Recent reviews by BadSmells

The developer truly loves this game and it shows. With each update it becomes significantly better than before and it's already pretty great!

The game has some good bits like the Modules, affix variety on items and mechanically things feel alright. These do not make up for the unenjoyable and repetitive gameplay loop as you progress, the 3 orb boss battles or all the obvious tactics to create a sense of 'not keeping up' without spending money. Has the spirit of a mobile game if you ask me. Uninstalled it.

Criminal how under the radar this fantastic game is.

Very enjoyable aRPG to weave into the Path of Exile downtimes.

It's 40k Vermintide so of course it's incredible
[EDIT 2 - 2/23/2023 @ 169 HOURS PLAYED] This update pushes the game in the right direction and shows Fatshark is still very committed to making the changes needed for this game to truly be a hit. As a fan of the Tide series and given the amount of enjoyment to be had with where the game is following this update I now feel comfortable recommending this game to others at it's current price point. Just be mindful of what you are expecting from this game and what the Tide games are known for before assuming this game is going to be something it is not intending to be. If you loved Vermintide 2 and/or love Warhammer 40k then you will currently LIKE Darktide and it's only going to improve going forward.
[EDIT 1/25/2023 @ 146 HOURS PLAYED] I can no longer in good faith recommend this game to be purchased AT THIS CURRENT TIME. It has incredibly good combat. It does seem to be trying to expand a bit on the depth that Vermintide 2 has, but between this and other ambitions they've had to improve upon what worked in Vermintide 2 (crafting system, weapon stats, class system, etc) they have unfortunately put too much on their development team to deliver promised content on several announced release dates.

I'm not sure what is happening internally, but it does appear as if either there has been a lot of turnover leaving them short of the manpower and brainpower they expected to have for this development window OR they have an out of touch team where Designers are giving Management far too much for the actual Devs to implement in the midst of all the bug fixes and incomplete content they already behind with.

Once this game becomes what I know it will eventually become I will gladly change this review once again. For now, though, we need to see some of the late promises met and even better would be a real explanation of what went wrong rather than just a confirmation of things STILL being behind which, while it was something I guess, it definitely was not the new information us paying customers were expecting.

Feels very much to me like a well-balanced version of PvP in Destiny 2 during the first 2 years worth of it's content. I enjoyed that era of Destiny 2 PvP with the MASSIVE exception of builds people would run where they were seemingly slide-teleporting to you with their 1-shot kill shotgun from mid-range while dodging bullets along the way. The emphasis on gunplay in Shatterline is refreshing and the equipment/abilities are sparing enough to just splash in some fun class-based elements that are very well done in my opinion.

Monetization being as player-friendly as it is, it being as good as it is while still very much in early access and these developers being some absolute LEGENDS living in Kyiv, Ukraine currently makes this game a definite worthwhile time/money investment.

The buzz is gone and the game was not even out of beta. It's fun, but in it's current state you can only enjoy playing if you prefer 1v1 or have a teammate to run 2v2 with. Trying to play functional games of 2v2 as a solo queueing player is an actual waste of time as 1 person AFKs or throws the match. This has been this way all this time and unfortunately there has been no acknowledgement that I have come across. I expect development to continue at a very slow pace and maybe months from now this can become worthwhile.

96 hours in I am ilvl 540. Have really been playing at my own pace, enjoying certain cutscenes, doing PvP, trying out activities both for enjoyment and for value....and I have nott stopped having fun for even a second. This is everything I have waited for since 2018 when I saw early announcement footage for the Korean version. If I was in a relationship as of Lost Ark's release I'd be COMPLETELY unavailable to her going forward and leave her no choice but to cheat on me.

It's not Need for Speed Underground but it does the trick

Still fun to play given it's age. Waiting for that new PoE league anyway...