Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is developer Fatshark's take on Games Workshop's grimdark universe and a refinement of the combat and gameplay of its earlier Vermintide titles. A first-person multiplayer cooperative game, each Darktide mission will see squads of four players (or, in their absence, AI bots) descend into the bowels of Hive City Tertium and purge the unclean Nurgle cults that dwell there. It's highly replayable and tense in a way not many horde shooters are. However, it isn't always up to the task of keeping a consistent frame rate, and we wish the production values were slightly higher.

Darktide employs a unique zone and mission structure to keep its exciting but ultimately repetitive gameplay fresh as long as possible. Over 20 missions occur across six large zones, occasionally reusing intersecting areas. The missions are objective-based and straightforward, but contain minimal downtime; expect a high-octane 20+ minutes in which you'll wade through relentless hordes of pestilential horrors, with the occasional warp-beast or daemonhost thrown in for good measure. Specialised enemies will disrupt, disable, and generally cause havoc among your squad, which is buffed by standing shoulder-to-shoulder and maintaining a tight formation.

For the Warhammer nerds, the plot is penned by legendary Black Library scribe Dan Abnett and so is about as legit as it gets, peppered with the kinds of details devotees will enjoy if a tad light on the actual plot. You choose one of four classes (Veteran, Zealot, Psyker, Ogryn), each with unique abilities and armaments. You'll eventually find yourself aboard the Mourningstar, an Imperial vessel used as a forward strike base in your fight against the Nurgle cultists.

It's easy to get lost in the moment when you're playing Darktide (some dropped frames during tense moments aside). Back-to-back, in the dark, with hordes of screaming plague zombies closing from all sides and the relentless dark techno soundtrack pounding away, it's fantastic stuff.

But you also spend a lot of time aboard the Mourningstar, tinkering with equipment through no fewer than four primary currencies used for purchasing and upgrading gear, with an additional premium currency for cosmetics. We appreciate the depth of the crafting and upgrade systems (each class gets a branching skill tree), but it can all be pretty fiddly and does eventually lose some shine.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a fantastic co-op shooter that occasionally struggles under strain. The human character models don't exactly look great, but the game delivers what matters: strong gameplay and an excellent atmosphere that's a blast to play with friends.