Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Review (Dreadnought)
7/10 if you dont enjoy playing on higher difficulties or grinding for XP, 10/10 otherwise
Keynote:
Dont go in expecting a single player campaign with story. The game is set in the end times, You'll be fighting for your survival, not committing grand heroic deeds. However, the voice acting is amazing and the script is extremely well written and there are so many dialogues for each character that they rarely get repeated.
Gameplay Summary
Plays like Left for Dead and Darksouls combined. Slash, block, dodge and push your way through hordes of enemies. Clench your butthole when a boss spawns with a horde.
Dodges dont make you invincible, you have to physically move out of an attacks way.
Play as 1 of 5 characters with a choice of 3 Careers (Talent trees) for each character.
Choose from a variety of weapons. Each weapon has different Stamina points and properties (armour penetration, stagger strength).
Its a common misconception that you will be spamming attacks to clear hordes, which is only true for a few weapons. Each weapon has a moveset of its own. You'll have to alternate between Light and heavy attacks to create your own moveset. Movesets and combos differ between weapons. For example: Using a heavy attack after using push attack will result in Heavy 2, not Heavy 1. This ensures that you dont resort to button mashing.
Pros
Cons
1. Large variety of weapons and careers to choose from
2. Weapons combos differ from weapon to weapon, ensuring that players dont resort to mere button mashing
3. Characters interactions are pure gold and are the primary way of narrating the lore of the game. Characters races and backgrounds are well chosen, It's fun watching the Witch hunter berate the Witch and to see the Elf do the same to everyone else.
4. For those with a penchant for roguelike elements, Chaos wastes is an excellant game mode where you have to make do with whichever weapons and boons you happen to come across.
5. Fun with friends
6. Mods are fully supported
7. DLC maps are playable for everyone if the Host owns the DLC.
8. Devs listen to the community. It should be noted that the Devs added an exploit back to the game simply to reduce the grind for Red items
1. May be too hard for your taste and boring when you play on easier difficulties
2. Lack of story may be offputting for some players although the dialogue more than makes up for it.
3. Bot levels are based on the levels of your characters. This may be a problem if you only play a single character and start playing on higher difficulties with Level 1 bots.
4. Cataclysm difficulty is locked behind a paywall (Winds of Magic DLC). Full disclosure: I've bought WoM anyway but that doesnt change the fact that its bad practice to lock non-content based gameplay behind paywalls.
5. Game does a bad job at explaining its mechanics and providing important info in general. Each type of attack of any weapon has modifiers. For Example, L3(Light Attack 3) of Sword and Dagger has amazing Armour penetration but the game does not tell you so. Luckily, you can add a mod to gain access to such info within the game itself.
Characters Summary
Each class has certain type of weapons and careers (talent trees) to choose from, summarised hereunder: -
1. Elf (Kerrilian) - Glass cannon with mostly light weapons and good ranged capabilities. Choice between Ranged/Stealth/Support in Careers.
2. Knight (Kruber) - Horde clearing tank with access to both Light and Heavy weapons. Choice between Horde Clear/Ranged/Tank in Careers.
3. Dwarf (Bardin) - Access to both Light and Heavy weapons depending on career. Choice between Ranged/Super Tank/Berzerker in Careers
4. Witch (Sienna) - Glass cannon with mostly light weapons and amazing horde clearing capabilities. All of her careers are damage focused and only change her playstyle.
5. Witch Hunter (Saltzpyre) - Access to both Light and Heavy weapons depending on career. Choice between Support/Boss killing/Support + Damage in Careers