Dan Abnett has a lot to say about Warhammer 40,000 – and so he should. The author behind some of the most beloved Warhammer 40,000 books ever written has been thinking about the lore of Games Workshop’s grim dark universe for 20 years. But it’s not all about the Space Marines stomping about imperiously, shouting “for the Emperor!” while blasting all in their path to bits with guns large enough to suit a tank. In penning the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, which is about Warhammer 40,000’s regular human infantry, and the Eisenhorn trilogy, which is about inquisitors who hunt down heretics and demons, Abnett gave Warhammer 40,000 a more human face. Unlike the genetically boosted Space Marines, bog standard humans are squishy, vulnerable and, crucially, relatable. It’s exactly this expertise that sparked Abnett’s involvement with Darktide.
Warhammer 40,000 Darktide is the next game from Fatshark, the developer of the much-loved Vermintide series of fantasy Warhammer games. Like Vermintide, Darktide is a co-op focused first-person shooter / melee hybrid in which you fight against the odds. Yes, it’s yet another Warhammer 40,000 video game in a sea of Warhammer 40,000 video games – that sea just swelled to ocean scale, by the way – but Darktide stands out because it’s a bit different. You do not play as a Space Marine pushing back the xenos on an alien world in some universe-shattering galactic war. Instead, you play an ogryn, what I think is a tech priest, and perhaps an Imperial Guard soldier or two (Fatshark is keeping a lot of its cards close to its chest at the moment) – a motley crew that ends up helping an Inquisitor investigate a mysterious Nurgle-worshipping cult that’s spreading across a continent-sized hive city.
This is why Fatshark wanted to work with Abnett to create Darktide’s world. He’s been thinking about Inquisitors, the Imperial Guard and hive cities for years. Who better to flesh out Darktide’s virtual innards with all the gurgling horror befitting the (best) chaos god, Nurgle?
