Shadow of Mordor writer working on Warhammer 40K: Darktide

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor writer Dan Abnett will be taking on Vermintide developer Fatshark's new co-op game, Warhammer 40K: Darktide.

Abnett is a well-known quantity in the Warhammer world, having written the ever-popular Gaunt's Ghosts series, which focused on the ground level infantry in conflict. That makes him an excellent fit for the premise of Darktide, which will charge a team of humans with taking on the darkest dangers of the universe.

Darktide looks to be developer Fatshark taking what worked for them in Warhammer: Vermintide and its 2018 sequel, and implanting it into the Warhammer 40k setting. Like Vermintide, the four player co-op game will see players using abilities and weapons to fight back (or through) hordes of enemies. This time around it seems that a heretical cult called the Admonition will be the leading antagonist of the game.

Abnett is featured in a new video announcing his involvement with the project, where he outlines the vision for these characters. Players will start out in prison but will be recruited by the Inquisition and then go on missions to prove their worth to the powerful organisation.

You can check out the story's basic premise in the trailer below:

Warhammer 40K: Darktide is expected to launch later this year on PC and Xbox Series X/S.

While Abnett's work in comics and books is extensive, he also has a deep background in games. In fact, he was one of the main writers behind the Orcs in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. The Nemesis System in that game personalised orcs the players would fight against, creating storied adversarial relationships that grew as you travelled through Middle-Earth.

Speaking to PC Gamer, Abnett reveals that it was a genuinely difficult process to work on so many unique and evolving characters. "I can't remember, I think the first time around it was 60 [orcs], there was more the second time."

"I have to say, once you get past about 30 orcs you're really struggling to think about, 'What can a different orc be? How can I do this in a different way?' But it was fun."

Abnett surely has the credentials to bring the big personalities that exist in the Warhammer 40K universe to life. Hopefully, the personalisation, especially of the four main characters are as impactful and memorable as what we saw in the Shadow of Mordor series. It seems that Darktide might be in some safe hands.

If the grim darkness of the far future isn't your jam, here are some more of the best multiplayer games.