If Space Marine 2 gets you curious about Warhammer 40K lore, give Darktide a spin

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a hit, and it’s no surprise that players are having fun playing as one of the Emperor’s Angels, stomping and shooting through a fray of hungry Tyranids. One thing I didn’t expect was getting to see the setting of Warhammer 40K through the eyes of people unfamiliar with the universe. Things that are very status quo to me as a longtime fan of the franchise are intriguing and compelling to new players. Take, for instance, the tens of thousands of candles stacked around religious sites, or the bio-mechanical babies flying around on angel wings.

If you’re one of the players who is experiencing the Imperium as Lieutenant Titus, I have another game to recommend that really dials all the unique gothic-industrial horror of the far future up to 11. No game captures the vibes of 40K more than Darktide, a co-op horde shooter set in the Hive City of Tertium, capital of Atoma Prime.

In Darktide, you play as a Reject, a convict busted free from a penal colony and used as labor. The group is comprised of Ogryn, guardsmen veterans, zealots, and psykers. Most Reject backstories really highlight the casual cruelty of the Imperium of Man. Some of the offenses that get people jailed and sent to a penal colony are relatively understandable, like arson. Others are shockingly mundane, like giving someone a dirty look, or saying something that came across as mildly critical of the God-Emperor.

The Rejects end up becoming a necessary source of recruitment when the Moebian Sixth, a group of Imperial Guards, go rogue and succumb to the influence of the Plague God Nurgle. In Darktide, parties of four are sent as strike teams all around Tertium, assigned to achieve objectives and slowly drive the heretics out of the city. 

I cannot praise developer Fatshark enough for the time it’s put into making the hive city feel authentic. Each level is lovingly realized, from the lower industrial levels of the city all the way up through the markets and habitation blocks to the noble quarters. The game is also from the perspective of mere, ordinary mortals; Titus can punch through obstacles and wade into hordes of enemies, but the Rejects are comparatively small and vulnerable.

As the cherry on top, Jesper Kyd’s soundtrack is wall-to-wall bangers, mixing classical and choral music with electronic and industrial beats. There’s nothing quite like the roar and kick of a bolter, or shooting lightning out of your fingers like Palpatine while pipe organs are going wild in the background. If you want to see the Imperium up close, up to and including lobotomized amputees built into computer equipment to serve as health stations, there’s no better way to see that world than a few rounds of Darktide.