Recent reviews by The Italian War Effort

Empire at War and its expansion, Forces of Corruption, are a solid entry to the early 2000s strategy gaming market. The developers over at Petroglyph still occasionally update the game to deal with decades old bugs or bring the game in 64-bit.

However, it is not the base content that keeps this game alive, but the large and dedicated modding community. If you are getting Empire at War in 2024, you are probably doing so because you heard a big modding project. EAWX (Thrawn's Revenge, Fall of the Republic, Revan's Revenge), Empire at War Remake, Awakening of the Rebellion, Republic at War, and many others. This game is more than worth the cost without a discount - which includes the base game and FoC DLC - but even if you want to wait it is still a hard recommend from me. I have nearly two thousand hours in the game, and I expect to have many more in the years to come.

AH let players from countries that are barred from making PSN accounts while fully intending to make having a PSN a requirement to play the game. Get ♥♥♥♥♥♥, I guess?

Don't worry lads, FatShark is "sowwy" that they disappointed all the players.

What a joke, the only thing they are sorry about is their premium shop is likely bombing faster than the player numbers. To any new players looking at the sea of red and wondering what happened, FS released "an open letter" """apologizing""" for the state of the game since release, before announcing further delays.

I implore you, newcomers and fans of the universe, do not give FatShark a single cent before this game is fixed. Somehow it needs to be beaten into their thick skulls that this sort of behavior is not acceptable. Look to the longer reviews to see the list of features kept from the game, outright lies spewed by FS, and their predatory marketing practices.

I have played this game for 700 hours.
Still have no idea what I am doing.

I've played this game for the nearer part of one hour, and as such recognize that my opinion may not be the most accurate perception of the game. With that in mind, what are my initial thoughts?

As an avid Warhammer and Fatshark fan, I've always enjoyed the universe and some of the games set in it. I never played Vermintide 1, but from how my friends that I play 2 with describe it that's probably for the best, but have played hundreds of hours in Vermintide 2 over of the PS4. In recent years, I've come to enjoy Fantasy far more than 40k, but was excited for Darktide when it was announced. My feelings towards the game so far are... mixed.

Starting with the good:
+ Gun play feel very responsive. I played the veteran in my first game, and the Lasgun is an accurate and fun weapon to use.
+ Sound design is on point - for the most part, we'll get into that - from the sound of weapons to the music. Vermintide 2 had great music and fairly good sound, but Darktide knocks it out of the park.

Negatives stick in the mind more often than positives, unfortunately, so this list will be longer:
- Melee combat feels very lacklustre. Keep in mind, I am saying this after using a mouse for my first game while playing Veteran, so that may skew how it feels. One of the immediate issues was block pushing, namely when trying to follow up. In Vermintide 2, this is a seamless transition - block > push > back into melee - but Darktide does not seem to work in the same vein. Constantly, after pushing, I would find myself either unable to keep attacking or forced back into blocking for half a second, wasting the opportunity granted by the push. Pair this with pushing generally feeling less effective than in the previous title, it makes a core aspect of the game feel clunky while the other is far more effective.
- Graphical design. I'll admit, I'm not playing with the best hardware - MSI gaming laptop - but I was struggling to pick out targets in the game. You'll notice a pattern of me comparing this to Vermintide 2, but Vermintide 2's design choices were distinct, making it easier to pick out targets in an arena or map. In Darktide, all the enemies blend into the map and backgrounds, especially the renegade guardsmen or whatever they're called. Worse still, they all look extremely similar at a distance and even up close. I can easily tell the difference between a Chaos Warrior and all other enemies in Vermintide, as an example, but I couldn't tell you which heavy is which in Darktide. Again, this might be due to my lack of experience in the game or poor graphical optimization, but it feels less unique.
- Audio Queues, or the lack there of. Unlike Vermintide 2, Darktide appears to lack distinct audio queues for: enemies swinging at your back, hordes spawning, bosses spawning, and special enemies spawning. While this isn't a big gripe with the game, it does make everything feel same-y and lack a certain uniqueness you would expect in a 40k game.

Now, despite the gripes, I did enjoy the game. Not to the level of Vermintide 2, and we'll see how it holds up in the higher difficulties. However, as of this moment, I am tentatively excited for the release.

Well, well, well. Here we are again. CA proving themselves to be the greedy, short-sighted eighth-wits we all knew them to be.

Go ahead, kill the game. I'm sure that'll look real good on your bottom line.

It's okay, I guess.

It's okay.