Amazingly true to the source material, with combat and action aplenty, and lots of rewards (loot!) for repeat play. Verminitide is the rat's whiskers. [Dec 2015, p.53]
The best parts of Payday 2 and Left 4 Dead in the gritty Warhammer fantasy universe, with a heavy emphasis on melee combat and loot. There’s tons here for co-op fans, and the emphasis on melee makes it stand out from the rest of the pack.
I have only played this game for about 15 hours so far, but I don't see me getting board anytime soon. There are five playable characters, each with their own pros and cons or perks and skills. There is an elven archer, a witch hunter (kind of like a priest), a basic knight, a sorceress, and a dwarven warrior. All of them have different weapons, every character has a ranged and a melee. The characters banter and pick at one another during the missions. Anyway I'm long winded, this is a great game. I'm really into the Mordheim universe so this game really is scratching an itch of mine.
First of all:
This game deserves a re-rating, because most of the ratings have been made during the first three month after release, complaining about problems which have already been fixed.
Why I LOVE Vermintide:
The best cooperation-mode and the best melee-combat system i've ever experienced in a game.
And it is SKILL-based, so YOU need to get better, not only your hero.
First person perspective is not exactly the best choice for melee combat – it’s hard to keep your bearings when all you see is a mess of rat bodies. Still, this inconvenience is more than compensated by execution: there are few things more awe-inspiring than seeing your sword separate skaven’s head from body, while your pal sends a whole bunch of them tumbling down the stairs with his huge hammer. [Issue#203, p.88]
Despite some disheartening bugs, Vermintide is much more than a mere Left 4 Dead clone: relentless action, endless waves of enemies and true co-op action makes it worthy of your time.
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide seems like an eerie, well-done Left 4 Dead mod on the surface. But players that soldier through disheartening dice rolls will find a replacement for their co-op and loot-driven needs, Warhammer fan or not.
Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is an enjoyable game, albeit a shameless Left 4 Dead clone. I’ve had fun in my 30+ hours gameplay beating most of the missions in normal difficulty and then playing through all missions in hard. That said, I could not help but feel embarrassed on behalf of the developers who were not just influenced by Left 4 Dead, but simply cloned it with some added features in a Warhammer Fantasy skin. I am not going to go into details of the similarities to Left 4 Dead, you will know what I am talking about as soon as you watch a gameplay video.
The differences are the focus on melee combat and plenty of loot that require grinding to unlock, which enable you to play the same missions in harder difficulties. The setting is very beautiful and atmospheric. The voice acting of characters are as good as Left 4 Dead, if not better.
I am not really into grinding based video games and was quite frustrated by Vermintide in that regard. The weapons do make a lot of difference and you have to grind through the same missions over and over in order to -realistically- unlock a good weapon. This is not a deal breaker if you are -like me- ok with putting the game aside after 30-40 hours. But if you wish to beat the game in other difficulty settings, the game will probably get very repetitive to the point that it is just boring.
DLCs are a mixed bag with some good missions here and there and some very bad ones, Karak Azgaraz being arguably the best among them. However, none of the DLCs are worth the price point, which in my point are very overpriced for adding 2-3 maps.
Overall, you can give Vermintide a go if you are a die hard Left 4 Dead fan who want more of almost the same or if you are looking for a game to play co-op with friends. On the other hand, it is such a shameless clone that I cannot give it a higher rating.
Very fun game, when it works. Lots of bugs. After reducing all CPU-intensive graphics to off or low it works decently. Still freezing my computer several times after finishing long rounds resulting in 0 xp or rewards. Quite annoying to spend a long mission on your toes then having your computer freeze or getting a message saying "Connection to Steam lost" when you're about to receive your rewards.
Spam click one button. Walk around in a semi ambulatory pace. Little variation.
What is good. Nice voices, environments look appropriate, well presented.
What in not so great? I was bored in 2 hours (and I really wanted to like it). It just boring. Bland and boring and I couldnt find any reason to keep playing.
They could not be bothered to create proper resolution to support monitor field of view but instead put a Field of View slider in a game with console field of view designed textured. (So you get that fish eye view) instead of any reasonable natural feeling field of view.
The biggest let down is the combat. It is utterly involved. This company created fantastic combat in a medieval setting in games like War of the roses and this is the best they could come up with? 1 button spam and zero immersion. How did this get any half decent reviews?.