This article originally ran under a different banner/website in September of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! As we march ever forward in this solemn year, I, the Video Game Doomsayer, feel the end ever creeping onward. I am not just talking about the end of video games, I believe the end of all things is looming around the corner. Why do I believe this? Well, my loyal followers, I believe the end is nigh because I have been playing more multiplayer games; a definitive sign that the end is near. As a self-proclaimed hermit, I have always turned my back on multiplayer games as I have always preferred to play alone. However, as the year continues to take its toll, I have found enjoying some games with friends to be rather… comforting. Even with the knowledge that this is one of the signs of the apocalypse, I am still swayed to join the few friends I have in some casual gaming. One of the games that I have taken fancy to is Warhammer: Vermintide II. A fitting choice considering that game’s world is on the brink of an apocalypse as well.
Set in the Warhammer universe, a Skaven clan known as Clan Fester has teamed up with the Chaos clan known as the Rotblood in an attempt to destroy the human race and its various allies. Our only hope rests on the shoulders of our five heroes: Bardin Gorekosson, a dwarf warrior, Kerillian, an elven ranger, Victor Saltzpyre, a human witch hunter, Sienna Fuegonasus, a human Bright Witch, and Markus Kruber, a human soldier. They must perform guerilla-style missions in an attempt to slowly drain the clans of their power in order to prevent them from wiping out the human race.
The story might seem like your generic good vs evil plot, but the characters make up for that. You really get the sense that these five heroes don’t like each other, but have accepted that they can’t take on the legions of Skaven alone. Some will freely joke amongst themselves, others will be quick to make petty jabs at each other. A prime example of this is Saltzpyre and Fuegonasus. Prior to the events of Vermintide I & II, Saltzpyre had taken Fuegonasus as his prisoner for witchcraft. Needless to say, their new working relationship is teaming with passive-aggressive bickering that I can’t help but smile at.
The other aspect of Vermintide I that made me smile was hacking rats in half. The gameplay of Verminitide II can easily be described as Left 4 Dead 2 with a Warhammer skin draper on top. While I agree with that statement, I would argue developers Fat Shark have put in the effort to add more to the Left 4 Dead formula. Slicing through a hoard of rats feels just as good as slaughtering the mindless undead. There are special rats that fill similar roles to their Left 4 Dead counterparts, but additions to the roster like rats with Gatling guns and flamethrowers that make teams scatter if they get the jump on you. There are even various versions of the Left 4 Dead Tanks that each have their own twist like the Spawn of Chaos grabbing players or Bile Trolls regenerating health. A personal favorite of mine was the Stromfiend, he is this massive Skaven with flamethrowers attached to each arm. I was screaming in fear when I saw this monstrosity barreling down on my team.
There are also a handful of boss characters but I am not sure I enjoy their inclusion. As most Left 4 Dead veterans know, towards the end of a mission, you’re usually running on fumes. Resources and health bars are low. Final stands versus a hoard of enemies was doable, throwing a meaty boss that can usually blink around the arena, just feels like a shot below the belt. As someone who usually played Bright Wizard, I found myself frequently getting pummeled to the ground by the bosses. I am too frail to get into melee range of the bosses and casting range spells requires a perfect balance of casting spells and cooling yourself off to prevent lighting yourself on fire. Too frequently, I found the boss on top of me while I was trying to cool off. Resulting in me spending most of the fight being down on the ground begging for a teammate to get me up. While I admit I could work on my positioning and timing, I just prefer being told to defend this final location over engaging one of these bosses.
If you are worried, Vermintide II might not have enough to escape the repetitive nature of the Left 4 Dead model, then let me put your fears to rest. As I mentioned, there are five playable characters each with their own skillset. Unlike the characters in Left 4 Dead, the dwarf Bardin plays very differently from Sienna, the Bright Witch, or Kerillian, the Elven Ranger. On top of that, each character has their own career that drastically changes their own play style. Take our dwarf friend for example. He could be a Ranger Veteran focused on crossbow damage and kiting. He could also take the Ironbreaker career transforming him into your sword and board warrior. Finally, he could take the Slayer career and allow him to dual-wield weapons in a frenzied berserker fashion. While not all careers feel as varied between certain characters, combining the five classes and the various careers do allow players to find multiple play styles that allow for hours of play. Combined with thirteen missions in different locations ranging from a rustic farmhouse to a snow-peaked mountain to a forest with towering trees, I never encountered the same fatigue I got from Left 4 Dead while playing Vermintide II.
Unfortunately, not all is well in this Warhammer hack and slash title. The live service plague has infested this title. I would agree that it is not as bad as other titles, but I can’t say I enjoy its presence. After each mission, you are rewarded with a loot box based on your team’s performance. Some might say that these loot boxes aren’t as egregious as there is no way to directly purchase loot boxes. However, I don’t enjoy having to wait for them to open with the fanfare of a slot machine. Due to the random nature of loot boxes, I never really can be excited about what comes out of the loot boxes. Sometimes you will be rewarded with various weapons that change your playstyle, like staffs for the Bright Witch that allow you to cast different fire spells. However, you will often be gifted necklaces, trinkets, or charms that do nothing but increase your power level. Naturally, these items have common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary statuses encouraging you to continually grind for better and better gear. Don’t fret fans of disenchantment, you will have ample opportunity to drag all your worthless wares to a forge to dismantle into a confusing currency system that resembles a mobile game market. Quite frankly, I can’t wait for this loot mechanic infesting games to become unpopular, because it just feels like constant busy work.
If I was tasked with creating a level/power system for Vermintide II, I would do away with the power level being tied to gear. I would naturally, just have your power level tied to your character’s level, meaning you merely need to play to get stronger. You can still have the weapons that tweak characters’ playstyles, but rather than randomly give them out in loot boxes, just give players one single currency at the end of a mission and have players buy the weapons they want. It gives players the freedom and control to build the character they want to play rather than one that has been blessed by the random number generator Gods.
MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS, all though I have been critical of the loot and power system within Vermintide II, I can’t say the system has disgusted me enough to entirely walk away from the title. The loot boxes and crafting is easily ignorable as you are showered in the blood of the Skaven horde. It is truly the next evolution of a series that Valve mysteriously stopped supporting. If you and three friends are longing for your Left 4 Dead days, I encourage you to check out Vermintide II and keep an eye on its developer’s Fat Shark. The team is working on another Left 4 Dead-style game but within the Warhammer 40K universe. It could be the next evolution step for the genre, but only if they heed this old Doomsayer’s advice. Fat Shark, I urge you to avoid the path of the loot boxes and item grind, or your end might be nigh.