Warhammer 40k: Darktide offers Left 4 Dead-style storytelling with 75,000 lines of dialogue already written

A group of Darktide undead run towards the player

(Image credit: Fatshark)

Warhammer 40K: Darktide will maintain the Left 4 Dead-inspired storytelling style its developer borrowed for the Vermintide games, with over 75,000 lines of dialogue already written.

That comes from Edge, which spoke to Fatshark ahead of the game's big release later this year. The magazine confirms that Darktide employs the same storytelling system you get in Vermintide, which has its roots in Left 4 Dead. "We're doing an online action co-op game, so there are no traditional and great places to tell a story," game director Anders De Geer shares.

If you've been out of the loop, character chatter largely shapes the game's story during each mission. Conversation fleshes out one character's backstory and outlook on the world, develops one's relationship with another, and generally reflects what's happening with the story.

While Darktide has plenty in common with Vermintide, the developers are taking things to the next level this time around. Darktide's dialogue, for example, is even more expansive and complicated, with 75,000 lines and counting already written.

Some of the game's bigger design challenges, however, might surprise you. Edge explains that one of Darktide's four-player classes is eight feet high, making environmental design a pain for the developers. Fatshark mulled over a few ways they could accommodate the humble Ogryn, though the developer settled on doubling the height of doorways and adding extra space to room so they could pass through like the rest of us normal-sized folk.

You read more about the development of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide in the latest issue of Edge, which is on sale now.