Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:27 am

I hadn't been paying attention to this until I happened to look through it's Steam page because of my love of all things Skaven. I was shocked to find it's a Left 4 Dead-like set in the Warhammer universe with the Skaven taking the roll of the zombies, complete with special Skaven like Rat Ogres, ratling guns, poison wind globadiers, assassins, etc.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/235540

An early press version is out now and there are a number of Let's Plays that show off the game, but it looks fantastic, has a number of unique classes, and has a loot system where you can get gear after beating levels to improve your character over time.

It's surprising there haven't been more quality Left 4 Dead clones, and one set in the Warhammer world is simply more than I can resist. I'll likely get this at launch and be up to play with some OOers.

TotalBiscuit first look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5YkM5Gkz5w

Lionheart Let's Play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnpLaCCiRh8

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:26 pm

My only question is that there don't seem to be a lot of levels, only 16 I believe, and some they say can be completed in minutes. Seems like it would get boring after a while.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:15 pm

Grifman wrote:My only question is that there don't seem to be a lot of levels, only 16 I believe, and some they say can be completed in minutes. Seems like it would get boring after a while.

The levels I've seen played take significantly longer than that... Lionheart's was around 40 minutes and they didn't even finish the level (edit: although looking back they did restart at one point, but it was still longer than most individual L4D levels). And 16 levels is in line with what L4D shipped with: 4 full levels + 1 finale x 4 campaigns. Whole L4D campaigns generally took an hour to run coop, so the individual levels were actually relatively short.

The only thing I'm worried about is that the developer is Fat Shark, and they've made some mediocre games in the past, but this one looks pretty solid.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:55 am

Here's another Let's Play where they actually manage to get through the entire level. Took them about 35 minutes, even with a guy to knew where the items they needed were:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVmGEymZTs

I really like the fact that there's character progression, and the loot dice. Clever too that you initially spawn in your room at the inn where you can select what items you want from your loot and get everyone ready to go.

Cortilian · Post by **Cortilian** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:22 am

Yeah, this looks pretty nifty.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 10:27 am

Just FYI... details haven't been announced yet that I've seen, but this should become available to anyone that preorders tomorrow and release a week later.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 5:05 pm

Open beta is out on Steam now and the early word of mouth sounds very promising.

If anyone's looking for friendly game or two to learn the ropes my wife and I will probably be on Steam later tonight to get some games in.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 6:37 pm

Sepiche wrote:Open beta is out on Steam now and the early word of mouth sounds very promising.

If anyone's looking for friendly game or two to learn the ropes my wife and I will probably be on Steam later tonight to get some games in.

Huh.

I'll take a look.

edit: Looks like it's early access for pre-orders only, unless I'm missing something.

Let us know how it is.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 7:06 pm

GreenGoo wrote: edit: Looks like it's early access for pre-orders only, unless I'm missing something.

Ha, yeah sorry, posted too quickly and left out a key detail.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 9:20 pm

Really liked what I saw in TB's video. I'm interested, just not $30 interested.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:18 am

Initially, I thought this was a MP only game, so I'd simply ignored it and didn't even bother to further check it out. Today, I happened to see that you can also play solo and fill in the rest of your party with bots. Game changer! So, I checked the game out and now I definitely want it. Bots seem to be quite broken right now so I may force myself to wait until it gets some patches to fix them and pick it up later on a sale. But do want.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:52 pm

Yeah, the first time I played a game I was going to play with bots, but it actually dumped me into a MP game before I realized how to setup the bots.

The bots aren't terrible, but they do have some bugs at the moment. I'd say about 80 - 90% of the time they work well and just follow along and help you fight, but every so often they'll get confused and just sit in the same spot until you get far enough away for them to teleport to you, then they work fine again. They also have problems sometimes if you're trying to race past skaven instead of fighting... they seem to want to always kill everything that's attacking them before they move on. There's also a bug where they have to be coaxed to jump down to escape at the end of the first level (*edit: just realized last night if the pull the lever to escape at the end of the first level bots will automatically teleport to you, so you don't have to worry about waiting for them to climb down). They always seem to eventually figure it out, but it takes time.

They're definitely useable, but occasionally rage inducing.

On the whole the game's awesome. Very well polished, plays very similar to Left 4 Dead, but with a fantasy skin and some RPG/progression with the loot system. It's also very cool how much different the different classes play, and also how different the same class can play depending on what equipment you use. A dwarf with a 2 handed ax plays a much different role than a dwarf with an axe and shield for instance.

I'm at work currently and running behind on a project or I'd post more details, but I'll give some more feedback when I have time.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:44 am

My first impression was... that it hard locked my computer and made me reboot.

Things got better after that though. It's pretty fun.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 10:48 am

So their server appears to have been down for quite a while and, among all the posts complaining about it, I see that you can't play this game without a connection to their server, even in single player mode with bots. IMO, this is stupid game design. Their server may stay up for a year or two, depending on how well the game sells, and then it'll get shut down and no one will ever be able to play the game again. We've seen this happen time after time in the past and I don't know why developers continue to do this. Thinking maybe it's not a buy for me now, which is too bad because it looks good.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 1:35 am

Launch trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbREAF-wmEg

My wife and I tried the new level they released and it was very cool. The entire level was basically fighting your way up a wizards tower, and the top third or so of it is weird M.C. Escher-like halls with stairs leading into ceilings and everywhere.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri May 27, 2016 10:47 am

Free weekend. I started the download before leaving for work. It was 29 gigs, fyi.

Gonna take a swing at it and see if it stays on my wishlist or not.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri May 27, 2016 10:50 am

Also a new DLC out with 3 levels based around an ancient castle.

For anyone that liked L4D, Vermintide is a really solid game in that vein. My friends and I still play it regularly.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri May 27, 2016 11:14 am

About to install it on all three PCs here and give it a test run with the kids.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri May 27, 2016 12:20 pm

Did they ever fix the single player mode for this game? How is the bot AI now?

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri May 27, 2016 1:02 pm

ColdSteel wrote:Did they ever fix the single player mode for this game? How is the bot AI now?

There's never been an issue with single player mode that I know of per se... it's perfectly playable, but the bot AI is definitely pretty weak in some areas.

I think they've improved it a little bit, but it still gets separated sometimes. It basically seems to be programmed to generally stand and fight, and if you try to play L4D style by constantly moving forward it will occasionally fall behind as it tries to keep fighting. As long as they are with you and keep up, they do a good job.

Bottom line is it's definitely intended to be a multiplayer game though.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri May 27, 2016 2:18 pm

I should have started the download on my kids' computer too so we could coop it, but downloading 30 gig twice just needlessly eats up my usage limit so I'll just copy it over the local net when I get home tonight.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sat May 28, 2016 2:00 pm

Before I give it a try, keyboard and mouse or controller?

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Sat May 28, 2016 2:58 pm

I use K&M personally, and the controls feel fine... it plays like any other FPS. Not sure how well the controller works, but if that's your preference I think it would probably be fine.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sat May 28, 2016 3:28 pm

Going to try it out now, then invite my son in later today. If you see me on and want to group up, just send me a steam message.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat May 28, 2016 8:13 pm

Tried today with my kids (so three players total.) We're used to gaming together - we're on Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode in BL2, and played BL1 before that, so we're used to coordinating. We tried three times, first twice on normal, then once on easy.

We never even got through the first mission. I don't think we even came close.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sat May 28, 2016 8:38 pm

Huh. I didn't find it difficult at all, but admittedly it was on easy solo, and again on easy with my son. We activated a patrol and that nearly wiped us out, but other than that I didn't see anything too rough.

Only played on easy though.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Sun May 29, 2016 3:19 pm

I remember trying this game out back when it first arrived. If you like carrying stuff from point A to point B while ratmen smack you in the butt, it is awesome. If you were hoping for something more, I didn't find it.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sun May 29, 2016 9:03 pm

So my son and I played a bunch more. We lost the first mission on Normal during the last swarm around the horn, which was too bad. We then tried some of the later missions, and found them harder, even on easy. We eventually finished everything we tried, but we lost a few before that, so it took some practice.

We had fun.

I'm not a fan of rats or ratmen or ogre rate men. Rats make me yawn. Pretty much *any* other critters would have been a better choice for my own personal preference.

The combat is ok to good, and the leveling up, loot and crafting are what makes this game have any appeal to me. It's not quite worth 20 bucks to me, but I can see others buying it during the sale.

While it's true that you need to carry stuff while being attacked, the coop aspect of the game is to protect the carrier.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Mon May 30, 2016 12:23 am

I have heard they improved the crafting and loot drops and whatnot. But there were way too many missions where the goal was to carry stuff around. It was like they thought that those levels in Left 4 Dead were the best parts. I always disliked them.

Sure, you are supposed to protect the carrier, but that only works if you have a bunch of friends all playing and coordinating at the same time. If you are playing with strangers, everybody runs for their own load and you all end up getting smacked by ratmen as you carry stuff around. If you are playing with less than three buddies, it ends up still happening, because both of you want to end the torment of carrying stuff from point A to B as quickly as possible. God help you if you try to play alone.

And yes, Ratmen are the single most boring enemy I have ever seen in a game.

I only rant because I paid 100 bucks to get a copy for me and a friend, and we didn't decide we hated it until the time limit for returns was up.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Mon May 30, 2016 10:26 am

Doomboy wrote:If you are playing with strangers, everybody runs for their own load and you all end up getting smacked by ratmen as you carry stuff around. If you are playing with less than three buddies, it ends up still happening, because both of you want to end the torment of carrying stuff from point A to B as quickly as possible. God help you if you try to play alone.

This pretty much is what stops me from getting this game. It has just about all the kind of stuff I love. The combat, the loot, the leveling and crafting, all of that sounds great. It's the multiplayer without a good single player option that kills it for me.

I think they really missed a great opportunity to give the game legs by omitting a strong single player aspect of the game like Mordheim does. Or at least make the game a truly viable experience single player. Multiplayer only games do great out of the gate but then after a while the frustrations of playing with PUGs gets to everybody that has to do that (most people) and then only a few hardcore players eventually remain (that play with friends/family or are just masochistic) and eventually the game just dies. I think if the game had a single player campaign it would bring in a lot more sales and give the game much longer legs. I guess they were fixated on just being the Warhammer Left 4 Dead from the start.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Mon May 30, 2016 2:55 pm

It wouldn't have been so annoying if there weren't sooo many levels where carrying stuff is the objective. I don't remember doing that very often in L4D, but it is my only memory of Vermintide...

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:30 pm

This game is on Steam sale for the next day for 10 bucks (66% off). That's finally low enough for me to bite on it.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:10 pm

ColdSteel wrote:This game is on Steam sale for the next day for 10 bucks (66% off). That's finally low enough for me to bite on it.

You can get the game and the entire Humble Monthly Bundle this month for $12, so that my be the better deal.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:32 pm

Time to check out the humble bundle. Thanks Bael.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:38 pm

baelthazar wrote:You can get the game and the entire Humble Monthly Bundle this month for $12, so that my be the better deal.

I don't see how that's a good deal. I'd have to subscribe to the bundle first which costs $12 by itself. So then I'm up to $24 for the game instead of $10. That doesn't have much appeal to me. Now, you can say the bundle also includes other games but most of the time I either already have those other games or I have absolutely no interest in playing them. I used to like the weekly bundles as a format okay, because you can see what you're getting and there's no extra costs, but the whole monthly bundle subscription idea just does not do it for me.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 6:36 pm

No, you subscribe for $12, which gets you all of this month's selections, then you unsubscribe. Total cost = $12, you get the game plus all the others.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:00 pm

Blackhawk wrote:No, you subscribe for $12, which gets you all of this month's selections, then you unsubscribe. Total cost = $12, you get the game plus all the others.

Ah, okay, thanks. I didn't realize it worked like that. If you subscribe, can you see what the other games are in the bundle?

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:56 pm

You won't know what the other games are until the bundle is released. Not sure if you can buy the bundle then or if it's too late

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:48 pm

It would be too late.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:48 pm

That's what I figured. So basically it's a $2 gamble that none of the other games included are anything that you don't already have or that you'd never want to play.