Venturing Back Into The End Times In Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Since Games Workshop decided to allow multiple developers to make games based on their Warhammer franchises, there have been a few standout titles. Amongst the best is Warhammer End Days: Vermintide – a Left 4 Dead style game that looked phenomenal and was fun to play. During our time with the Closed Beta of the sequel, it was clear they’d followed the mantra of it being bigger, better, and meaner.

Fundamentally it’s relatively unchanged, down to the same five characters being playable, with the biggest change being that there are now variant builds for each of them. While I didn’t get the opportunity to try these out since you need to be at a certain level to unlock them, the three variants per character means, for example, that those that like their dwarves a bit more tank-like may have some more relevant options as the game progresses.

Each of the three levels took place in a vastly different looking place. The first area should be somewhat familiar in its urban setting, but the second has players go through a forest and into a cave, while the third heads through a farmstead. All the while there are Skaven and the Chaos forces of Nurgle trying to stop your progress.

One thing each of them had in common was that they were well-designed levels that are very pretty to look at. In fact, the improvements may seem minor at first glance, but the lighting is more natural and when bumped up to maximum settings on my PC it was simultaneously the best running and best looking game I’d played on it to date.

As I alluded to earlier, this time around the party must battle not just the Skaven, but Chaos as well. This means that there are some rather beefy normal enemies that don’t drop as quickly as the lowly Skaven, but there are also more of the unique enemies that can quickly turn things into a living nightmare. Wizards for example create tornados that follow the party around, while Chaos Warriors can prove difficult to take down thanks to their armour and heavy attacks.

That isn’t to say the Skaven have been doing nothing to advance their ranks though. Among the adversaries from the first game come a few new variants – one with a flamethrower instead of a gatling gun, while an upgraded Rat Ogre called the Stormfiend can prove a challenge to take down. Nurgle’s Chaos forces also have their own big monsters such as the Bile Troll who vomits corrosive liquid to damage foes. There’s more besides these, but they each come with their own tactics that must be adapted to.

With all of these new enemies, it’s still very hard when players have base equipment. Eventually though I was able to beat two of the three campaign missions on offer in the beta and had a great time; even when I was dying. As such, the only real thing that stood out as something to resolve is a minor issue involving the dwarf not being able to see above the crops in the farmstead level.

After each rank up or completed level, I was given some loot in the form of a crate that improved on its contents depending on items obtained throughout the level. As far as I can tell, there are no indications that this will be purchasable with microtransactions, so the fact that there’s new weapon and armour sets within doesn’t seem too excessive an idea for progression. In fact, the loot contained scaled with the character’s growth. Together with talent trees and crafting, the sense of progression seems improved a tad.

Matchmaking is something that Fatshark are keen to point out has been improved and even when playing both in private or public games that feature dedicated servers, I only had one instance where the game dropped out. It was an isolated issue that just required a restart though. Games ran smoothly and while there was the occasional frame drop, this was only when things got incredibly busy on screen.

The three of us who played it here at TSA all thoroughly enjoyed the experience of butchering tons of Ratmen and Northmen alike. There’s a much improved sense of polish with this much anticipated sequel and while the base idea was never wholly original, it improves enough on the formula with fresh ideas to really stand out on its own. With just over a week until its release date, we’ve not got long to wait before we can jump back into the slaughter.

4 Comments

  1. “a minor issue involving the dwarf not being able to see above the crops in the farmstead level”

    This has got to be one of the more entertaining and bizarre issues to slip through QA!

    • But surely something they can’t change?! I think it actually added to the world-building!

      • That’s not what you said during our session Dom.

  2. No! But if you’re a Dwarf, you have to live with the consequences of being unbelievably cool while not seeing through the field of hay.

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