Warhammer Vermintide
With no Left 4 Dead sequel in sight, can Warhammer Vermintide fill the gap?
I’ve not been a Warhammer fan in the past, but while playing Playerunknowns’ Battlegrounds, a friend and I needed to unwind and fill some time before jumping back into the Battle Royale. I’ve no idea how the Warhammer licence is supposed to be working any more. Half a dozen different companies seem to own either Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40,000 licences, with Sega being the only major publisher involved. All the other developers are much smaller and some unknown, but the other games tend to be on much lower budgets and with that, not very good. I was happily surprised when we found out that Vermintide was actually pretty good. We had both received Warhammer Vermintide in the latest Humble Bundle via Steam, and now it has since been released on PS4.
If you are not aware of the Warhammer franchise, have not played the previous games, neither know nor care what Warhammer is then don’t worry, because Vermintide has a very simple game to get into. As the cover images would suggest, it’s a fantasy version of Left 4 Dead. There’s very little to the story, which also helps if you’re not a Warhammer fan, and all you need to know is that the city of Ubersreik is under siege from an army of Skaven (rat-men creatures) and they are not here for a friendly chat.
Despite there being a lack of plot, the script can actually be quite funny at times, with five very different heroes to play as:
- Witch Hunter
- Bright Wizard
- Dwarf Ranger
- Waywatcher
- Empire Soldier
The characters with ranged weapons or abilities, such as the fireball-throwing wizard or the arrow-firing Waywatcher, play more like Left 4 Dead and other first person shooters. But all of them have both melee and distance weapons, and the first person sword and axe fights actually work surprisingly well. The controls are extremely simple, but there’s a good feeling of weight and damage to the way you wield the weapons. And learning how to block properly is a real skill.
The upgrade system is also unusual, and initially not as easy to appreciate. You earn experience points in the normal fashion, which works independently of any of characters, which makes it easier to switch heroes if you fancy a change.
Completing a mission provides you with a randomly selected piece of kit decided by a virtual dice roll. You can collect items that improve the chances of getting the weapon you want, but they take up an inventory slot used for healing items and even then don’t guarantee what loot you’ll get. It’s obvious been set up as a risk vs. reward mechanic but the game doesn’t explain the system well and it can seem unfair or a game of chance.
I assume it was a fairly low budget release, Swedish developer Fatshark has done a good job with the graphics, both in terms of the level of detail and the variety of environments. Dimly lit city streets and underground sewers look authentically Gothic, but there’s also the likes of swamps and forests that look equally impressive. Although there can be quite a few bugs and glitches in my somewhat short hours of gameplay.
Importantly, the level design is also very good, cleverly creating chokepoints and more open-ended areas, as well as providing a surprising variety in objectives. There’s usually at least two different routes you can take at any one time, where you can be doing anything from simply trying to reach a specific location to gathering barrels of gunpowder.
What isn’t as impressive is the AI for the Skaven, which has them acting exactly like zombies. They see you, they run at you, and that’s it. As an unofficial Left 4 Dead sequel that’s fine, and we don’t imagine the Skaven are supposed to be very intelligent, but they do know how to use weapons and appear to have some form of culture and organisation. Saying that, they should realise that running straight at an axe-wielding dwarf is probably not the most sensible tactic.
The game also shamelessly copies the more specialised enemies from Left 4 Dead, including rat versions of Hunters, Smokers, Boomers, Witches, and Tanks. This in particular makes the game feel more like a mod than an actual separate game, and it’s a shame more wasn’t done to distinguish the two when it came to the enemies. Especially as the one thing Vermintide doesn’t copy from Left 4 Dead is the AI Director, which was able to adapt enemy tactics on the fly and according to your actions, the memories of shooting at the Witch when the rest of team weren’t prepared.
Such was the quality of the original Left 4 Dead games that not being quite as good as a seven-year-old title still seems like a significant achievement. And whether you consider it an unofficial sequel, a talented mod, or entirely its own thing Vermintide is still a great little co-op shooter.
