It's been a few years since we first met our quintet of heroes in Ubersreik and now it's time for Fatshark's sequel to the excellent Warhammer: End of Times - Vermintide. What did Fatshark do to build this out in Warhammer: Vermintide 2 and is that all that we have hoped for?
The short answer is: yes. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is an improvement of its predecessor in virtually every way. We see more characters we love, more depth in terms of skills and possibilities, more 'loot', many new enemies and bosses and finally a new home base. The End Times (as we call it from now on) may have been a great replacement for the Left 4 Dead series, but this sequel really feels like the next step in the development of this wonderful concept.
The game starts with our heroes who are in trouble. They have been captured by Skaven - the rat men of whom we have slaughtered endless hordes in the last game - and are witnessing an alliance between their old enemies and the newcomers in the game, Chaos. However, these northerners are not as straightforward as the rats, as most of them can absorb much more damage. However, with the help of some old friends, the heroes succeed in escaping their new fort, the ruins of an ancient castle.
After this fire test, we encounter the first big change in the game. Just like last time, you can choose from five characters that you want to play. This time, however, it is a choice that carries more weight. In Warhammer: Vermintide 2 level your individual characters and not just your player profile. It is certainly no problem to change hero later on, but if you are low-level and do not have cool weapons, that is a clear handicap. It is therefore advisable to choose the hero you want to play with right from the start.
The individual level of each hero is important for two reasons. First, each fifth level plays different passive talents that you can adjust. These differ from carrying more ammunition and handing out more damage to a little bit faster. The second reason is that at level seven and twelve you release the second and third "career" of the characters. These may not be the same as the difference that a new character makes, since you can still use your hero's weapon, but they do provide new unique skills, passive bonuses and their own skill tree with talents. For example, if we look at the eleven Kerillian: your first career, Waystalker, gives you the opportunity to quickly get some target-seeking arrows and slowly 'health' getting back. With career number two, Handmaiden, you get the ability to pound through a number of enemies and do this damage, increasing the distance you take in evading enemies.
The different careers give you the opportunity to customize your characters as you want to play. If you do not like shooting from a distance then, for example, the dwarf Bardin's Slayer career is perfect. This is because you withdraw from long-distance weapons. If you prefer to pick out enemies quietly before they have seen you, for example, the soldier Kruber's Huntsman career is the right choice. It is probably best that we draw the line here and do not go too deep into the different abilities of all characters. We do not want to fully explain this. We can however ensure that this follow-up is much deeper than the first and also richer in content.
Not only are we dealing with brand new characters, but the Chaos are also new. It is no longer just hordes of small rat men that you have to worry about, but also crazy better, armored goliaths and wicked wizards. All the new enemies are very well designed and play different roles, which takes some time to get used to since we have killed almost only rats in End Times. For example, Skaven now has tanks in the form of huge, muscled super rats, and the Chaos faction's new wizard is a troublesome enemy who lifts up with his magic players and diminishes their health.
You can take on all these enemies in the three parts of the game. Each section has its own story and consists of three normal levels and one final boss. It does not matter in which order you approach it, but you have to play all three to clear the last level. Each part also has its own unique style in terms of environments, from the destroyed mountain town in the first to the wilderness of the second and the idyllic pastures of the third. In addition to the changing environments, the different levels offer an abundance of end goals. One gives you a mission to guide a car with gunpowder, while you have to liberate yourself in other prisoners. At a certain moment you have to hold out against various enemy attack waves.
Slaughtering countless enemies, be it Skaven or Chaos, is still as fun as in the first game. The range of weapons that you have at your disposal, thanks to the different 'classes', ensure that you can kill your enemies in many different ways, chop them in and cut them down. The swords, knives, spears, axes, hammers, rifles, pistols, bows, crossbows and magic rods that you get during the game makes planning a new mission feel like the scene from The Matrix, in which Neo and Trinity equip themselves completely to go. Do you want a slower weapon with more scope? Do you bring a shield? Do you want to shoot toxic arrows? Almost everything is possible if you are lucky enough to find the right 'loot'.
If you fancy more loot and more challenge then the levels also offer some secrets in the form of Tomes and Grimoires. These deliver you better loot at the end of the level, but also have enormous disadvantages. Picking up a Tome replaces, for example, when you are healing objects and picking up Grimoires drastically lowers the health bars of all players. It is up to you and your co-friends to determine whether the reward outweighs the risk. Both are, however, very entertaining and make the game more challenging without having to go into the menu and turn it on.
Tomes and Grimoires are not the only added challenges with which you can get started. There are also so-called Heroic Deeds, you can get them as loot after missions and they let you play a certain level with different enemy bonuses, of course with improved loot as a reward. This may mean that more enemy waves appear, more special enemies or that your health is constantly decreasing. We have learned hard that this Heroic Deeds is not something to do at the beginning of your adventure, because they require the necessary experience, lots and a higher level. To make a chance you have to provide the best equipment, such as armor piercing weapons.
In terms of design, Vermintide 2 is epic and exaggerated, exactly what it should be in the Warhammer world. For example, the Chaos warriors look brutal in their deranged armor and in general Fatshark has created an excellent entry point, especially for players who want to learn more about the Warhammer universe. Technically speaking, the game is extremely finished, even if your screen is completely full of enemies, gas clouds and explosions. However, it must be said that the game "froze" once and we also encountered some other minor technical problems.
As mentioned, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is almost the perfect sequel and Fatshark has improved the recipe on every level. Everything we loved in the first game can be found here, but there is more of everything: enemies, loot, activities, weapons and much more. The slaughter of hordes of enemies in the Warhammer world has never been more entertaining than here and as a fan of Warhammer, Left 4 Dead -like co-ops, or enjoyed the first one, is Warhammer: Vermintide 2 obligatory.
The plus and minus points
✔ Great design; technically good; much variation; fantastic design of enemies; lots of shoots; many weapons; great balance in difficulty.
✖ A few minor technical problems; some enemies show random behavior.
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