Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Xbox One) – Review
Follow Genre: Action/adventure, Hack 'n slash
Developer: Fatshark
Publisher: Fatshark
Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Tested on: Xbox One

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Xbox One) – Review

Site Score
7.9
Good: Really cathartic hack 'n slash fun
Bad: Graphically won't blow your socks off
User Score
10.0
(4 votes)
Click to vote
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Rating: 10.0/10 (4 votes cast)

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is a game developed and published by Fatshark. The game isn’t about to go under the radar, but the first instalment has gone quite quietly. Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide isn’t quite known, although it was released on all mainstream consoles and PC. For some reason it didn’t get traction in the advertisement department. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 was first released on the PC, now the game has been released on the Xbox One and will be released on the PlayStation 4 somewhere later in 2018.

Story

Imagine your world being overrun by rats. No, not the cute pet rats some of you might let sit on their shoulder, but large bipedal rats that are hell bent on the destruction of your realm and the annihilation of your people. Now imagine having none of that and beating the pests back to where they came from with their tails between their legs. Not every faction in the realm is so keen on the departure of the vermin and want them back, so they aid them in their conquest. Complete madness, but still a madness some might prefer to the prosperity of a realm. So the vermin gain traction and claw their way back. It’s up to you to beat them and their helpers back so they know their place again. That’s the story of Warhammer: Vermintide 2. The ratty nemeses have built a gate to summon a whole tide of furry foes and it’s up to you to stop them.

The story behind the game is done mostly through narration in-between missions, filling up the loading screens and making the wait less monotonous because of it. Every mission’s objective is clear because of it and so it sets the goal for the player. Not a bad way, but showing is always preferable over telling what’s going on or what’s about to go down.

Graphics

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 isn’t exactly what you’d call a looker of a game. The game has quite some trouble with framerate dropping, and some rather funny graphical glitches, both humorous rather than concerning. From lanterns and characters being influenced under the same gravitational pull, causing for some rather hilarious ragdoll effects, to your character phasing through scenery.

What is rather original is the character design, there are some really interesting ones among them, from the bile trolls, to giant hulking rats acting just like werewolves. Enemies are distinct enough so you know what to do when you see them, so you can make tactical decisions whenever it’s a necessity.

Sound

A lot of the immersion hinges on sound. In such a manner that if a horror game misses its audio cues on jump scares or story driven games miss the cues on the emotional/tense moments, then the player will be thrown out of the experience. This won’t happen in Warhammer: Vermintide 2: The music changes subtly between bombastic music and more mild tunes when combat picks up or dies down. It’s done in a manner that you won’t be picking up on it until you pay attention to it, which shows just how much work went into it.

The voice acting is quite well done, and the narration in-between levels is really engaging.

Gameplay

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is an action/adventure first person hack n slash/shooter game. The reason why it’s both a hack n slash game and a shooter is mostly because of the class system. There are melee characters, a magic character and an archer character. All of the characters have ranged combat possibilities, like guns and crossbows but they don’t have unlimited ammo. Offense wise you’ll mostly be bonking things over the head with a very sharp piece of metal attached to a hilt. You can defend but not indefinitely because defending takes stamina and once that’s depleted the enemies will be able to just wail on you. If you don’t feel like being defensive you can be nimble too and dodge enemy attacks.

There are five ‘acts’, four of which are divided in four levels, the fifth being just one level. Once you complete a level, you can play the next, and so on, and so on until you’ve beaten the campaign. If you feel like grinding some, you can replay levels you’ve already unlocked. Doing so will net you experience and lootboxes – You can’t buy these with real life money, luckily – which will give you gear to strengthen your character. Every five levels you can choose a perk to suit your playstyle, until you’ve hit level 25, but the traits aren’t static, you can just change them up to see what they do.

One of the problems with a loot based dynamic has been addressed because you can turn weaker weapons, trinkets into currency to upgrade other weapons or create weapons, so the loop can continue.

You can play Warhammer: Vermintide 2 online or offline. If you play online you can play levels with random people, or with friends. If  you play offline you’ll be joined by bots (these are programmed quite decently and won’t stare into the void as you struggle to complete the level) – this happens too if you can’t find enough players when playing online. – and you’ll be on your merry way slaying enemies and getting loot.

There are a couple of moments where the absolute cathartic fun of the brawling is interrupted. This is where the host, or you, loses connection and you get booted or when you get kicked. In the latter it’s only fair you don’t get anything, but if you lose connection, you’ll get nothing for your time invested. The latter is quite a sting if you’ve just been playing for half an hour and you’re left with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Conclusion

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is an absolute cathartic blast when you are out and about slaying rats and other enemies. A game that’s absolutely fun to play with other players and possibly a large time synch. Best not to play when you are on the clock, because missions are long and the game immerses you and makes it very hard to break away. There are moments where the fun is broken up due to connection issues or online trolling, the latter being rare because a player is always preferable to a bot no matter how well they are programmed.

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Rating: 10.0/10 (4 votes cast)
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Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Xbox One) - Review, 10.0 out of 10 based on 4 ratings
Q


First game ever was Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped, ever since then, gaming has been something that I've gravitated to. Reading's fun but not as interactive. Always up for a bout of online multiplayer. If that multiplayer is co-op. So if you are up for a friendly co-op session, hit me up. Rahenik's the name to search on PSN.

5 Comments

  1. […] Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – Shadows over Bögenhafen is the first DLC of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, and it’s a bit polarizing. The fans who bought the original game were left waiting for this piece of content. It kept getting delayed and delayed as Warhammer: Vermintide 2 wasn’t exactly without bugs and glitches so the developers were forced to fix the bugs before concentrating on extra content. That’s all a thing of the past as the DLC has finally been released. The question remains, will it please fans and is it worth its price? You can read up on the Warhammer: Vermintide 2 review here. […]

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  2. […] than usual. And if you’re still debating on whether to get Vermintide 2 for yourself, maybe our review of the game can enlighten […]

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  3. […] already found its way to the Warhammer universe in the form of Warhammer: Verminitide and Vermintide 2. Darktide will be released on the 17th of November, and they brought you a trailer that introduces […]

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  4. […] announced that the free Trail of Treachery DLC for the award-winning and multi-million-selling Warhammer: Vermintide 2 arrived on PlayStation consoles. This DLC comprises a new free level and is the first installment of […]

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  5. […] Fatshark has announced the release of their latest free DLC, Karak Azgaraz, for Warhammer Vermintide 2. The DLC is now available on Steam, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases scheduled for later […]

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