We got a gameplay reveal for Darktide today!
My breakdown of what I saw will be under the break. [There’s a couple screenshots with some blood and gore. Pretty standard 40k stuff, but better safe than sorry.]
First up, the shotgun!
Based on slowing down the video to quarter speed and pausing it, the Arbitrator’s shotgun we see used in the video appears to have a very flat spread, similar to the IRL duck bill choke people have put on shotguns. This could be special ammunition, as was hinted at during announcement, or it could just be the shot pattern. (Or I’m just reading too much into it.)
The shotgun also appears to be pump action! The base game shotgun usually seems to be a semiautomatic system with an alternative pump mechanism (similar to the IRL SPAS-12), whereas the Arbitrators seem to actuate the pump each time they fire.
The maul doesn’t seem to be anything special, seeming to function similarly, if not the same to the current shock maul or the slab shield and maul used by the Ogryn.
The shot-pistol is kinda… self explanatory, in that it’s a big ass revolver that fires shotgun rounds. The fact that it can be used with the shield is a nice touch, although that was mentioned in the original announcement.
Props to the animators for the shield-pistol combo, though, who seemed to actually study how IRL operators balance using a a pistol and small shield. The arbitrators lift their pistol over the shield to aim while lowering the shield to protect the rest of their body, allowing them to aim and stay protected at the same time.
Finally, the shield! The shield seems to, of course, protect the body, but it seems to do more than that. In these pictures, on the right side of the window, we see a series of lights illuminated, almost like the heat indicator on the plasma gun, or the charge indicator on the lasguns.
When the arbitrator draws their shot pistol though, the lights turn off.
Either this is a neat piece of design work that is there for aesthetic… OR this has a purpose. What follows is my theory.
In the lore, the Arbites are equipped with something called a suppression shield, a riot shield capable of building up charge before expelling said charge towards the attacker, shocking or stunning them. The Arbites in Darktide may have some form of suppression shield that could shock or stun enemies, similar to the zealot’s stun grenade or the shock maul’s special attack.
It could also just be an interesting piece of design that has no actual functionality.
Either way, I’m super hyped for this update, and can’t wait to learn more on the 12th when we get a video that is longer than 30 seconds.
