I used to be exactly whelmed when Fatshark revealed the mohawked, chem-huffing Hive Scum as Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s subsequent class; many of the current participant characters being unwashed crims as it’s. Seems, nevertheless, they make good firm when it counts. Having performed about six hours of Hive Scum, forward of launch on December 2nd, I’m satisfied the category affords one thing new – and even those that don’t drop the requisite $12 on it can nonetheless, on the identical day, get a rollicking new mission kind that delves into correctly muddy 40K floor warfare.
Let’s begin with that, because it’s the most important of the replace’s free-to-all additions. No Man’s Land is a shorter operation than most traditional missions, just like the dashing prepare job that Darktide gained final 12 months, and takes your warband exterior the sport’s primary metropolis for a muckier trench assault (alongside, in a pleasant contact, certainly one of 40K’s hilariously proportioned tanks). Additionally just like the prepare run, it’s an virtually continuous slugfest, with solely the briefest of pauses to let your armoured battle buddy via a gate, or to steal some Area iPads from an enemy bunker.
It is a easy project, in different phrases. Nevertheless it’s additionally enjoyably pacey, and the ditch setting – well-trodden floor for battle video games, but a refreshing change from Darktide’s typical steel corridors – does look unusually stunning in locations. Mild rays reduce via the mud of a bombed outpost, whereas the mountainous structure of the hive metropolis looms over the battlefield. It’d be beautiful if it weren’t so horrible.
The Hive Scum doesn’t make such a robust first impression. Particularly after the Arbites, with their Choose Dreddish personas and distinctive K9 handler mechanics, they don’t initially seem to realize the excellence you’d need from a premium DLC class. A lot of the persona/voice choices simply sound like gruffer cousins to the default Veteran’s, and whereas they begin off with twin machine pistols – akimbo-ing being a Darktide first – my Scummer’s early ranges lacked the freshness of motion flavour that the canine cops had.
Nevertheless, with just a few ability factors to spend on the run-and-gun subclass fashion, all of it started clicking like a Tech-Priest’s mechanical thumb. If the Veteran is all about correct pictures from vary, and the Zealot is devoted to sustained, thick-of-it meleeing, a gun-specced Hive Scum takes the perfect of each and makes one thing that also feels separate from both. A run ‘n’ gunner that’s continuously magdumping down heretics’ throats, shredding heavies and mob crowds alike in prolonged, unbroken sprints. The additional down the expertise tree you go, the longer you’ll be able to hold these killchains going, whereas including different mass-hurt tips like rocket launchers (efficient, enjoyable) and a perks that deal large bonus injury to enemies shot within the again (efficient, difficult).
I haven’t tried the opposite two primary playstyles, certainly one of which is melee-focused (and which, admittedly, does not less than sound a bit of too Zealot-like) whereas the opposite performs up the illicit chemistry angle by encouraging gamers to pump up themselves and their teammates with syringes of custom-mixed Enjoyable Instances. I’ll say that my most popular method is a dangerous one: if meringue nonetheless exists within the forty first millennium, my Hive Scum’s armour is seemingly produced from it, so a badly timed reload or positioning misstep can virtually immediately end in a downing. However the ability upgrades are versatile sufficient to take the sting off: I regain toughness (protect, principally) for each baddie killed at shut vary, each encouraging and defending aggressive footwork.
And any Hive Scum, no matter whether or not they spec for a sketchy chemistry diploma, can modify the consequences of their syringes. Though I might mix injury, stamina effectivity, and assault velocity buffs, I invested closely in toughness regen, which I might mix with the Desperado skill to counterbalance my inherent fragility with restricted bursts as an infinitely sprinting, deceptively robust, savagely damaging blur of shell casings and shouting. I can stop any time I need to, thanks.
I nonetheless suppose Arbites are the stronger, and positively extra bold of the 2 DLC lessons to this point, however I’m positively not averse to sticking with my taking pictures dervish Hive Scum on the 2nd. Particularly after I can allow them to unfastened on No Man’s Land, which itself seems to be like the newest in a string of high-quality mission expansions – and, to my ears, sounds prefer it’s accompanied by yet one more Jesper Kyd banger.
