There's a difference between a Poxwalker breaking apart and a Renegade Guard breaking apart.” Having opted to cast the forces of Chaos as the game’s villains, Fatshark has a huge canvas of potential enemies to pull from (Games Workshop’s range of Chaos miniatures for the tabletop number at well over 100). “And it's just about applying that and expanding it specifically with the different enemies.
“Looking at the amount of weapons we did for Vermintide, we have quite a robust set for us to paint a vivid picture of how to break bodies,” says Andersson. These undead horrors, created by the literal god of disease, have provided the perfect next step in evolving Vermintide’s gory melee systems. That AI dictates what enemies the team will face in Vermintide that was generally packs of man-sized rats known as Skaven, but in Darktide players will carve their way through hordes of Poxwalkers. Like the Vermintide games before it, Darktide is a Left 4 Dead-style co-operative game in which teams of four progress through levels that are governed by an AI ‘Conflict Director’. This is not other weapons, this is a chainsword.’”Īdjust that last sentence a little, and it could be a seeming design philosophy for Darktide: this is not other shooters, this is a Warhammer 40K shooter. And then you'd rip it out and that's when the head comes flying off. You have to go into the neck and saw down. “And the coder is just like, ‘But can't we just chop the head off?’” recounts Andersson. This gory, mechanical process, described in the many Warhammer 40K source books and novels, has meant recreating it has required a slightly different approach to Vermintide’s fantasy knives and axes.
Hack into someone with it, and the result is akin to Gears of War’s Lancer MK2 bayonet, but significantly more goth.
It should stick in, it should saw through, and then we should have a second damage that actually pops the off." The chainsword is Warhammer 40,000’s most recognisable close combat weapon a device swung like a medieval longsword, but with the blade exchanged for a 30-inch long chainsaw. “How should we do the chainsword?” asks Mats Andersson, Game Designer on Darktide, recalling an early design meeting. And after a recent chat with a handful of Fatshark staff, it’s safe to say that they are nerding out just as much as they did on Vermintide, if not more. The studio’s next game, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, sees the same team explore the very different - but equally dense - 40K universe. In its two Vermintide games, developer Fatshark has proven its dedication to recreating the fine details of Games Workshop’s Warhammer ‘Old World’ setting.