i have a max level of all 4 characters now and played around with every weapon. i love the game and i'm going to play some more, probably right now even. its gameplay cycle and atmosphere are very addicting and i want more.
But i do have some major problems.
I can't recommend the game in its current state still. not if you intend to play seriously like me. if you're a casual and just want to play a little while and not "solve the game", fine. You'll be very happy with the game for 50 hours or so.
but for the grinding autists like myself:
well, theyll probably rebalance the ♥♥♥♥ out of it but as of right now its like 5000x easier than vermintide.
i never feel challenged anymore.
played on the hardest difficulty tonight as psyker and nearly took 0 damage.
i think they made melee enemies a complete non-threat to compensate for when you get bad RNG and spawn ranged enemies at the same time.
the ranged enemies here definitely WILL kill you. but usually theyre kept very separate. fight a wave of ranged and then fight a wave of melee 9 minutes apart. its only when you have both that you ever die. the game was more fun in the beta because everyone was so stupid that i was often the only decent player in the team, but now its been out for a month and everyone has at least 1 max level character and they can speedrun every mission with no challenge.
oh you know what the game is missing is an equivalent to the vermintide stormvermin.
theres nothing like that, a super common melee with a fast punishing attack and high defenses.
all of the melee currently in the game are so slow and choreographed that a random mom could dodge the attacks 9 out of 10 times. the melee in darktide is so underwhelming that there's no reason to block. anything. ever lol. it might as well not be there.
its crazy they went from block cost reduction being the most important stat on every build in vermintide to making it nonexistent in darktide.

there's also nothing to grind for currently. i have no objectives now. the only thing left to do is to play for fun with no goals in mind. there aren't enough penances (that's what this game calls goals to unlock cosmetics), and the ones i do have left to do are either a year+ grind from passive play, like rescuing 500 captured teammates. or they're sadistic penances you can only complete with friends in a voice chat collaborating, not something that can happen organically solo queuing.

Edit: Since making this game crossplatform, I've lost a lot of motivation to play again. people with a controller being expected to kill a sniper 500 yards away in the middle of a horde is a tall order. You shouldn't play the hardest difficulty unless you have friends. I have been in a dozen games where I'm the only PC player. All of them were losses. console gamers get carried and are an objective hindrance.

i have a max level of all 4 characters now and played around with every weapon. i love the game and i'm going to play some more, probably right now even. its gameplay cycle and atmosphere are very addicting and i want more. But i do have some major problems. I can't recommend the game in its current state still. not if you intend to play seriously like me. if you're a casual and just want to play a little while and not "solve the game", fine. You'll be very happy with the game for 50 hours or so. but for the grinding autists like myself: well, theyll probably rebalance the fuck out of it but as of right now its like 5000x easier than vermintide. i never feel challenged anymore. played on the hardest difficulty tonight as psyker and nearly took 0 damage. i think they made melee enemies a complete non-threat to compensate for when you get bad RNG and spawn ranged enemies at the same time. the ranged enemies here definitely WILL kill you. but usually theyre kept very separate. fight a wave of ranged and then fight a wave of melee 9 minutes apart. its only when you have both that you ever die. the game was more fun in the beta because everyone was so stupid that i was often the only decent player in the team, but now its been out for a month and everyone has at least 1 max level character and they can speedrun every mission with no challenge. oh you know what the game is missing is an equivalent to the vermintide stormvermin. theres nothing like that, a super common melee with a fast punishing attack and high defenses. all of the melee currently in the game are so slow and choreographed that a random mom could dodge the attacks 9 out of 10 times. the melee in darktide is so underwhelming that there's no reason to block. anything. ever lol. it might as well not be there. its crazy they went from block cost reduction being the most important stat on every build in vermintide to making it nonexistent in darktide. there's also nothing to grind for currently. i have no objectives now. the only thing left to do is to play for fun with no goals in mind. there aren't enough penances (that's what this game calls goals to unlock cosmetics), and the ones i do have left to do are either a year+ grind from passive play, like rescuing 500 captured teammates. or they're sadistic penances you can only complete with friends in a voice chat collaborating, not something that can happen organically solo queuing. Edit: Since making this game crossplatform, I've lost a lot of motivation to play again. people with a controller being expected to kill a sniper 500 yards away in the middle of a horde is a tall order. You shouldn't play the hardest difficulty unless you have friends. I have been in a dozen games where I'm the only PC player. All of them were losses. console gamers get carried and are an objective hindrance.