'I don't think players expect this': Warhammer 40K: Darktide is adding RPG-style skill trees full of new abilities to its 4 classes
Nine months since launch, Warhammer 40K: Darktide sits on Steam with a «Mixed» review score, both in recent and all-time reviews. There were more than a few criticisms of Darktide at launch—the unfinished crafting system, the cosmetics store, crashes and performance issues—but one of the most common and consistent I've seen is that Darktide has only four character classes, compared to its predecessor Vermintide 2's five characters (with multiple subclasses apiece). Though Darktide does offer some nicely varied skills as you level up and weapons that dramatically change your play style, it was hard not to look at the class system as a downgrade from what Vermintide 2 players were used to.
In October, developer Fatshark is addressing that criticism in a big way by rolling out a complete revamp of Darktide's class system with full RPG-style skill trees for each class, leapfrogging the Vermintide-caliber specializations players have been asking for.
«We wanted players to get a bit more agency into the classes, a bit more experimentation, support a lot more different play styles,» Darktide game director Anders De Geer said in an interview with PC Gamer. «We felt like the fantasy of the Ogryn was not done. The story of the Psyker was not done. So we wanted to add more. Basically what we've done is reimagine what a class in Darktide is. This is our huge update: we've expanded the talent trees, added a ton of new options and abilities, passives and actives.»
Under Darktide's original class system, you unlocked a new perk every 5 levels up to the cap of 30, and had three options to choose from at each milestone. That system is going away, being replaced with a more RPG-esque skill tree peppered with those same abilities and a ton
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