Poor old Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide [official site], it’s a perfectly decent Left 4 Dead-but-with-ratmen, but for me it’s now doomed to forever be “the one that looks a bit like Bloodborne but isn’t anything quite as transcendent.” I am obsessed with Bloodborne now, I’m afraid. I pray it somehow comes to PC so that I can endlessly jabber into your terrified face as to why that’s the case. But while Bloodborne is like an unofficial Warhammer adaptation, Vermintide is the real deal, and its solid first-person Skaven-bothering is now reinforced by a free weekend and some castley DLC set in the mountains outside of its main town. … [visit site to read more]

Here’s the thing: I recognise that M ns Zelmerl w’s Heroes was probably the best Eurovision song in last year’s contest, but it wasn’t the best song. Are you, reader dear, listening to Heroes regularly? Exactly. Yet I’m still giving Rhythm Inside by Belgium’s Lo c Nottet plenty of play and- oh fine, I’ll skip to the point.

Fantasy FPS Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide [official site] today launched its wave survival mode ‘Last Stand’ in a free update, and Swedish devs Fatshark have celebrated that with a trailer set to Heroes. Hey, you, it’s not May 2015 anymore.

… [visit site to read more]

Like Left 4 Dead, which so clearly inspired it, Warhammer: End Times Vermintide [official site] is getting a cooperative wave survival mode in a free update. You know, a ‘be swarmed by hordes of increasingly tough and numerous monsters’ sort of a mode. Developers Fatshark mentioned plans for a survival mode last year, and now have more to say about when it’ll launch, what it’ll offer, and what will cost money.

… [visit site to read more]

Warhammer End Times: Vermintide [official site] is an enjoyable fantasy throwdown, easy to describe as Left 4 Dead with Skaven, but with a loot and upgrade system that brings some RPG trappings to the four-player cooperative vermin extermination. One of the main complaints that I heard repeatedly when playing the game prior to my review related to the game’s indiscriminate loot drops. Play as a bright wizard and you might find equipment that only a dwarf ranger can use, or vice versa. The free Sigmar’s Blessing update, released today, allows you to tip the odds in favour of your chosen class, as well as adding an entire new tier of veteran loot.

… [visit site to read more]

“Left 4 Dead with ratmen” is how I summarised Warhammer: End Times Vermintide [official site] when we first heard from it, though after reading Wot Adam Thinks I’d upgrade that to “Left 4 Dead with ratmen and persistent progression and loot.” If the last part of that is causing you grief, good news: free ‘DLC’ next month will bring new items and more control over getting which loot you want. Developers Fatshark say this is the star of their plan to alternate free and paid additions, and they’re working on a survival mode too.

… [visit site to read more]

Left 4 Dead with Skaven. That was surely the elevator pitch for Fatshark’s Warhammer: End Times Vermintide [official site] and the game, now released, hews fairly close to that mash-up. Four players, each taking on the role of a specific character, must fight their way through swarms of Skaven, including special variants, to achieve objectives that vary from one level to the next.

At first glance it’s all very familiar. At second and third glance there’s little to change that initial judgement. I’ve been glancing for days though and can report that Vermintide does have its own identity. Here’s wot I think.

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Here’s a trailer you may have missed among the bigger news of E3 2015, but fans of anthropomorphised rat slaughter will nevertheless want to check out. This short Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide [official site] trailer shows off the variety of environments you’ll be trudging through with friends once the co-op FPS releases this autumn.

… [visit site to read more]