Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Reviews
While there are plenty of co-op only titles on the console, most of these were built with consoles in mind and therefore had devices in place to make a mandatory teamwork experience a smooth one. It doesn't take long to see that Warhammer: The End Times – Vermintide for PS4 was certainly not constructed with consoles in the forethought; it's quite the afterthought, and it painfully shows. Stick to the PC for this one.
Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is a solid attempt at replicating the Left 4 Dead formula, but it also misses the mark in a few key areas.
As blatant a clone as you've ever seen, but while the PC version was a novel take on Left 4 Dead, the severe price hike on consoles ruins the fun.
Warhammer: The End Times: Vermintide is by now means a bad game, but the sense of over-familiarity makes it difficult to recommend to all but the most ardent of Warhammer Fantasy fans. The workings are here of a good game, but prolonged play reveals it's overly chaotic and often repetitive, despite moments of genuine fun. If you've got four buddies after a co-op game then that's probably a different story, and there's enough in Vermintide to keep you hacking and slashing until the credits roll.
I recently previewed Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade and, like most Warhammer games in the last few years, I was let down. Severely. Enter the lovable folks at Fatshark games and Pierre-Yve's glowing review of Vermintide on the PC and I thought "Here it is, finally, a Warhammer game to be proud of!" I was wrong, and that pains me to admit it. Warhammer: The End Times - Vermintide is not a bad game, but it is a bad port.
Warhammer: End Times — Vermintide gets so many things right, and its designers have made enough smart decisions about how to deviate from the Left 4 Dead, that it makes the difficulty knee-capping and technical mishaps all the more disappointing. It's absolutely worth a look if you're looking for something to do with friends and love slay hordes of monsters. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself quitting earlier than you might want to.
At the heart, the best thing about a co-op experience is just being able to sit down with a bunch of people and have fun fighting off a massive horde of monsters, and Warhammer: The End Times -Vermintide scratches that itch beautifully. It's just that going beyond that is a pain. Other than recombining and upgrading gear, here's little reason to play solo, between a relatively unimportant story and the random gear drops. Vermintide shines with friends; it's a bit too dangerous to go alone, so take three!
The titular vermin of Vermintide may come in a horde, but they're all unique, in their weird, chittering way. It almost makes me feel bad about the carnage I've spent the last ten hours dealing out to them. Then again, there will always be more.
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide seems like an eerie, well-done Left 4 Dead mod on the surface. But players that soldier through disheartening dice rolls will find a replacement for their co-op and loot-driven needs, Warhammer fan or not.
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide on PS4 and Xbox One is an excellent project which was unlucky with the release date. It should have come out during an off-peak period - a decision to release it in fall was fateful and negatively reflected on the community and, accordingly, on the gameplay in general. If you like Left 4 Dead and have friends, willing to go on journey with you, then you can feel free to buy the game. Otherwise it is better to save the money for something else.
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Niggling flaws aside, Vermintide is easily one of the most surprising games to launch this year. Although there's a clear lack of originality, Fatshark has done a brilliant job in throwing together a patchwork of borrowed designs with its own previous work on games like War of the Roses. It's got the makings of a sleeper hit and hopefully, with a few more refinements, can grow into the next multiplayer must-have.
Left 4 Dead's frantic four-player co-op gets medieval with melee combat, mutant rats, and mixed results.
As blatant a clone as you've ever seen, but this is almost as good as the real Left 4 Dead and does have a few extra ideas of its own.
The use of different classes and the evocation of the Warhammer setting is enough to make Vermintide a competent twist on the Left 4 Dead formula, but it doesn't execute them well enough to live up to its inspiration. Even at its best, Vermintide's co-op horde mode lacks a sense of suspense, and its addictive loot chase can't fully replace that. As I'm sure any Skaven would tell you, there are better things than being a rat in a maze.
Warhammer: The End Times - Vermintide shows that Left 4 Dead with an emphasis on melee and loot makes for a pretty fun co-op experience, though it would be even better without the glitches and performance dips.
Warhammer: End Times Vermintide is a new take on the Left 4 Dead formula. It brings enhanced combat (particularly melee) and some RPG elements, but it loses the PvP aspect and user generated content, both critical to longevity in this genre. Still, if you have a group of friends this game can definitely provide lots of fun.
While it does have its fair share of issues, many of which frustrated me greatly, I still think it's a solid, enjoyable title. Warhammer fans will have a lot to sink their teeth into, and Left 4 Dead fans will have something to fiddle with until the next iteration. Well…if Valve ever learns how to count to 3, that is.
Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is an interesting conundrum. Nothing here is new or particularly innovative, but it is a well-realized experience nonetheless. Overall, it's a budget title but with more than enough content to belie its pricetag. If you are a fan of Left 4 Dead, Warhammer, or cooperative games in general, then this is a must buy.
I just wished that Fatshark had tried to be as original in the gameplay as they have in the visual direction. At times, it just felt like I was playing a mod, and depending on how you look at it that's either the biggest compliment or the absolute worst thing I could say about Vermintide.
Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is a pleasure to play on console. Hopefully it maintains its community to make sure it stays that way.