Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is the latest iteration in the Warhammer franchise, coming in as a standalone title in the sense of having no connected storyline with respect to its predecessors. It’s been one whole month since the game’s release, and the reviews for the title are coming across as nothing but mixed.
What’s most concerning about the title at the moment is the Darktide leaked cosmetics scenario, and fans are not happy about what they’re experiencing at all. There’s a lot to uncover here, so we’ll try our best to get you up to speed with regard to the whole leaked cosmetics situation in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
If there’s one thing that we can tell you right off the bat, it’s that the wide fan base of the game is certainly not loving to see the developers doling out this standard of treatment. Let’s uncover what has been happening in the Warhammer 40,000 Darktide realm right away.
What Are The Darktide Leaked Cosmetics?
In relatively recent times, a post appeared on the Fatshark forums that shared a leaked screenshot of upcoming skins in Warhammer 40,000 Darktide. It’s nothing too over the top, but ever since the original post popped up, fans have been thinking as to what the future of the game is shaping up to look like.
Here’s the image that has surfaced online on the forums.
There are skin add-ons present for almost every major character in the screenshot above, thereby hinting at how the developers have planned a whole ton of forthcoming content for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
It also bears noticing here that all of the skins showcased in the leaked photo above are premium and can only be grabbed from the in-game cash shop. The latter, just so you know, is teeming with micro-transactions, with many clothing sets costing $12 and individual items setting players back for twice as much.
While that is a whole different story, the focus of the majority of Darktide players at the moment is on how they feel cheated by Fatshark—the game’s developer. This is what exacerbates the whole Darktide cosmetics leak situation.
People are bashing Fatshark for focusing on matters of secondary importance as compared to the game’s facets that should be holding more significance. Let’s take a deeper dive into what the community is currently saying about Darktide’s current state and the developing heads that spearheaded the title’s development.
The Story Behind The Exacerbation Of Darktide’s Cosmetics Leaks
People have been losing their cool over the messy state that Darktide is currently in, speaking from a developmental perspective. The way the game was advertised was levels above Darktide’s concurrent stature. The bustling community of Warhammer is putting the blame on Fatshark for not being transparent with its fans.
The fact of the matter is that much of the promotional material for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, such as numerous weapons and cosmetics, is absent from the actual game that people purchased on day one. In addition, visual customization is basically highly limited at the moment in Darktide.
Again, this is directly opposed to the reveal trailer of Darktide, which popped up about one month ago and delivered quite a number of features and functionalities. Most of that, however, including Darktide’s advertised crafting system, no longer came out on day one of the title’s release.
Sure, one can live without cosmetics, but not without the most fundamental features of the game mission, not to mention the inability of players to complete certain objectives and earn in-game currency. The latter is so that it’s possible for players to get extra content without having to purchase them.
Darktide came out on 30 November, approximately a month ago at the time of writing this article, and things have seemingly become crystal clear at this point. Fatshark, in the eyes of the fans who are currently struggling with Darktide, has taken away a fair bit of content from the title.
Another major concern that exacerbates the Darktide cosmetics leaked issue is game stability. The title is running like a time bomb at the moment, where it literally goes off at any moment. Many of our own acquaintances at eXputer find it difficult to run Darktide consistently for a fair amount of hours despite having appreciable rigs.
The review section of the official Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Steam listing goes pretty in-depth as to why the title is currently suffering from “Mixed” overall reviews.
And this is just one of the many rants of Darktide’s vibrant but presently frustrated fan base. YouTuber Karpo Gaming was able to retrieve a screenshot of the original Fatshark Forums post that kicked the discussion off.
People on Reddit haven’t been taking the matter lightly, either. The community-run DarkTide subreddit was in turmoil over the past couple of days, discussing how wrongful of an approach Fatshark has embraced with introducing microtransactions and cosmetics in the game instead of what they could’ve done.
FS forums in full lockdown mode: Legit concerns about MTX abuse? Thread deleted from DarkTide
A user commenting on the whole situation says,
Having seen the hundred-ish paid cosmetics coming I’m just sat here thinking… They could have added half or even just a few of these into the base game and this entire conversation would be different. It’s such an easy pr win to add a couple of skins earnable in game alongside a new cash shop rotation. They still would have had a huge backlog of skins to drop over the coming months even with adding a couple “for free” in game each shop rotation.”
And to be fairly understanding of the affair, we totally agree. A business model that has your fan base happy and content as well as keeps you living off the streets is probably the most balanced way forward, but oh well.
To sum things up for you before the head to the article’s conclusion, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide currently suffers from a fate that has the playing community in a divide. Premium-grade skins that actually feel like a re-design are locked behind a paywall.
As for the other skins, you’ll need to complete Penances. The latter are in-game challenges that have you completing specific tasks and objectives to unlock Penanace’s rewards.
The problem here is that the vast majority of skins obtained from completing Penances or purchased using in-game currency come across as cheap knockoffs.
For those who actually enjoy customization, attempting to personalize your Warhammer 40,000: Darktide with unlocked cosmetics is going to feel shallow and as if you’re making your character don lazy outfit pieces.
That’s all there is to know about Darktide cosmetics leaked for now. We could have more fortunate news for you to share down the road, but for now, this is it. One’s probably better off revving their chainsaw in Darktide without paying for premium skins at the moment, or so it seems.
Takeaway
From the developers of the critically acclaimed Warhammer 40,000: Vermintide 2 comes Darktide, Fatshark’s latest rendition in the Warhammer franchise. Boasting high-quality core gameplay, Darktide plays out like a commendable third-person shooter, but only when you’re actually getting to play it outside of its stability concerns.
That is to say, Darktide currently suffers heftily from a wide range of issues, and the worst of them all aren’t getting fixed anytime soon. Players who love customizing and having access to different types of cosmetic items will, unfortunately, have to break the bank or miss out on donning their character with premium content.
Most of the high-quality stuff that you’ll find in Darktide is present behind a microtransaction, one that’ll have you paying about $12 a pop for a whole clothing set. Individual clothing pieces cost, even more, so to speak. Fans are currently all riled up to witness this unfair treatment by experienced Warhammer developer Fatshark.
In terms of how the game was advertised, many of the major promotional features failed to make it to the final released version of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. This includes the in-game crafting system, several weapons, and other cosmetic items.
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