An overly indulgent review of Darktide's new class: the Skitarii
The Skitarii finally arrive in Darktide, but it takes some time and training to make them work in a mission.
Ever since Fatshark announced they would be adding new classes to Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, fans have been raucously demanding representation from the Adeptus Mechanicus. Darktide is a Left 4 Dead-style shooter set in a massive Hive City on an embattled planet dealing with an infestation from the plague god Nurgle. The original four characters were rejects, losers who were hastily recruited to serve as a disposable kill squad: the Psyker, the Veteran, the Zealot, and the Ogryn.
That core fantasy of being a fucked up little guy in the grimmest, darkest sci-fi universe around mostly holds up, and was pretty well reinforced with the Hive Scum class, but the Arbites — a Judge Dredd-style enforcer from the Imperium’s FBI equivalent — started to raise the power scale. Now, players can pick up the Skitarii, transhuman soldiers who are bionically enhanced and equipped with the finest firepower the forges of Mars can muster.
Is it worth paying fifteen bucks to play as a Skitarius? (That’s the singular of Skitarii.) Let’s get into it.
Creation and composure
Playing a Skitarius at lower levels sucks. They’re one of the weakest classes when it comes to ammo management and overall durability. This is obviously mitigated by spending talent points on abilities that bulk the player up, but when you’re just giving the class a spin, it’s rough. This isn’t helped by the fact that they roll out with the Galvanic Rifle, an iconic design from the tabletop that, sadly, feels pretty piddly on the battlefields of Atoma.
The Galvanic Rifle, the Mechanicus Power Sword, and a few other of the Skitarii weapons look high-tech, shimmering with arc energy or looking like they’ve been ornately crafted by master craftsmen. But in action, these weapons feel only as good as, or perhaps worse than, the Veteran’s arsenal. There’s no quick reload with augmented limbs, no sense of extra killing power. When the class is sold as an elite robotic super-soldier that has traded their humanity for sheer killing power, this feels pretty bad.
The saving grace for this fantasy is character creation, which starts with you customizing a naked torso, hanging off a hook with augmented limbs and support systems attached to its frail, withered form. Customizing those augmented limbs, fine tuning the correct mechanical filter over Skitarius’ chosen personality, and draping a robe and armor over that mangled torso goes a long way in selling the fantasy. Yes, there technically is a person under all that, but even the friendliest of the Skitarii personalities struggle to connect with any other class.