An eccentric wizard's tower confuses when its walls and ceilings suddenly flip. An abandoned graveyard provides a creepy, slower-paced experience. While these objectives are uniformly predictable-detonate the three exploding barrels, protect the six magic staves, and so on-the diverse level designs help pick up the slack: A massive shipyard becomes a sort of vertical maze. Most missions challenge players to make it from point A to point B while facing consistent waves of enemies, and nearly all contain obligatory objectives that stand between you and the finish line. Vermintide's missions also grow a little tired over time, though there's actually enough inventiveness to keep players invested through at least a couple difficulty levels. Ultimately, the loot system provides some extra motivation, but without more varied and plentiful unlocks, that motivation steadily wanes the more you play.Įncouraging players to risk exploration or sacrifice healing in hopes of unlocking better loot is not only deviously clever, it also incentivizes teamwork. You can combine unwanted items to create random new gear at the mission hub's weapons forge, but this yields repeat items just as often as the dice. When I unlocked my third generic broad sword just a short while later, I started to question the depth of the loot system.
When I unlocked a flaming sword for the Bright Wizard early on, I was thrilled. This whole setup can seem a little unfair when you go out of your way to locate the bonus dice but still end up with a low roll, but the bigger problem is a simple lack of items. The loot system's by no means perfect, though. Encouraging players to risk exploration or sacrifice healing in hopes of unlocking better loot is not only deviously clever, it also incentivizes teamwork: If any player finishes a level with a Tome, every player gets an extra die. You'll always have some basic dice, but you can add additional, more powerful dice by locating them in the game world or by finding and carrying a "Tome" in your inventory's lone medical supply slot. The strength of that roll determines the rarity of the item you unlock. Every time you complete a mission, you get to roll a set of dice.
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None of these talents are hugely exciting or original-a cooldown function and sniper aiming are nothing new-but at the same time, none of the characters feel boring or underpowered, which means they add tangible variety and replayability to the experience.īuilding on its individualized characters, Vermintide also includes loot and upgrade systems-another welcome tweak to the Left 4 Dead formula. The elven Waywatcher not only moves faster than her allies but can zoom in while aiming down the sight of her bow. The fire-wielding Bright Wizard, for example, must occasionally "vent" the heat that builds up in her body or she'll literally explode. Perhaps most importantly, each character offers unique weapons and abilities that function in distinct ways, which represents a welcome departure from Left 4 Dead's mechanically identical avatars. Vermintide uses character banter to subtly guide players through its dense, occasionally confusing levels. And strategically swapping between your ranged and melee options to control the spacing between your party and the vermin adds a surprising amount of tactical depth. Luring enemies into a bottleneck for easy slaughtering or decimating a pack with a rare but glorious grenade generally elicits demented joy. The sanguine sound effects and blood-spattered screen makes cutting through wave after wave of foes feel convincingly gruesome. There's very little nuance to the melee mechanics since there's only one attack button and you're unable to direct your strikes beyond simply pointing the camera, but the action finds other ways to feel satisfying in spite of its relative mindlessness. In keeping with this dour high fantasy world, each of the five characters relies on both ranged and melee weapons.
All this, combined with Vermintide's richly detailed visuals, creates a palpable atmosphere that's more than adequate for a multiplayer-only experience. The slick yet succinct opening sets the stage, each mission is prefaced by a brief voice-acted overview, and characters banter back and forth during missions. There's no plot to speak of, but the game provides enough context for the world to feel deep and the action to feel purposeful. Four players (or, if absolutely necessary, AI-controlled allies) select one of five available characters and battle their way through a collection of 13 discrete, replayable missions in an effort to quell the rodent scourge. In place of Left 4 Dead's zombies, Vermintide uses humanoid rats, but to similar effect.
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