Warhammer: Vermintide 2 2022 Recap: Leave the Shadow of Left 4 Dead

In the world of cooperative action games left 4 Dead and its sequel are great. Numerous games have followed the success of Valve’s zombie horde shooter, but most have stumbled, either failing to capture the spirit or, worse, sticking too close to the source material. Warhammer: Verminwhich was released in 2015, as well as the 2018 sequel, vermin 2, are two of the few genre examples that have managed to thread the needle. They are structurally reminiscent of the Left 4 Dead series, but differ in one crucial point…

warhammers. And axes, swords, clubs, flails, and halberds; a whole melee suite at the player’s disposal. if vermin has a key differentiator, it’s reorientation away from first-person action left 4 Dead‘s long-range headshots and spray-and-pray tactics, and to thunderous, concussive punches and frenzied close-range punches.

With almost half a decade vermin 2 is itself a withered co-op classic. With thousands of players still matchmaking on Steam, and developer Fatshark is about to release its first-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (anticipating further delays) I thought it was worth jumping back in vermin for one last fantasy romp to reevaluate the game’s accomplishments.

One of verminThe strongest characteristic of is its environment. The impact here can’t be underestimated – as a world that’s been evolving since the early ’80s, Games Workshop’s ‘Warhammer Fantasy’ setting does much of the heavy lifting: absorbing you into its slightly whimsical Grimdark universe from the get-go . As I mentioned in my review Chaos Gate – Demon Hunter, Warhammer worldbuilding and lore built around small plastic figures has a long tradition of doing a lot with relatively little. Warhammer has an uncanny ability to evoke the delicious feeling of something otherworldly with just a single word. in the Demon Hunter I became obsessed with terms like “astropathic” and “archeotech”; in vermin 2 it is the “Skittergate” that immediately captures the imagination.

As in the original game vermin 2 focuses on the threat posed by the Skaven – a species of cruel, devious rat-men who stalk the subterranean world beneath the human kingdoms. It is the Skaven who create the evocative name of Skittergate – a Warpstone-powered portal leading to the Realms of Chaos and central to the main campaign’s storyline. Through the portal come the bloodthirsty Norscans, who along with the Skaven form the game’s many enemy hordes.

and vermin 2 is very much a game of hordes – of crowds, tides and swarms that, like the original left 4 Dead Zombies, scurry across architecture and pour through doors to surround you and your team of heroes. The horde’s retaliation takes on an almost rhythmic quality as you furiously peck at the oncoming traffic of rats and chaos warriors. Swipe left, swipe right, make sure your enemies are in front and not behind – sometimes combat is a spatial puzzle of sorts, more with PowerWash simulator, in which you wash up a lot of messes and sweep up garbage than anything resembling a choreographed duel. Ranged combat isn’t completely absent – in some cases it’s a more efficient tool for taking down elite enemies – it’s just more of a punctuation for the melee action.

Almost every hero can specialize – the five characters each have four different “careers” (three in Sienna’s case, since her last class is yet to be released). A witch hunter who initially feels like a nimble, lightly armored assassin excelled at targeting single enemies, Victor Saltzpyre can eventually become an armed bounty hunter or even a heavily armored, hammer-wielding warrior-priest. The game’s melee propensity certainly makes experimenting with ranged weapons an enticing prospect. But the most important aspect here is the sheer amount of customization options: weapons, career skills, and playstyles.

This flexibility is critical to the continued success of vermin 2. Although the game offers a ton of cosmetic upgrades (sometimes paid for with real money), paintings to collect and attach to the walls of your hub area, and of course loot, none of this seems to be the reason people keep coming back to play.

Cosmetics feel particularly inconsequential due to the game’s visual age and muted aesthetic. There is a real commitment to grimdark Gothicism vermin 2 – It’s difficult to quantify the amount of caves and drab underground pens you’ll find your way through in the course of a campaign. One level takes you from an underground asylum into a sewer system and finally into a catacomb. There are a couple of outdoor levels that offer more spectacular, rural vistas, as well as the Chaos Wastes area that makes much better use of Warhammer’s vibrant purples, pinks, and reds. But these are anomalies in an otherwise staid landscape.

Loot is another aspect that doesn’t contribute that much vermin‘s enduring popularity, one might think. It’s a tempting carrot on a string, of course: tomes and grimoires are scattered throughout each level, and carrying them means sacrificing a healing potion slot and/or a hefty chunk of life (grimoires reduce your health by 30%). These books are a classic risk-versus-reward mechanic – take the penalty hit and complete the mission with them in your possession, and the treasure chest you get at the end of each level offers better loot. As with all multiplayer level athons, looting creates an obsessive loop, but the constant flow of weapons, trinkets, trinkets, and amulets isn’t what I’d consider a game changer. A sword – orange or maybe purple – still works exactly as you would expect; A crossbow at power level 300 behaves the same as at level 5.

It doesn’t take much to unlock every career and try out most of the weapons on offer – and yet with Fatshark’s continued support and a relatively healthy player base despite the years past, there’s clearly good reason to keep playing even after you’ve seen it all.

The biggest change too vermin 2 Over the years this has been free The Chaos Desert Extension. Touted as a new “roguelite” game mode, it borrows what many love so much about this type of cooperative action game – variation.

While the original vermin 2 Campaigns allowed a lot of discrepancy, with their own version of left 4 Dead‘s acclaimed “AI Director” The Chaos Desert adds more ingredients to the mix. Your expedition through the Chaos Wastes is a sort of randomized mini-campaign that is entirely self-contained and non-persistent – you start out with nothing but basic gear, and as you and your team progress you collect coins which can then be turned in to altars to upgrade things like your weapons or add new abilities and passive talents to your hero.

The Chaos Desert introduces a lot of randomness and unpredictability into your gameplay, changing such fundamental things as the construction of levels, blocking certain paths or moving start and end points or even reversing them. Loot also plays a more important role, as the game isn’t afraid to let you overwhelm with bizarre combinations of boons or even just weird builds. After completion, everything will be dismantled. That is vermin 2The endgame of – and its best facet. Forget all cosmetics; Forget your “power level”, specific equipment or your career. Jump into the Chaos Wastes with friends and smash your way through the hordes while reveling in the fact that you have no idea what’s coming next. From the beginning, vermin 2 has a solid core that captures much of what makes this type of Horde play so enduringly popular. But it has also proven over time that it has something new to offer The Chaos Desert Adding some much-needed volatility to this endless procession of fantasy brawls.