Vermintide

Today's subject is a new game on the market: Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide.

Although it is in pre-order status, it is in the final beta stage, otherwise I would have waited before buying. But I was curious and took the plunge. It paid off in spades.

For those who don't know, Warhammer is a fantasy setting created back in 1983 by Games Workshop, and I've been a huge fan ever since the late 80's myself. I practically grew up in the Warhammer world.

It's only relatively recently that we've started to see good Warhammer games on the PC. There have been some games before, but most weren't very good. The ones that were worth anything tended to be in the sci-fi sister setting, Warhammer 40.000. Now we seem to be getting them left and right. Total War Warhammer is out next year, or rather the first Total Warhammer game of three.

Vermintide take a lot of inspiration from the Left 4 Dead games. Let's be honest about that upfront. You could even go so far as to say Vermintide is a fantasy version of L4D. But it is also so much more. But basically, if you liked L4D, chances are high that you'll like Vermintide.

Now, Vermintide is a four player co-op game in which you and your team must battle hordes of Skaven in a gloomy and burning city in order to complete objectives. Skaven BTW, are human sized rat men. How cool is that?

Since the whole game isn't out yet, I can't give you a proper review, but I got to play the three first levels, and boy oh boy were they ever great.

The classes seem to work well together, I played as the Bright Wizard (fire wizard) and we had the Witch Hunter, Elf Wayfarer and the Dwarf Ranger. There is a fifth class; Empire Soldier, but we didn't really use him. Everyone has their own strengths that they bring to the table and no one felt out of place or useless.

The game so far plays great. Both the ranged and the melee aspects feel solid, and the game is gorgeous. Even on medium settings, it shines. The banter between the characters feels natural and the over all mood is wonderful.

When the whole game is out, I'll write up a full review, but so far, this game is amazing. Had it existed when I was a kid, I wouldn't have done much else.

Until next time, have a great week!