Warhammer 40,000: Darktide PS5 review

In my review of the PC release of Warhammer 40K: Darktide I praised developer Fatshark’s dedication to the IP, and now as I take a look at the PS5 launch almost 2 years later, it’s especially refreshing to see that dedication paying dividends.

Launching with all the content, both cosmetic and gameplay-focused, that the PC version has seen, the PS5 edition (enhanced for the PS5 Pro, of course) is a meaty offering, packed with balls-out action and shooting that feels noticeably tighter and more satisfying on console.

Set in Tertium, a sprawling Hive City the size of a continent, Darktide sees your convicted felon spared the cell by an unexpected raid. After aiding the warden, you’re given the chance to make a name for yourself by performing lightning raids into the bowels of Tertium on Imperium business; the fewer questions asked, the better. It’s all the set-up required for one of the best Left 4 Dead-em-ups available. A great deal of effort has been put into the character creator, with a handful of questions to flesh out your backstory. This in turn informs the various call-outs and dialogue you’ll have with other members of your squad, and helps reduce the amount of repeated exchanges.

With the success of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 driving newcomers towards all things Games Workshop, Fatshark is understandably capitalising. Darktide’s PS5 release coincides with the free Grim Protocols update, which introduces a brand new endgame mode, Havoc, as well as new weapons for three of the four classes. Now reaching level 30 and completing at least one of the high difficulty Maelstrom missions will allow you to jump into Havoc Assignments, which come with their own weekly challenges and targets – not to mention brand new cosmetic rewards for your wargear.

Having already tweaked and improved upon the class system since the PC launch, Darktide’s player characters are in better shape than ever. Whether you play as the brutal Ogryn, the Warp-summoning Psyker, the mildly unhinged Zealot, or the tough-talking Veteran, there’s a place in every squad for any class, or even multiple versions of the same class. Higher difficulties necessitate communication, but if you’re happy to play on more manageable levels you don’t even need to talk much once you know the layout of an area and understand the objectives.

It can get frantic very fast, and running off alone is the best way to get pinned by a Special enemy and killed. You have limited toughness, which acts as a shield, and losing too much health will result in reduced HP until you heal at a Medicae Station. Since you can all carry things like healing packs, ammo packs, and buffs you can take for yourself or share, there’s a real emphasis on keeping each other alive even if you don’t talk directly to one another. Like Left 4 Dead and other games in the genre, an AI Director determines the appearance of enemy hordes, helpful pick ups, and healing stations, as well as the regularity of special enemies. On higher difficulties they come in hordes of their own, and that’s when teamwork really is vital.

Anyone worried about a dip in performance from PC to console need not fret. There’s a slight loss of pizazz if you’ve been playing on a powerful rig with everything dialled up to 10 but the PlayStation 5 version promises a 60fps performance mode or a 30fps quality mode, and honestly it runs wonderfully well in either.

It’s a visually arresting game if not one that you could call “good-looking”. Lighting is used masterful to create atmosphere and there’s a powerful sense of place in every area, even if it is a little too dark in some areas. Character models are almost refreshingly ugly, with little time or effort wasted on beautifying any of it. The Warhammer 40K universe is meant to be grimdark, after all.

But the atmosphere in Darktide is so palpable that you can’t help but become immersed. It’s part of the reason I prefer not to play with voice chat. It’s not just that other people give me the ick sometimes; it’s more immersive to hear the grizzled Vet behind me call me out for nicking the ammo, instead of some rando online whining about meta builds.

Surprisingly, I’ve also found the shooting to feel better on console. I’m not a big user of mouse and keyboard, admittedly, but even with a pad there was always a slight sense of detachment in the shooting. On PS5 it feels much punchier, but maybe that’s just down to behind the scenes tweaks. It’s not the PS5 haptics, as they weren’t available pre-launch.

Regardless, Warhammer 40K: Darktide is simply hitting PS5 at the right time. The Grim Protocols update is great – and free – adding that all important endgame activity to help keep you grinding and unlocking new cosmetics and emotes. Most of all though, it provides extra challenge for those who have hit the 100% line on everything up to now. Even the Auric playlist will be too easy for some already.

Darktide on PS5 comes absolutely recommended, especially if you’ve bagged a PS5 Pro as it is enhanced for the new console too, and we can confirm it runs brilliantly there, and looks superb. It’s a great action game filled with brutal violence and all the tongue-in-cheek dry British humour you expect from the universe, and now there’s more than enough of it to keep you invested.