Recent reviews by Master of Convergence

Elden Ring is to Dark Souls what Darktide is to Vermintide, in the sense that, for a handful of reasons, these newer titles are more accessible or more readily appealing to gamers who aren't into these franchises already. For both games I had friends who said something like, "I understand the appeal, now." The combat is solid, visceral, cathartic. Every attack and ability feels good to use and is perfectly impactful.

Darktide's main appeal, in it's gameplay loop, is simultaneously it's downfall though. If you're familiar with emergent storytelling as a concept, I'd say Darktide has emergent combat scenarios, that keep the game fresh. Ultimately though, you can play as long as you enjoy that process. There isn't really anything to build towards, beyond nabbing acheivements and their cosmetic rewards. I've got 1308 hours clocked at this point and I would absolutely keep playing... for the joy of the it's combat and emergent combat scenarios. Without progression though, it can feel empty.
I think the Helldivers 2 playerbase fell off a cliff somewhat, when they came to realize there isn't much to play for beyond the joy of the combat alone. I hope that both games find a way give players more incentive, but that can be hard to do. Helldivers added a whole new enemy faction and it looks like it wasn't enough to bring many players back. Darktide probably isn't going to get a new enemy faction.

A vs mode may come to Darktide one day. A "Chaos Wastes" mode might come to Darktide one day. Until then, enjoy the loop of the same missions with the same classes and weapons, with only a woefully insufficient trickle of content to hold you over for the forseeable future. Havoc mode was supposed to help this. But no, I would say it wasn't worth the effort of implementing it, though it IS a little more something.

Fatshark unfortunately hasn't really proven they can expand on the systems they have in a satisfying way. Luckily the core gameplay loop is a good one.

Ah. No DLCs. Oops. Damnit. What a waste.