Rats aren’t that bad. Sure they carry diseases, but if films and television have taught me anything they’re also great chefs and capable chat show hosts. We have absolutely no reason to hate them. At least that was the case before Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide. In it rats, or to be more accurate Skavens, have taken over the city of Ubersreik and are looking to make sure they keep the city in their control. Set during the End Times timeline in the Warhammer universe you choose between five different heroes, all with their own ways of playing. Some work great as an up close battering ram, helping to keep the hordes of Skaven at bay, others can pick them off from a distance. You can also customise your characters to change their main weapons and special items. It will take some trial and error but you’ll soon find your favourite character and favourite set up.
You’ll be playing through the game with your newly found favourite character and set up along with three others, preferably online. You can play with AI allies but they tend to be a bit temperamental when it comes to being useful, which can be frustrating. That being said like all games with an online focus you’ll end up in matches where your team will definitely fall short of expectations. This is part of the parcel of online gaming though and due to the game encouraging team work if you stick with the same team for long enough you’ll hopefully start to click.
Each level gives you an objective to get for completion. Some may require you traversing a level and holding off a group of enemies at the end. Others may see you collecting items and placing them somewhere to escape. Whatever level you play you will be impeded by various Skaven, including some special ones. It’s here that the similarities between the Left 4 Dead franchise shine through but that’s not necessarily a negative thing. After all the Left 4 Dead franchise remains one of the best examples of four person co-op gaming.
Many of the enemies work as a way to impede you and give you something to slash up but you should be able to defeat them by yourself in theory. It’s the Packmaster and the Gutter Runner classes that you have to be most careful of, for similar reasons to their Left 4 Dead counterparts. They really drive home the need for working together as a team. The Packmaster will grab you when you least expect it. Once caught you can’t escape and if your team are not near you then it’s almost definitely curtains. What makes the Packmaster even more intriguing is they can go after multiple allies, leaving you hung up to attack another. The Gutter Runner pins you to the floor until your incapacitated then moves on to another ally.
All can be going so well and then one quick special enemy onslaught can see you all on the floor, which means defeat. Obviously you don’t want that, you want victory. You get that by completing a level and, upon beating the level, you are given the chance to earn some loot. It’s a simple mini game where you press a button to roll some dice and, depending on how many matching symbols you have, win a weapon or something else for your characters.
The loot doesn’t always give you items for the class you’re playing though, which is a smart move. By doing this it encourages you to try out the other classes rather than sticking with just one. It’s a nice incentive that provides you with a bonus for beating levels that you may get use out of. The completion of a level also provides you the option to carry on to the next level, try a random level or go back to the hub to regroup. The hub in this case is a pub.
In the pub you can forge new weapons, look through your inventory, restock your ammunition or just absorb everything that has happened, or is going to happen. You can also trigger the kind of game you want to play. You can opt for quick play, which will match make you with a team. Alternatively you can pick the level you want to play and wait for others to join. You can also pick which game mode you want to play, the standard campaign mode or the Last Stand mode. The Last Stand mode is Vermintide’s answer to a horde mode.
The Last Stand mode was part of the post release DLC of the game on PC. The console version of Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide comes bundled with all of the post release DLC for the game to date. It makes it an attractive package for console players and feels like a game keen on building its community. The fact that a month after release there are still people playing the game online on the PlayStation 4 means that this tactic of giving the consumer a good deal might’ve actually paid off.
It’s not just the generosity of what’s included in the console version of the game that will keep people playing though. The game has that easy to pick up but difficult to master feel thanks to its numerous classes. There’s a large amount of levels to slash your way through and the AI director makes it so none of those playthrough’s are the exact same. Overall, Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is a pleasure to play on console. Hopefully it maintains its community to make sure it stays that way.