This is probably my favorite game of all time for three reasons: it was made with love and attention to detail (emphasis on the past tense), it combines so many of my favorite things in gaming (first person, fantasy, melee + ranged, Warhammer) and it's just plain fun. It does, however, have a MYRIAD of flaws.

Graphics and presentation is not one of those flaws. This game is gorgeous and it's oozing with style, detail and if you've ever read a Warhammer novel or if you're a Warhammer fan, you'll instantly be taken in by the atmosphere. The lighting is gorgeous, the texturework detailed and the animations flow seamlessly. The sound design is tight and every enemy has a clear, unmistakable sound, the weapons sound and feel meaty and impactful, the music is top-notch. It is a fairly demanding game that taxes both the CPU and the GPU, but for me it runs about as well as I'd expect.

The core gameplay is also one of this game's strengths. Essentially, it's a four-player co-op horde hack and slash. There are five characters with 3 careers each plus two extra payable careers for two characters (we'll get to that later). Most classes have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon (some have 2 melee). There's no story, per se, just background lore and the game consists of linear missions with some scripted sequences and an AI director generating random horde spawns, boss spawns, special enemy spawns and so on. The roster is wide and varied - even the trash mobs have two tiers, then there are Elite enemies that hit hard and have armor/more health, special enemies that disable you or have crowd control, it's just good mechanics all around (except Blightstormers, they can buzz off). This means no two runs will be the same and it keeps the gameplay fresh and reactive instead of turning into rote memorization. As I've mentioned, the animations and feedback are tight and the game feels responsive. This is fantastic, because despite it's random nature, at its core, it's still a skill-based game... mostly. The maps are fun, varied and as I've said, beautiful and I haven't gotten tired of them even after 450 hours.

One last, really good thing - the characters are A+. The banter is awesome, the voice acting superb, they have great chemistry and they're just fun to be around. They're a talkative bunch and I love it because it gives the game so much charm you could measure it in bucketloads.

There are, sadly some glaring faults and annoyances. First and foremost... to me, the game didn't really start until the fourth difficulty, Legend, around 100 hours in. Up to that, the game might seem totally boring or too easy to newcomers and the fact that all difficulties grant the same amount of leveling XP might mean someone will infer that the game is just a boring grind. I mean, it IS a grindy game, but to me, the appeal is that it keeps getting harder and harder and it's fun to master a difficulty and move on to the next one until you can hold a Cata horde on your own. Unfortunately, it's hard for beginners to experience how fun this game is at higher difficulties because the game is just too watered down on the easier ones. Let me give you an example: during a Recruit run, you might run into ONE horde and maybe 10 specials throughout the entire map. Traversal is risk-free and dull. During a Legend run, you will get upwards of 1000 trash enemies and specials in the 50s or 60s. Hordes will spawn very, very often and specials and elites will populate even mundane roads and paths making traversal actually dangerous and thrilling.

Another thing that might turn new players off is the loot system. You basically collect Tomes that replace your healing item and Grimoires that replace your potion buff in order to level up a loot box that you get upon completing the mission. Higher difficulties give better chests, and your loot level slowly rises. The drops are still random, so the road to max damage/stat gear is long and tedious and the Winds of Magic DLC (for all its other problems) had a MUCH better upgrade system that I wish they would just transfer to the main game.

That said, some maps are just unfairly hard and even though I said the game is mostly skill-based, sometimes the game just forces you to lose because it throws so much crap at you even four skilled players don't stand a chance. There are also some issues with hit detection and/or lag, so be prepared for quite a few "that was total bull" moments. It's just the nature of peer-to-peer and randomly generated encounters - sometimes you'll get dealt a bad hand, sometimes you'll lag, and sometimes, both will happen and you die through very little or no fault of your own.

Lastly, the elephant in the room... the support and development. This game has had SO many issues, so many crashes and things breaking, and the fact that there's no dedicated server means networking issues are common and totally ruin the fun. The devs seem to break more things than they fix sometimes and I dread what will happen everytime the game gets patched. Things do get resolved eventually but the game is just plain broken every so often. The other thing is the content or lack thereof. The devs have promised a PvP mode years ago. They drip-feed payable careers. They released a DLC that split the playerbase even further and locked the game's highest difficulty behind a paywall. Just... iffy decisions across the board and it really detracts from what is otherwise a stellar game. EDIT: now that Darktide is out and given what an absolute slow-burning disaster that is, Vermintide II is actually in a pretty good place. All the payable careers are out and I have to say they're all fun and worth the few bob.

All in all, in spite of the bad netcode, the random nature sometimes ruining the fun, the devs making questionable decisions about the game's future, this game remains my firm favourite. Come join us and become one of the bloody Ubersreik Five... or four, it doesn't matter.

This is probably my favorite game of all time for three reasons: it was made with love and attention to detail (emphasis on the past tense), it combines so many of my favorite things in gaming (first person, fantasy, melee + ranged, Warhammer) and it's just plain fun. It does, however, have a MYRIAD of flaws. Graphics and presentation is not one of those flaws. This game is gorgeous and it's oozing with style, detail and if you've ever read a Warhammer novel or if you're a Warhammer fan, you'll instantly be taken in by the atmosphere. The lighting is gorgeous, the texturework detailed and the animations flow seamlessly. The sound design is tight and every enemy has a clear, unmistakable sound, the weapons sound and feel meaty and impactful, the music is top-notch. It is a fairly demanding game that taxes both the CPU and the GPU, but for me it runs about as well as I'd expect. The core gameplay is also one of this game's strengths. Essentially, it's a four-player co-op horde hack and slash. There are five characters with 3 careers each plus two extra payable careers for two characters (we'll get to that later). Most classes have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon (some have 2 melee). There's no story, per se, just background lore and the game consists of linear missions with some scripted sequences and an AI director generating random horde spawns, boss spawns, special enemy spawns and so on. The roster is wide and varied - even the trash mobs have two tiers, then there are Elite enemies that hit hard and have armor/more health, special enemies that disable you or have crowd control, it's just good mechanics all around (except Blightstormers, they can buzz off). This means no two runs will be the same and it keeps the gameplay fresh and reactive instead of turning into rote memorization. As I've mentioned, the animations and feedback are tight and the game feels responsive. This is fantastic, because despite it's random nature, at its core, it's still a skill-based game... mostly. The maps are fun, varied and as I've said, beautiful and I haven't gotten tired of them even after 450 hours. One last, really good thing - the characters are A+. The banter is awesome, the voice acting superb, they have great chemistry and they're just fun to be around. They're a talkative bunch and I love it because it gives the game so much charm you could measure it in bucketloads. There are, sadly some glaring faults and annoyances. First and foremost... to me, the game didn't really start until the fourth difficulty, Legend, around 100 hours in. Up to that, the game might seem totally boring or too easy to newcomers and the fact that all difficulties grant the same amount of leveling XP might mean someone will infer that the game is just a boring grind. I mean, it IS a grindy game, but to me, the appeal is that it keeps getting harder and harder and it's fun to master a difficulty and move on to the next one until you can hold a Cata horde on your own. Unfortunately, it's hard for beginners to experience how fun this game is at higher difficulties because the game is just too watered down on the easier ones. Let me give you an example: during a Recruit run, you might run into ONE horde and maybe 10 specials throughout the entire map. Traversal is risk-free and dull. During a Legend run, you will get upwards of 1000 trash enemies and specials in the 50s or 60s. Hordes will spawn very, very often and specials and elites will populate even mundane roads and paths making traversal actually dangerous and thrilling. Another thing that might turn new players off is the loot system. You basically collect Tomes that replace your healing item and Grimoires that replace your potion buff in order to level up a loot box that you get upon completing the mission. Higher difficulties give better chests, and your loot level slowly rises. The drops are still random, so the road to max damage/stat gear is long and tedious and the Winds of Magic DLC (for all its other problems) had a MUCH better upgrade system that I wish they would just transfer to the main game. That said, some maps are just unfairly hard and even though I said the game is mostly skill-based, sometimes the game just forces you to lose because it throws so much crap at you even four skilled players don't stand a chance. There are also some issues with hit detection and/or lag, so be prepared for quite a few "that was total bull" moments. It's just the nature of peer-to-peer and randomly generated encounters - sometimes you'll get dealt a bad hand, sometimes you'll lag, and sometimes, both will happen and you die through very little or no fault of your own. Lastly, the elephant in the room... the support and development. This game has had SO many issues, so many crashes and things breaking, and the fact that there's no dedicated server means networking issues are common and totally ruin the fun. The devs seem to break more things than they fix sometimes and I dread what will happen everytime the game gets patched. Things do get resolved eventually but the game is just plain broken every so often. The other thing is the content or lack thereof. The devs have promised a PvP mode years ago. They drip-feed payable careers. They released a DLC that split the playerbase even further and locked the game's highest difficulty behind a paywall. Just... iffy decisions across the board and it really detracts from what is otherwise a stellar game. EDIT: now that Darktide is out and given what an absolute slow-burning disaster that is, Vermintide II is actually in a pretty good place. All the payable careers are out and I have to say they're all fun and worth the few bob. All in all, in spite of the bad netcode, the random nature sometimes ruining the fun, the devs making questionable decisions about the game's future, this game remains my firm favourite. Come join us and become one of the bloody Ubersreik Five... or four, it doesn't matter.