It’s still great fun. Skaven enemies fall
apart in satisfying, cold sausage
chunks. The randomized swarming
elements make every level worth
replaying. And the stern difficulty
feels like a genuine test of your
planning and
teamwork, especially
when the game starts
peppering you with
specialist enemies. But
for me, the thing that
still stands out is the
detail and adoration for
the world—something
glimpsed from afar in
the likes of Total War: Warhammer,
but explored here in close detail.
You’re often too busy hammering rats
to appreciate it, but it’s there if you
stop and explore.
I played loads of Vermintide, but
never finished it. And, at the time of
writing, there’s something especially
appealing about teaming up with a
group of friends, heading to a cosy
T
here was a time, far back in the World-That-Was of 2013-ish,
when the thought of a buddy comedy set during the
destruction of the Warhammer world would have felt
impossible. Warhammer Online was dying. Mediocre 40k
games erupted onto Steam like boils. And then Vermintide
appeared, clutching a brace of ideas borrowed from Left 4 Dead, and
Warhammer fans once again began to believe in the power of prayer.
bar, and battering the everliving piss
out of plague-carrying rats. It’s also a
reminder of how much fun online
gaming can be with the right group
of people. You’ll know a true friend
when the only thing they care about
is how much damage
their shield soaked up.
Speaking of which,
one of the best bits of
Vermintide remains the
interaction between its
oddball heroes. There
are some lines that still
sing, even when you’re
hearing them for the
100th time. Victor Saltzpyre’s
officious, upset music teacher, “Let’s
not get carried away!” is a particular
favorite. And, best of all for a lifelong
Warhammer dork, there’s no dilution
here. Bardin the Dwarf calls out his
warnings in broken Khazalid, and, it’s
on you if you don’t know what the
dwarf word for ‘rat ogre’ is. (It’s
pretty obvious.)Vermintide somehow still works
despite the annoyances. The most
difficult levels take place across
narrow beams and rickety bridges,
and being knocked off them often
leads to a party wipe. It can be
staggeringly imprecise at times, most
notably when you’re struggling to
yank a downed teammate back into
the game. And the loot system is
miserly to the point of belligerence—
even the toughest levels will only
reward you with middling gear.FORGIVENESS
But it’s an easy game to forgive. In
much the same way that the
disparate adventurers in the game
pull together despite wretched
circumstances, it’s fun to weather
Vermintide’s idiosyncrasies. Some
levels can start with a wipe almost
immediately, but it’s still enough fun
that you can sigh, chalk it up to unfair
circumstances, and head back in with
dogged optimism of a dwarf after a
barrel of Bugman’s.NEED TO KNOW
WHAT IS IT?
Left4Dead’s pest
control DLC
EXPECT TO PAY
$30
DEVELOPER
Fatshark
PUBLISHER
In-house
REVIEWED ON
Intel Core i7-7700 CUP
@ 3.60GHz, 16 GB RAM,
NVIDIA GeForce GTX
1070, Windows 10
MULTIPLAYER
Online co-op
LINK
bit.ly/2xRjuSt75
Gloriously messy and
unrepentantly tough,
Vermintide is a
workmanlike
multiplayer classic.VERDICTRATS ENTERTAINMENT
Revisiting a lost planet in WARHAMMER: THE END TIMES—VERMINTIDE
It’s also a
reminder of
how much fun
online gaming
can beOLD GAMES REVISITED by Matthew Elliott
THEY’RE BACK
“Thrakzulk would sometimes stare out
to sea and remember home-home.”