So, I can't help myself, I knew I should of waited another week for it, but I just couldn't, I broke down and bought Vermintide 2 to get access to the beta and I'm both happy and regret it at the same time, I'm happy because it's an amazing game, but I regret it that I now have to wait even more anxiously for the full release in a week, playing the beta didn't do quell my appetite for the game, if anything it made it worse, so today i'm going to be reviewing the basics of the game which were in the beta and obviously will be in the main game.
It's been a while since iv'e done a full in-depth review on something but iv'e decided to do it for Vermintide 2 as it really is an awesome game that game developers making sequels should take a look at since it fixes a lot of problems the first game had and also enhances and adds in things from the first game, so lets get right into the Vermindtide 2 review!
Welcome back to the vermin apocalypse.
Very little is known about the story post Vermintide on what happened to the heroes of Ubersreik save for that they stemmed the vermintide for a time after the Grey Seer was killed in the final act of Vermintide 1, however it has been rumored that the remaining skaven decided that with the loss of their leader they needed to reach out to other forces of the end times, the skaven made a pact with the northland tribes of chaos known as the rotbloods who have attacked the empire for centuries to join them in the conquest of the empires lands moving further into empire territory, attacking towns, forests and supply outposts, encircling the lands of the reik itself.
Since not all acts are available in the beta it's not known what happens to cause the Skaven to renew their attacks, the only thing that's for certain is that they have increased drastically in numbers and paired with the chaos tribes of the north have now besieged numerous towns and slaughtered everything in their wake leaving nothing but corpses in their wake, the five heroes of the Ubersreik take up the call once again and journey to the reikwald and it's surrounding lands to once again try and put an end to the crusade by the Skaven, however with their "leader" apparently dead it's unknown how the skaven are amassing such huge numbers or how they managed to barter a treaty with the chaos tribes.
While the full story isn't available just yet, Vermintide isn't really known for it's great story line or progression of it, it's known for it's gameplay and immense enjoyment, so lets jump right into that now.
Much like Vermintide 1, Vermintide 2 is a massive exploration sandbox game with some pretty amazingly big maps, what I thought was a huge map was apparently the smallest map in the game which is still pretty god damn huge when compared to the previous games maps that were also big, the maps are non linear and can be approached from different angles that reap different rewards or can spell death for your party, as the maps have increased so to have the enemies with massive waves of enemies throwing themselves at you at any given time and having most of the map pretty populated with static enemies.
Consisting of 4 players per team, you have to fight your way through specific objectives to reach the end of the map all though Vermintide 2 does a lot better job of making the experience more fun, exploring can yield more results than taking the quickest path to the objective but exploration has it's own downfalls as you might anger a huge swarm of enemies to come and attack you and with limited supplies per map, every bit of health lost hurts in the long run especially on the hardest difficulty(which is really hard) while only Act 3 was available it's easy to see that the other acts will probably be more intense as act 3 largely takes place in farm lands or open area's, getting into a city is going to be hell.
The actual gameplay of Vermintide 2 is largely the same, slashing your way through massive hordes of vermin(and chaos now) to try and find an end to the Vermintide, all classes are unique in their abilities but have the same overarching narrative, kill everything that moves, whether you're burning them from afar or slicing through dozens of them with a sword, the game play of Vermintide 2 hasn't changed much from Vermintide 1 rather it has been expanded on and made a lot smoother and more enjoyable, characters like the Witch Hunter and The Waywatcher were usually used as support to seek out special enemies, now however they can excel on the front line chopping enemies heads off one by now.
However like I said, the game play is a lot smoother than number 1 and it has a lot to do with the characters themselves and their career paths they can now take, the 5 champions of the Ubersreik campaign are back but this time they have some added bonuses this time around however they have different career paths available to them that can radically change how your game is played and how your party works together, lets have a look at the classes and their upgrades below.
For more game play you can check out my Vermintide 2 game play video over on Dlive at https://www.dlive.io/video/cryptokrieg/8b515c5e-1e46-11e8-8d9c-0242ac110002
Ignore the flickering at the start of the video, OBS didn't like it being in full screen borderless.
One thing people complained about in Vermintide was that the classes felt rather clustered, being forced into a play style you don't like is never a great thing, thankfully the developers over at fatshark listened to the community and decided to do classes in a bit of a different way this time, while the standard classes still exist and can be played for as long as you want, there is now a career path system that allows you to morph your character into a completely different play style depending on how you want to play the game, some of them are truly awesome and fun to play while sometimes, old favorites just can't be beaten, regardless lets take a look at them.
The 5 champions of the ubersreik are back and better than ever, lets have a look at them, their play style and their upgraded career abilities.
Markus Kruber - Empire Soldier
Kruber makes his return to Vermintide in a big way, often being the front line with sword and shield, Markus has been changed at the early start of his career to either be a marksman or a front line warrior, wielding a blunderbuss or a great sword either of which can tear through the hordes of vermin coming at him and take designated shots at far away enemies, however after the events of the Vermintide, Markus is now equipped with new career paths that take him in a different direction.
Huntsman
Markus has taken his love of ranged shooting to a new level as the Marksmen, doing away with his swords and shields and instead focusing on ranged attacks and inflicting the most damage possible he now possesses the ability to disappear into the shadows and reappear to ambush foes, his passive ability also changes so that each headshot he performs recovers a bullet for him to use for even more headshots.Foot Knight
The be all and end all for defensive measures, Markus takes up his trusty shield once more only this time becoming an impenetrable wall for him and his allies, his very presence inspires his team mates reducing their damage taken from all sources , increasing their stamina and taking considerable less damage for himself, in a pinch he can charge forward through the ranks slamming enemies to the ground to save teammates or to clear a way for himself.
Kerilian - Waywatcher
Our favorite drunken Irish Elf is back with more blades than you can count, Kerillian brings her ranged and melee expertise back to the group as she aims to show off to the rest of the party by surviving wounds that would kill others and dodging the most brutal of attacks, she also has the ability to rain arrows down on the masses, pinning them to the ground for the rest of the party to clean up, however she now has a new bag of tricks for the party.
Handmaiden
Kerilian, now softened by the parties unity decides to focus on aiding her friends rather than competing with them, she now dances her way through the battlefield vastly increasing her dodge, giving allies increased stamina regeneration and now will sacrifice her own health to revive a team mate, the Handmaiden is a bit strange as while she's a great addition to the team, her next career path is a way bigger boon.Shade
Kerilian now takes her elven reflexes and melee prowess to a new level, vastly increasing her melee damage and gaining the ability to annihilate foes from behind, her special ability Infiltrate allows her to slip past the front lines and reappear behind the enemies to slaughter them with daggers in brutal fashion, as the shade, Kerilian can take on entire hordes of Skaven and Chaos with her critical strikes killing even the most powerful foes in a singular hit.
Sienna Fuegonasus - Bright Wizard
Sienna and her angry brand of fire wielding destruction are back and better than ever, while still a hot head(no pun intended) her increased fire damage can incinerate massive hordes of the vermintide or rushing forward leaving a trail of blazing flames in her wake, however she has to be careful as the fire that burns inside her can still burn her alive if used to frequently and must also rely on her staff to take enemies out, that is until she decides to choose a different career path.
Pyromancer
Now fully embracing the fire within her, Sienna takes on the role of the Pyromancer, a one woman army of flames and destruction that can utterly destroy anything that moves, playing devils advocate with the fire that burns inside her, her overcharge ability can now reach catastrophic levels of self damage but at the payoff of incinerating entire towns of enemies, further embracing her control over fire she can send out spears of fire that home in on individual targets, piercing them and burning them from within and without, a great addition to the party no doubt.Unchained
Not even pretending to care about herself anymore, Sienna takes the path of the Unchained, a violently dangerous path of self destruction and reward, her overcharge ability now grants her increased damage and range as well as a lot more physical prowess with a sword or staff but her ultimate ability is what sets her a part, literally becoming a pillar of flame, Sienna approaches critical mass before exploding in a massive fireball completely decimating anything in the vicinity o her, the only downside is that she does take a lot of damage and will often chew up healing supplies or need to be revived quite frequently, still extremely fun to play.
Bardin Goreksson - Dwarf Ranger
Small and violent, Bardin returns with a retinue of ranged attacks and massive cleaving melee hits, seemingly able to find ammo anywhere for his guns, Bardin scours the battlefield for specialist enemies to take down to replenish his ranged supplies, but if caught out can produce a massive great axe that will cleave through any numbers of enemies to get him out a tight spot, if all else fails he'll throw a smoke bomb on the ground and use his small size to his advantage to escape in the ensuing chaos, but Bardin has been training just like the rest of his party to become the best he can be in his new career choices.
- Ironbreaker
To quote Warhammer Online.
The easiest way to incur a grudge from a dwarf is to strike out against their kin or comrades, this grudge born fury is what drives the stout mass of metal and muscle that is the Ironbreaker.
Bardin assumes the role of the Ironbreaker, a steel clad warrior that can absorb unbelievable amounts of damage, as the ironbreaker Bardin can completely absorb some attacks, has increased stamina and stun resistance and takes significantly decreased damage, if that wasn't enough however if he so chooses he will taunt every enemy available to attack him while blocking every attack they have to throw at him for a small amount of time, an amazing addition to the party on hard difficulties.
- Slayer
The slayers have a long lineage of racking up kills and dying early, Bardin decides to go down this career path doing away with useless things like safety and armor and instead rushes into the fray with two axes and nothing but his hatred, the more he fights the more instep he becomes with the battle increasing his damage to hilarious proportions and will even leap into massive hordes of enemies, stunning them and slicing away again, great for clearing monster hordes, but be prepared to revive him a lot.
Victor Saltzpyre - Witch Hunter
Old One-Eye is back and lusting to punish heretics even more now with the addition of the chaos tribes joining the fray, Victor can single out specific enemies and accuse them of heresy, gaining significant damage increases on that person for him and all his party, when backed into a corner, the power of sigmar allows his to shove all enemies back and knock them to the ground in a righteous display of faith, but Victor has a more sinister side that has come out lately that allows him to go to some different places in the career path.
Bounty Hunter
In many ways the Bounty Hunter is a lot like a Witch Hunter, except for where Witch hunters seek out heresy to purge, the Bounty Hunter seeks to purge everything, firing blessed bullets by the priests of sigmar he gains the ability to critically strike an enemy every few shots, also his training with firearms have given him a very quick reload time and allows him to carry more ammo, in a pinch though Victor can size up the competition and fire a massive shot that will pierce through anything in it's way, where the bullet stops, not even Victor knows.Zealot
The dark side of unwavering faith is zealotry, Victor takes his devotion to purging heresy one step further in his blind zeal allowing him to fight harder and longer the more injured he is as his unwavering devotion to sigmar reinforces his will to live, sometimes it is so strong he will even resist death itself and survive blows that should kill even the most ironclad warrior, his zealotry knows no bounds and even the strongest enemies can't protect themselves against his mighty blows and when faced with a massive horde will charge head first into them in a frenzy gaining increased attack speed, killing everything that doesn't recognize the awesome might of Sigmar.
Whatever your preferred class in Vermintide 2, there's something for everyone, personally I play the Zealot and the slayer as there's nothing better than running into hordes of skaven and utterly destroying them with blades, but for some people who like to take it a bit slower, Markus and his ranged weapons or Sienna and her fire may be more your style, the one thing I can say for certain though is that the classes have had a lot of thought put into them and work extremely well with each other regardless of your final combination.
One thing I always look for in a sequel is "Does this game do it better than the original" and iv'e gotta say it really does, Vermintide 2 expands in all different directions from class design, level design, enemy AI, visuals and optimization, Vermintide 2 has launched in a very very stable state.
Now i'm going to state this out loud first so people can understand this, i'm playing this on ultra in 2K and have had no problems with it it's incredibly smooth, smoother than the first one, the reviews saying it has optimization problems are either from people playing the game on old hardware or trying to maximize too much when their system can't handle it, just throwing that out there because iv'e seen that complaint floating around and iv'e gotta outright say it's bullshit, anyway.
One thing i'm very big on is the streamlined nature of the game in all aspects, nothing feels like a grind or feels like it's taking to long, crafting and upgrading gear is smooth and takes a few minutes at most, match making and game loading are also quick and the maps and game itself have no transition times and act seamlessly between areas, given the big nature of the maps it's pretty interesting from a technical point of view on how they managed to get a game that looks this great with that many separate things on a screen at any given time run smooth(seriously, sometimes there's hundreds of enemies roaming around).
One of my biggest gripes for gaming has been when companies release games with their fundamentals not extremely stable, Vermintide 2 doesn't have this problem and while some people may say certain features "lack" content like crafting and equipment, you don't really care all that much since it's a big improvement from number one and because you don't have to sit around waiting for load screens all the time or endlessly farm individual items for a chance to make something, even the loot boxes are great as they rely on how you do in game rather than any meta gaming influence, if you play on the hardest difficulty, find all the tomes, don't take much damage and survive you'll get a chance at some amazing loot.
Ultimately this is how a sequel should be, focusing on the core aspects of the game and dialing them up to 11 with the intent to make them the absolute best they can be without compromising your need to move forward, too many times games add too much to a sequel while neglecting the core aspects, I can safely say that Vermintide 2 has struck an awesome balance between adding new content, refreshing old content and balancing them so that they don't clash, in other words they got it very very right in my opinion.
So it's not often that I give a fresh "AAA" title a glowing review right out of the gate so you might be asking what's changed, is it my fanboy obsession with Warhammer? maybe, is it my fanboy obsession with smart game design and creation? also maybe, but I think the main reason iv'e given it such a positive review is that it's just a fucking awesome game to play and enjoy, iv'e had so much fun in the beta with only 3 maps that I can already see myself playing a stupid amount of this game when it officially releases in a few days, their beta test is what beta tests should be, while not giving away all of the game it gives you more than enough to make a choice on whether to keep it or not and in my case gave me enough to do a massive review.
But in the interest of fairness there are some reasons people may not enjoy Vermintide 2, while the game does have an explorative identity, some people may not like the replay value of the game, while there will initially be more content than you can handle it will drop off soon as you finish the campaign and load it up in different difficulties, personally I love that aspect as the higher difficulties feel like a new game, but I could understand why people wouldn't like this game for a long time when you're replaying the same levels.
Likewise the difficulty of the game at higher levels is pretty brutal, I mean it's not really a "Matchmaking" kind of game on Champion level more of a get 3 other friends and scream at each other on teamspeak, that may throw a few people off but again, personally I think it's great that there are some huge swings in difficulty that really require a lot of skill to complete and with the obvious DLC coming up are going to get a lot harder as time goes by.
But look here's the thing, I can't tell you if you'll enjoy this game or not, all I can do is give you my experience and the information to see if you want to try it out or not, I'm loving the game and so are a lot of friends and i'm probably going to be playing it for the next week straight but it ultimately comes down to your own tastes in gaming, I will say though that objectively there's not much to argue about in the technical department or game play department as FatShark have done a really incredible job putting this together.
Vermintide 2 releases in it's full glory on March 8th, so hopefully this review has given you some info on whether to play it or not, either way i'll be on the fields of glory killing as many skaven and chaos as I can come that day!
