supports 4k resolution, MSAA up to x8, uncapped frame rate, a motion blur toggle, and fully rebindable controls, so most needs will be satisfied.


Now the bad things, because this game is not THAT perfect.

There is a feature called "hitstop", which freezes the game intentionally on one frame when hitting zombies with blunt weapons. It was supposed to enhance the impact of blunt weapons, but for many it can be jarring, especially running at a significantly higher framerate than it was designed for. The effect itself amplifies the more you hit in one swing, making it appear like your game completely freezes for a second if you charge into a group with a bench. Luckily mods will be available soon so it's likely it can be modded out.

Even though I haven't experienced any bugs doesn't mean they don't exist. There are multiple reports of the game not launching at all due to lack of a specific Windows update, no audio issues which are apparently fixed by updating Internet Explorer, or higher framerates resulting in more damage taken, even allowing the player to be one shotted. The team is aware of those issues and as far as I know, they're working on fixing them. Apparently those are mostly occuring on Windows 7.
I was lucky enough to not suffer from those issues.

There's also the problem of the game's infamous really stupid survivor AI. It's so annoyingly dumb that it can make you want to throw your computer out of the window. Just be aware that escorting survivors back to safety will raise your blood pressure.


In summary, I dare say this is a high quality port, probably the best Dead Rising PC port that exists in this franchise. I want to thank Capcom for going forward with decision to allow Dead Rising 1 to reach current generation consoles and Q-LOC for doing excellent work on the port. I believe the original experience from 2006 is available here, right now. For 20 bucks you can too cover wars, you know.

IT'S BACK BETTER THAN EVER