Or worse, depending on your view

I am dismayed to report that the rats are better. I'm not exactly s?ure how they're better, but they're definitel??y better.

Late last week, we got a press release that confirmed Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has been optimized for Xbox Series S/X. Without mentioning specifics of the technical upgrade, we were only told "Vermintide 2 now runs smoother than ever before, allowing for ?some truly silky smooth and visually satisfying rat killing."

I needed to take the weekend to process and c?ope with the fact that the ra?ts are now better. The rats are smoother. The rats are silkier. Next-gen was a mistake.

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More Tide than the detergent aisle

During last week's Xbox Games Showcase, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developer Fatshark introduced its new Left 4 Dead-like co-op shooter Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

There were two prevalent schools of thought. On one side, people were excited about a Warhammer zombie shooter, especially given how thick the horde looked in that teaser/debut trailer. On the other, people were left wondering how this is going to affect the ongoing development of Vermintide 2.

Fatshark has spent years dedicated to content updates and larger expansions for Vermintide 2. A major add-on, Chaos Wastes, is already in the pipeline. Will Vermintide 2 be put on the backburner for a n??ext-?gen project?

The short and emphatic answer: No. Fatshark addressed these concerns in a letter to the community, and explained that Darktide and Vermintide 2 will be developed simultaneously.

The studio says "We remain committed to Vermintide 2. We are looking forward to the continuous development of Vermintide 2, and the next major DLC update coming is Warhammer: Vermintide 2 -- Chaos Wastes. We are also already working on the next career follow??ing the pos?itive reception of the Grail Knight... and of course, so much more that we are not ready to announce."

The infe??station isn't over. It'll take more than the development of a new cooperative gam??e to kill it off.

A Letter to the Vermintide Community [Steam]

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Return to Castle Drachenfels

It feels so good to be able to keep bringing up Warhammer: Vermintide 2 in 2020. The hectic four-player smash-'em-up just started Season 2 – in case you missed it, Vermintide 2 has seasons now – and that news can only m?ean one thing: it's time to get the band back together to wail on some creeps.

Along with Old Haunts, the first free map from The Curse of Drachenfels, update 2.1.0 also added Quick-Play Weaves (with AI bot support) and a cosmetic store called Lohner's Emporium of Wonders.

I know what you're probably thinking, and yes, there are real-money items. These so-called Premium Cosmetics are intended to "support the studio" and ensure that Fatshark can keep rolling out free content updates. The items range anywhere from $2.99 (The Golden Taurox and the Marienburg Bicorne) up to $4.99 (in the case of the Aspect of Adanhu and the admittedly rather great Stolen Swine).

These items aren't exactly cheap, and no matter cool some of the gear looks in the store, I don't know that I've ever spent money on cosmetics in a first-person game before, but the option at least exists.

That said, not everything is cash-only. You'll be able to earn hats,?? hero skins, and weapon skins through gameplay. The developers are tying Shillings – the cosmetic currency – to daily and weekly quests.

Of course, there's a little something to get players going. If you own any DLC for Warhammer: Vermintide 2, you'll be given a "?one-time bag of Shillings for each DLC, as well?? as additional quests."

The next two maps in The Curse of Drachenfels will launch later in Season 2, and they'll be free as well. "The Drachenfels of 2020 is harder than ever," according to Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund.

Season 2 & 2.1.0 are out now! [Vermintide]

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The Beastmen are loose

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is getting even more chaotic this August. The first full expansion, Winds of Magic, will unleash the Beastmen along with adding a higher player level cap and difficulty setting, one new adventure level, a new weapon for each of the five heroes, and? a remix-centric mode.

The first footage for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - Winds of Magic is a cinematic trailer.

The brutish Children of Chaos hope to claim Reikwald Forest as the site of a Herdstone, and we can't have that, no siree. Meanwhile, I'm just over here trying not to get picked off by a sneaky Skaven. It happens to the best of us, I know, but that doesn't make it any less embarrassing in co-op ?matches.

Weapon-wise, Kerillian is getting a shield and spear, Sienna can wield a flaming fl?ail, Bardin will toy with throwing axes, my boy Victor is all about the billhook, and old Kruber is on heavy-spear duty.

There's also the matter of the expansion's new mode, Winds of Magic, which seems like an attempt to keep us from logging out of Vermintide 2 for the night even though we really ought to catch up on our ??sleep. The eight Winds of Magic "are made up of 'Weaves' and will be a combina??tion of":

• Map: A chunk of an existing adventure map.
• Wind: The different Winds of Magic will affect and modify the map.
• Objective: Each map will have a specific objective for players to complete.
• Finale: If the objective is completed the players will face the final challenge.
• Difficulty: As players progress the difficulty will increase.

It's going to boil down to how distinct one remix or mutator feels from the next. That said, I'm here for Winds of Magic in principle. It sounds like more of a good thing! If you're invested, Fatshark plans to run a beta test for Vermintide 2 PC players in June, so sign up. Also, get a load of this gnarly poster.

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Happy birthday, you rat

This weekend only, you can travel to the Land of the Rats for free. That's not? a bad deal considering roundtrip ?tickets to New York City would cost at least a couple hundred.

Acclaimed rodent extermination simulator Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is free to play on PC this weekend. The gratis weekend is in celebration of Vermintide 2 turning a year old today. Anyone who's down for a good rat bashing c?an also pick the game u?p for 60 percent off ($12) on Steam.

Developer Fatshark has also created a secret level tha??t's available as part of the weekly quest. That'll stick around for 10 days. Go on. You know you want to turn back the tide of vermin.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 [Steam]

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You have my sword

I've had good things to say about Warhammer: Vermintide 2 throughout the year. It's a mostly melee focused co-op action game that's fun with or without knowledge of the extensive Warhammer universe. It scratches that Left 4 Dead itch you might still be trying to scratch. Many of you have nodded along in agreement but inevitably wondered when the Pl?ayStation 4 version was?? coming. Well, today's the day!

Vermintide 2 ?costs $30, which should make it ea??sier to convince friends to join your cause.

The structure isn't anything particularly new, but when it works, it really works. It had me hooked. You'll team up with three other players or AI companions to survive hordes of Chaos and Skaven while earning progr?essively better gear to help you tackle higher difficulties. It's a co-op game through and through, so lone-wolf antics won't cut it. Eve??n with a cohesive group, you'll want to make sure not to dawdle. There's this underlying pressure to keep pushing forward or risk getting picked off one by one.

Vermintide 2 has sold two million copies to date. (It's also avai??lable on PC and Xbox One with Game Pass support.) It turns out people are pretty into slicing up giant rat men for pleasure and profit.

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Buddy up

Fresh DLC and a long weekend make a winning combo for a free-play event. After launching Shadows Over Bogenhafen earlier this week, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is now holding a free Steam weekend.

This is a first-person melee action game with a strong emphasis ?on co-op and a satisfying progression system for gear. You'll hack and slash through Skaven and Chaos hordes with a group of three other players (or the AI), trying your best to push through the meat grinder without getting picked off.

Basically, if you miss the Left 4 Dead format and you're open to new experienc??es, check it out.

Vermintide 2 - Free Weekend Begins! [Steam]

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Looks like rat's back on the menu, boys

It's a good time to revisit Fatshark's cathartic co-op slice-'em-up Warhammer: Vermintide 2. The game just got its first DLC, Shadows Over Bogenhafen, today on ?PC. Even if you aren't ready to fork over $10 for the add-on, you can freely play both new levels -- The Pit and The Cleansing -- in ??Quickplay.

Paying players will be able to create matches, of course, and earn more hats, skins, and weapon illusions. Aside from cosmetics, Shadows Over Bogenhafen also brings quests and challenges.

Fatshark released a wide-ranging update, too. You'll find loads of bug fixes, optimizat??ions, audio reworks, level changes, a touched-up user interface, miscellaneous tweaks, and character balancing. There's too much to summarize effectively, but here? are a few standouts to give you an idea:

• All Career Skills, bar Huntsman and Shade, can now be cancelled by tapping the block button or reload button. There are now draw, hold, and cancel animations for weapon based Career Skills.

• Trolls turned out to be quite hard to kill on higher difficulties, especially when facing them alone. To balance this, we have changed the passive regeneration of Trolls to pause for 3 seconds after taking damage.

• Reloads have been overhauled. They should now more smoothly transition into other actions such as blocking after firing a ranged weapon, for example a longbow. This should fix issues where you would fire, switch weapon to try and block very rapidly and the block action getting eaten causing you to get hit by the enemies.

• When players join a party and replace a bot, they should now spawn closer to the rest of the group.

From everything I've seen, the DLC doesn't particularly make its case for being all that original or elaborate or worth the price tag, so the main incentive here is supporting the developers for making such a kickass game. Shadows Over Bogenhafen is more Vermintide 2, and that's dandy.

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Shadows Over Bogenhafen

There's about to be a good reason to travel back to the land of rats. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is getting its first DLC in less than two we?eks.

Developer Fatshark has announced that the Shadows Over Bogenhafen add-on will launch on August 28 on PC and Xbox One. That's literally the extent of what we know. There aren't any real details and there isn't ??yet a price. Fatshark says it'll reveal more closer to launch, which almost certainly means a gamescom-focused reveal next week.

In the meantime,?? this teaser trailer has some fireworks. Maybe the loud noises will scare the rats away.

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It's playable through Xbox Game Pass as well

At the risk of losing my voice by shouting about Warhammer: Vermintide 2 every chance I get, here I go again. Fatshark's melee-centric co-op action game has made it over to Xbox One today. If you're buying it outrigh??t, it's $30 for the standa?rd edition. If you have Xbox Game Pass, it's free with your subscription.

Even if you skipped the first game, Vermintide 2 comes highly recommended.

The sequel nails its core loop and sense of progression. It's inherently fun to mash on hordes of Skaven and Chaos with friends, and the steady loot drops will keep you queuing up "one more round" every time your group makes it back to base. Whether you're facing mindless grunts, special enemies that'll sneakily pick you off one by one, or bosses with oversized health bars, teamwork is a must. Vermintide 2 is best with friends who know not to wander off. That?? said, I've had decent success with randoms.

I've only focused on leveling one class for one character so far (the Witch Hunter), and I'm not bored yet. There's a bit of Diablo special sauce to powering u??p and perfecting your ??gear that has me hooked.

I suspect the PC vers??ion will see?? quicker updates, but don't let that stop you.

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Launching in Xbox Game Pass

It's nice to finally be able to tell Xbox One players when they can get sucked into Warhammer: Vermintide 2. Fatshark is bringing the co-op first-person melee game to the platform on July 11, but more immediately, there's an open beta running on Xbox One. You can queue it up right over here.

The beta is expected to run until the final release on July 11, at which point Vermintide 2 will launch regularly and also be available at no extra cost through Xbox Games Pass. The developers ho??pe to have players' beta p??rogress carry over, "but there's always a chance this might not be possible."

As for the PlayStati??on 4 release, it's still happening, we ??just don't know when.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Vermintide 2 is a great co-op experience for folks who miss the spirit of Left 4 Dead but want something a little different. The melee feels spot on (I love slashing my rapier like a madman as the Witch Hunter), and there's a meaty loot system to ??keep you invested.

Vermintide 2 coming to Xbox One July 11 [Vermintide]

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New cosmetics and mod support as well

Daily quests and challenges are precisely the boost I need to get back into Warhammer: Vermintide 2. More specifically, daily quests and challenges that lead to cool new character skins and hats.

Today's update also brings official mod support through Steam Workshop, with a new toggle for the Official Realm and the Modded Realm available through the Vermintide 2 launcher. "Modded Realm has a no holds barred stance towards mods and custom content, but on the other hand will not be able to give new drops, allow challenge/quest completion or grant XP," note?s Fatshark.

Back to the cosm?etics, the developer?? knows they're an important reason why players are sticking with the game (aside from the inherent satisfaction of gradually raising your heroes' power with better gear).

"In this update, we're adding a lot more hats to the Commendation Chests, ?? for all heroes and careers. And we're increasing the drop rates of all hats and Veteran items in Commendation Chests, and loot chests from Champion and Legend difficulties.

Cosmetic hats drop from Commendation Che?sts, for the specific hero you have selected. We've made changes so that you won't be receiving duplicate hats. If the currently selected hero already has all available hats, a random new, unique hat will be awarded to you.

There is also a small chance that a Commendati?on Chest w??ill drop a Veteran item."

Finally, the update has a few fixes and tweaks:

• Extracting Illusions no longer cost scrap. Applying Illusions now cost 10 Scrap. As the previous cost of extracting Illusions cost 20 Scrap, each player will be refunded 20 Scrap per Illusion in their inventory, when they log in.
• Added a new crafting recipe - Convert Dust. You will be able to convert Dust to a lower tier. Ten Blue Dust to ten Green Dust Or ten Orange Dust to ten Blue Dust.
• The confirmation delay when Crafting and Salvaging, has been drastically reduced.

And tackles some standing bugs:

• Several Veteran items lack a distinctive textures with glowing runes. We are working on making sure all Veteran items have cool looking skins. In this version, the Veteran Swiftbows "Edrael's Will", and "Spite-Tongue" now have their proper runed textures.
• Fixed some issues with our current line of cosmetics hats, to make them fit better.
• Fixed an issue for the Ranger Veteran Bardin's talent "Last Stand" which caused the buff to be applied whenever a clip was emptied instead of when completely out of ammo.
• Fixed an issue for the Battle Wizard Sienna's talent "World Aflame" where the power boost was not applied properly when playing as a client.
• Fixed an issue for the Witch Hunter Captain Saltzpyre's talent "Necessary Means" where the power boost was not applied properly when playing as a client, when out of ammo.
• Fixed an issue for the Zealot Saltzpyre's talent "Holy Crusade" where the critical strike power boost was not applied properly when playing as a client.
• Fixed an issue for the Shade Kerillian's talent "Bloodfletcher" where ammo would not properly be awarded on backstabs.

If you're in the mood for a melee-centric first-person co-op romp with friends and you are partial to replaying the same handful of levels over and over again to incrementally improve your character classes, Vermintide 2 comes highly recommended. It's 25 percent off right now on Steam.

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This game rules with friends

Fatshark's co-op melee action game Warhammer: Vermintide 2 pulled in half a million sales in its first week and now, five weeks in, the PC title has passed the million-units-sold mileston?e. That timetable is "f?ar quicker than we ever expected," according to CEO Martin Wahlund.

The game's 10 percent off for the next week on Steam, which means it down to $26.99. Fatshark has done a good job with patches so far, too; it seems like Vermintide 2 is better every time I boot it up. It really does bring back those early Left 4 Dead memories, albeit with a melee-centric twist.

Vermintide 2 is only available on PC right now, but Xbox One and PS4 versions are on the way??.

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Bring on the ratmen

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 can be a brutally unforgiving game. Just as you think you've gotten the edge over a bruta??l Bile Troll, the game's AI will spawn in a group of Gas Rats to knock you down a peg. 

??On many occasions, I've watched my allies -- be they personal friends or strangers from the quickplay queue -- become overrun by the hordes of Skaven and Rotbloods only for one of us to hang around, survive by the skin of our teeth, and save the party just in time.

Every moment I spend walking through Vermintide's ruined cities or bubbly marshes is incredibly tense and I can't get enough of it. Vermintide 2 feels like its pr?edecessor refined, both in terms of visual style and gameplay. 

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (PC [Reviewed], PS4, Xbox One)
Developer: Fatshark
Publisher: Fatshark
Released: March 8, 2018 (PC), TBA (PS4, Xbox One)
MSRP: $29.99

Vermintide 2 is set in Warhammer's end times. Cities are crumbling and overrun with massive hordes of the Skaven and their new Rotblood allies. Up to four players can take on the hordes and traverse abandoned farms, massive stone cities, and sprawling forests Left 4 Dead-style, but things aren't as simple as fighting back rats and trolls to reach a goal. Vermintide 2 is all about the grind and the RPG and loot m??echanics that lie underneath. 

Before you set off for matchmaking you'll need to select your character. Vermintide 2 has five heroes to choose from Sienna the wizard, Kruber the mercenary, Bardin the Dwarf, Keril?lian the elf, and Victor the witch hunter. On top of your base character options, each of them comes with two additional subclasses called careers that can be unlocked by leveling the hero in question. My person?al favorite was Victor equipped with his bounty hunter career. 

Each character and separate career offers their own weapon sets, skill trees, and special abilities. Every build le??nds itself to very different play styles. Victor's bounty hunter career focuses him on ranged combat and I tend to stick with his rapier for melee combat relying on quick, precise sword strikes. When a character's special meter fills, they can perform a unique action. Victor's allows him to fire a high-powered piercing round in this career. 

Visually Vermintide 2 captures the same medieval Gothic level design of the original while still improving upon it. The first game was mostly stone cities with muddy dimly-lit areas to explore. While it captured the doom and gloom Vermintide was going for, it got boring fast.

Vermintide 2 makes much better use of bright colors and lighting eff??ects and offers more varying locales like sprawling forests, marshes, and an overrun farm. ??What good is fighting back the Skaven horde if we can't get out to the country now and again?

If the beautiful level design, character progression, and overall excitement of m??assacring Skaven waves aren't enough to keep you coming back then surely the loot will be. At the end of ev?ery level, points are tallied up. How well you do determines what sort of chest you'll receive for finishing. Each chest rank up offers better loot for your character, new weapons, charms, and more. You can score bonus points by keeping the whole party alive, finding elusive loot, and carrying each level's collectible tomes and grimoires with you. 

Every level in Vermintide 2 has three tomes and two grimoires to find. They're always hidden in the same spots, but add an element of risk management to the already tense combat. Holding a tome takes up a character's restorative item slot, but while you can simply place the tome d?own when you find a health potion, it does mean you can't keep any healing ?items handy. 

Grimoires, on the other hand, take the ite?m slot reserved for buff potions like speed and damage boosts but also lessen the party's max health. These can't be dropped once picked up, so if you attempt to do so you'll simply destroy the book along with any additional rewards it may have granted. 

The first few hours of Vermintide 2 are easily the most? irritating. For starters, the game doesn't do a particularly good job of explaining anything. Getting your head wrapped around the very basics of a weapon is simple enough, but it takes a whole lot a trial and error to really learn the ins and outs of every piece of equipment and find the ones that work best for your style of play. 

Poor matchmaking can sometimes make play just a bit frustrating. On too many occasions I found myself only a few moments from victory when my party got too cocky at the exact moment the AI director decided it was time to send in the rats. Vermintide 2 does offer an experience bonus? for engaging with quickplay, but playing with a group of friends over Discord is still the best option. 

Vermintide 2 even features an integrated Twitch mode that takes some of the decisions surrounding what will murder your party out of the AI's hands and lets your chat decide whether you will die by fire or poison. I was lucky enough to get a chance to try this out on Destructoid's Twitch channel an??d can say it certainly adds something to the game, thou??gh you'll need an active Twitch chat to really get any fun out of it. 

Vermintide 2 has a total of 13 levels to explore and you can expect to replay them all a ton. This would get rather boring if the levels weren't so gorgeous and huge. The g??ame also switches up enemy spawns enough to keep you on your toes. I find myself standing outside of doorways just hoping a boss won't spawn. Some levels won't even pop up in lower-level play so there's still plenty to see even at the twenty- or thirty-hour mark. 

If Fatshark wants to keep players hooked, importing all the maps from the original would be a goo??d move, though I'm s??ure that's easier said than done. 

Vermintide 2 is an improvement over its predecessor with more beautifully designed sprawling levels, more varied enemy types, an addictive loot system, and a whole lot of character skills to try out. The sequel is at its best when it's creating tense moments, even if it ?can quickly get a little bit overwhelming. I also apologize to all of those I left to die in matchmaking.

_{[This review is based on a retai??l build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Medieval exterminators rake in the cash

Indie developer Fatshark have proudly announced that their recently released (as in last week) title Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has already sold over 500,000 copies on PC.

The first-person action-adventure sees a band a warriors, the Heroes of Ubersreik, battle the Chaos army and the Rotbloods, a clan made-up of hordes of rodent-like fighters. Vermintide 2 adds new features to the mix through its imp??roved career mode, new talent trees and the all new "Heroic Deeds" system: a selection of condition-based quests.

In a press release, the Swedish developer spoke of their happiness of the title's rapid success. "We are proud and happy that gamers worldwide have taken Warhammer Vermintide to their hearts," says Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund. "500,000 games sold was a ??milestone that we had, but not less than a week after release."

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is available now on PC. PS4 and Xbox One por??ts are expected  to follow later this year.

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Pre-orders come with beta access on Feb. 28

March 8, 2018 will be a day of slicing and dicing. That's when Fatshark's co-op action game Warhammer: Vermintide 2 will ??appear on PC, with the Xbox One?? and PS4 versions coming later.

Along with the usual Skaven horde, you'll also have to face Cha??os in this sequel.

There are five playable heroes (along with 15 different careers for further specialization) and Vermintide 2's Heroic Deeds System will conjure up quests that "dramatica??lly alter enemy composition, level settings, weapon use, and mission objectives." Here's a brief preview of the Bounty Hunter:

This looks like such a good stress reliever!

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The Skaven brought some new friends

We knew Fatshark had started work on a sequel to Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, but today the studio has much more to show for its four-player cooperative action game. The Skaven hordes are back, as expected??, along with another threat: Chaos. The two forces have "formed ??a pact to plunge the world into death and decay," and you'll need to put an end to those plans as one of five heroes.

I like how the first part is a standard trailer, then it kicks over to "unedited pre-alpha footage" in which the person playing stabs the absolute shit out of a bunch of Chaos troops. That'??ll do.

"We have listened to the community, analyzed hours and hours of online playthroughs, and combined this with our passion for co-op games to bring you the very best experience possible," says Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is targeting "PC and consoles" in Q1 2018.

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Coming to PC and consoles

Warhammer: Vermintide went over well enough that Fatshark is making another one. Details are near-non-existent for the sequel, but I have ??to imagine it'll follow a similar Skaven-slaying format.

"Set in the dark and grim Warhammer Fantasy world, you must join forces with up to three other players to tackle the endless hordes of enemies," reads the Steam summary. "Equipped with a variety of melee and ranged weapons, you and your team are all that stands between utter defeat and victory - and if you fall so will? the Empire." Will there be more enemies to beat down? Hope so!

This is merely a teaser. The full reveal is set for October 17 at 10:00am Pacific on Twitch.

I was just thinking about how much I missed Left 4 Dead. This isn't quite the same thing, of course, but it scratches some of those itches. Vermintide sold 1.5 million units, so they're clearly onto somethin?g.

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