Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide

[TheFeniX]

Now that's a naming convention you normally don't see unless you're talking about a Dark Forces game. I searched and couldn't find a thread on the topic, please hit me if I'm just terrible at the Search function. The game came out around the end of last year. There was recently a DLC expansion for it (3 new missions). We've been playing off and on for a couple months.

The only other Warhammer game I played was Shadow of the Horned Rat, like a billion years ago. And it's funny that game also featured Skaven (rat men), which I guess are a huge deal in Warhammer. By the by: Shadow of the Horned Rat kicked my ass. Game wasn't easy. Neither is End Times.

The game is an FPS and essentially a twist on the Left 4 Dead formula with Warhammer assets. Rather than playing as 4 survivors only unique in their personality: you have class selection in Warhammer with certain classes gaining access to different weapons and gameplay concepts. All start with a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. Ammo is at a premium.

There's the Dorf, Empire Soldier, Witch Hunter (HOOOOLY SHIT MAN! BLESS THIS RAVAGED BODY!), Elf/Waywatcher, and Bright (Fire) Mage. The Dorf and Empire soldier have sword (or mace/axe) and Board options which make them very good tanks, relying on block/push mechanics to keep Skaven at bay while other do most of the damage. They can however also use other weapons for more damage. The melee weapons themselves usually have different styles and hurtboxes. Such as the default attack of the greataxe being single target (or very narrow in it's attack path), but it's charged attack being a sweep: doing less damage, but hitting and stunning more targets.

I main the Bright Mage. Her mace melee weapon lacks the horizontal swipes of the sword, but does more damage and is better if you understand the block/push mechanics to setup damage. I have settled on the Bolt Staff as a ranged weapon. Its primary attack is a kung-fu fireball spam, little damage, but burns and stuns attackers. Its secondary "pulls" fire from the staff into a javelin that does about 6 billion damage, auto-locks onto a target, and "snipes" them. Contrast to the Bolt Staff. The Primary is a "Shotgun Blast" that does loads of damage up close and burns. Its Secondary shoots a BIG LAZER! that does increasing burn damage and locks up any Skaven hit.

She has no ammo (unlike everyone else), but relies on an Overcharge mechanic. Control it or vent it (taking damage above a certain level while doing so) or you explode from TOO... MUCH... MAGIC and die instantly.

Special Infected are here. Hook rats (smokers) charge you, hook your neck, and drag you off. Gutter Runners are Hunters with smoke bomb and teleport mechanics. Gas rats are essentially Spitters mixed with Boomers. They throw gas bombs which are deadly to everything. Gunners are big rats with a Mashin'gun. They have no direct analog. Black Rats are armored and are your Uncommon Infected. They require armor-penetration and or Head Shots to take down effectively. The... I guess it's a glaive, they use does a ton of damage. Patrols consisting of 6+ of them can be found on the maps and avoided or fought. Then there's the Rat Ogre: The Tank.

This game is not easy. We've wiped on easy. The difficulty is in the vein of Left 4 Dead 2 and it's sadistic AI director. Normal runs can go South easily and Hard+ just really ups the ante. Hard doesn't even have friendly-fire and you'll still get railed at times. The game can and will just pile shit on you at times because why not.

Inherent progression system built in. You gain levels by beating missions. You "roll" for new equipment, pickups during missions will increase the success chance of each dice. You can break-down weapons for parts, pray for more. Game honestly has a lot of depth here for a $30 game.

The new missions are pretty standard except one where a character has to carry a torch to cut through the darkness. Makes for intense battles in the Dungeons. If you liked Left 4 Dead, this isn't a bad buy. There is only co-op and survival through. No versus. The maps are generally split into two types: A "main Campaign" mission that is longer and offers more rewards and shorter missions such as "go and grab 8 bags of food, bring back to exit, mission over." They can take less than 5 minutes, but offer fewer rewards.

Victor Saltzpyre's (The Witch Hunter) dialog is hilariously fantastic. A lot of the dialog is pretty good, even the annoying Waywatcher (talking about a bomb): "It's filthy, small, and noisy. Ha! Just like a dwarf!"

[Imperial Overlord]

I've also been enjoying the game. I roll Bright Wizard more often than not (which will surprise no one who knows me) and Hotfoot tends to run the Witch Hunter which leads to continuing the verbal sniping those characters do in other games. There's some great atmospheric touches and I particularly like how parts of the Grey Wizard tower change appearance based on what character you're playing.

[TheFeniX]

Pugs are hilarious in this game. You get the "AY-BABA-DIE!" rush sound which makes me think Raiden is going to come flying into combat, and they're standing out in the open taking all that damage on the chin. I'm like "in here," trying to get them to hide in an alcove where we'd only have one point of egress. And they're like "that's a GOOD IDEA!"

Yea, no shit sherlock. It's called "basic reasoning skills." Back to wall, enemies in front, and keeping a wary eye out for gas rats (which I then snipe). This isn't rocket surgery, but it amazes me so few people refuse to think about such simple concepts.

All-in-all, the pugs aren't nearly as bad as what you'd find in Left 4 Dead. The smaller playerbase mostly translates into people with a moderate understanding of basic FPS concepts which is well and above what you find in more popular games.

I've been farming Hard (mostly Horn of Magnus, but also Grey Wizard and Supply and Demand) full clears for a while just collecting equipment and shards the best I can. We do well for ourselves since my staff usually makes quick work of the specials and I can rely on the pugs to handle most everything else. Tanks love me because my staff, which always headshots, restores stam on headshots. We had one game with Dorf and Soldier both running sword and board with powerful pushes. Was hilarious with rats flying everywhere.

My Waywatcher is at a level I can use her in Hard modes and be credit to team. Still working out what I want to do with the others. Provided there's no tank, my Mace/Board Empire setup is good, but my ranged weapons for him sucks. I avoid the Dorf and Witch Hunter, except on easier modes, because I haven't quite worked out how I want to play them.

Though, last night I did pickup a Rare Hammer/Board and Flare Guns (or whatever) for the Dorf. I plan to test them out on normal soon.

[Imperial Overlord]

Witch Hunter is very much stick and move with rapier and the zweihander. Snippy with crossbow and burst medium range firepower with the brace of pistols. Pugs are fucking hilarious. We had one doing the gunpowder mission an he didn't know and would not learn the gunpowder barrel mechanics. Fucker would pick up a barrel, get hit a bunch of multiple times by skaven by running without support and then run back to the group with a lit barrel like a suicide bomber and blow the group up. And then he would do it again. And again.

[TheFeniX]

Black Powder is frustrating even with a party. With pugs, I won't even bother with it above Normal. I was helping two pugs out with it: guy and his girlfriend. On Normal, about 1 minute in: the game spawns a tank. Then 2 Hookers and a Gutter Runner immediately after. Two rushes spawned during the time it took them to kill us all (though that was likely the map itself spawning them). They just wanted it done, I told them just to do easy because it's just not worth it otherwise.

They had started on Hard because "we're pretty good at video games." Yea, we did the same thing and we had 3 people who beat L4Dead 1 and 2 on Expert (legit, mind you) and End Times just dropped the hammer on us constantly.

I ran them through a Horn a few times on Hard. We did single Grim runs, but they got more than a few pieces of good gear.