I might ruffle a few feathers here, but I thinkWarhammer Vermintide IIis probably the best of the many Left 4 Dead imitators since the release of Valve’s seminal zombie shooter in 2008. I love the dark fantasy setting, the stunning gothic visuals, and the focus on brutal and gory melee combat. I loved it so much in fact, that when I heard aboutWarhammer Darktide: 40,000, I was over the moon, confident that theFatsharklighting was about to strike twice.
Unfortunately, that isn’t quite what happened. I started playing Darktide, and while I certainly wouldn’t call it a bad game, I found myself struggling to get into the flow with it, especially with Vermintide 2 still seeing regular content updates and patches. While the core gameplay in Darktide is excellent and even surpasses its predecessors on occasion, there were just too many technical issues and poorly thought-out systems for me to sustain my enthusiasm. Therehave been updates that have addressed these issues, mostly by massively reducing the RNG and general fiddliness of the loot system. It’s now more of a close-run thing, but for my money, Vermintide 2 is still the better game. Here’s why.
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Let’s start with what Darktide does well, namely the moment-to-moment combat loop. Now that you and your friends are up against the denizens of 40K as opposed to Vermintide’s Skaven hordes, there’s a much greater emphasis on gunplay, which to its credit, Darktide executes almost flawlessly. The innovative “suppression” mechanic is particularly interesting. While under heavy fire, you take a penalty to movement and accuracy. You can do the same to the enemy, and watching Dregs and Scabs run for cover and hunker down while you blaze away from afar is oddly satisfying. It’s an interesting new tactical wrinkle, and I’d like to see it expanded upon.
More generally, the combat is nicely paced and has the right weight to it, but Vermintide does a much better job presenting itself as an overall package. Vermintide’s pre-baked heroes are hard to match, for a start. Right from the beginning, the Vermintide crew exudes personality. Watching Bardin Goreksson sing jaunty songs to himself even while trapped in a small cage suspended over a cliff endeared him to me immediately. I also love how Sienna Fuegonasus, the pyromancer, can go from making dry witticisms about her companions to screaming “burn burn BURN!” in a mad fury once the Skaven close in. It’s a fun little insight into just how unstable she is.
With Darktide’s custom-created characters, your avatar ends up feeling like just one more generic soldier in the crowd. This was a conscious decision on the part of Fatshark, as the dreggish characters in Darktide aresupposedto feel somewhat expendable, but that doesn’t change the fact thata lot of writing flair and cool interpersonal character dynamics get lost as a result of this.
By providing characters with pre-established backgrounds and personalities (all returning from the first game), Vermintide 2 could jump straight into banter between party members, and explore the dynamics of the team. I love the little moments when there’s a personality clash or the characters reveal something about themselves, whether it’s Victor and Bardin discussing the fate of Helmgart which has been consumed by a poison fog, Markus complaining that he needs new boots after entering the sewers, or Sienna demanding something be set on fire every other step, personality shines through.
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Vermintide’s campaigns felt like real adventures. Escaping the Bridge of Shadows, or the battle against Rasknitt to stop him from using the Skittergate to end the world - such heroic moments just don’t happen in Darktide. None of the boss fights come close to the encounters with the characterful villains in Vermintide. Take the wonderfully named Chaos sorceror Burblespue Halescourge for instance, who can teleport, summon copies of himself, and throws out huge plague waves. It’s a unique and challenging fight with strong story context, as the heroes try to stop him from unleashing a magic plague on Helmgart.
In Darktide, there are only so many times you can fight a Scab Captain or a Beast of Nurgle before it starts to get old. It’s also a shame that every assassination mission ends in a fight with what is essentially the same enemy: a Heretic Captain with a big shield.
Vermintide’s campaign is divided into acts, each of which consists of three levels and then a special boss mission. Each one feels bespoke and has a satisfying narrative arc. The randomised mission structure of Darktide just doesn’t give you much purchase or sense of narrative. There are various mission types, but they play out across the same handful of maps. The game launched with five maps and recently received two more in a free update. Compare that to Vermintide’s thirteen maps at launch, plus all the DLC that has come since which takes the total to a whopping twenty-five. We’re also due to get the Karak Azgaraz expansion soon which will add another three missions. It’s remarkable just how strong the support still is for a game that’s just over five years old.
Vermintide took an extremely arcadey (for want of a better word) genre and gave it a real personality. It provides all the mindless fun of plowing through Skaven hordes and crams in a fun adventure story with a cast of engaging characters. The gorgeous art design and brutal combat are worth the price of admission alone, but everything else is what makes it stand out.
Darktide is an excellent foundation, but for now it’s little more than that. It has great combat and spectacular visuals for sure, but it’s lacking the heart and soul that made Vermintide 2 so memorable.A few more updates could turn things around, but for now I’ve still got Skaven hordes that need massacring.
