So I had previously written a negative review back in January to highlight the v

arious technical issues that held the game back. After playing the game again af
ter the Drachenfels DLC had come out, I can now revise my review significantly e
nough to warrant a re-review.
The combat is fun, but simple. However, it's complex enough for a horde-type com
bat game. Each weapon has its own combo with individual stats. The rarities (col
ors) of the weapons dictate the amount of damage it deals along with the number
of trait slots it can have. It becomes really obvious (as of 2016 June 7) that a
ll weapons are created equal, but some are more equal than others (looking at yo
u; Elf Glaive, Trueflight Bow, Witch Bolt Staff). Fatshark could stand to improv
e weapon balance to ensure all weapons are viable (Hunter one handed axe is pret
ty fun to use on Cataclysm even though it only hits one rat at a time).
The horde you face consists of Rat men, or Skaven as they are called by Warhamme
r Fantasy. Game does a good job of portraying them as a normally mindless and se
lfish race unified under a leader rat man. The rat men pop up at the most obscur
e places to poke your behind. They come in hordes to overrun your position. Spec
ial rat men types are employed from the various Skaven clans found in Warhammer
lore and they are mirrors of the special zombie types in Left 4 Dead. Though the
melee combat against the rat men is relatively unique compared to other 4 playe
r cooperative games, there are a number of issues about the rats that still have
n't been rectified.
1. Rats can still hit you through other rats in a horde which poses a problem if
your weapon does not hit multiple rats at once. The problem is exacerbated thro
ugh lag and is almost unavoidable if you're playing as a client.
2. When a rat attacks a player, what actually happens is that the rat "locks on"
to a specific player and swings/charges until the player dodges/blocks/gets hit
by the attack. This creates the issue that rat weapons can go through another p
layer without damaging them to hit you. A rat cannot "naturally miss" a player f
or lack of a better term, there is no collateral/accidental damage when a rat hi
ts something other than his target.
3. The Gutter Runner still propels nearby players away a considerable distance w
hen it gets someone. This has forced many players to stay away from each other w
hen they are near ledges or bridges. The Rat Ogre still likes to spin in place r
eally quickly when it attacks. Its overhead smash attack is also relatively diff
icult to dodge as a client due to lag. The Ratling Gunner can still shoot throug
h walls and slide along the ground. The Poison Wind Globadier throws poison bomb
s like it's going out of style if you don't dispatch him quickly enough.
The sound design works for this games and gives cues effectively. The dialogue b
etween characters is fun and the speech that rats make when they attack you are
entertaining. If Fatshark ever adds a new character, I hope they maintain the ef
fort on dialogue that they put into Drachenfels unlike other games (*cough* Payd
ay 2 *cough*).
The netcode works well enough for public lobby gameplay, but is abysmal if you p
lan to dedicate yourself to this game. Lag notwithstanding, there are no dedicat
ed servers and the game is hosted on the host's computer. If the host disconnect
s or crashes (which still happens frequently mind you), a new host is selected a
nd the remaining players are migrated to the new lobby. However, a big problem w
ith that is that the entire level is restarted with absolutely no compensation w
hen that happens.
The loot system is extremely tedious to play. You roll seven dice to get a piece
of loot from a predetermined table. You can bring tomes (occupies a health slot
) and grimoires (occupies your potion slot and reduces your maximum health) with
 at the end of mission to earn higher quality dice with a higher roll chance. Th
e loot and its rarity that appear on the table depends on the difficulty of the
mission and which class-specific trinket you are using. Failing a mission at cer
tain points awards you with salvage of a specific rarity depending on the diffic
ulty played, but it can also be obtained by salvaging unneeded loot at the forge
. The entire system is completely random and sometimes it will be hundreds of ho
urs before you get anything useful if at all.
The optimization leaves a lot to be desired. An FX-8350 with a Sapphire R9 390X
will net an almost constant 60 frames on all low settings with textures turned u
p to medium. Potential players with AMD CPUs beware. If Fatshark wants to attrac
t more players, they should make optimization one of its top priorities (along w
ith the loot system, the crashing, and the netcode).
Warhammer: The End Times: Vermintide is a fun mimic of Left 4 Dead that sets its
elf apart through its Warhammer Fantasy setting and prominent melee combat. In i
ts current state, I can recommend this game despite its (partially fixed as of t
he time of this writing) technical issues. The community essentially consists of
veterans at this point though, so you'll be hard pressed to meet other new play
ers. Don't blindly trust the score boards at the end of a game, nobody except fo
r yourself can assign a numerical value to your worth as a teammate. Otherwise,
get the game when its on sale on Steam or on one of the other key sites, you won
't regret it. I bought the game with a beta discount and it has been worth my mo
ney so far.