Review: Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide (Steam)

Vermintide is an epic co-operative action combat adventure set in the End Times of the iconic Warhammer Fantasy world.

Pros:

• Graphics are really well done from the characters to the gruesome surroundings of the town over run by Skaven.
• Full controller support.
• 4 Player online.
• Full internet tweaks available like filter by ping or set upload speed.
• Five characters to choose from: Witch Hunter, Waywatcher, Dwarf Ranger, Wizard and Empire soldier.
• Can swap characters in lobby.
• Forger your own weapons and armour.
• Hub: Here is where you select the lvel, group up and do any forging and inventory sorting.
• Graphic settings are vast: AA, V-Sync, Shadows, SSAO, Bloom, Blur, Overall setting like high or medium. You can lock the frame rate and particle quality.
• Controller allows you to change sensitivity and invert the sticks.
• FOV slider.
• Tutorial with help/hints popping on screen.
• Left 4 Dead style gameplay with a loot system familiar to Pay Day and Diablo.
• Treasure Skaven! These guys will not attack but run away and carry a big sack. Killing them will give you a huge dump of loot.
• Huge open levels with multiple routes, hidden rooms and short cuts.
• Level drop layouts randomize every game.
• Steam achievements.
• Steam trading cards.
• At level end you get a breakdown of kills, exp earned and get to roll dice for more loot.
• You can replay levels whenever you like.
• Five difficulty settings from easy to Nightmare.
• Fast chaotic gameplay that is both satisfying and crazy.
• You can set online rooms to private.
• Online settings allow you to change settings like only, host, never host, same level as you, location and much more.
• You can play single player and AI will control the other 3 party members.
• 13 levels to play through.
• Variety of Skaven and to be honest they are carbon copies of the ones in L4D, Smokers, hunters and ogres being the most common ones.

Cons:

• Constant frame drops.
• Screen tearing.
• Difficulty spikes no matter the difficulty.
• No check points.
• Can be hard to identify allies from enemies.
• A lot of empty chests.
• Level difficulty is random/luck based rather than skill.
• Cannot rebind controller buttons.
• No indication of enemy health.
• Small text/icons.
• Small inventory system.
• Head bobbing cannot be turned off and can really affect players.