The War for Teritem has been rampaging for years, and finally a new ally joins the fight to take back the hive-city from the pustule-ridden grip of Nurgle.
The Law has arrived.
After years of updates that range from new missions to progression systems, Darktide has finally released its newest class: the Arbites. These lawbringers have burst onto the scene to tackle this uprising in the only way cops of the grimdark future know: Uncompromising violence.
They don’t come alone. Arriving with the Arbites and their arsenal of shotguns, riot shields and shock mauls are their faithful cyber-mastiffs, vicious cybernetically enhanced super-dogs that remind you body horror doesn’t just have to be about humans.
The Arbites at his core plays a lot like the rejects (though try telling a cop he’s just like everyone else) but comes with some unique quirks that change up his gameplay enough to make him distinct from the base four we’ve become used to knowing.
Most obviously is the cyber-mastiff. This rabid reject of the paw-patrol absolutely mulches anything it clinches its hydraulically-assisted chompers around, gibbing them to kibble-bits, all while you focus on keeping the greater horde of dissidents down with your unique array of law-enforcing equipment.
It’s a very fluid implementation of a companion without making you micromanage it. You don’t have to order the cyber-mastiff to do anything, on its own it’ll leap onto enemies, eviscerate them, and move onto the next until you get to the end of the level. Seeing your beasty work over an enemy while you’re blasting away at a horde is satisfying, and it doesn’t massively feel like it’s simplifying the encounters.
There’s also a simple way to direct its wrath as well that rewards a greater gameplay loop. If you mark a special enemy twice, the dog will launch like a ballistic missile covered in fur and gnashing steel-jaws and clamp down on them, holding them in place for your team to finish them off at your leisure. It fucking rocks, and being in games of four Arbites with a cyber-mastiff each has had me laughing myself silly as we spot one special enemy from across the map and each launch our dogs at it like a Katyusha firing rockets.
I only wish they had added animations for multiple cyber-mastiffs fighting over one target.
It’s really well-designed, and enforces the Arbites gameplay identity. Like you’d expect from a cop, it’s all about control, and you have so many tools for control. The Arbites comes stocked and loaded with unique weapons and gear to help assist the team in managing large fights where you could easily get overwhelmed.
You’ll be beating crowds into submission with shock mauls, or loading special shock rounds into your shotgun to stagger hordes and specials alike to give your team a key moment to focus fire on what’s important. It’s a good identity to have, and it feels impactful while you’re doing it.
You can specialise in your type of control as well as you progress your talent tree, making your cyber-mastiff prioritise ranged targets over melee, (or vice versa) or getting rid of the cyber-mastiff all together and going at it as a Lone Wolf (which brings you a whole host of buffs for doing so).
This is backed up by a unique kit of Shotguns, Shock Mauls, and the game’s first shield / ranged combo. Arbites are able to enforce Lex’s will on the frontlines while still blasting away at distant foes.
Alongside the Arbites come a whole host of updates to the game. It’s been a few years since my initial review of Darktide, and in that time the game has managed to evolve and expand in ways that almost render that initial review more than a bit outdated.
I’m not going to regurgitate three years of patch notes to you, but I can give the broad strokes.
Every class, including the new Arbites, have fully fleshed out skill trees that far dwarf the 12 or so choices you could pick on launch for each character. These changes make much deeper changes to the gameplay, offering stat boosts and entirely new abilities to use during games. Each class has three distinct ‘paths’ that you can mix and match from to create something unique.
Gear progression has been overhauled and refined. Before you would spend time and resources constantly playing the Holy Slot Machine to roll a weapon with stats you like, and then re-roll again for blessings that were optimal to your build. There’s no need for that any more. (Thank the Emperor- err, Omnissiah.)
Instead there’s a system now that lets you focus your energy and resources on getting your weapon exactly how you want it. It’s still a grind, don’t expect it to be easy, but it’s something you actually have control over.
And my biggest joy – the campaign system! The new player onboarding experience has been vastly improved, as you are given a choice into unlocking features as you progress through a campaign. This helps new players get comfortable with features as they progress through some levels. Not only this but they have added in additional cutscenes and voice lines to improve the narrative cohesion of the game, letting players actually experience a linear story that is actually pretty damn interesting.
I’ll be honest that it was disappointing they didn’t do this from the start, but it’s better now than never. You can actually engage with the narrative now without piecing it together or reading someone’s lore dump, which is always good. The cutscenes aren’t anything special but they’re enough for a game like this, and the added voice lines for each mission are great too.
There isn’t much worth mentioning, really. Some of you might be interested to know that difficulty has been flattened and reworked, with the end-game difficulties now coming in the form of modifiers, but I can’t claim I play this game to that level – that requires me, and my friends, to be way more coordinated and skilled at the game than we really are.
It’s nice to report that Dark Tide has actually gotten better since my initial review. In a world plagued by games getting bogged down update after update, I class that as a total win. Fatshark can add all the new shiny toys they want and new ways to use them, but they continue to make the smart choice and avoid changing up the core combat loop too much.
Happy hunting rejects (and assorted men and women of the Lex), and see you on the frontlines!
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
