Hands on with Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide

By David Haughton

Okay nerds, let’s quickly get this out the way so we can talk about the game. Yes, Age of Sigmar is rustling people’s jimmies, some to a more… firey degree than others. So hopefully the recent slew of “classic” Warhammer Fantasy will satiate your bloodlust. Whether or not Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide can be added onto that list is a bit 50/50 bet right now.

The lazy way to describe Vermintide is that its essentially Left 4 Dead with its guns and zombies replaced with blades and ratmen, and a loot and crafting system thrown in for good measure. You play as one of five different heroes in a four person team as you battle your way through legions of Skaven with all manner of melee and ranged weapons.  You’ll encounter the basic clan and slave rats who can be easily dispatched with a few blows. Among these is the heavily armoured, elite Stormvermin; the stalking Gutter Runner assassins of Clan Eshin; the minigun toting Ratling Gunner, and the fearsome Rat Ogre, among others. Each have special abilities that can incapacitate lone players or make them regret bunching up to close together. So far, so Left 4 Dead.

“The lazy way to describe Vermintide is that its essentially Left 4 Dead with its guns and zombies replaced with blades and ratmen…”

What helps set Vermintide apart from Left 4 Dead is the heroes. Each one plays slightly differently, and I enjoy the nice little touches they have added such as the Bright Wizard having to manage her temperature, and the Dwarven Ranger’s camera being lower than the others. The combat is solid enough. Melee isn’t as visceral as I’d have liked it, but its not as floaty and unsatisfying as FPS melee combat so often is. Ranged combat is a little bit iffy right now. Targeting with arrows isn’t quite right and hit indicators showing even when the enemy is dead means you’ll occasionally waste a few shots. The coach gun feels near useless unless you stick it right up a Skaven’s arse before firing. The Skaven themselves are impressive as they chitter and mutter curses about “filthy man-things” while skittering along walls and rooftops to get to you. There is a nice variety to them visually so they all look slightly different at a glance, but not that it matters in the swirling melee.

The level design is a bit of a hit and miss so far; visually impressive but a tad unbalanced for gameplay in areas. Ubersreik is a lovingly realised city for what little of it you see. The prologue level involving the Horn of Magnus is a standout of the three I got to try. The comically massive horn, haphazardly sticking out of a crumbling tower, captures the absurdly surreal, yet bleak world of Warhammer.

“The comically massive horn, haphazardly sticking out of a crumbling tower, captures the absurdly surreal, yet bleak world of Warhammer“

The gameplay itself was satisfying, but the missions a bit underwhelming beyond the prologue. I rarely played more than one game before taking a break, but found myself coming back for another match in a few hours which is a good sign. The loot system seems rather redundant since the differences I saw were minimal (minus the changed fighting style) and the traits don’t seem to help much. But its early days and I didn’t get to see the higher tier stuff. On a personal note, having five heroes but only four players really niggles me. Why not just balance the game for five players? Although, I do hope this means they will add additional characters in future; Vermintide is the sort of game that would easily benefit from ongoing support in the form of expansions and content updates.

I did run into a lot of bugs: enemies not reacting to my presence, people glitching through walls, subtitles just freaking the absolute hell out when two people talk at the same time. With a release date only a few weeks away, Fatshark have their work cut out for them. But there were no crashes at least ,and I got a solid 60fps at all times on high settings.

“I did run into a lot of bugs; enemies not reacting to my presence, people glitching through walls, subtitles just freaking the absolute hell out when two people talk at the same time”

Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is in a good position to be a solid game – if Fatshark can work out all the kinks. I hope that the 10 additional missions in the full release up the ante a bit and fully realise the absurdity of the Warhammer universe and show more of a plot than “go here, kill that” that is currently on display. Hopefully we come back to Vermintide on its full release and can give it a hearty recommendation.