It is Left 4 Dead with swords
With Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, you complete missions with four other people while working together to survive. Is it possible to complete the missions on your own? Yes, it is, but it becomes far easier if you work with the other players.
Very fast paced and frantic hack-and slash game
You don’t even have to work that hard; you simply need to stay in their general vicinity so that they do some of the killing for you and distract the many enemies that come your way. You may use melee weapons, projectiles and explosives to obliterate your enemies.
When you first play Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, you are asked to join a channel, and then asked to pick a character. You may pick from the Witch Doctor, the Wood Elf WayWatcher, the Dwarf Ranger, the Bright Wizard or the Empire Soldier. You enter a tavern where you will find a map. You click on a location on the map to be entered into a survival game with four other people. You are asked if you would like to join a game, at which point you are taken to the area you clicked on the map to complete the mission you were set–but you have to complete it with three strangers.
At first, you are going to want to run off on your own. It is possible, but the game works hard to hold you back and keep you with your group. The more missions you play, the further it will let you run away and leave your group, and the easier it becomes to die. Even on the first mission, the enemies swarm in on you from all directions to the point where you will need other people to help stop them piling on you.
A strong first-person action game
The particle effects on Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide are fun, and allied with the noise, they make the weapons appear more authentic (if not a bit overpowered). The graphics are good enough for any hardcore gamer. They are not generated to make the game look like a live action (real life) game, but they do have a realistic tinge to them with a reasonably complex environment build. The blood effects are also fun because they spurt out in a comic-book fashion.
The game is not realistic in any shape or form. For example, when you first start, you may shoot your gun in the tavern and the barkeeper will simply glance in your direction and then get back to work. It also features monsters and magic that was inspired by the original Warhammer. At first, you will feel as if you are playing a regular hack and slash game, but that is because the enemies are very easy to defeat. Over time, you will have to learn how to match your weapon to the correct enemy, and figure out ways of getting around or through their armor.
Getting accustomed to the game and working out what each thing does will take some time. It is not distinctly obvious what does what in the game, which you will find when you first pick up a trinket and you are asked to activate it. The menu and inventory system is simple if compared to a Final Fantasy game or many PC turn-based RPG games, but if you are not used to the genre, you may have to slowly work out what each inventory option and item does.
One of the problems that make the game a little difficult at first is that the descriptions tell you a little about the items, but they do not fully explain what they do, why they are needed, and in what context they should be considered. You may also dislike the fact that you are not allowed to play the character you choose sometimes. For example, if you pick the witch doctor, you may find that the only slot available on a new game is for the dwarf, so you will either have to find another game, or play as the dwarf.
Ideal for Left-4-Dead fans of hack, slack and shooting mayhem
The game occasionally feels like a ceaseless onslaught of enemies with very few chances for a rest. That is both the beauty and flaw in the game because it makes tactics a little more difficult and/or unnecessary. On the other hand, it is fun backing up three strangers as they are swarmed by enemies on the battlefield, and the environments are beautifully rendered. The game is not perfect, but it can become very exciting with a fair amount of replay value.
