The End Times: Vermintide

Vermintide is a co-operative action first person adventure based on Warhammer Fantasy's The End Times and developed by Fatshark. The game is slated for a Q3 2015 release for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Setting

The game is set during the End Times, the apocalyptic event that's basically all hell breaking loose in the entire Warhammer world. One of those notable events are the Skaven launching a worldwide invasion on the surface world, seeking to destroy and conquer everybody who isn't a skaven. The game takes place in the Empire city of Ubersreik, which is one of the Skaven's many targets, and the players will take control of five heroes attempting to save the city from the under menace, or else be swept away by the Vermintide... Though considering the current events of The End Times, they are doomed to fail, because in the current events of the End Times, the Empire is down to only one city (which is then taken over because a certain elf stole the divine power that kept it from falling). Then to add further insult to injury, the final End Times campaign book has the Warhammer world destroyed, making whatever great achievements the players get utterly pointless. In a surprising twist, the heroes actually succeed in driving off the Skaven after killing the Grey Seer leading the Skaven forces..........Only for the ending narration to say that the city falls anyway after being attacked again by the Skaven and then by the Warriors of Chaos and the Undead. Meh, that's endtimes for you.

Gameplay

The game is stated to be just like Left 4 Dead. As you can expect, the Skaven are basically like the infected. The regular Skaven use zerg rush tactics, and attempt to swarm over the players with their huge numbers, though they are very weak and will go down easily. They will also serve as distractions for specialist Skaven units like the Ratling Gunners, the Poison Wind Globadiers and Rat Ogres to name of few.

Players will take control of five heroes:

• Victor Saltzpyre, a Witch Hunter
• Sienna Fuegonasus, a Bright Wizard
• Markus Kruber, an Empire Soldier
• Kerillian, a Wood Elf Waywatcher
• Bardin Goreksson, a Dwarven Ranger

Each have their own strength and weaknesses. For instance, the Bright Wizard can use devastating fire spells and doesn't have a limit of how many times she uses them, but overusing her powers without taking a break will cause her to damage herself.

There is also our favourite rat-rats, the Skaven and will be the main enemy. In addition to the main horde of Skaven Slaves (Skaven units with very little to no armor and piss-poor weapons) and Clan Rats (Skaven units with slightly better equipment), there are special Skaven that are meant to prove a more deadly threat (to you and the other Skaven due to the life is cheap motto).

These Special Skaven are:

• Poison Wind Globadier - Throws poisoned globes at you that spread poison gas across an area for a temporary amount of time. If their gas tank on their back is damaged, they will rush you to damage you before their tank explodes.
• Stormvermin - The elite who with their halberds can block and parry your attacks. Tougher and commands lesser Skaven scum-scum in battle. Armor they wear is a pain in the ass, as most attacks just harmlessly bounce of their carapaces, and you need to either hit them in the head, use armour-piercing weapons (guns, two-handed weapons), or use much slower "charged attacks". Sometimes you can run into patrols of these guys that you should avoid at all costs.
• Rat Ogre - The big guy. Can pick up the heroes and chuck them into nearby objects or off a deadly drop if you are unlucky. Requires team effort to kill.
• Gutter Runner - Can run fast and leap upon a hero and pinned him/her to the ground while slashing the life out of them. If attacked, they will roll back and disappear in a cloud of smoke.
• Packmaster - -Wields steel prongs which can clasp round a hero's neck and drag them away from the other heroes. If not released, the hero will be hanged-hanged.
• Ratling Gunner - Carries a Skaven Gatling Gun and in true Skaven-fashion; they don't care who they hit when they start firing in their picked position. Can allow you to use Skaven Slaves and Clan Rats as mobile meatshields. It is noted that the Ratling Gun featured in the game is stated to be an experimental gun that can allow only one Skaven to handle it rather than two, which is probably why it's not as potent as one featured in tabletop.

It is believed that there is more enemies as Fatshark Blondie (one of the developer) has said "My favourite one is one that hasn't shown up in the dev blogs yet ;) Not sure that it will either, so you'll just have to wait and see!". This could be a Grey Seer or even a Stormfiend. There are Doomwheel's present in the game, but they are unmanned unratted and are instead objectives that are to be destroyed before they are put to use.

From what had been seen on beta footage, Skavens behave exactly like Skavens should. Slaves and clan rats would pop from all directions, but rather than mindlesly assaulting you right away like L4D zombies, they would wait to gather overwhelming numbers unless players attack them first, and often opt to run away if outnumbered. If you don't look back, however they would happily attack you even without the confidence of numbers. Players need to constantly monitor their back and flanks, because little rat things WOULD amass and swarm them if left unchecked. Sneaky rats like gutter runners and packmasters would target those of players that are away from the group, and often you would know about them the moment you take damage, as their AI is quite good at avoiding player's field of view. Globadiers and Ratling gunners are equally infuriating for their ability to utilize confined space and meatshields to their advantage (although they don't mind much about killing their own meatshields with stray shots), and running away (often climbing to places hart to reach) once you cut your ways through clanrat horde. Stormvermin patrols if alerted would summon a horde of clanrats for distraction and proceed to straight up murder your group, relying on their superior weapons and armor, and generally sticking together so you cannot single them one by one.

Gallery

• 
  The Garden of Morr level.
• 
  Concept art of the Garden of Morr.

Links

• Official Website
• Official Facebook Page
• Teaser Trailer
• Gameplay Trailer