Darktide is my new cosy game

I recently wrote about how Ghost of Yotei had somehow become my cosy game of choice, a very lovely bucolic murder simulator. Now Yotei is honestly a beautiful game, everything about it, from the frigid mountains to the tall white grasses, is stunning. It's very easy to get lost in its open world, searching for fox shrines, clearing an enemy camp, climbing a mountain, all the while somehow both looking and performing out of this world.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is the complete antithesis to Yotei. It's an ugly, messy game. Despite its smeared in mud looks, it somehow runs like a Bulwark in, I don't know, what's 40k and goopy? Plague bile? Anyway, it's janky and buggy, enemies sometimes disappear with no warning, your character's head or torso may sometimes disappear because you dared to change your cosmetic items, voicelines often don't play, or, more annoyingly, play over the top of each other instead, and sometimes (incredibly aggravatingly, I might add) everyone just falls through the floor of the world which ends your run.

And yet I am somehow brought back to this game most evenings. I'm excited to put my feet up, load up my ugly as balls Psyker and blast away at some even uglier dudes for no real discernible reason, other than that they're just extra ugly maybe. The story is a barely legible, hacked-together mess, even when following the chapters in order. I just know that The Emperor says that we must fight, and so we do (I think this is quite a lore appropriate explanation to be honest).

I can't quite put my finger on what works either. It's not the best example of any of its systems. Nothing is explained particularly clearly. It has multiple currencies and systems which I've mostly ignored so far as they just get in the way of what's fun, which is just running with a bunch of randoms and hacking and shooting your way through seemingly neverending hordes.

My wife very much preferred Yotei with its cute foxes and calming music, she doesn't quite get the appeal of Darktide. She doesn't get why I can call it cosy, and I guess cosy is just the state of mind you get into when playing it. Let's look at it via the lens of food, often my favourite lens. Yotei is a lovely posh meal, you get dressed up, you're waited on hand and foot, you want to savour the sights and smells of the restaurant and the meal. Darktide is a takeaway when you're knackered and hungover, still in your dressing gown. It's curry and chips, it's a family-sized pepperoni pizza. It's just absolute dirt to help you recover from an ill-advised weekend out. I guess as long as you're full and satisfied, comfort is comfort.